If you have chosen Freelancing as a way to earn money, Upwork.com is the best platform to offer your services at, why? Because big software houses usually post their jobs at Upwork.com. To start working and earning here, you need to make your profile in a way that stands out of the competition.
Here in this blog post, you will learn what steps to follow and where to put more efforts in order to stand out of the crowd. So, let’s begin.
Also Read: Learn How to communicate effectively with the clients
Register Yourself as a Freelancer
Upwork is the world-leading Freelance website, where thousands of online jobs are posted every day and freelancers working for the completion of those jobs. The first step to follow is very generic.
You register yourself on Upwork.com by clicking on “become a freelancer” and register yourself with the website by putting in your general information. Then you will be asked to provide information about yourself which may include your education, experience, your personal statement, credibility (where you will be asked to give skill test) and your hourly rate.
Some components are more important as compared to others and on the basis of that they are divided into 3 categories and explained below. So let’s have a look.
Category 1 is for Your Personal Branding
The first category includes:
- Profile Picture
- Your name
- Professional title
- Overview
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1. Profile Picture
When asked from several Freelance experts, who have commendable freelance profiles on Upwork, about how the profile picture should be they said it should be a genuine picture of the Freelancer himself. Secondly, it should be cheerful one and eye-catching as it puts the first impression and most of the clients would prefer with a Freelancer who looks flexible and easy to work with.
Also Read: How to introduce yourself as a Freelancers
2. Professional Title
This includes your name and adjective that brings effectiveness and which has a long-lasting impact on the subconscious of the clients. This is the first thing that grabs the client’s attention so it should be attractive, positive and put a good Impression on the person who is looking into your profile.
The best way is to look for good adjectives and their synonyms. Then choose the one you like suits you most and write it along with your name and profession. For example “Laudable or Meritorious Data Entry Analyst/Specialist.”
3. Overview
The best way is to divide the overview section into 3 parts (not necessarily paragraphs) i.e., you personality, your interest/hobbies and a brief view of your education or field of knowledge.
This is how the freelancer can incorporate everything that the client wants to know about. You can also add a video which is the new genre of the overview section and is proved to be more effective than written overview. But if you are a newbie and don’t feel comfortable with it, stick to the classic written overview.
Skill Identification
While identifying your skills, you can add more than 1 skill. However, it would be better to be specific. For Example, you choose to offer writing services, select the skills, particularly to that category. However, there is a trick while defining your skill. You should use diverse keywords for skills to be easily searched by the clients. Suppose you are a Content writer, you should use synonyms of it.
Freelance or especially Upwork profile making is not a difficult task. Just simply follow the steps and usually the directions are already given that becomes easy for us to understand the sections.
Category 2 is for Your expertises and Experience
This category involves adding your educational background, Portfolio items and experience. Well! This is not of much importance near expert freelancers rather they say, it is just a formality in Upwork profile making.
The only thing it contributes to is the completeness. However, it may give you an edge over the other freelance profiles in terms of completeness. As when your profile is complete, it will add to your credibility and it will look more professional to the client.
Suppose your profile completeness is in 40% or 70%, the client who are new would say this particular Freelancer won’t be able to fulfill the requirements no matter that is the case or not. Secondly, there would be much-experienced freelancers as well who would have applied for the job and would look more appealing to the client. So you need to pay extra attention it to compensate for your experience.
Educational Background
It includes the academic overview of the freelancer. You may add your high school, graduate school/University or college to it.
Experience
This includes the work experience. Be more specific in terms of the Experience. It should be in line with the skills you have selected to offer to the client.
Also Read: Advantages of Freelancing
Portfolio
As compared to educational background and experience, the portfolio items are way more important. You can add everything you have done so far. Your academic projects, presentations, workshops, training etc. And if you can’t add the items, it would be better to add the thumbnails. This would act as a proof of all the work which you have done.
Category 3
This category incorporates factors that may come in the end of or after the Freelance/Upwork Profile making.
Skill-Test
The skill tests are not Mandatory but very important. The first thing, It adds to your profile completeness and secondly it increases your credibility, authoritativeness and command over your skills. So the best advice is not to skip it and try to score as higher as possible. it does not matter if you fail a test, you can retake it after a while.
Payment Terms
In payment terms, you can tell your client how you would like to be paid (hourly, monthly or fixed). But you are strictly prohibited to write your payment method in conversation e.g., you can pay me directly via Payoneer. This is very unprofessional and an unofficial way. Also, it is against the Upwork Policy and may lead to blockage of your account if comes into the light.
Proactive Approach
Be proactive. If you sense you might face any problem, you should let the Upwork Support know beforehand. Also, the best way is to keep all the conversation on Upwork to avoid any unpleasant situation.
Disputes with clients and TOR
Sometimes the client will demand more than required or previously mentioned. So in order to have an upper hand in such scenarios you should document every issue you would face (almost all of the freelancers face such troubles so there is nothing to worry about). All you need to do is document your terms and conditions.
This is called TOR i.e., Terms of references or scope of reference. E.g., I will provide you with 3 provisions. Above that, I will charge more. This way the client will be bound to follow the TOR and the client will be careful in using the freelancer’s three chances. This is how your TOR (terms of references) will help in order to keep yourself safe from problems this way.
Feedback
The last step after completion of a job is Feedback. Here the best advice is to give an honest feedback. As this can’t be edited once given. On Upwork, however, you can request the client to review the Feedback but to save yourself from the heck of it be honest and precise while the whole conversation with the client.
Must Check: Things to know before Going to Freelance
So these were some points every new freelance/Upwork profile maker should pay more attention to in order to get the edge over the others.
As these all combine to make your profile outshine others and work as the client-magnet. Best of luck with Upwork freelance profile making (Y) Stay tuned for more money-making hacks 🙂
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