Message from Syed Farhan Raza
1) Get yourself registered on the largest Freelancing portal Upwork.com
2) Identify your skills: You will need to find out your skill you are good at magnetizable on Freelancing portal, Upwork in this case. Check out Skills trends on Upwork and browse the categories you feel you better fits in. Read the description and project requirement to have an idea.
3) Profile Development: Take a good time creating a great profile having all your skills, experiences, profile overview, portfolio. This is a one time job and would help you for life. Profile is just like a resume you use for conventional jobs and a face of yours. Browse other competitors of yours on the platforms. Eg: if you are a writer create a list of a at least 50 writers offering their services on Upwork. Each and every part of your profile should be better then all the 50 top competitors of yours may it be your profile picture, Title, Profile overview, Portfolio, Experience, Education, tags etc. By this I mean to say that It should be more precise and better presented.
Make sure your profile is optimized for the skills you identified in step 2. Be good at one thing rather then being jack of all trades. If you are a writer create your profile accordingly. Dont be a writer and a web developer at the same time. People prefer experts. The more specific you can be the better.
4) Skills Test: Take all the skills test relevant to your field. The more tests you pass with higher score the better. Pass minimum 4 tests including the 2 Upwork tests which have only 11 questions and links of the resources would be mention there. You can always retake.
5) Find the right job: There is an upper cape on the maximum number of jobs you can apply per month. With a basic account you can apply to a 60 jobs per month. Thats 2 per day. Where as the jobs posted per day in your category whether that is web development, writing and translation or administrative support. Check out all the jobs posted in last 24 hours and select the best 2 better fit your skills, expertise and interest on the basis of clients rating, previous job history, contractors feedback to the client, availability etc
6) Applying to the job: Once you find the right job to apply you can push the "Apply" button. Being a newbie on the platform give the minimum rate possible (in start). Minimum hourly rate on hourlly project is $3 per hour. It can be anything on fixed price jobs.
7) Cover Letter: Not most of people rightly use the cover letter in the conventional jobs but on freelancing platform it matters the most. This is a box which gives you a chance to freelancer to talk to the buyer regarding the posted position. NO COPY PASTE COVER LETTER. Read the job description. Tell the client what you understand out of it, what relevant skills do you have, any relevant experience if there is any, why are you the right fit for this position and if you are immediately available to start off, Sometimes you might want to go more deep and discuss the scope of the project and discuss the timeline too (if enough details are provided).
Again, Cover letter is the most important part of the process. Dont copy paste a template and writer a personalized cover letter for every job you apply.
Best Practices:
1) Check out Upwork official blog there are detailed articles on each of the minute process. Go through them, bookmark them for reference.
2) Follow Upwork on all the social networks.
3) Speak to Upworks Phone, chat, Email support and ask as many questions as possible. They dont bite!
4) Be patient, confident, realistic and consistent. You are new on the platform and going to compete with the most experienced one. So it may take from a day upto a month to land your first job.
5) Find out someone in your friends and family who are already working on Upwork and get your stuff reviewed by them. If you dont have any you can easily find experienced freelancers on facebook, twitter and nicely ask for help. You should know the right way to outreach people without wasting their lot of time. Talk less, Talk solid.
Anything I am missing you would like to add? Any question?
Message from Syed Farhan Raza
1) Get yourself registered on the largest Freelancing portal Upwork.com
2) Identify your skills: You will need to find out your skill you are good at magnetizable on Freelancing portal, Upwork in this case. Check out Skills trends on Upwork and browse the categories you feel you better fits in. Read the description and project requirement to have an idea.
3) Profile Development: Take a good time creating a great profile having all your skills, experiences, profile overview, portfolio. This is a one time job and would help you for life. Profile is just like a resume you use for conventional jobs and a face of yours. Browse other competitors of yours on the platforms. Eg: if you are a writer create a list of a at least 50 writers offering their services on Upwork. Each and every part of your profile should be better then all the 50 top competitors of yours may it be your profile picture, Title, Profile overview, Portfolio, Experience, Education, tags etc. By this I mean to say that It should be more precise and better presented.
Make sure your profile is optimized for the skills you identified in step 2. Be good at one thing rather then being jack of all trades. If you are a writer create your profile accordingly. Don't be a writer and a web developer at the same time. People prefer experts. The more specific you can be the better.
4) Skills Test: Take all the skills test relevant to your field. The more tests you pass with higher score the better. Pass minimum 4 tests including the 2 Upwork tests which have only 11 questions and links of the resources would be mention there. You can always retake.
5) Find the right job: There is an upper cape on the maximum number of jobs you can apply per month. With a basic account you can apply to a 60 jobs per month. Thats 2 per day. Where as the jobs posted per day in your category whether that is web development, writing and translation or administrative support. Check out all the jobs posted in last 24 hours and select the best 2 better fit your skills, expertise and interest on the basis of client's rating, previous job history, contractors feedback to the client, availability etc
6) Applying to the job: Once you find the right job to apply you can push the "Apply" button. Being a newbie on the platform give the minimum rate possible (in start). Minimum hourly rate on hourlly project is $3 per hour. It can be anything on fixed price jobs.
7) Cover Letter: Not most of people rightly use the cover letter in the conventional jobs but on freelancing platform it matters the most. This is a box which gives you a chance to freelancer to talk to the buyer regarding the posted position. NO COPY PASTE COVER LETTER. Read the job description. Tell the client what you understand out of it, what relevant skills do you have, any relevant experience if there is any, why are you the right fit for this position and if you are immediately available to start off, Sometimes you might want to go more deep and discuss the scope of the project and discuss the timeline too (if enough details are provided).
Again, Cover letter is the most important part of the process. Don't copy paste a template and writer a personalized cover letter for every job you apply.
Best Practices:
1) Check out Upwork official blog there are detailed articles on each of the minute process. Go through them, bookmark them for reference.
2) Follow Upwork on all the social networks.
3) Speak to Upwork's Phone, chat, Email support and ask as many questions as possible. They don't bite!
4) Be patient, confident, realistic and consistent. You are new on the platform and going to compete with the most experienced one. So it may take from a day upto a month to land your first job.
5) Find out someone in your friends and family who are already working on Upwork and get your stuff reviewed by them. If you don't have any you can easily find experienced freelancers on facebook, twitter and nicely ask for help. You should know the right way to outreach people without wasting their lot of time. Talk less, Talk solid.
Anything I am missing you would like to add? Any question?
