Jennifer Dobson's Blog, page 2

The Beginner's Guide To Upwork

The Beginners Guide
To Getting Started on Upwork 

Based on my experience, the easiest and fastest way to start your own business and earn a full-time income from home is to start freelancing, and the fastest easiest way to start freelancing is Upwork.

I tried blogging, affiliate marketing, drop-shipping, print-on-demand, day trading, stock photography and even dog walking, but nothing ever worked as well as freelancing did. I could never seem to get enough leads or enough traffic or the profit margins were too low. All that changed when I tried Upwork.

Upwork is the largest freelancing platform out there. It works like a job board connecting freelancers and businesses who need their services, but it’s so much more than that. It’s also your messaging platform and your payment processor. It’s everything you need to run your freelancing business in one place.

Upwork is your key to working on your schedule, from home or abroad while making a full-time income and you don’t even need a website to do it. Imagine being your boss, setting your rates and working whenever you want.

Companies benefit from hiring from Upwork because they don’t have to pay benefits or babysit employees. Don’t believe the myth that there aren’t high-paying jobs on Upwork either. Upwork is an ecosystem with a full range of jobs and budgets for beginners to experts.  

Are you convinced you need to be on Upwork yet? Here’s how to get started.

Sign up to become a freelancer on Upwork.com.

You will need to enter your name and email address. Upwork should then send you a verification email which will take you to the next step in the process.

Start the process of completing your profile.

Upwork now has an approval process and freelancers will often not get approved the first time around, but I have some tips for getting through. Be as thorough as you can and fill in education and work history including skills that apply to your freelance work and any non-formal education that can boost your qualifications.

Put something in your portfolio.

Make sure to include examples of past work in your portfolio (with screen-shots, graphics, or photos). If you don’t have any projects to use in your portfolio, I advise you to create some of your own (for example, design a website, create a youtube channel, etc. for yourself if you don’t have any others you can use). Use yourself as a case study if you need to.

Choose a good profile photo.

Your photo should be clear (not pixelated), showing your whole face (no sunglasses) and you will want to make sure you’re smiling. Don’t get stuck on this step though. Your photo will be very small so don’t feel like you need a professional headshot.

Choose the right niche.

If you pick a specialty to highlight in your profile title and description, you will be competing against fewer freelancers. If you focus on social media marketing, for example, you will have too much competition. But if you focus on Facebook, you can be seen as one of the top experts on that subject.

Set your hourly rate.

If you’re just starting, I recommend creating a client account and analyzing other freelancer’s profiles. Use the filters to search for experts in your specialty and country. I recommend pricing yourself in the same range as what others are charging. Once you have as many clients as you want, you can start raising your rates from there.

Understand the fees.

Upwork does charge a percentage of the money you make on the platform. I’m happy to pay these fees because Upwork is sending me high-quality leads, so I think of them as a commission-only salesperson.

 Specifically, Upwork charges a fee of:

20% for the first $500 billed with the client

10% for lifetime billings with the client between $500.01 and $10,000

5% for lifetime billings with the client that exceed $10,000

For this reason, it’s better to work with clients long-term because your Upwork fees for each client will decrease over time. Make sure you consider fees when setting your pricing.

Get paid.

Once you have an account set up, you will want to connect your bank account so that you can receive payments. I have payments automatically sent to my bank account every week. You can receive funds via whatever payment methods work best for you:

Direct Deposit / ACH

PayPal

Wire Transfer

Local Funds Transfer (LFT)

Payoneer

Skrill

Get comfortable with the platform.

I have seen many potential freelancers give up because they’re not used to spending time online or navigating the platform. I recommend creating a client and freelancer account so you can compare what the client sees and the different filters they might use to search for you. You will also want to get used to the filters for finding work. If you set aside just an hour to click around and get comfortable with the different areas of the site you will be doing yourself a huge favor.

Commit to a schedule.

Being successful in Upwork doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. I spend about half an hour each day searching for and applying to new jobs. Since I have a template customized to my niche, I only have to make a few edits for each job and then I’m already done prospecting for the day. When you’re new to Upwork, I recommend searching for new jobs each day to increase your chances of getting hired.

Craft a perfect pitch.

I like to use templates that I can edit for each job. Once you start applying, you will learn exactly what clients are looking for and you can adjust your pitch accordingly. For example, I’ve found that including examples of past projects and testimonials skips a lot of back and forth and increases my chances of getting hired.

Pro-tip. Use a call to action in your pitch. By asking your client for more information like a link to their website, you entice them to start a conversation with you and helps to build trust. Your pitch should be well formatted and easy to skim with small paragraphs and bullet points instead of large blocks of text. Read the job description carefully and make sure you address each client’s needs.

Get your first review.

This is the key to getting hired on Upwork. Clients use reviews to help them choose the best person for the job, so if you don’t have any review history you are unlikely to get hired. This is an obstacle for first-time freelancers.

My advice is to find a friend, neighbor, acquaintance, family member, past employer, etc. who can genuinely use your services and see if they’re willing to hire you on Upwork.

Alternatively, you can explain the situation to clients in your proposals by stating that you’re new to Upwork, but not to your industry and you’re willing to offer them a discount while you build your portfolio. You can also include work references or recommendation letters for jobs you’ve had in the past.

Set clear expectations.

There are good and bad clients out there and you want to avoid the bad ones. To be successful on Upwork you want to keep a high job success score because clients look at this metric when deciding whether to hire you.

The money from a bad client is not worth risking a bad review, which is why I set firm expectations, deliverables, deadlines, and availability in a client agreement before I ever agree to work with someone. This helps weed out the bad clients who will treat you like an employee and expect you to be at their beck- and-call, 24/7.

Screen clients.

Another way to avoid bad clients is to check their past feedback. Clients have profiles just like freelancers, and anyone who has worked with them in the past can leave a review. You can check their rating and reviews from past freelancers to identify and avoid difficult clients.

Don’t think about your applications.

After you apply to a job, I want you to forget about it. Many freelancers give up on Upwork too soon because they applied for a few jobs and never heard back, and they think that means it isn’t working for them.

Don’t ever get discouraged because I promise that not hearing back is normal. You need to be applying to every qualified job, every day. To get my 12 clients, I applied to hundreds and hundreds of jobs. Upwork now charges a small fee (called connects) for every job you apply to, but my advice is to buy as many connections as it takes. Just keep applying and tweaking your pitch until you find what works.

Stay organized.

Once you start getting clients, you will need a way to keep track of all the tasks for each one. I recommend using a free project management program like Asana or Trello to keep client information organized, manage your to-do-list and keep track of deadlines. Google docs is another great tool.

Do a good job.

Meet deadlines. Answer questions in a timely manner. Under promise and overdeliver.

 

How To Become A Digital Nomad

 How To Become A
Digital Nomad

A digital nomad is someone who can work online from anywhere.

Typical careers can be limiting when it comes to time off and flexible schedules. For the free spirited among us, this makes it difficult for us to foster our creativity and fulfill our travel dreams. Today, more people are leaving their desks behind to become digital nomads with freedom to work from anywhere.

If you would rather spend less time dreaming and more time living your ideal lifestyle, you need a location independent job or business you can run from the road.

Don’t settle for a 9-5 job that only gives you a few weeks of vacation a year. These resources will help you get started on your journey.

The Only 5 Things You Need

If you’re committed to making money online, the hardest part will be mastering your mindset, being persistent and never giving up.  Treat every new project or strategy as an experiment and give yourself permission to fail, pivot or rest. Beyond that, there’s really only a few other things you need.

You need to be comfortable using online tools, and technology while working from a laptop or smartphone.

You need to be confident in offering products or services based around your knowledge and skills.

You need to have systems in place to automate your business to save you time and money.

You need to be good at managing your own time and being productive without a routine.

You need a network of peers, mentors and coaches to surround yourself with.

It sounds simple, and it can be, but it probably won’t feel that way.  Remember that there are countless people all over the world who are making a living from their laptops and there’s room for you too.  You just need to find the right formula that works for you.

