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raven-wolfe
Community Member

What was your experience after you increased your hourly rate?

I made some calculations and found that If I could work hard for the next two years without much pause I can gather a significant block of capital to pursue my dreams. 

 

I need to earn $12 per hour but charging $8 right now. Can anyone give me tips on how to increase my earnings? I know $12 per hour isn't that much but I've always bid way lower than that and I am just concerned I won't get hired.

 

Can you guys please share your experience and any tips you have for me to achieve this goal? 

 

My niche is business development and sales. 

12 REPLIES 12
yeasir_arafat_13
Community Member

lucidwebmarketng
Community Member

Don't undercut or undervalue yourself. If you believe you are worth a certain amount, don't bid lower than that on projects. You need however to show you are that valuable, show past project successes. If an employer can't see that, I say screw them and move on to the next one. There are plenty who will hire you at your price, provided you show you can give them value.

 

So many times I've seen freelancers get hired and paid well below what their profile's rate is, often half their rate. I don't understand why they do that. It's not worth it, not as in your case you say you need $12 but charging only $8. If you are doing it just to get the job, it's not a good reason and neither what many suggest is to take it just so you get the points in Upwork. If you do that, it's hard to justify you once worked at a certain rate and now it's much higher than that.

lysis10
Community Member

An old coworker of mine was talking to me about how his company hires developers on Upwork and the guys they use are making a killing on Upwork. I told him people think of Upwork as cheap crap, but the more I jack up my rates the better money I make and the more life of leisure I get to live.

 

Haven't sold a new customer on my new rates, just old ones. But I'm about to talk to a recruiter who hit me up on linkedin and I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the awkward silence when I tell him my rate and he tells me I'm too expensive. fap fap fap fap fap

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Ifeanyi,

 

You'll have to test new, higher prices on your future proposals to see at what point your successful responses drop too much to make up for the fact you're earnings more per project. It's better to make $12/hour for 20 hours a week than $8 an hour for 29 hours, all other things being equal..

 

Upwork's predecessor Elance used to show the pricing of all bids on each project, including the winning bid. That information was indispensable if a freelancer wanted to understand where their pricing was compared to all other bidders, but Upwork has dispensed with it.


Will L wrote:

 

Upwork's predecessor Elance used to show the pricing of all bids on each project, including the winning bid. That information was indispensable if a freelancer wanted to understand where their pricing was compared to all other bidders, but Upwork has dispensed with it.


I believe if you have a paid freelancer account you can get this information. Not that I recommend this, because I don't, but I do believe it's possible although not free as with Elance. 

petra_r
Community Member


Scott B wrote:


I believe if you have a paid freelancer account you can get this information. Not that I recommend this, because I don't, but I do believe it's possible although not free as with Elance. 


In a very limited way: You can see the lowest, average and highest bid that is still in the running.

 

Those figures do not include bids that were archived or declined. You also can not see the winning bid, although of course that is easily enough found if someone can be bothered by looking at the hiring history down the line.

 

 


Will L wrote:

 

....Upwork's predecessor Elance used to show the pricing of all bids on each project, including the winning bid. That information was indispensable if a freelancer wanted to understand where their pricing was compared to all other bidders, but Upwork has dispensed with it.


I trained myself to ignore the bid range on Elance, and don't miss it here. My rates are my rates. They're benchmarked to industry standards. Other people's Upwork rates or business models are not my concern.

I've steadily increased my rate the over the past year.  I'm still receiving 5-8 invitations for good jobs a week and my off-platform clients actually pay a higher rate right now.  Raising my rates has not seemed to deter my clients at all.  I'm thinking of raising them again.

 

 

That's a really encouraging scenario. I really, really need to take that
leap.

You don't have to wait for this moment to take the leap, but whenever you have all the work you can handle, that's a good opportunity to raise your rates, and perhaps a definite sign that you should.

Douglas,

 

Seeing other freelancers' bids didn't necessarily affect my bid on any project, but it is silly to be in any business and not care about what your competition is offering, including their pricing.


Will L wrote:

Douglas,

 

Seeing other freelancers' bids didn't necessarily affect my bid on any project, but it is silly to be in any business and not care about what your competition is offering, including their pricing.


I have very little competition on Upwork. As I mentioned, my rates are benchmarked to industry standards: that is, the rates charged by other professional editors, regardless of where and how they find work.

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