How I made $100K as a Freelancer on Upwork |10 easy steps

Summary

In this video, a successful Upwork freelancer shares her journey from earning $100,000 and achieving a 100% job success score. She offers top tips for new freelancers, including crafting cover letters, applying for jobs, and growing on the platform. She also reveals her first cover letter that secured her first job and emphasizes the importance of personalization and persistence in client communication.

Takeaways

• 😀 Upwork is a marketplace for businesses and individuals to find and hire freelancers for various projects.
• 📈 The speaker has made $100,000 as a social media marketer on Upwork and has a 100% job success score as a top-rated Plus freelancer.
• 📝 The video shares 10 crucial tips for success on Upwork, including writing a portfolio, applying for jobs, and crafting cover letters.
• 🔍 The speaker suggests studying successful freelancers in your niche on Upwork for inspiration on how to present yourself.
• 😄 Adopting a friendly and approachable tone rather than strictly professional can be more effective in communication.
• 🛠 Offering a wide range of services within your profession can increase the number of jobs you can apply for.
• 🔑 In the beginning, applying to a large number of jobs is essential to get noticed on Upwork.
• 🚫 As a beginner, only apply for jobs appropriate for your skill level to avoid wasting connects on overly competitive positions.
• 💰 Starting with lower rates can attract clients who prioritize affordability over experience, which can lead to more opportunities.
• 📧 Personalizing cover letters by addressing the client by name and showing genuine interest in their business can improve responses.
• 🔄 Following up with potential clients who have gone quiet can lead to securing jobs, as it shows continued interest and enthusiasm.

Q & A

What is Upwork and how does it function?

Upwork is a marketplace where businesses and individuals can find and hire freelancers for a wide range of projects. It connects clients with professionals who offer various services, such as social media marketing, graphic design, and copywriting.

How much money has the speaker made on Upwork?

The speaker has officially made $100,000 on Upwork as a social media marketer.

What was the speaker's initial experience with social media marketing before joining Upwork?

Before joining Upwork, the speaker had experience working with about three very small and local businesses in their area, and was still getting started in the world of social media marketing.

Why did the speaker decide to join Upwork?

The speaker joined Upwork after getting married and moving to Jordan, needing a process that would allow them to do everything online and get clients in a new location.

What are some tips the speaker suggests for beginners on Upwork?

The speaker suggests looking at successful freelancers in your niche for inspiration, being friendly and approachable rather than overly formal, offering a wide range of services, applying for a lot of jobs, and starting with affordable rates to gain experience and credibility.

How did the speaker approach their initial applications on Upwork?

The speaker bought connects, which are points needed to apply for jobs, and applied for many jobs in the beginning. They also emphasized the importance of applying for jobs that match your skill level as a beginner.

What is the significance of using the client's name in cover letters on Upwork?

Using the client's name in cover letters adds a personal touch and shows that you have taken the time to address them specifically, rather than using a generic approach.

Why is it important to respond to every part of a job post on Upwork?

Responding to every part of a job post is crucial because it shows that you have read and understood the requirements, and that you can meet each specific request made by the client.

What is the speaker's advice for following up with potential clients on Upwork?

The speaker advises sending a follow-up message if you haven't heard back after an initial conversation or meeting, to show continued interest and enthusiasm for the role.

What was the speaker's first job on Upwork and how much did they earn from it?

The speaker's first job on Upwork was a social media design job for a small skincare brand, and they earned $978 from it.

How has the speaker's experience on Upwork evolved since their first job?

Since their first job, the speaker has worked with over 31 brands on Upwork, earning over $100,000 on the platform, with one brand alone contributing over $40,000.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to Upwork Success Story

The speaker introduces Upwork as a marketplace for businesses and freelancers and shares their personal success story as a social media marketer. They have earned $100,000 on the platform, achieved a top-rated Plus freelancer status with a 100% job success score, and plan to share their top 10 tips for success. The tips will cover portfolio writing, job applications, cover letter crafting, and personal hacks. The speaker also reveals their first cover letter and the earnings from their first job, highlighting their journey starting from September 2021 after moving to Jordan and transitioning to online work due to the pandemic.

