Solved: Re: Having a hard time getting jobs

exactprecisions · ‎07-12-2016

I have been freelancing since 2009 but on another platform. I did however work on Elance one time in 2012. My account was closed on the other platform and I started working from UpWork for the past three months. I have found it very difficult to find work from here or even be considered. Is there any advice the experienced or established freelancers here can give me to help me get started? I was a preferred freelancer on the other platform and had built a huge portfolio. I guess my mistake was working from there only. I have a work history, references and try to give short and to the point proposals for each prospect but I have only had one minimal bugfix in these past few months. This is how I supported my family for years and I know I can perform the tasks, it is just I believe the lack of a portfolio or reviews here is holding me back. I just hope maybe some of you can help me so I can get back to work.

- I am a full stack developer who has for the past four years focused on WordPress development

aocumen · ‎07-12-2016

Hi Robert,

You may want to check out these educational videos, blog posts, and best practices shared by other users, to help you get started on Upwork:

Please also change your profile title and overview to reflect your skills and experience. So that client's who are viewing your profile has a general idea of what services you can offer. If you would like to offer your services as a company, I suggest you create an agency instead.

~ Avery

View solution in original post

mtngigi · ‎07-12-2016

Robert ... I'd suggest you do a search in these forums - this question has been asked and answer thousands of times.

exactprecisions · ‎07-12-2016

I'm sorry. I was reading some but wanted to try and engage the community as suggested by @Upwork on twitter.

mtngigi · ‎07-12-2016

No need to apologize ... people will come along and say the same thing in your thread that's been said in others. But maybe you'll get some new answers.

cupidmedia · ‎07-12-2016

I'm a client in a different niche but I can tell you that if I saw a profile like yours apply to one of my translation jobs I wouldn't be interested in it. Your profile is talking about your company and your team. You're supposed to be an individual. I'd be concerned about who was actually doing the work. Update your profile to talk about you and your skills and what you can offer a client specifically, not vague marketing-speak. Based on your profile I can't really tell what you do exactly.

exactprecisions · ‎07-12-2016

Thank you for that reply! I will be sure to do that as soon as possible. You made very valid points.

cupidmedia · ‎07-13-2016

Hi Robert, your profile looks much better now. The only other thing I would say is to get rid of "My name is Robert Parker and..." at the start. Your name is easily visible to the client and doesn't need to be in your overview as well. I hope the changes you've made help you get more jobs.

exactprecisions · ‎07-13-2016

Thank you Jennifer again. I removed my name. I feel better about my profile after realizing what I did wrong. I also read a few of the articles Avery posted. I truly do appreciate the help from everyone.

Anonymous-User · ‎07-14-2016

@Robert P wrote:
Thank you Jennifer again. I removed my name. I feel better about my profile after realizing what I did wrong. I also read a few of the articles Avery posted. I truly do appreciate the help from everyone.

Is English your native language? Then you should change your language knowledge from Fluent to Native. Others with Native language knowledge will probably be prefered to you and will appear ahead in clients' search results. That is one of the reasons why some freelanders lie about their language qualifications.

arnabroy30 · ‎07-14-2016

Nowadays clients demand a sky high. All most all of them are demanding 90% job success and a rising talent badge. From where a newbie will get that? Yesterday I saw a client is preferring 90% and a rising star badge for a "copy & paste" job; now this is ridiculous. If a beginner doesn't get any chance, how he will prove his/her abilities.Upwork should think about this matter seriously, else it will be difficult for us to survive in this platform.

Regards,
Arnab

Spoiler

gnakeur · ‎07-14-2016

@Arnab R wrote:
Nowadays clients demand a sky high. All most all of them are demanding 90% job success and a rising talent badge. From where a newbie will get that? Yesterday I saw a client is preferring 90% and a rising star badge for a "copy & paste" job; now this is ridiculous. If a beginner doesn't get any chance, how he will prove his/her abilities.Upwork should think about this matter seriously, else it will be difficult for us to survive in this platform.

Regards,
Arnab
Spoiler

It was always like that. We all proved our abilities here at some point. We all were beginners in the past. Well, if you survive it is good, if not... it is better for us. So, fight in order to move forward. Everybody here went through this, so no tears man - go and fight.

aocumen · ‎07-12-2016

Hi Robert,

You may want to check out these educational videos, blog posts, and best practices shared by other users, to help you get started on Upwork:

Please also change your profile title and overview to reflect your skills and experience. So that client's who are viewing your profile has a general idea of what services you can offer. If you would like to offer your services as a company, I suggest you create an agency instead.

~ Avery

exactprecisions · ‎07-12-2016

Thank you Avery! I read one of these but I will now read the others. I have already updated my profile with all of the suggestions. I truly appreciate the help from everyone.

vgelmut · ‎07-14-2016

Looks like it's hard to get any job even with HUGE portfolio and experience being here at Upwork since 2006.

I have posted for two weeks every day almost, but getting 0 responses and even 0 declines. Like i'm just wasting time bidding without success.

rabariram · ‎11-03-2019

I am facing same problem

joeri10 · ‎01-04-2020

It's a really simple thing that I've come to understand about freelancing:

"No matter how good and experienced you are, the job will always go to an Asian that will do it nearly for free."

Clients in 99% of the cases could not care less about quality and just go for the lowest bidder...

grimesr · ‎01-04-2020

I would really disagree with your assessment. Maybe in a worldwide view it might be more applicable, but not in US market. I really believe many clients still want quality over price.

I only search for US only jobs. At least I feel that I am competing only with that group.

feed_my_eyes · ‎01-04-2020

Robert G wrote:

I only search for US only jobs. At least I feel that I am competing only with that group.

In the past six months alone, I've worked with great clients in Canada, Germany, Ireland, the UK, Finland, the Netherlands and Australia, so you might want to think about whether you're shooting yourself in the foot by limiting yourself to US-only jobs. Just sayin'.

richardsmith94 · ‎01-04-2020

Joeri O wrote:
It's a really simple thing that I've come to understand about freelancing:

"No matter how good and experienced you are, the job will always go to an Asian that will do it nearly for free."

Or put it another way, you've not enjoyed any success on the site, so you'll blame someone else for your own failings. Take your deeply offensive **** and post it somewhere else (or ideally, don't post it all), I don't want to read it.

tlsanders · ‎01-04-2020

Joeri O wrote:
It's a really simple thing that I've come to understand about freelancing:

"No matter how good and experienced you are, the job will always go to an Asian that will do it nearly for free."

Clients in 99% of the cases could not care less about quality and just go for the lowest bidder...

And yet, in this thread alone there are several US freelancer successfully charging $50-100/hour and more.

celinamoon · ‎09-26-2022

Same here. I had my accounts on elance and odesk and had so many jobs going. In upwork it's been difficult. 😞