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zubair14
Community Member

Top six Tips to bid on UpWork

I’ve been freelancing since 5 years and upon my experience I would like to suggest. Bidding plays the big part. Note these bullets while bidding:

 

These are some important points while bidding:
– Make sure you send proposal with your bid.
– Your proposal must contains this line: “Your Invitation over a private chat would be highly appreciated.”
– Your bid amount should neither be higher nor be lower; make it moderate an average sized bid.
– Always communicate in professional language and don’t use short forms of the spellings like Your to “ur”.
– Try be first while bidding on the projects because it give an impressive feel to the employers.
– Make sure you use correct spellings and grammars while communicate.

 

  • Tip 1: The Early Bird Gets The Worm
  • Tip 2: Maintain Your Profile
  • Tip 3: Have Good Samples
  • Tip 4: Don’t Copy and Paste your Proposals
  • Tip 5: Make Your Proposal a Sponsored Proposal
  • Tip 6: Follow Up

**edited for Community Guidelines**

54 REPLIES 54
battershall-ramo
Community Member

'Make sure you use correct spellings and grammars while communicate.'

 

Doh! Cat Embarassed

 

Plus:

 

Your proposal must contains this line:“Your Invitation over a private chat would be highly appreciated.”

 

Yes, if you want them to think you're a potential stalker! Cat Mad

Hi Can any you let me where i will place this line Your Invitation over a private chat would be highly appreciated.

 

in starting or at bottom of proposal.

Jasbir Singh


@jasbir s wrote:

Hi Can any you let me where i will place this line Your Invitation over a private chat would be highly appreciated.

 

in starting or at bottom of proposal.


 Don't say that. I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. If you've already bid, you don't need the client to invite you...he/she may INTERVIEW you by private chat, but you don't need to solicit that. It's the natural response if they're interested in working with you.

Upwork has several great Proposal Tips posts and videos, and if you want to create a profile that works on UPWORK, you should check these out.

 

Proposals that Sell - Video Guide

Submitting A Winning Proposal - + Video + Profile Sample

How to Create a Proposal That Wins Jobs Do's and Don'ts about Creating Great Profiles

" Don't say that. I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. If you've already bid, you don't need the client to invite you..."



I disagree.  Like any good ad, you need a call to action. Let the buyer know what the next step is. telling the client to contact you to discuss details about the project makes total sense. 

 

You are totally right. Sometimes by reading those invitation, they might message you. This is very good trick to get replies from client.

Before you send your proposal, can you include the following sentence, like your ending message to the client

"If this interest you, we can schedule a call to further collaborate, thanks"

 

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Yes, Maria Liza!

That's a great call-to-action to let the client know what steps they need to take to continue collaborating with you. 


~ Avery
Upwork

Thank you for your suggestion

Thank you so much for your suggestion. I am new here so I was kinda puzzled about the ending. Now I am going to follow your suggestion. 

Could you elaborate on what bidding is exactly?

At the bottom

lyambarreau
Community Member

I personally don't believe quicker bidders have a higher chance. I don't know what the client's interface looks like so it may or may not be beneficial. I'd like to think clients look through every applicant regardless of when they applied. That said, I think a client would post a job and check back within a certain time frame. 

 

As for the bids, I agree bids shouldn't be too high/low, but some rates are very high in comparison to their competition. I wouldn't suggest lowering your bid to compete. If that's your rate, then stick to it. 

 

“Your Invitation over a private chat would be highly appreciated." sounds a little cheesy. Similar to "Dear Hiring Manager". Although we should all act professional, there are more creative ways to ask for such a thing. 

 

Edit: I clicked the "More Tips" link and was taken onto a website that supplies not only information but cheat sheets for the tests...I'd suggest removing the link 😉

Hi Lyam,

I agree with your statement below:

 

I personally don't believe quicker bidders have a higher chance. I don't know what the client's interface looks like so it may or may not be beneficial. I'd like to think clients look through every applicant regardless of when they applied. That said, I think a client would post a job and check back within a certain time frame. 

However, what if there are 50 or proposals and the potential or competitive bid is the 51th? As a human, there are chances that that will be ignored or missed. There was a function in Elance where freelancer had the option to place the bid on top by spending more connects. But Upwork has removed that function. Do you know if there is a way to place the bid on top?

 

Regards,

Ifti

 

Hi Muhammad Iftikhar, 

Unfortunately that feature is not currently available on Upwork . 


~ Avery
Upwork

Now, this feture is available.

iftikhar-ishaq
Community Member

Just surprised that in 5 year you have done 22 jobs not 220 where you have got this expereince?Best of luck having 100% JS.

You know we are all expert to give free advice. It can be work or not but we really expert to give you free advice 😛 

abdulrazaq89
Community Member

Hello,

 

I can sum it up in single sentence.

