Learn how to start freelancing on Upwork as a new freelancer.
Upwork is a freelance marketplace for writers, graphic designers, and web developers. The website assists professionals in finding projects, communicating with clients, and getting paid. If you're a new freelancer or working in a new field, you can gain valuable experience without having to pitch clients cold all the time. However, the site is flooded with new workers willing to work for a lower wage, which can have an impact on your earning potential.
Overall, Upwork makes it easier to find work and earn more money, but you should be careful about which gigs you apply for.
How To Get Started
Your freelance business is planted in an ecosystem designed specifically to connect you with prospective long-term clients when you use Upwork's work marketplace.
To put it another way, we want to see you succeed! Upwork is built to make it simple for you to market your most in-demand services, highlight your best work, welcome new client connections with confidence, and see the results of your persistent efforts.
How can you use this information to your advantage? To provide you a strong foundation, we'll discuss resources and best practices in this article.
Are you interested in learning more about how to get started on Upwork? Let's start by going over each step of the sign-up process.
1. Go to Upwork.com and click the "Sign Up" button.
✔ Click the "Sign Up" button in the top right corner to get started with Upwork.
2. Use your work email address, an Apple ID, or a Google Account to register.
You have several choices for your free account:
✔ You can login to the website with your current account if you continue with Google or Apple. One fewer login and password to remember, plus any notifications you've enabled for your Upwork account, such as suspicious event detection.
✔ You can also create a distinct login that isn't directly linked to other services by using your preferred email address.
3. Fill in your personal information:
Finish the first part of your account setup by adding a few more details:
- Your first and last name
- Your account's password
- Your current location
Indicate your desire to "work as a freelancer." If you want to subscribe to our top tips, check the appropriate box after reviewing the Upwork Terms of Service—including the User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
We understand that this information can be overwhelming. However, it is also critical to your business and your success on Upwork.
When you're finished, click "Create My Account" to proceed to the next step: creating your Upwork profile.
On Upwork, there are two ways to communicate with clients:
፨ Through your profile or in Project Catalog (a marketplace for projects you've already established), they come across you.
፨ By sending them a proposal for their job posting, you approach them.
You must have a freelancer profile that presents your company, emphasizes your experience, and grabs their attention in any scenario. You can always return to amend and improve your profile; we'll look into it further in the future.
4. Tell us about your work when you first create your Upwork profile.
You must complete at least 60% of your Upwork profile before you can begin applying for job postings:
- A picture of you
- Your name
- Your summary
- Work Experience
- A minimum of one skill tag
Of course, we recommend that you complete your profile 100% ! But you don't have to do it all right now. In fact, you will most likely refine it on a regular basis.
"I've probably redone my profile 75 times," Peggy admitted. "Within your own specialty, you must position yourself in accordance with what your market desires and cares about. That's why I keep editing my profile, even if it's just a single sentence—it needs to be relevant to my potential clients."
You are prompted for details about the services you provide in the first two sections:
- Your total field of expertise
- Your specific areas of expertise
- The degree of your experience
You have the option of selecting up to four work categories. We recommend selecting the most powerful, specialized, and/or in-demand. While the categories you choose will influence how clients find your profile, you can apply to jobs in any category.
You can highlight up to ten skills from Upwork's extensive list. Upwork will offer suggestions from a standardized list as you begin to type in a skill. These skills will appear on your profile—you can arrange them in any order you want—and will assist prospects in determining whether you have the skillset their project requires.
Select the choice that best describes your degree of skill on the next screen: Whether beginner, intermediate, or advanced.
5. Your educational background in detail
Your official education is outlined in this section. All of the information, with the exception of the institution, is optional if you decide to add entries.
We advise adding:
- The degree obtained, even if it hasn't been finished
- The area of study
- Additional information, such as honors or prizes obtained, or extracurricular activities you participated in (teams, clubs, etc.).
