15 proposals, no job yet, what am I doing wro...

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Greetings Upwork Community,

I'm a new member to Upwork and this will be my first post. To put things in perspective, I'm just breaking into the freelance writing industry but it's not something that I just decided out of the blue that maybe I should give writing a chance. I've been an avid writer my entire life but I've never actually had anything published. It's always been a passion of mine but it hasn't been until lately that I've decided to turn that passion into a career. I understand that it's going to take time to get myself built up and will face plenty of rejection but at the moment, I have submitted 15 proposals and have not heard back on a single one. Is there something I'm doing wrong is what I keep asking myself. All of my proposals are for entry-level job offers and either agreeing to a fixed price or making sure not to set my rates too high. I think that my cover letters are solid when submitting my proposals so I'm just sort of lost trying to understand why not even 1 out of the 15 proposals was accepted. Any insight on this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time for those taking the time to give some valuable feedback

michael_skaggs · ‎03-01-2019

That's just the name of the game, unfortunately. It's just like applying for any other job in that you could go weeks or even months with nothing. All you can do is make sure your portfolio is solid, wow them with your proposals, make sure your rates are in line with others in your area with your level of experience, and then keep at it.

Freelancing can be a pretty cut-throat way to go depending on your field. But one thing you don't ever want to do is lower your rates just to get jobs. Always charge what you're worth, because the race to the bottom hurts everyone.

petra_r · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin P wrote:
Greetings Upwork Community,

I'm a new member to Upwork and this will be my first post. To put things in perspective, I'm just breaking into the freelance writing industry but it's not something that I just decided out of the blue that maybe I should give writing a chance. I've been an avid writer my entire life but I've never actually had anything published. It's always been a passion of mine but it hasn't been until lately that I've decided to turn that passion into a career. I understand that it's going to take time to get myself built up and will face plenty of rejection but at the moment, I have submitted 15 proposals and have not heard back on a single one. Is there something I'm doing wrong is what I keep asking myself. All of my proposals are for entry-level job offers and either agreeing to a fixed price or making sure not to set my rates too high. I think that my cover letters are solid when submitting my proposals so I'm just sort of lost trying to understand why not even 1 out of the 15 proposals was accepted. Any insight on this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time for those taking the time to give some valuable feedback

COMPLETELY rewrite your profile. That wall of words will have any client lose the will to live by the third line. Paragraphs are your friend. I see a "writer" with a wall of words and I know I am not looking at a writer.

And the whole thing is about you. Clients do not care what and who inspired you, they want to know how hiring you makes them more profitable. Cut it to a quarter. make it about the people you want to hire you. Not about you.

You have no portfolio. Bad news.

15 proposals are nothing. You are competing with literally tens of thousands of freelancers.

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Petra,

Thank you for the valuable feedback. This is the type of stuff I need to hear so I'm able to get my profile looking perfect

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Petra,

I also wanted to ask you for some additional advice. Being that I have no experience to list off, what would you say are some of the things I should focus on in my profile? I've never had anything published. Is it better to put some of my unpublished work in my portfolio instead of having nothing at all? I'm guessing it's probably the latter but I'd like someone's opinion that has experience. Should I just reword my profile so that it highlights the skills I have but puts the focus on potential clients instead of myself?

I really appreciate all of your feedback and also taking the time to help out an aspiring freelancer.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin P wrote:
Petra,

I also wanted to ask you for some additional advice. Being that I have no experience to list off, what would you say are some of the things I should focus on in my profile? I've never had anything published. Is it better to put some of my unpublished work in my portfolio instead of having nothing at all? I'm guessing it's probably the latter but I'd like someone's opinion that has experience. Should I just reword my profile so that it highlights the skills I have but puts the focus on potential clients instead of myself?

I really appreciate all of your feedback and also taking the time to help out an aspiring freelancer.

Jumping in; I realize you addressed Petra.