05:02

😉 Top Tips for Upwork Beginners

The speaker provides a series of tips for new freelancers on Upwork, emphasizing the importance of studying successful profiles, adopting a friendly and approachable tone, offering a wide range of services, and applying for many jobs to increase visibility. They also stress the importance of targeting beginner jobs to avoid intense competition with more experienced freelancers. Additionally, the speaker suggests starting with lower rates to gain credibility and experience, and then gradually increasing rates as one becomes more established on the platform.

10:02

📬 Effective Communication and Cover Letter Strategies

The speaker shares strategies for writing effective cover letters, such as addressing the client by name, ensuring responses are personalized and passionate, and showing genuine interest in the client's business. They also discuss the importance of following up with potential clients who have gone silent after initial contact, as this can lead to securing the job. The speaker provides an example of their own successful cover letter that landed them their first client on Upwork, detailing the content and the subsequent client interaction that led to a job.

🎓 Leveraging Education and Past Experience

The speaker discusses how they leveraged their educational background in English and creative writing to enhance their credibility as a freelancer. They also share how they utilized past work experience, even if it was with a family business, to demonstrate their capability to handle similar projects. The speaker emphasizes the importance of tailoring responses to job descriptions and showcasing a genuine understanding of the client's needs.

Keywords

💡Upwork

Upwork is an online platform that serves as a marketplace connecting businesses and individuals with freelancers for various projects. In the video, the speaker has made significant earnings as a social media marketer on Upwork, highlighting its importance as a platform for freelancers to find work and build their careers.

💡Freelancer

A freelancer is an individual who is self-employed and is hired to work on a project or task basis, rather than working for a specific employer long-term. The video's speaker identifies as a freelancer, emphasizing the flexibility and diverse opportunities available on platforms like Upwork.

💡Social Media Marketer

A social media marketer is a professional who manages and grows a brand's presence on social media platforms. The speaker in the video has built their career as a social media marketer, achieving success on Upwork by leveraging their skills in this area.

💡Portfolio

A portfolio is a collection of an individual's work that showcases their skills and accomplishments. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions the importance of having a well-presented portfolio on Upwork to attract potential clients and demonstrate one's capabilities.

💡Cover Letter

A cover letter is a document sent with a job application that outlines the applicant's interest in the job and qualifications for it. The video discusses crafting 'killer cover letters' as a crucial step in the job application process on Upwork, emphasizing personalization and addressing the client directly.

💡Job Success Score

On Upwork, a job success score is a metric that reflects a freelancer's performance and reliability in completing jobs. The speaker mentions having a 100% job success score, which is a key factor in establishing credibility and attracting more clients on the platform.

💡Connects

Connects on Upwork are a form of virtual currency used to apply for jobs. The speaker purchased connects to apply for numerous jobs, which was part of their strategy to increase visibility and secure work on the platform.

💡Affordability

Affordability refers to the cost-effectiveness of a service or product. The video mentions that starting freelancers should consider pricing their services affordably to attract clients who may be wary of hiring inexperienced professionals.

💡Personalization

Personalization in the context of the video refers to tailoring applications and communications to the specific needs and interests of a potential client. The speaker found that personalizing cover letters with the client's name and showing genuine interest in their business led to a higher response rate.

💡Follow-up

A follow-up is a subsequent communication made to check on the status of a previous interaction. The video suggests that following up with potential clients who have not responded can be an effective strategy to secure their attention and potentially the job.

💡Passion

Passion in this video refers to the enthusiasm and interest a freelancer conveys for a specific job or client's business. The speaker advises showing passion in cover letters and communications as a way to stand out and connect with clients on a personal level.

Highlights

Introduction to Upwork as a marketplace for hiring freelancers for various projects.

Achievement of earning $100,000 as a social media marketer on Upwork with a 100% job success score.

Sharing of top 10 crucial tips for success on Upwork, from portfolio writing to crafting cover letters.