6. Describe your prior employment experience.
Particularly if you're new to Upwork, your prior work experience can help you establish credibility with a potential customer. It can highlight not only your level of competence but also any existing knowledge you may have of particular fields or businesses.
You might wish to add:
- Companies you've previously collaborated with
- Projects finished before signing up for Upwork
- Shareable projects from other freelance websites
7. Include your language ability
You must specify in your profile that you are proficient in English because Upwork only works with English-speaking clients. However, companies on Upwork are from all over the world and frequently conduct business in other languages, so be careful to mention any additional languages you may be fluent in.
When evaluating one's own language abilities, be as exact as you can to ensure that you're setting realistic expectations for potential customers.
8. Set your price and get to work.
Your profits are subject to an Upwork cut. The fee schedule is based on the cumulative amount you charge a client over time, thus the more work you do with a client, the lower the cut you receive. You should anticipate Upwork to take:
- 20% of the first $500 that you charge a customer.
- 10% of the client's total billings for amounts between $500.01 and $10,000.
- 5% of the client's overall billings when it exceeds $10,000.
You have two payment options: hourly or fixed pricing. Both have the same rates on Upwork.
On Upwork, your hourly rate is the cost before the service charge is subtracted. Therefore, after the 20% fee, if you post a rate of $20 per hour for your first work, you may anticipate making $16 per hour. The price decreases to 10% and your hourly wage increases to $18 once you have billed $500 for that client.
The same concept holds true when negotiating a rate for a fixed-price job: If you're getting paid $400 for a job, you'll get paid $320 after the 20% cut. The cost reduces to 10% once you've billed $500 for that client.
Did you know that...
If you're approached for a low-paying job, don't take it at face value. Negotiate a reasonable price with the customer.
Hourly Projects
Every hourly job is recorded in your Work Diary, which is a feature of the Upwork desktop application. The software will retain a thorough record of your project progress if this feature is enabled. The program logs keystrokes, scrolling, and clicks while keeping track of your time in 10-minute billing cycles. Periodically, it also captures a screenshot.
Even while you can manually enter work and turn the Work Diary on and off whenever you want, doing so will prevent you from being eligible for an Upwork service called Hourly Protection. This service makes sure you get paid even if a client won't for work you can verify you did.
Projects with a set price
Projects with fixed prices are easier to pay for. When you make the contract, the person or business hiring you must set aside a specific sum of money. Milestones, or tangible deliverables along the path to the completed job, must also be established by the employer. Once you reach these milestones, you are compensated with part or all of the deposit, and the remaining amount is reimbursed once everything is finished.
9. List your name and a summary.
Since they're among the first things clients will notice, a strong title and summary might influence the answers you get from them. To begin, let's consider what users will see in search results: In essence, it's a promotion of your offerings.
What can you do to encourage potential clients to visit your whole freelancer profile and click through? Here are some suggestions:
- Your title should be brief. Send the most crucial information out as soon as you can. Remember that after 35 or so characters, your title will end with a "..." in the mobile search results.
- Particular and incorporate searchable keywords for possible clients.
- Make your opening statement count. Your entire bio can be a valuable asset for attracting new customers, but the first few lines will stand out the most.
Overholt has a wealth of experience both as a freelancer and as a customer who has hired other freelancers to execute her ideas. Because I was impressed by their portfolio and bio, I've employed freelancers who had no prior experience using the platform, she said.
"Your summary should consist of one or two succinct sentences that state your profession, your level of experience, the types of projects you're interested in, and what you can accomplish for them. Short, simple, and finished”
10. Include a profile photo
Businesses want to work with people they can entrust critical work to. Does your profile picture make you feel confident?
The Terms of Service for Upwork specify a few requirements for profile photos. As an example:
- It cannot be empty.
- Your entire face must be visible.
- You are not permitted to use a logo or a caricature.
Your photograph does not have to be taken professionally. But how can you be certain that your image is of high quality? