How to get through the beginner period on Upwork?

[1556b827]

Hi freelancers,

I'm an interior designer, and I've joined Upwork for less than a month. In this beginner period, I've sent a lot of proposals, for each proposal, I've taken the time to thoroughly read the job posts and tailor my proposals to the client's requirements. However, I still received very few responses. Some were viewed by the clients but led to no further communication, while others didn't even seem to have a chance of being viewed by them.

This situation has been quite frustrating, leading me to question whether freelancing is the right path for me. I'm sure many of you have faced similar challenges during your early days on Upwork. So, I'd like to ask the experienced freelancers among you: How did you navigate through your newbie phase? Any insights, advice, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. It's always inspiring to learn from those who have successfully overcome these initial periods.

Thank you in advance!

Best regards, 

Jiayan

[83b7c104]

Hi there Jiayan! The best tip I would give is giving a FREE VALUE for the client first, it doesn't matter what it is, whether it be free sketch, free opinion, anything that would give the client an idea that you know your stuff and prove to the client first thing that his/her money wouldn't come to waste. Secondly, cover letter can be beautifully done via chatgpt, I don't care what they say, but craft it using chatgpt. Go

Jonathan

[m_terrazas]

1 Bad advice.
Giving a client something for free gets them used to asking for free work as the norm. If they want proof of your worth, you have a portfolio to back you up, and if they want proof regard their specific work, they just have to make a contract for it.
It's a bad thing for the freelancer and also for others, do not harm the other freelancers.
2 Bad advice.
We've seen examples of proposals with terrible, long, boring walls of meaningless text.
Your proposal will be one more of all those cut from the same pattern that the client has to read (that is, if he does not stop reading in the third sentence).

And this also works for your profile. Your presentation is AI and it shows a lot. A wall of text in which you talk and talk about yourself and repeat that you are Filipino as if it were a mantra.
You say that your English is fluent, but since it is an AI text, this cannot be known with certainty.
There are clients who are getting fed up with this, and I'm not surprised.

[1556b827]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for this tip! I agree that providing potential clients with free advice or ideas can be a helpful way, in fact, I have been using this technique in some of my proposals. But still, some are been viewed without further communications, and some are just not delivered to them at all, which is quite confusing to me. Have you ever met a situation like this? 

[m_terrazas]

Again, if you give ideas or advice without a contract, the client can take them and hire someone cheaper to carry them out. 
DON'T give anything away, they won't return the favor.

[78f58a0d]

Sir, I hope you are well now. I am new here. I know how to design a social media post. Is this type of thumbnail design wants in marketplace?   

[upworkfit]

AI isn't as powerful as we thought. These days we quite often think everything is from AI. However, a work from nature human's creative mind makes a lot of difference.

[lavinia-dirgau]

Hy there Jiayan,

Unfortunatley I am in the same situation as you are.  I've been on Upwork since March, this year and I've also applied for various jobs, but for most of theme I haven't received any response.

I was thinking, in the future, to try to make some proposals for some jobs, free in the beginning, just so that I can start some collaborations. I understand from others that it is an aproach that works at the beginning, at least this way we can establish a connection with some future clients.

[m_terrazas]

If you do free work it will be of no use to you, you will not have reviews on your profile. The client will take the job, you won't charge anything and they will disappear and look for the next person to fool.
And as I said before, this goes against your teammates. You're telling clients that they can ask for free work (even though it's prohibited), because there are people who will do it thinking they'll get something out of it.
If you want to do free work, look in your community to see if you can help in an association or something similar. Here we come to work and get paid for it.
And the issue of you not receiving answers, many of us are just like you, even with time here. People with great experience are also noticing the same thing. So persevere, but no, don't do free work.

[f853d333]

Hello! I'm still a beginner, but I can give you some tips.

Make a cover list of "Blocks" - For example, the first short paragraph describing work experience, etc. Let the second block paragraph be with what you have already written individually for the job post. Well, let the third block be the same as the first one prepared in advance with a call for communication with you. So you can save time on writing a cover sheet many times and it will look "Live". The second tip is the obligatory sending of examples of your work. This is how you let the client know that you know what you are doing.

And one more piece of advice - at first you need to act "aggressively" constantly review job offers, outbid others, the best options at the beginning are if the job post is no more than 5 minutes.

Also, if possible, do a quick sketch of the design - this also motivates clients write to you.

And another tip, which I only got to after spending about 200 connections - do not throw an offer for all the work.It is better to wait for the moment that is ideal for you, or for an option that you can do quickly and efficiently. This will be a very good motivation for the client whose work you will do to contact you again and put a high rating without asking, etc.

[1556b827]

Hi Maxym,

Thanks for the advice! The strategy of the "Blocks" is really interesting, will apply that in the next client hunt!

[m_terrazas]

Just because you are the first to present a proposal does not mean that the client will see it immediately. At the same time as you, many more are submitting proposals and they are not ordered in order of arrival (and the client may not see their responses for a few hours, for example)
Outbid, well, at the moment you submit the proposal, you may be first, but five minutes later, you may be outside the top four. I have to say that I don't use driven proposals, it seems crazy to me.
And as I said, "do a quick sketch of the design - this also motivates clients to write to you", this is not a good idea. You don't have to make the client contact you. The easiest thing is to keep the idea and disappear.

[4ec65e47]

Hi, Maxyn.

I hvae read your recommendations to Jiayan and saw a figure of 200 connections... Means you payed them to improve your abilities to find a job?