I just joined in October and have changed my rate about 3 or 4 times. Some clients told me I was charging too low, while others were like, You need to raise your prices, we're getting WAY more than what we paid for - and so I did.
That's the cool thing about UpWork, there's plenty of room to gauge the temperature of the water you're diving in, it's so easy to change your rate based on feedback from the community here and from clients.
I agree with Amaya, most of my work comes from clients I've worked with before that I Enjoy working with haha. There's one client in particular that I love working with so much I'll drop everything just to do her projects. (I mean like... making dinner, or whatever I'm literally doing - not dropping other clients ha).
When I first started, I went a bit overboard with sending proposals and quickly realized, "Holy crap, if all these people actually hire me for the job, I'm going to be WAY in over my head." So I ended up raising my rate and only bidding on jobs I Really Really wanted, and that's been working out for me.
To answer the hypothetical question though - Maybe only 2 in 30 proposals would agree to my rate. But, that's mainly because I really don't like working at hourly rate most of the time and talk the client into doing a flat fee instead. I feel a little too micromanaged with the time tracker on and that hampers my ability to think straight.
What about you? What's your experience with rates like?