IMO, you should not put random essays (so to speak) into your portfolio. I gave a suggestion above about an authoritative blog. I really think you should start there. It will show clients your organization skills, your writing style, your sense of visual balance (writing-wise), and other factors besides "just writing" (remember, it's not just about being able to sit down and write randomly). JMO.

As for putting together a profile, have you had a look at other writers' profiles for ideas on style, length and so on? (Obviously yours will need to be 100% unique, but you may at least get a feel that way.)

omaaressam · ‎04-30-2020

Hello Petra

I have sent like 20 proposals, But I never get accepted, and I really don't know what's wrong with that?

Can you please help me with that?

Thank You

AveryO · ‎04-30-2020

Hi Omar,

You may want to check out these articles from our Hiring Headquarters to help you create proposals that win jobs, and help you boost your career on Upwork:

Hopefully, this helps you with your Upwork career. Good luck!

~ Avery

omaaressam · ‎04-30-2020

Hello Avery

Thank you for replaying my message, But I have already read the whole tips to create a proposal, But I never received anything back, I really need help with that, Because it's really making me sad sending 20 proposals with 0 results

Thank You

colettelewis · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin P wrote:
Greetings Upwork Community,

I'm a new member to Upwork and this will be my first post. To put things in perspective, I'm just breaking into the freelance writing industry but it's not something that I just decided out of the blue that maybe I should give writing a chance. I've been an avid writer my entire life but I've never actually had anything published. It's always been a passion of mine but it hasn't been until lately that I've decided to turn that passion into a career. I understand that it's going to take time to get myself built up and will face plenty of rejection but at the moment, I have submitted 15 proposals and have not heard back on a single one. Is there something I'm doing wrong is what I keep asking myself. All of my proposals are for entry-level job offers and either agreeing to a fixed price or making sure not to set my rates too high. I think that my cover letters are solid when submitting my proposals so I'm just sort of lost trying to understand why not even 1 out of the 15 proposals was accepted. Any insight on this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time for those taking the time to give some valuable feedback

__________________________________

Benjamin,

You claim to be a passionate writer and that it is something you have done all your life, but you have no portfolio so you have nothing to support your claim of "brilliance". You are up against thousands of writers on Upwork, so you need to prove your excellence.

1) Add a portfolio of your work to your profile, which does not necessarily have to contain work you have done for clients but work that might pertain to something a client on Upwork is looking for.

2) You could also add a few relevant tests to your profile.

3) Tone down your profile to a professional presentation. "Brilliant writer" without back up will only attract the scammers.

colettelewis · ‎03-01-2019

Petra,

Crossed posts - apologies for the similarities! But I think both are relevant.

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Nichola,

The thing is, I've never had anything published so it makes it hard to add to a portfolio. Would it be better to have some pieces that aren't published instead of having nothing at all?

Also, doing some tests is absolutely on my to-do list. It's going to be a busy weekend

Thank you for your feedback

13b0bd5e · ‎03-01-2019

This really **Edited for community guidelines** - I'm sorry to hear it.

I wish I had writing work to give you, becuase I bet that you'd nail it.

My guess, is that after your first job or two, you'll begin seeing a more steady stream of work.

I'll be honest, I'm reluctant to hire freelancers with limited experience here, and I imagine many others are too. However, reluctant does not mean unwilling - I think you'll get your chance.

The good news is this: there are too many unreliable and unprofessional freelancers around here (perhaps untalented too). So once you get a bit of momentum, if you do good work and you deliver as you say you will, I think you'll likely see that momentum continue to build and see an even increased flow of jobs (and likely rates, as well).

Best of luck,

Michael

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Michael,

Thank you for the boost of confidence. I'm completely aware that this is going to be a process and that it will take time to get to where I want to be but in the end it's all one big learning experience

tlbp · ‎03-01-2019

Good writers with a solid profile can earn a nice hourly (or per word) rate on Upwork. Inexperienced writers are more likely to be offered $5 for an article and then asked to do several rewrites. 😕

So, if you are passionate about writing AND want to earn money writing for others, research content marketing and find out what type of writing people are willing to pay for. Then, create a portfolio that demonstrates that you can do that type of writing. I think a lack of experience (and reviews) on Upwork can be overcome by showing prospective clients that you are skilled at your craft.