The Steps (just start)

To figure out what to do or offer, think about the how to combine a variety of your interests into something marketable. For example, if you love travel photography and helping people maybe you could teach travel photography courses.

Another option is to find a sweet spot that combines things you like to do, things you’re good at and things people will pay you for.

If you’ve always been interested in entering a new industry, working as a virtual assistant could be a great way to gain experience in a field you’ve always wanted to try.

Once you’ve defined your product or service, you can move forward by eliminating your expenses, automating your work processes and leveraging your newfound location independence.

Aquire skills

Cut expenses

Minimize leases, loans, mortgages, debt.

Save & invest 3-6 months of expenses

Eliminate extra belongings

Conquer fears

Generate Revenue

Earn a full time income

Travel or relocate

Automate and outsource

Tips For Working Online

To be your own boss you will need discipline to stay on track of your goals and add structure back in to your work schedule. These are some of may favorite tools for staying productive.

Pomodoro timer: Break work down into 25 minute blocks of time with 5 minute breaks

Unroll.me: Un-subscribe from junk emails and keep your inbox empty

Batch activities: Schedule activities into batches like checking email only once per day

Create a trigger: Start work with the same song every day to get into a work mindset

Coffitivity: Recreate the ambient sounds of a cafe to boost your creativity and help you work better

option 1. Freelance

Offer a service to your own clients.

One way to work from anywhere is to start freelancing. These days, there are marketplaces like Upwork and Freelancer that will even connect you with potential clients who are looking for your services. The opportunities for freelancing are endless and inlcude options like bookeeping, writing, web design, branding, social media marketing, virtual assiting, video editing, transcribing and more. To get started, think about what skills you already have or take a course to learn something new and marketable. Then start applying to jobs or contacting potential clients!

Where to look

Upwork

Freelancer

Facebook Groups

Thumbtack

Fiverr

Word of mouth

People per Hour

option 2. Get A Remote Job

Find a new job that hires remotely or negotiate remote work at your current job.

Freelancing isn’t for everyone, and sometimes it’s easier to apply for a job at a company that already allows remote work arrangements. Many companies are starting to embrace at-home workers as a key portion of their workforce.

Where to look

AngelList

Remoteok.io

Remote.co

Flexjobs

Indeed (turn on telecommute filter)

Craiglist (turn on telecommute filter)

option 3. start A Business

Starting a business can be the hardest but also the most lucrative way to work online, but you don’t have to rule out the other options. Some people freelance, work online or even stay at their current job while building a business on the side.

The fastest way to start making money through a business is by offering a service, but the best way to make long-term passive income is usually through offering a product. One popular option is selling digital information like online courses, downloads or ebooks. By selling digital products your profit margins will remain high, you will never have to worry about inventory or shipping and you can make money while you sleep.

Tips for service-based businesses

Offer something business-to-business such as marketing, avertising, accounting, branding or legal services. Businesses usually always have money to spend on anything related to marketing, legal or banking needs.

For business-to-consumer services, focus on the 4 primary needs people are always paying to solve: anything that helps them improve their health, wealth, happiness or relationships.

Tips for product-based businesses

Consider offering a digital product so you don’t need to worry about inventory, manufacturing, production costs or shipping.

Also consider offering something passive, meaning something you can create once and sell over and over again. Examples include drop-shipping, Google adsense, affiliate marketing, stock photography and ebooks.

Bonus: Think about products or services that are recurring

It takes work to find clients and customers. Instead of selling something they will only need once, think about creating something that people will buy over and over again. Examples are memberships and subscription boxes.

Where to learn more

To learn marketable freelancing skills, business tips and more there are many great online courses to choose from. The list below will give you some great places to start.

Lynda.com

Udemy

Skillshare

Creative Live

The Shortcut

My secret tip for freelancing or starting a business is to start with an online marketplace or platform. These websites already have tons of traffic from visitors looking for your products and services. Once you’ve proven your idea through an online marketplace, you can start the journey to building your own website and driving your own traffic through ads, seo and marketing.

