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crisislinedesign
Community Member

Getting your first client to raise your job success score

This topic seems to be a nightmare for several other freelancers here on upwork. **edited for Community Guidelines** I chose to move to upwork because I had the option to value myself and my work more rather than be held hostage by other designers that did not value their work. On several occasions, I was asked to even lower my price **edited for Community Guidelines**. But since moving to upwork I have been spending months training, researching and promoting my services through all social platforms and the only client I have ever had came from a personal friendship and not through upwork. Every time I go to apply for a gig on upwork, I never meet the "job success score". I'm not sure how to ever meet this score that clients request if I can't even get my first gig through here. Honestly, at this point, I'm willing to do a dirt cheap project just to get on the map. How have the rest of the community obtained their first gig to raise that "Job success score"? I have been asked to apply to positions but they were scam's requesting work outside of upwork. No other individuals have hired me as of yet. 

 

Any help is appreciated,

 

Ryan Berger

4 REPLIES 4
vdubeau
Community Member

The opening of the overview on your profile should be less about you and more about what you can do for the client. That is where you grab the client's attention. Once you have that you tell them something about yourself and your qualifications.

 

As far as the job success score or other qualifications on the job. Just basically ignore them. They are more or less a "boilerplate" that most clients probably don't realize are there. Like your overview, make the first few lines something to garb the client about their project.

"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
Buckaroo Banzai
mthornton-cpc
Community Member

I agree with Vince. Clients see the first couple of lines in your profile in their preview when viewing the list of proposals. Your second sentence is about your past. You're less likely to scratch that client's itch of "will this person solve my problem" if you use those first few lines to talk about what you did before you started doing the thing that will help you solve their problem. Take a look at the profiles of some long-term platform users and see what you can glean to make your own profile sing. 

 

You do a good job of filling your profile with work samples, but your descriptions sell your work short. Steer more toward confidence in your descriptions rather than "this was practice" or "this is a first attempt". Looking at that through clients' eyes makes it seem like you're junior and still working it out. Showcase what you have confidence in. Make your strengths shine through. 

mtngigi
Community Member

Ryan,

 

Make sure you change your language to "native/bilingual" - trust me, even though it seems counter-intuitive.

 

I'll reiterate the answers you've already received. Get right to the point about what you can offer to clients. Avoid getting as personal as you do in your overview. Clients don't want to read your biography, as interesting (or not) as it may be. You should pretty much ditch the whole first paragraph.

 

Ignore the JSS requirements and bid, but only on projects you know you are capable of doing. And do not establish yourself as a cheap freelancer ... that's a hard hole to crawl out of. This is advice every successful freelancer here will give you.

 

And thank you for your service.

 

ETA: Also, be aware that we are not allowed to have links in our overview or portfolio to personal websites/behance pages. This can get your account suspended.

abigailart
Community Member

I only recently joined Upwork and had the same kind of worries. I've only gotten one gig so far, but it's a pretty good one. I was worried that having no history on Upwork was killing my chances and that I was likely being underbid by people willing to do valuable work for too little pay. On the job I finally landed, the major difference was I had artwork to show that was similar to the exact style my client was looking for. I think sometimes the key is just applying to the job that you are a perfect match for and demonstrating that in your proposal.