Personal story of starting on Upwork after marriage and relocation, with little prior experience.

Discovery of Upwork as a platform during the pandemic, leading to a shift to online work.

Tip 1: Observing successful freelancers on Upwork for inspiration and strategy.

Tip 2: Adopting a friendly and approachable tone rather than strictly professional in communications.

Tip 3: Offering a wide range of services within one's profession to increase job opportunities.

Tip 4: The importance of applying for many jobs at the beginning to increase visibility on Upwork.

Tip 5: Advising beginners to only apply for jobs suitable for their skill level to avoid tough competition.

Tip 6: The strategy of starting with lower rates to gain experience and credibility on the platform.

Tip 7: Personalizing cover letters by addressing the client by name for a more engaging approach.

Tip 8: Reading and responding to every part of a job post to show understanding and capability.

Tip 9: Writing personalized responses to show passion and interest in the specific job role.

Tip 10: The importance of following up with potential clients who have gone silent after initial contact.

Sharing the first cover letter that secured the first job on Upwork, including the process and outcome.

Reflection on the evolution of strategies and approaches since the beginning of the journey on Upwork.

Encouragement for beginners to apply these tips and seek further content on freelancing and Upwork.

Invitation for viewers to engage by commenting 'Upwork 2024' if they watched the entire video.

