Upwork: Tips for Success

Upwork can be an incredible tool for artists to find freelance work that they can take with them wherever their creative life leads them. However, not all roads are paved with gold, and Upwork is going to require a little bit of elbow grease from you in order to find success on the platform.

What follows are three tips that will help you find success freelancing on Upwork.

Be Polite and Prompt

When you start applying for gigs on Upwork, you're going to start seeing responses to your proposals at all hours of the day. While you should certainly not force yourself to work around the clock, but ready to respond to each inquiry in as timely a fashion as possible.

One of the scariest things about hiring someone over the Internet is that you can't always be sure that there really is someone there. Letting communication linger makes that thought grow larger in the head of your potential employer, and you want to put their mind at ease. They want to feel like you're right there with them, and by being prompt in your replies, you can do that.

You also always want to make sure you are being polite in your communication. No matter how they may approach you, always keep it professional. If you do that, not only will your rating remain high, you'll have a better chance at booking continual work with these people. Don't get me wrong, I have almost always had entirely great experiences with employers on Upwork, but every now and then they will be stressed. That's when you can step in and truly demonstrate how you are able to relieve their stress.

Honesty is Always Your Best Policy

The temptation may exist for you to bend the truth a little bit in order to try and get a gig. But remember, any stretching of the truth is always going to come back and bite you in the end. If you really can't make a deadline for someone, and it is a hard deadline, then you need to accept the reality that the gig really isn't for you. That can be painful in a situation where you really could use the money, but better to find another gig that fits your availability than to anger a client and burn a potential bridge before it even has the chance to be built.

You also always want to be upfront about the experience you have, and the skills that you possess. Don't misrepresent yourself. You'll only end up making a fool of yourself in the end. You should go after as many gigs as you can, learn as much as you can from them, and continually improve your skills. However, going after a job that is above your skill level is a dangerous game to play, and can quickly lead to bad reviews of your work - something that will haunt you much longer than that single gig.

Don't Count Your Chickens Before Their Hatched

When you book hourly work on Upwork, the client will set a maximum amount of hours that you are able to bill them for. That isn't money that you're guaranteed to earn, and don't budget that way. It will take you a couple of weeks to really understand the amount of work that the client is sending your way and how many hours that work takes you to complete it. Once you have settled into a routine with a long term client, now you can start including that money in some future planning, but continue to be cautious. Many businesses are utilizing Upwork in order to take care of a temporary influx of additional work, and at some point, that increase is either going to end, or they're going to expand their full time team to accommodate the work. That will mean that you're no longer getting that much work from that client.

Additionally, don't simply dawdle in order to bill your client for more hours. You want to retain value for the client, and if you're able to get plenty done in a shorter amount of time, that means value for them. Once you have value, they are more likely to send more work your way, agree to a higher rate, or if nothing else, give you a glowing review that can help you land your next, higher paying, gig. Work in service of the client, and your pocketbook will thank you.

Conclusion

You're going to make mistakes when you get started on any platform for the first time. That's okay. Hopefully with the above tips, you'll be able to avoid a few common pitfalls, and get yourself advancing up the freelance food chain in no time.

For more information about building a sustainable side-hustle to support your creative life, check out my book: A Life in Art: Building Side-Hustles to Empower Your Life as an Artist.