Experienced Outside of UpWork, Can't Get UpWork Jobs

[bradulovic1]

Hi all,

I just joined UpWork a few days ago. I am a freelance writer with over 5 years of experience and have completed north of 1,700 articles (about a million words) thus far. The problem, however, is that most of my work was done for content mills where my copyrights were sold. So, I really cannot showcase my experience to someone through any tangible deliverables such as past articles, blog posts, and such. 

I also have both bachelor's and master's degree in accounting, focused in tax, a few years of professional accounting experience, and a Microsoft Office Excel Specialist certification. Since I feel like business freelance writing, particularly accounting, is a fairly well-defined niche, I wanted to see how long do you think it might take to land my first job here? 

I do not mind going through the grunt work of sending in job proposals, but that takes the time that I could invest in actual writing elsewhere and get paid for it. Not to mention that I have to keep buying connects to just apply without any guarantee of ever hearing back. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bo. 

[abinadab-agbo]

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Bojan R wrote:

Hi all,

I just joined UpWork a few days ago. I am a freelance writer with over 5 years of experience and have completed north of 1,700 articles (about a million words) thus far. The problem, however, is that most of my work was done for content mills where my copyrights were sold. So, I really cannot showcase my experience to someone through any tangible deliverables such as past articles, blog posts, and such. 

I also have both bachelor's and master's degree in accounting, focused in tax, a few years of professional accounting experience, and a Microsoft Office Excel Specialist certification. Since I feel like business freelance writing, particularly accounting, is a fairly well-defined niche, I wanted to see how long do you think it might take to land my first job here? 

I do not mind going through the grunt work of sending in job proposals, but that takes the time that I could invest in actual writing elsewhere and get paid for it. Not to mention that I have to keep buying connects to just apply without any guarantee of ever hearing back. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bo. 

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No thoughts.

Other than, that in the same way brick & mortar nine-to-five offices don't appear to take freelance experience seriously, so does Upwork not take your nine-to-five experience, or indeed, freelance experience outside of Upwork too seriously.

You have to prove it, afresh on here.

The fact is, if using Upwork isn't worth it (because you have better opportunities elsewhere waiting on a platter), then do yourself the massive favour of not using Upwork.

Weigh it and decide for yourself.

No one will decide for you.

Who knows, you might be better off without Upwork. Or with.

Only you can know how long it will take to land your first gig on here. After you have decided that you'd like to go in on Upwork.

For some, it took just a few days, for others it took a couple of months.

No two stories are the same.

Make good use of the filters on the job feed to filter in only jobs in the category you're interested in.

When you've done this, look at the frequency with which new job posts roll in in the course of one week, and the quality of those job posts.

Then can you decide if Upwork is worth your time.

[colettelewis]

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Bojan R wrote:

Hi all,

I just joined UpWork a few days ago. I am a freelance writer with over 5 years of experience and have completed north of 1,700 articles (about a million words) thus far. The problem, however, is that most of my work was done for content mills where my copyrights were sold. So, I really cannot showcase my experience to someone through any tangible deliverables such as past articles, blog posts, and such. 

I also have both bachelor's and master's degree in accounting, focused in tax, a few years of professional accounting experience, and a Microsoft Office Excel Specialist certification. Since I feel like business freelance writing, particularly accounting, is a fairly well-defined niche, I wanted to see how long do you think it might take to land my first job here? 

I do not mind going through the grunt work of sending in job proposals, but that takes the time that I could invest in actual writing elsewhere and get paid for it. Not to mention that I have to keep buying connects to just apply without any guarantee of ever hearing back. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bo. 

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______________________

It's a question of time (and luck). I think your profile looks good. However, since you claim to have written over 1m words, then add a couple of original articles  to your portfolio that you have not sold elsewhere. ( Hint: When faced with a blank page and an equally blank mind - pretend you are writing in reply to an article on LinkedIn or wherever). 

ETA: Re your portfolio: Fast typing speeds (which are not visible) are not always compatible with thinking speeds. 😉

[williambernal]

BR,

"I do not mind going through the grunt work of sending in job proposals, but that takes the time that I could invest in actual writing elsewhere and get paid for it. Not to mention that I have to keep buying connects to just apply without any guarantee of ever hearing back."

I believe you just answered your own question.

Best of luck,

wb

[martina_plaschka]

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Bojan R wrote:

Hi all,

I just joined UpWork a few days ago. I am a freelance writer with over 5 years of experience and have completed north of 1,700 articles (about a million words) thus far. The problem, however, is that most of my work was done for content mills where my copyrights were sold. So, I really cannot showcase my experience to someone through any tangible deliverables such as past articles, blog posts, and such. 

I also have both bachelor's and master's degree in accounting, focused in tax, a few years of professional accounting experience, and a Microsoft Office Excel Specialist certification. Since I feel like business freelance writing, particularly accounting, is a fairly well-defined niche, I wanted to see how long do you think it might take to land my first job here? 

I do not mind going through the grunt work of sending in job proposals, but that takes the time that I could invest in actual writing elsewhere and get paid for it. Not to mention that I have to keep buying connects to just apply without any guarantee of ever hearing back. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bo. 

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So you don't want to waste your time writing proposals. Your strategy winning jobs is waiting for invitations? That could work, newbies in the US get lots of invitations. (And most of them escape the check cashing fraud unharmed, judging from their forum posts.)

But seriously, winning jobs is hard work, and if you don't have the time to invest in an upwork career, don't bother, you will just be endlessly frustrated.

[bradulovic1]

I've always been a fan of saying "if you have nothing nice or constructive to say, keep your mouth shut." I think you could benefit from it a lot. 

You say "So you don't want to waste your time writing proposals." when I literally said, "I do not mind going through the grunt work of sending in job proposals." 

I see that you're on here cause you are an expert in translation, so how would you say "Get lost" in German?