What is Your Experience Worth? A Word on Pricing.

[31cadf64]

Whether you are new to Upwork or have been around for years, there is one takeaway it took me too long to understand. If you're not getting the clients or views you want, it's not about lowering your price. Price is value and the value of your experience is what you bring to the table.

If you come from a country where money stretches farther, that's great! But don't underbid yourself or others. Clients I've talked to, even if I didn't get the job, have mentioned in passing that too low a bid and too fast a completion sends up red flags. So, when bidding a project, bid your real rate. Here'a an example: 

I will never, ever bid to ghostwrite a book for under $1,000. The rates on my website BEGIN  at $18,000. Other writers I know charge $1/word for  fiction. That's $1/word NOT per 100 words. And $2/word for nonfiction. These are REAL rates. Professional rates. So for a book project that required interviews, writing, revisions, editing, and up to six months of my time, I bid what I know is possible and what professional CEOs and business people are willing to pay. Same goes for a fiction book. Why? Because I am a business owner who must pay my own taxes, health insurance, liability insurance, materials, computer maintenance, phone, etc. Never mind a fiction book that requires you to craft a summary, plot, outline, story, and otherwise your creative intelligence is all in exchange for money. So, how much is your creativity worth? How do you value your time?

Upwork could be a GREAT platform with a little more transparency and a little less scraping the barrel (lowballers/scammers). Honestly, I've had more success here as a beta reader than a writer which is interesting. But I also know there are writers here who can command five and six figures. So rather than those be the outliers. Let's make those standard rates on Upwork like those from sites such as LinkedIn or people finding your website. 

Upwork, are you listening? You vet your freelancers pretty solidly. How do you vet your clients?

[feed_my_eyes]

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Lisa R wrote:

Upwork, are you listening? You vet your freelancers pretty solidly. How do you vet your clients?

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Huh? Upwork doesn't vet new freelancers at all, except to see whether their profile name matches the name on their I.D. Click on a few profiles in the "new to Upwork" forum and you'll see exactly why so many freelancers can't charge professional rates.

[2a05aa63]

I don't think this is how freelancing work. You don't come together and all agree to not work for less. It's a place of competition and "free market". The prices are what clients want to pay. Each freelancer works for what they think it's worth.
You can easily vet clients by having a rate you deserve and decline lower paying jobs.

[tlsanders]

I'm very confused by your post. You say that outside of Upwork, your rates begin at $18,000/book. Yet, in an effort to convince people to know their worth, you say you would never bid below $1,000 for a book on Upwork...not only a tiny fraction of the rates you say you charge outside the platform, but an extremely low hourly return. And, you argue for transparency but are hiding your actual earnings.

[kelly_e]

Your basic point is very important—price what your expertise is really worth—the value you, uniquely, bring to a client—and try not to twist into a pretzel/ follow the lemmings/ race to the bottom, under pressure from less-informed job listers who are pricing jobs lower than fast-food burgers, or from the surge of unqualified applicants overwhelming every listing.

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However... Upwork's basic problem (IMO) is the mismatch—they've allowed the freelancer surge (and are continuing to), utterly unabated—I read recently that there are about 2 1/2 TIMES the number of users here on the fl side as there were at the end of 2021 (correct me if someone has better data). From where I stand these appear to be disproportionately without high-level experience. Also without mid-level....

If they haven't had a corresponding surge in job listers, at all levels (which they definitely HAVEN'T), then taking the high road will lead to a lot of crickets.

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I believe in the principle fully—as a branding expert I know that the race to the bottom will eventually put you out of business° —but it is ROUGH for an individual fl to hold steady to the principle of demonstrating value to their audience, when the audience appears to have left the theatre.

Personally, I do charge a bit less here than I do "on the outside," but I don't charge less than what my professional expertise (minus the supposed convenience and project-volume of the site) is worth to a client's bottom line—no matter what the job listing, or the person who gets in contact, suggests.

Too bad the supposed convenience and project-volume of the site ain't workin' out anymore. That's down to the mismatch. Fls and quantity of listings/ listers are way, way out of balance.

Of course I agree with your suggestion, but without volume on the other side or some SERIOUS vetting/ culling on this side, it can't have much impact. Me, I only apply if (a) I'm sure I'm the best fit for the project and psyched to do it, and (b) it's likely that we both understand value—and in the rare instances where someone has read every word of my proposal and still haggles, I pass. They'll find what they're looking for, but not with me—and they'll get what they pay for. I see a lot of listings that start with "I already had somebody to do this job and it wasn't well executed..."

More potential employers. (And likely also, fewer freelancers.) Upwork has to fix the mismatch from the executive office, or else your good advice to "price what you're worth" is... worthless.

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° A race to the bottom that puts you out of business can happen to the company, too, not just to the freelancer.