Online platforms to start with

Youtube: Think of Youtube as a search engine. Since they’re owned by Google, many internet searches begin or end with Youtube Videos and can be a great way to earn money through Adsense, link to affiliate products or drive traffic to another website

Skillshare: A platform for teaching and selling your online courses

Etsy: A marketplace to sell your handmade goods

Envato: A marketplace to sell digital assets like website templates, code, plugins, stock music, graphics, vectors, illustrations and photography

Creative Market: An online marketplace for design assets including website templates, fonts and graphics

Amazon: The largest marketplace for physical goods

Ebay: A large marketplace for new and used physical goods

Red Bubble: An online market place for selling print-on-demand designs like clothing, stickers and wall art

Society 6: A print-on-demand marketplace for selling designs on home goods, framed prints and more

Kindle: Owned by Amazon and the largest seller of ebooks.

Utilize co-living and co-working spaces

Working remotely doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your social life. Networking with other digital nomads can help you kick-start your remote career and keep you from feeling lonely, bored or stagnant.

Co-living spaces are similar to condos or apartment complexes, but they usually incorporate more communal living spaces like a group kitchen and work areas.

Co-working spaces are shared office spaces where you pay a daily, weekly or monthly fee for access to group workspace and ammenities like desks, conference rooms and mailboxes.

Coliving spaces

Roam.co

Coworking spaces

WeWork

For more ideas on where to live, work and play check out Nomadlist. This website inventories the best destinations for digital nomads based on cost of living, weather, internet accessibility and more.

 

The Biggest Upwork Myths and Mistakes

 Upwork Myths and Mistakes

The truth is, Upwork is a goldmine for anyone who wants to work from home, quit their job, start their own business, or travel the world as a digital nomad. 4 months after getting started on Upwork, I had my first $1,000 month, and I’ve now made over $100,000 within my first year. 

My number one mistake with Upwork was that I didn’t start sooner.

The internet is full of negative comments about Upwork, and for too long I believed them. 

“Upwork takes too big of a cut” 

“There’s too much competition” 

“No one is willing to pay what you’re worth” 

“There are too many cheap freelancers in other countries driving down prices” 

“No one will hire me” 

“I’m not getting any offers” 

“The platform is too hard to use” 

“I don’t think there’s a market for my skills on Upwork”

Now that I’ve tried it for myself, I can confidently say that if you aren’t making money on Upwork, the problem isn’t Upwork.

Let me start by addressing the top complaints.

Top Upwork Myths

Upwork takes too big of a cut. 

I strongly disagree. It’s a big cut, and I wish it was smaller, but it is still the absolute best way to generate income because Upwork is a source of WARM LEADS.

They charge 20% of your first $500 and 10% after that, but it’s worth it because Upwork connects you directly with people actively looking for your services. I cannot stress the value of this enough. Upwork operates like your commission-only salesperson because they make money only when you get paid. There is no better way that I know of to find leads this qualified and ready to work with you. I guarantee you will spend the same amount of money or more trying to market your business some other way, and the leads will be much less likely to convert into clients.

There’s too much competition. 

No, there isn’t, it only looks that way. Yes, there are a lot of freelancers on Upwork, but that’s not as big a factor as you might think. While I am a freelancer on Upwork, I am also a client, and after hiring over 13 different freelancers through the platform I can tell you that just about all the applications I receive are utterly terrible. Either they’ve not read the job description, they’ve copied and pasted a generic proposal, they have horrible grammar, bad reviews, no reviews, or they’re priced too high. Some don’t even show up for the interview. Once in a while, I’ll post a job without even making a hire because no one qualified has applied. That means all you have to do is read the description, speak directly to the client, write well and craft a good profile, and you’ve already dramatically increased your chances of being hired.

No one is willing to pay what you’re worth. 