 

" your cover letter should be unique than that of others " 

 

Best Regards

 

Abdulrazaq

 

 


@Abdul R wrote:

Hello,

 

I can sum it up in single sentence.

 

" your cover letter should be unique than that of others " 

 

Best Regards

 

Abdulrazaq

 

 


How could you know that yours one is unique?

Hello Iftikhar, 

 

" your cover letter should be unique than that of others " 

 

In other words, focus the given task and make outline Or give the best solution. Tell the client, project duration and invite to send you more details. 

 

Best Regards

 

Abdulrazaq

 

Yes we can try our best but we really dont know how other applicants or writing may be they are better than us,Everyone try thier best to convince the client,Ok you have great cover letter but what if you have nothing to show client  like portfolio,work history,feedback etc.

re: "How could you know that yours one is unique?"

 

Clients are smart enough to know the difference between a cover letter was written specificaly for them, and a cover letter that was copy-and-pasted.

 

Also, Upwork knows. Upwork has automated algorithms intended to detect copy-and-paste cover letters and spam-posting. and it will auto-hide or otherwise diminish the prominence of job applications that are calculated as being such.


@Preston H wrote:

re: "How could you know that yours one is unique?"

 

Clients are smart enough to know the difference between a cover letter was written specificaly for them, and a cover letter that was copy-and-pasted.

 

Also, Upwork knows to. Upwork has automated algorithms intended to detect copy-and-paste cover letters and spam-posting. and it will auto-hide or otherwise diminish the prominence of job applications that are calculated as being such.


I think we are talking about writing a unique cover letter which will be unique from others we are not talking about the system,

 

If a client will see 10 unique aplications passed from the system what he will do than will hire 10 of them or choose one of them which is perfect for him seeing his portfolio work history and feedback? 

Hello,

 

Your cover letter has primary source & basic source of information. If client likes it then It's turn of your profile. I will call it Secondary source. 

 

Cover letter is temporary sources. It changes according to job post. 

 

Profile is a little bit permanent source. 

 

Best Regards

 

Abdulrazaq

re: "what if you have nothing to show client  like portfolio,work history,feedback etc."

 

Then work on accumulating those things.

 

NOBODY can prevent a contractor from working on their portfolio and making it better and more impressive.

 

NOBODY can prevent a contractor from studying and learning new skills.

 

NOBODY can prevent a contractor from looking at the posted test subjects for various skills tests, conscientiously studying those subjects, and taking tests to demonstrate their skill and knowledge.

 

There ARE things a contractor can do to further their Upwork profile and career even if they're not getting hired right now.

abdulrazaq89
Community Member

It is an international platform where cleints get the best applicants. There is a narrow margin of difference about their skills and abilities. 

 

If you and your client are on the same page, you can get the job. It does not means that other applicants are not able. Client has plan before him and when he labels applicants with his plan. It's easy to find someone the best match. 

 

 

battershall-ramo
Community Member

I do get tired of these gendered pronouns. Not everyone in the world is a man Cat MadWoman FrustratedCat MadWoman FrustratedCat Mad

researchediting
Community Member


@Zubair A wrote:

 

These are some important points while bidding:
– Your proposal must contains this line: “Your Invitation over a private chat would be highly appreciated.”
– Your bid amount should neither be higher nor be lower; make it moderate an average sized bid.
– Try be first while bidding on the projects because it give an impressive feel to the employers.


Zubair,

 

I'm happy these practices work for your business. None of them apply to mine. My own corresponding practices are:

  • No form of communication is more efficient than writing.
  • I bid market rates—what the job is worth in the real world, to the buyer and to me. What others bid on online platforms is not my concern.
  • Buyers (not "employers") are impressed by proposals thoughtful enough to meet their needs. This can take a little time, and is often well worth whatever time it takes.

Best,

Michael

jbampton
Community Member

Top six Tips to bid on UpWork...

 

6?!! - I will give you a 4 tips...

 

First and foremost -> If you say you are an EXPERT, better back that up with some CHOPS.  

So many freelancers say on Upwork they are an expert writer, or expert web developer etc, list all there skills in there title...aka PHP, CakePHP, HTML, CSS, MySQL, Zend. jQuery Expert.  Right you've seen that? Come now my children, THE EXPERT people were / are the original real freelancers, that worked at brick and mortar jobs and learned enough from those real job experiences to build a far superior freelancing careers with further creativity and ingenuity, that business acumen, or entrepreneurial spirit..aka people that have unique profiles on upwork...aka Rasmus Lerdorf does not list PHP Expert on his twitter profile blurb...the list goes on I tell you.. 🙂 

 

Second ->  Do this step first for a while before above.