Transcripts

for those of you that are new to upw

work it's essentially a marketplace

where businesses and individuals can

find and hire Freelancers for a wide

range of projects I have officially made

$100,000 on upw work as a social media

marketer I'm also a toprated Plus

freelancer on the platform with a 100%

job success score and today I'm going to

share with you my top 10 crucial tips

that have led me this far from writing

your portfolio applying to jobs and

crafting killer cover letters I'll also

be sharing some hacks that I've learned

along the way that will have a huge

impact on your result and right at the

end of this video I'm going to actually

reveal my first cover letter that I sent

on upwork that secured me my first job

and how much that first job made me I

opened my upwork account in September of

2021 I have just gotten married and

moved to Jordan to be with my husband

before that my only experience as a

social media marketer was working with

about three very small and local

businesses in my area I was still just

getting my feet wear in the world of

social media and had very little

experience now being in Jordan I had to

think of new ways to get clients I

needed a process that would allow me to

do everything online because beforehand

I would obviously go in store and meet

these brands in person which of course

for me was no longer possible one of the

benefits of covid if you could even call

it a benefit was that working online and

meeting people through zoom and Google

meets had become more socially

acceptable after some YouTube videos and

Google searches I discovered upw work it

was truly a platform I didn't expect to

have much success on because of all the

contradictory reviews that I found on

some people were saying it's a great

platform to work on and then there were

others that were saying it's so

difficult to get clients on upw work and

was a complete waste of time but being

newly married unemployed and without

client I didn't really have a choice

that was my superpower I guess I was

desperate I created an account and got

to applying for jobs straight away my

first tip that I would give you if

you're beginning your journey on upw

work I would highly recommend you take a

look at other successful Freelancers in

your Niche on the platform and take some

inspiration from their account what kind

of things are they seeing and how are

they presenting themselves and their

work on the platform of course it's

important that you're not copying them

but take note of their layout and their

tone this really helped me at the start

because upwork was a platform I was

completely new to and had no idea how to

use I was able to balance off the

success of other Freelancers and have a

more informed strategy when creating an

attractive and interesting profile tip

number two an approach I took early on

as well was to be more friendly and

chill rather than formal and

professional it's always been my motto

if you could call it that that

friendliness and being approachable is

10 times more effective than trying to

come across as professional at the end

of the day they are just normal people

on the other side of that screen no

matter how well established and esteemed

their business is they're still just

another person that you're connecting to

coming across as more friendly could

mean using emojis in your cover letters

or even your profile adding light jokes

or being super positive and encouraging

or talking with more passion saying hey

instead of of hello those are just some

examples the next few tips were what

really generated a lot of success for me

personally in my beginning stages on the

platform the first being I offered a

much wider range of services within my

profession of course so as a social

media marketer we offered copywriting

video editing graphic design social

media strategy plans hashtag research

and a few others looking for me my

husband and I both worked on the

platform together from the same account

so we had a wider range of skills

between us the way I thought about it

was the more things I could offer at

that stage meant the more jobs I could

apply for so if you're a copywriter for

example try to be more Broad in your

services you can offer copy for blog

writing a copy for websites copy for

social media content and so on tip

number four which is another thing that

I did which was apply for a ton of jobs

in the beginning I bought a bunch of

connects for around £50 connects are

basically like points you need to apply

for jobs and then I applied for loads

and loads of jobs I'm talking about

hours and hours applying for different

roles you really have to grind in those

beginning stages to get noticed on upw

workk you need to put yourself in front

of more people's eyes I think in my

first week alone I applied for like 50

different jobs another really important

tip for you for when you're applying to

these jobs is if you're a beginner in

your profession please only apply for

jobs that are for beginners if you're a

beginner copyrighter and you're applying

for copyrighting jobs that are for

experts you are going to be no match for

the competition and more than likely

your proposal is not even going to be

considered as the experts that are also

applying for those jobs are going to

outdo You by far so please don't waste

your connects on jobs that are way out

of your leak tip number six and probably

one of the most important ones that

you're not going to want to hear but you

need to is to grow on the platform

pretty fast in those beginning stages

you need to be cheap not too cheap but

cheap enough most of the time when

businesses are looking for Freelancers

they're looking for Freelancers with

experience they're looking at your

reviews your success score and your

credibility because a lot of the time

it's pretty easy to get scammed on upw

work so businesses are quite wary when

looking for these types of Freelancers

and obviously when you're starting out

you're not going to have that so if you

do want a chance to win over these

clients you have to offer affordability

instead because there are businesses out

there willing to risk a lack of all the

other things for an affordable service

it may not feel nice in the beginning it

didn't for me but it's worth it in the

long run I started out by charging

around $15 an hour for the first couple

of months and now I'm charging $40 per

hour which is probably due for an

increase if I'm being completely honest

and now I'm going to share my top tips

for when you're actually applying to

these jobs and writing your cover

letters one thing that I found really

affable and is a little bit of a secret

but I'm going to tell you anyway is that

I would start off all of my cover

letters with the client's name when

applying for a job you're often going to

be able to to see reviews given by other

Freelancers that have worked with this

client and a lot of the time these

Freelancers will mention their client's

name in the review for example a

freelancer might say John was a great

client to work with he was super

straightforward easy and fair if you see

that same name pop up in a few of the

reviews it's a pretty solid sign that

that account owner's name is John so

what I would do to start off my cover

letter would be something like a hey

John using someone's name adds a