You need to get rid of this mindset right now. Do you know what happens when you assume? So many people convince themselves they will fail so they choose not to even try. Have you scanned Upwork to see what other freelancers are charging? Most people tell themselves no one will pay enough without even LOOKING to see what’s possible. Get on Upwork right now, make a client account, and search for other freelancers in your niche and/or country. Many of them are making tens or hundreds of thousands. Some have even made over a million. If you have the right strategy in place, a good profile, and a good pitch, you can and you will make money too.

There are too many cheap freelancers in other countries driving down prices. 

This simply is not true. Any client who hires based on the lowest price instead of the best value is going to learn a very expensive and time-consuming lesson; cheap freelancers take twice as long to complete an assignment, submit poor-quality work, or don’t finish the work at all. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want clients who shop for the lowest price, and there are plenty of high paying clients who know that hiring an expert will get them better value and better results. Besides that, Upwork has filters for clients to search for freelancers in specific countries, including the US only and native English speakers. Smart business owners use these filters to make sure they’re choosing from the right talent pools for them.

No one will hire me. 

If you approach Upwork the right way, you should have more than enough chance of getting hired. Many people don’t think their skills are marketable on Upwork, but those people usually aren’t thinking outside the box. You need to stop thinking like an employee here and realize your skills can be applied to many different situations, not just the industries you’ve worked in before. For example, a nurse might know medical terms that would translate well into medical billing. If you worked as a painter, you might be great at choosing color palettes for branding. If you worked as a sports coach, maybe you can help write fitness articles. Think about how your real-world experiences can translate into the digital world.

If you’ve overcome all your doubts and gotten started, but you’re still struggling, you could be making some common mistakes.

Top Upwork Mistakes

You’re not specialized enough. 

Try focusing on a smaller niche so that you’re competing with fewer experts. Look at the highest paid freelancers in your field and study their profiles. I always suggest picking one specialty to focus on when starting. For example, instead of offering social media management, market yourself as a Facebook expert.

You aren’t applying to the right jobs. 

Use Upwork's search filters to find the best jobs and clients. Upwork now charges for connects (credits you use to apply) so it’s extra important that you’re not wasting them. Try searching for US only jobs (or jobs within your own country), check the client's profile for reviews from other freelancers, and make sure their payment is verified. You can also search requests for intermediate and expert and specific budgets for clients who are willing to spend more for quality work.

Your profile is poor or incomplete. 

Your clients will view your profile too (not just your proposal), so think of it as an extension of your cover letter. Focus on what sets you apart from other freelancers. Have a good profile photo and use images in your portfolio. 

Your proposal isn’t that good. 

Make sure you’re addressing the client and their needs. Go to their profile and read the feedback to see if other freelancers mentioned the name in their review. If so, you can use the client’s name directly in your greeting. Clients get overloaded with proposals so using their name will help you stand out. It’s not about experience but making small changes that will speak directly to your client’s needs and your first paragraph needs to grab their attention. Instead of focusing on your degrees or years of experience, focus on the benefit to them and how you can solve their problem.

You don’t have any feedback. 

I struggled with Upwork until I got my first review. After that, I was getting new clients at an average rate of one per week! I do not suggest working for free to get your first review, but here are a few things you can try.

Find a friend or family member who can use and benefit from your services. Get them to hire you on Upwork by creating a client account and sending you an invitation to the job.

Tell potential clients that you are new to Upwork but not to the industry. Since you are new to the platform you are offering them a discounted rate while you build your portfolio.

Maybe you have clients from outside Upwork. Ask them to create an account and hire you within the platform instead.

You aren’t bidding on jobs enough. 

When you’re first starting on Upwork, I suggest you set aside an hour each day to apply to jobs. By applying daily, you will find newer jobs that don’t have a lot of applicants yet. Applying early will drastically increase your chances of being picked. Weekends are also a great time to check for new jobs because there won’t be as many people online to compete for them.

You gave up too easily. 

Do not be discouraged when clients hire someone else or don’t respond. Right now I’m earning a comfortable income off of just 8 clients, but in the past 90 days, I’ve applied to 151 jobs. That should give you an idea of how many jobs you will need to apply to before you get a ‘yes’. I recommend creating a template that you can easily edit for each job which will make applying quick and easy.