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Hey Tonya,

Thanks for the insight. I'm totally aware that I will have to take a pay cut in the beginning. One thing that I refuse to do is be completely lowballed for the talent I have. I wish I could slap the arrogance out of some of the prospective clients on here offering less than $.01 per word.

tlbp · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin P wrote:
Hey Tonya,

Thanks for the insight. I'm totally aware that I will have to take a pay cut in the beginning. One thing that I refuse to do is be completely lowballed for the talent I have. I wish I could slap the arrogance out of some of the prospective clients on here offering less than $.01 per word.

My point was not that you should work for pennies but that you should create a portfolio that allows you to not work for pennies.

martina_plaschka · ‎03-02-2019

Benjamin P wrote:
Hey Tonya,

Thanks for the insight. I'm totally aware that I will have to take a pay cut in the beginning. One thing that I refuse to do is be completely lowballed for the talent I have. I wish I could slap the arrogance out of some of the prospective clients on here offering less than $.01 per word.

No need to resort to violence. Those are not arrogant, they are just cheap.

But please! change your headline really soon. It's wonderful to have confidence, but it needs to be backed up by proof, or otherwise it's an empty promise. (General rule: underpromise and overdeliver, not the other way around) You don't want your potential client to cringe and jump to the next proposal.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin, I pretty much never advise anyone on here to give up, so to speak, but in this case I'll say: you do need to have a reputation behind you first. Writing is an incredibly competitive arena for freelancers. You're up against people who have years (or decades) of solid experience.

And that doesn't just mean the writing part. It means a track record of meeting deadlines, understanding the lingo (so clients don't have to waste time explaining every aspect of every job), knowing what Google likes and what it kicks out (depending upon the project), breaking up your paragraphs so they're attractive and don't lose your audience, and more.

(As a case in point, see how unwieldy the last sentence in that paragraph ^ is? I probably kept your interest, but only because you're wondering how you can make this advice work for you. Why would a client who wants her business to work out go on reading such longwinded stuff?)

I started freelancing after already having written professionally for five years, and even then I found I had to have a portfolio beyond the magazine I was writing for. Sure, I wrote literally hundreds of articles there, but from the client's perspective, I had experience in just one industry doing just one type of writing. What about her business? What about her articles? Clients are interested not in your dreams, but in what you can do to propel their goals. Which makes sense, when you think about it.

In order to build up a portfolio, I began Googling submission guidelines + (my favorite subjects). This brought me to all sorts of portals, large and small, where I was able to submit and when I was lucky, get paid for it.

After I had a range in my portfolio I felt I had a leg to stand on saying I was a capable freelance writer.

I just worry that you may have a lot of heartache on here. (Not definitely...as I said, it's really up to you if you want to try to start here right now, before you get the experience.) I feel like you could wind up being a victim of horrible clients who will pay you next to nothing, demand endless rewrites and dock you stars.

I understand that writing is your passion. Writing professionally is different. It truly is. Writing is a job. We all envision tap-tapping on our laptops in the shabby-chic attic of some Tudor-style home, a bird chriping outside the window, and dozens of random people screaming from below, "Please just give us your genius! Write anything, we WANT it!" but writing is a business and so. Many. People. Do. It.

If your passion isn't just writing but making writing part of your living then you need to be smart about this and build a portfolio before attempting platforms like this. The bonus is, you'll be published (if you're good), and you'll be building a portfolio. Just my humble opinion. Don't give up, but do be smart and build a reputation.

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Hi Melanie,

Thank you for taking the time to write some valuable feedback. I will take all of your suggestions to heart. While writing is my passion, I'm well aware that there's going to be jobs I'll take on that could make the last hour of church seem like a blockbuster movie.

I especially liked your suggestion about building my portfolio since I don't' have anything I could add that's actually been published. I've been caught in the dilemma of whether I should just put some of the work I have done as opposed to nothing.

