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sean-zeigler
Community Member

Ok Upwork brain- tell me what I can improve about my profile.

Three questions:

What can I improve about my profile?

How many projects should I keep in my portfolio?

Who is using specialized profiles and how is that going?

 

 

Things I know:

Why My JSS is where it is.

I have been in design and marketing for 16 years but I can always learn something.

 

6 REPLIES 6
grimesr
Community Member

I am not a brain, but to me,  you have the same problem almost everyone who asks has.

 

I don't know what you put in your proposal, but I would suggest starting over with your profile.   Make the profile results oriented, not promise oriented. Tell how you have helped clients (or people you work for) in concrete terms, i.e. "saved a bazillion man hours", "increased turnaround time by 5 hours"... 

Clients only see the first few lines. Make it impactful. Take out the “I am an active card carrying member of the design nerd brigade. I geek out over details and turn work correct the first time so you save time and money.” sentence. That sounds too "cutesy". 

 

I use my proposal as the cornerstone of how to get the work, not a static profile that someone has to seek out. I think of the profile in the same way as having a website somewhere it the web-world. I don't expect anyone to find me that way, never have.

 

For me, I don't see anything there that tells me how you can help me if I am the client based on your past experiences. What measure of success did you achieve? What monetary or resource impacts did you make, in hard values, not just "made things better". I read this a sales brochure, not a "why I am better than any other freelancer" statement.

 

Don’t expect to get all you work by just making a great profile and then waiting for the clients to invite you. Develop a high quality strategy on how your proposals will look and submit, submit, submit.

Noted, thanks for the input. Post is primarily about my profile. I actively write proposals and know their value.

tlsanders
Community Member

A few thoughts, to take or leave...

 

First, I would kill off the card carrying member sentence--partly because it doesn't add anything, but also partly because the "correct work the first time" sends the wrong message. Design isn't really a "correct" type of endeavor--it's to a great degree about what the client is looking for, and your suggestion that there's a right way to do it makes me (as someone who has hired a lot of designers) feel like you aren't interested in working with me to fine tune it into exactly what I'm looking for.

 

I would also format the bullets better, with more spacing, and move the first one to the bottom. It's funny and that can be helpful in engaging a client, but not everyone will go for it and you should have something that's straight information about a key service you provide in the lead space.

 

This may seem weirdly specific, but put something in your portfolio that isn't dark green. When I glance at a portfolio, I want to see variety, and two of your three items are dominated by the same color, while the third is very muted.

 

I would personally get rid of the jewelry portfolio item, but that may be specific to my field (I'm a writer). The weird, incorrect capitalization on those gave me a "second rate" vibe. I'm sure you had nothing to do with the text, but that doesn't mean it won't have a negative impact.

 

 

Great feedback Tiffany, I really appreciate the help.

Thats some great analysis, Tiffany, and it made me look at my own profile a bit differently today.

 

g_wostrel
Community Member

Hey Sean,

 

I don't have much to add except to say the other's suggestions seem like good ones. 

Personally I've been struggling to get work here on Upwork. The few jobs I have done went very smoothly and the platform functions well to support the communications/reviews etc.

 

But, reading this short thread I decided I needed to redo again) my profile. I was going on and on about my background etc. It wasnt "action-oriented" and I wasnt directly saying what a client would get if they hired me. So, "thanks" (I hope, lol)

 

As for specialized profiles - I made them because I am both a Photographer and a Graphic Designer. It seemed to make sense and Upwork seems to encourage it. I have no idea if it is a plus or a minus at this point.

 

As for the JSS - I can't really figure out why mine is where it is. But I'm figuring it isnt helping me much.

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