Build a reputation on many websites, social networks, freelance job sites, youtube even, github, or whatever your flavour is etc...build a big enough reputation on enough websites and suddenly you become the most prolific 'John Bampton' or in your case "Mary Jane" on all the search engines just by starting to type in your name in the search box.  Bingo we've now made progress, we - 'Mary Jane' have now got a global digital footprint, where people, businesses, companies etc can find you in an instant google search.

 

Third -> A little story about life in general...

Going from a normal real job to freelancing and the outcomes from that...

The mentality could be commonly known as 'sink or swim', hell no it's 'sink, swim or thrive!'

I never ever play computer games any more, the only games I play further my education, sometimes when I watch a moive and its not that great I think that is 2 hours of my life I'm not getting back.. 🙂  So now never go to the actual cinema, as I have to be multitasking while watching the moive as time is of essence now that I'm in my...thirties....there is virtually hardly any freelancers from Australia that make real money on these websites.  The cost of living here is sky high as well...so remember time is of essence!

 

Fourth as always ->

a few light stretches each day...aka... http://www.codewars.com/

 

 

 

.

 

 

Good point, John, about Rasmus Lerdorf. Well, he stated that he doesn't even know how to "create" a programming language... It's like what you've said, you can achieve the expertise after you digged all your way down.

 

Spoiler

I never ever play computer games any more, the only games I play further my education, sometimes when I watch a moive and its not that great I think that is 2 hours of my life I'm not getting back.. Smiley Happy So now never go to the actual cinema, as I have to be multitasking while watching the moive as time is of essence now that I'm in my...thirties....there is virtually hardly any freelancers from Australia that make real money on these websites.  The cost of living here is sky high as well...so remember time is of essence! 

Sorry, John, here I have to disagree with you. There should be a separation to avoid getting "burnt-out" with your work. You can state that all you are doing is coding all day, all night long. I mean, it might sound attractive to have more money to keep up with the country's standards, but still... you should have yourself as a priority, not the shell prompt.

 

Thanks for the last tip, I should really try out some competitive stuff, instead of thick programming books! But I still believe... if you are a coder, and you are coding all day, you should do this training stuff in days when you don't code so much, just to keep the balance.

 

umerfiaz
Community Member

Hi Zubair,

 

These Six Steps are Pretty much Good effort to Climb Up Over Propsal Tree, The Cleints intrest and their needs matter also, you can see the proposals after 2 days time period got the lead.

petra_r
Community Member


@Umer F wrote:

Hi Zubair,

 

These Six Steps are Pretty much Good effort to Climb Up Over Propsal Tree, The Cleints intrest and their needs matter also, you can see the proposals after 2 days time period got the lead.


 I have no idea what you are saying but Zubair's 6 tips are essentially garbage which was posted here to lead people to a website with test cheats.

 

Furthermore his overview is stolen from other freelancers, which is quite funny when it contains "create something that is 100% custom made "

 

Shame he could not "custom make" his own profile...

lysis10
Community Member

I have no idea what he means either, but the OP is some of the worst advice I've ever seen.

 

Every time some chump tries to throw me that lame "early bird gets the worm" line, I remind them that the second mouse gets the cheese.

 

I hate that stupid line. Some people aren't morning people and that's OK. jeeez

To say nothing of world time differences.

cclapper
Community Member

I have gotten good jobs from good clients (on Elance) doing it both ways (submitting first, or submitting after a few bids are already in). I think if a freelancer builds a strong portfolio and writes a good proposal that is customized for each client, well, the rest is kind of the luck of the draw. But the more jobs you win, the better the reputation, and the more jobs you will get.

 

Also, I have certain things that I DO repeat in each proposal, for instance the time zone I am in, a link to my profile, etc. Those are copy and paste, but the rest of proposal is tailored for each individual client. I don't seem to have run into any problems with that (on Elance). Not sure if Upworks algorithm is going to give me the boot or not.

 

As far as that timing thing goes, I will see a job posting, go write the proposal, which takes a few minutes, and by the time I submit and look at the posting again, there are 10 bids there already. About the only time I could get my bid to be the first submitted was on a weekend. (In the US, bidding on US jobs)

joshjardinel
Community Member

How much should I bid to the total amount of the clients' budget? What is the best bid for me to be hired,

Should I bid 100% or 50% or 70%, 80% or 90%? This is for fixed Price.

Josh, a client is not going to hire you based on how much you bid, unless they are a lowball client, and you should avoid those.

 

A client will pick you if they think you are the best value. Sometimes the best value is the highest bid.

 

The types of jobs I bid on are complex, so what I do might not apply to everyone. But what I do on fixed-price jobs is this: I bid at 100% of the client's proposed budget. And I explain exactly what I will do for that amount, customizing the level of work I do to the budget, while making it clear that there may be additional functionality that can be implemented for additional cost.

Will the clients see that I changed my bid several times?

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