I can understand your concern for me experiencing heartache on here, however, I'm not limiting myself to only using Upwork. I've cast a rather large net and I'm utilizing several different platforms where I can look for work.

Another thing that I've considered is getting a blog going. My reasoning for that is it would allow me not to get burnt out on writing about stuff I have no interest in because I'd be writing on my blog about my niche.

Thanks again for all of your valuable feedback and as I stated, I will be taking it all to heart so I can develop an optimal end result

melaniekhenson · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin, here's an idea so you can have at least a couple of items for your portfolio quickly.

Start a blog! Have it be about some solid interest and DON'T have it focus on you. It could be anything. Movie reviews. Best Ofs. History reenactment groups. Absolutely anything that can have something authoritative attched to it - i.e., solid reasoning and info v. just personal input. (Links to authoritative sites are always great too.)

This is something you can literally do right now, for free. If you have an hour a day you can do three or four well-thought out blog posts within a week. Probably less.

You can then put a couple of those on your portfolio. Don't pretend they're anyone else's and that you were hired and paid for them; just put them up as examples of your writing style, your research capabilities, and so on.

You're obviously going to want to employ the other suggestions in this thread in order to get paid-for work (or at least accepted submissions), but at least it's some idea of your style for clients to look at, without being literally just random essays.

ETA: Oh, durr! I didn't even see that you said you want to start a blog. Sorry. Yes, for your personal satisfaction, DO IT. (My own "just for me" is a book I've been working on literally for years. God knows if it will ever be done, LOL.) But do also put up a blog that showcases what your writing on some less personal subject...JMHO.

benhp · ‎03-01-2019

Hey serial-poster aka Melanie lol

Yes, the blog idea is something I will pursue today or tomorrow. Perhaps I'm overthinking this, but I've been brainstorming a niche that I could continue to write about now and into the future. I mention this in response to your suggestion to write about a variety of topics. Maybe I should just start a blog and have it be about a variety of topics and then down the road develop one with just a single niche? I tend to overthink things too much (can you tell lol) instead of just putting things into action. I think maybe I need to take a step back and focus on things one at time because I feel like I'm trying to do too much which is giving my anxiety a nice rush.

colettelewis · ‎03-01-2019

Benjamin P wrote:
Hey serial-poster aka Melanie lol

Yes, the blog idea is something I will pursue today or tomorrow. Perhaps I'm overthinking this, but I've been brainstorming a niche that I could continue to write about now and into the future. I mention this in response to your suggestion to write about a variety of topics. Maybe I should just start a blog and have it be about a variety of topics and then down the road develop one with just a single niche? I tend to overthink things too much (can you tell lol) instead of just putting things into action. I think maybe I need to take a step back and focus on things one at time because I feel like I'm trying to do too much which is giving my anxiety a nice rush.

_________________________________________

Benjamin,

To begin with, you only need about three pieces in your portfolio. It does not matter one bit whether or not you have experience or whether you have been published. What does matter is the quality of those three pieces.

What I suggest you do is to write no more than 500 words on three different topics that interest you and upload those into your portfolio.

From your posts here, I would say that you are not yet ready to freelance as a writer and that you do need more experience actually writing (not necessarily to get published or for a client), rather than thinking that writing is your passion.

Most professional writers would probably tell you that writing is 10% passion and 90% hard graft.

dfbe4e6a · ‎01-16-2022

I'm having my own issues myself, just in a different light.

I work as a Freelancer Artist/Designer/Photo editor and within Decmber I was able to win 4-5 solid jobs off the bat and am nearly at my first 1k and on the brink of getting my JSS, but even though I've got more reputation and have a perfect score of 5 stars for all my clients... I just can't figure out why I'm not getting hired by clients anymore.

It almost feels like things have intentionally fallen off like the platform's trying to prevent me from getting my first milestone on the platform (just like the Rising Talent badge which I never got despite meeting all the pre-requisites).

Is there something I started doing wrong? Does it have something to do with my profile? I need help

15 proposals, no job yet, what am I doing wrong?