Hi Brenda,
Welcome to Upwork.
Tweaking profiles is a straightforward process, but your profile doesn't have enough information to tweak! 😂
Let's look at each section of your profile:
Overview/Summary: The most important thing to know about your profile is what clients want to see. Clients come to Upwork with specific needs and they look for freelancers who can meet those needs and get results. As a freelancer, you are a business providing services to other businesses (clients). Your profile--especially your summary--should do four things:
1) Explain your bookkeeping and proofreading services;
2) Briefly mention your experience providing bookkeeping and proofreading services;
3) Tell clients the benefits they will get from your bookkeeping and proofreading services;
4) Offer any other information that helps clients see the value in hiring you.
Here is an example of an introduction:
I’m a teacher and librarian with more than 30 years of experience teaching elementary/grade school student subjects to hundreds of students. Through my work, I have proofread thousands of reports, books, manuscripts, academic papers, research articles, educational materials, and business documents to ensure accuracy, clarity, and consistency in terms of language, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting. |
You should adjust this as you see fit, but the general idea is this--tell clients which services you provide and how those services will benefit them. Your summary should not be long, but you can add other value like:
- Describe your strengths and why it should matter to the client.
- Talk about your speed, accuracy, attention to detail, and how you maintain quality standards.
- Also talk about your time management and organizational skills.Which software applications and tools are you familiar with or use (e.g., Microsoft Office, Google, Zoom, Trello, Asana, etc.)
- Talk about your ability to solve administrative problems and adapt to changing or new requirements if necessary.
A note about bookkeeping: On Upwork (and in general) bookkeeping is associated with managing financial transactions, and part of the process of accounting in business and other organizations. If you mention bookkeeping along with proofreading, some clients may consider you a virtual assistant. My suggestion is to focus your main profile on one skill category (i.e., proofreading services) and create a Specialized Profile to focus on any services unrelated to proofreading.
Portfolio: Add a portfolio to show samples of previous work or to demonstrate your skills. The portfolio is a chance to make a positive first impression on potential clients. If you don’t have relevant examples to add to your portfolio, you can create items that demonstrate your skills.
Employment History: Add short job descriptions to each job in your employment history. If those jobs required any proofreading and/or bookkeeping support, you should focus on that. A job description is especially important when the job is highly relevant to the services you provide on Upwork. Upwork uses keywords in job titles and descriptions to match you with relevant jobs.
The most important thing is your summary. Once you update it with the information outlined above, clients will better understand how you can meet their needs. There are thousands of proofreaders, bookkeepers, educators, virtual assistants, etc. on Upwork, so your summary must show clients why they should hire you.
Good luck!
