How to present a proper quote

[Doruk Z]

Hello everyone,

I am a professional translator and very new to this website. I am working in a good company but I want to do more work, so I found Upwork in the hopes of extending my job capacity. However I made around 5-6 quotes to some job postings, all of which were declined. What confused me is that there usually is no "word count" or anything that the translators can determine the quote with. So I wrote a made up amount and mentioned in the description that I determined the price on word count and we could discuss it further. But they declined right away. 

So what am I doing wrong? Please enlighten me. 

[Rene K]

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@Doruk Z wrote:

Hello everyone,

I am a professional translator and very new to this website. I am working in a good company but I want to do more work, so I found Upwork in the hopes of extending my job capacity. However I made around 5-6 quotes to some job postings, all of which were declined. What confused me is that there usually is no "word count" or anything that the translators can determine the quote with. So I wrote a made up amount and mentioned in the description that I determined the price on word count and we could discuss it further. But they declined right away. 

So what am I doing wrong? Please enlighten me. 

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 Your hourly rate is too low. your profile is almost empty and lacks portfolio. You don't even state your language pair. Go to the help section and read all the material that Upwork is sharing. Will help.

[Doruk Z]

Thanks for your quick answer! But what should I present in my portfolio as I have no experience on this website yet? I haven't done any jobs. 

I started reading the help section, I hope I can get useful information from there. 

By the way happy to see the quote from Glados in someone's sign on this site. Made me smile.

[Rene K]

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@Doruk Z wrote:

Thanks for your quick answer! But what should I present in my portfolio as I have no experience on this website yet? I haven't done any jobs. 

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 You said you are a professional translator. Surely you have a portfolio.

[Preston H]

Doruk, you need a portfolio. If you don't have one, then you need to make one.

Your portfolio does not need to consist of Upwork-related work or paid work. You can create pieces for your portfolio.

[Doruk Z]

Thanks for your answer. Yes I said I was a professional translator but never in my career did I need to prepare a portfolio. So I will need to learn how to make a proper portfolio then complain about being declined ^^

[Jennifer M]

I like to rhyme in my proposals. It amuses the me.