Question about rates and getting projects

[zsummers]

Afternoon everyone. I am new to Upwork. I'm a graphic designer, and I'm curious to see how all of you decided your rates, and if you're getting projects that are fair rates for the hourse worked. I see a lot of jobs going up on the job board with estimated budgets of $20. Yet I see profiles with hourly rates set at $75, but I don't see those larger budgeted jobs listed. Do any of you do these smaller budgeted jobs to boost your job success rate for when the larger ones come along? Or did any of you just set your rate, and let people invite you to interview? I would appreciate any advice. Thanks again. 

[barada00]

Zack, you should use an actual photo of yourself if you don't want a hold on your account.

To answer your question, I shall ask how good are you, how many years of experience you have, how much you want to earn, how much time you have...

If you are someone who is experienced and very good in a very small niche you can ask a high rate. If your specialty is tracing logos to vector then you should compete with lots of people who will do the job for very low rates. If you have incredibly good work samples from the past and use them in your portfolio you can ask for a high rate. If you have them and don't put them on your portfolio you can ask but no client will accept.

In advanced search there are options and filters. I recommend you to use them. Filter out $20 jobs. I don't see any job under $50 and my hourly rate is $35 which might be very low for some freelancers. I don't do certain kinds of jobs. I don't work with certain kinds of clients. I chose this rate because it is the minimum that would make me happy and when clients search for freelancers there is a rate option of lower than $30 and higher then $30; I don't want to come out in the search results of clients that are looking for $5 rates. You can make $75/hour if you are a good illustrator for example but you should also be able to sell yourself with a good cover letter. You wrote you don't see those larger budgeted jobs, they are here, they are the ones with "$$$ Expert" text under the title. Some of hourly jobs with "$$$ Expert" under the title pay really high rates.

Don't expect clients to invite you until you complete some jobs. It would be a long wait.

Good luck and welcome.

[ryan_banag]

Zach,

You will decide your rate. If you think your work is worth $75.00/hour, prove it* and sell it to the client as to why they should hire you over the $20.00 per project.

* Legitimate portfolio items, client positive feedback, previous worls that strongly emphasize the quality.

[alfredts]

I advice to begin with as low as you can afford untill you can get some positive reviews. You might think of it as unfair work, but those "cheap" hours will pay off very quickly.
Once you get a couple of reviews start steadily increasing your rate every time you manage to get a job at that rate.
I don't think you can just register on UpWork and start getting highly paid jobs. Remote work involves a lot of initial distrust and only high amount of good reviews can solve that. And how trusted you are should be as a factor in deciding your (competetive) hourly rate as your experience.

[ishiffer]

Also, at least based on my experience, the higher paying clients do not tend to post their jobs but reach out to freelancers directly. There's also nothing stopping you from bidding higher than a client's stated budget if you think the job is interesting. A lot of people have no idea what their project should cost and just put in a placeholder. I would also echo what everyone else said above. Good luck!

[db0e00c8]

Hello everyone,I am new in Upwork,I have submitted series of proposal yet,I have not gotten any job,I am a graphic designer.please can anyone tell me how to get job on time here in upwork.i have not received any interview from clients.please teach me..I really need to earn and sell my designs.please, you can check my profile if I did anything wrong in terms of my cover letter, portfolio and so on.

Thank you everyone

[mahdesignstudio]

When setting your hourly rate on Upwork, it's important to consider your experience, skillset, and the going rate for similar freelancers in your industry. Once you have a rate in mind, you can start bidding on projects and see what kind of response you get. If you're not getting invited to interview for the bigger budget projects right away, don't worry - it can take some time to build up your profile and job success rate on the site. In the meantime, you can try applying for smaller budget projects to get your foot in the door and start building up your reputation.