personal touch to your communication it

shows that you've taken the time to

address them specifically rather than

just using a generic approach which a

lot of people on op work do they just

copy and paste cover letters onto

different jobs for my next tip it should

be pretty obvious but I've seen this

mistake happen before is that it's super

important your Reading and Responding to

every single part of the job so for

example a lot of jobs will require

multiple things in their job post they

might be asking for a video editor that

can use Adobe Premier Pro and after

effects and that are experienced in

short form content it's a it's important

that in a response to a post like that

you clarify every single request that

they make so your response should be

something like I personally love short

form content that's why I specialize in

it and I have been using After Effects

and Adobe Premiere Pro for 5 plus years

so it will be no problem for me to use

them platforms another practice that I

found super effective when I'm sending

out cover letters is that I will have

super personalized responses it's

important to make the client feel that

you're really passionate and super

interested in that specific role more

than likely they're a business owner

that is super passionate themselves

about their business so to also show

that same passion and excitement for

their business will almost always have a

really positive response for example

let's say that there's a client that has

a clean Beauty brand and they're looking

for a Blog writer and let's say that you

like clean Beauty yourself you could

really go in and say something along the

lines on this job post really stuck out

to me because I've been an advocate for

clean Beauty for a really long long time

I've converted my entire family to clean

beauty products and I would love to work

with a brand that I'm super passionate

about myself and then you can give them

a compliment I love how your brand uses

minimal ingredients because I've always

been of the opinion that less is more

throwing in a little compliment always

goes a long way for tip number 10 I

really want you to open your ears

because this is important information

that I wish I knew when I started out

let's say you've had a response from a

business after you've sent out a cover

letter let's say you get talking to them

and there's a little bit of back and

forth maybe you even go as far as having

a zoom call with them but then suddenly

after the zoom meeting or after some

conversation they go dark and you don't

hear from them again you're often left

wondering if they like to or maybe they

just found someone else for the role

what I'd highly suggest for you to do is

follow up with them just drop another

message something like hey insert their

name it's been a while since I've heard

back are you still looking to fill this

role if so I'm super interested a lot of

the times it's not that they're not

interested Ed in you it's that running a

business takes a lot of time take it

from me and sometimes these potential

clients get sidetracked and busy and a

lot of the time they will Circle back

when they get a chance but the best part

is when they do decide to come back to

upw work your message is going to be at

the top of the inbox list and your

enthusiasm is going to shine through

because you're still showing interest

and you're super keen and eager I have

signed a good five to six clients by

just chasing them up weekly until they

respond trust me this hack is is golden

and now to show you my cover letter that

landed me my first client on upwork

which made me exactly

$978 it was a social media design job

for a very small skincare brand and this

is what I said in my cover letter Hi and

then I mentioned their name but I'm just

blanking it out here I hope you're doing

well and are in the best of health my

name is Nyla and I'm a social media

manager and content creator firstly I

would like to say good luck on starting

your business I wish you the best on the

job post of this particular client they

did mention that they're a new business

owner I believe I am the most suitable

candidate for this job role as I have

the skills required and more I am able

to create great content on Adobe premere

Pro Photoshop and illustrator I have

been using these softwares for over 3

years I can do graphic content and video

editing you can check out my portfolio

for my previous work I'm a native

English speaker I remember they did also

ask that they wanted a native English

speaker and also have a ba degree in

English and creative writing so I can be

counted on for any writing task I always

throw my degree in there it's just a

little bit of icing on the cake I look

forward to hearing from you and thank

you for your consideration Nyla at the

end of my cover letter it always say

something like I'm more than happy to

answer any more questions you may have

and then I'll say something I really

look forward to hearing back from you I

feel like it makes client feel more

inclined to reply could be in my head I

don't know but it works for me and then

this client had a few follow-up

questions that they wanted to ask so

they asked me do you have access to

Adobe Illustrator and you have

experience using it I said yes do you

have suggestions to make this project

run successfully my response was to keep

it creative and and unique I believe a

wellth thought out strategy and

execution is necessary for a start out

business content needs to be well

thought out and organized to fit the

Brand's image mind you this was 2 years

ago I wrote this I could do a much

better job now but this is not bad

content should also vary from

information posts engagement post sales

post and entertainment and then next

question was what past project or job

have you had that is most like this one

and why I responded with I have

experience working for an eye contact

lens company I believe the role was

similar as the target audience was women

interested in beauty products I was in

charge of running ad campaigns for this

business and targeting a specific

audience do you have any questions about

the job description no so I did actually

work for contact Lan company it was my

cousin's company and I did some work

experience there but you see how I just

slid that in there not bad you know

looking at this now it does feel like

I'm answering a very exam style I

definitely would do this completely

differently now if I had the chance but

it still got me the job so not bad it

just proves you can be a beginner and

still get clients ever since then I've

worked with now over 31 brands on OFW

and I've made over $100,000 on the

platform one brand I'm still working

with at the moment I've made over

$40,000 with them and the other brands

are in there tens of thousands and

thousands I really hope you found this

video useful if you like these tips and

you want me to make more content around

upwork and being a freelancer please let

me know in the comments I'd be more than

happy to do that if there's an interest

for it and if you made it all the way to

the end of this video please comment

upwork 2024 in the comments below so I

can see who made it to the end of this

video and we can have a little chat in

the comment section below as always

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