How do you keep your spirits up?

[5af7585c]

Hi everyone!

I'm not new to freelancing but I am very new to Upwork (been hoping to get more jobs so I can pay for further studies!)... I've not been able to successfully bid on jobs so far but am trying to be positive and push on. How do you guys get through tough days? 

I grab myself a huge mug of tea, some chips and read/watch The Lord of the Rings 🙂

[luqman_mak]

Hello,
Getting started on Upwork is quite tough, what sort of worked for me is i started looking at jobs that seemed to be from clients that are new to the platform, they have their payments as unverfied* and sometimes have just abit too little or too much of a job description - they only cost 2 connects to apply to and are mostly shunned by everyone else.
Once you get that first job, you try to do it right to get that first good review and from there...you spend connects wisely..its kind of a monopoly game where you sit and wait while thinking of your next move. 
Hopefully when you do get your first few hundreds, thats when the invites start kicking in.

*Make sure that the payment is verified and the milestones are funded before starting any work on Upwork (for any new people out there - please read the payment protection things and understand them 

Thats for Upwork. As for breaking from routine, there is nothing more satifying than watching slo-mo videos and how things are made or destroyed..be it in Mordor or anywhere else.

[allpurposewriter]

I don't think that's the worst answer in the world Luqman, but there are a few red flags in there, summed up in general as advising someone to aim for the riskier jobs to get started.

However, I agree -- in a wild sense, that is -- doing what you have to do to land jobs is a tried and true way to get over the hump -- or to get out of a drought. I wouldn't just filter for the riskier jobs, but I would advise buying as many connects as you need to to get the ball rolling. There's a lot of talk about how you need the perfect profile to land jobs here, but my premise has always been to put up a failsafe (make sure it has no flaws in it) profile and aim for the best proposals you can write -- then learn to write proposals at blazing speeds. In some manner, this can be seen as a numbers game. If you send 200 proposals a week your odds should improve (and your proposal writing skills should improve simultaneously).

There are times I've worried about the cost of "connects." Believe me, paying for connects is as irritating as sand flies, but if that's what you need to get a job, why quibble? Buy connects, write super-fast proposals ... see where that gets you. (I assume they still charge for connects. I"m a bit out of the loop on that stuff.)

That said, just because you are in a rush, don't take jobs that you sense could put your rating at risk. If you aim for marginal employers you risk kicking a hornet's nest, because these first time amateurs can be vindictive as hell. They want to choke the life out of you for as little money as they can get you to accept.  Upwork, bless their corporate soul, has a few safeguards put in place and one of them is to view an employer's track record. It's there to protect you. Ignoring that is not always to your advantage.

[tomzilla1]

I have a few ways in times when there's not much going on - try to help out others, my other hobbies, take care of myself (when it gets busy many times I forget to eat, forget to take care of myself).

[moonraker]

By looking forward to my investment paying off!

[lucioric]

Sometimes is not only being eager to respond any invite that you get, neither coming to the Upwork site every hour to check if new invites are, or new works. I remember the times being desperate, crawling all the jobs off, but nothing, nothing, nothing. And a day, I woke up, got an invite, answered it, and an hour later I was having an interview, and later in the day, an hourly contract for full time. So, it is also about the chance.
Talking about the invites, to get them, you need to build a profile for that. Apply to short gigs, having in mind to complete that, without getting mad about low payment, because the main purpose for doing that jobs is to get positive feedback, and for that you should not be mean with the client, and you should deliver in the aggreed time or in a reasonable time. If you got great feedback, you can soon receive a Rising Talent badge, which puts you in the track to have a Top Rated badge.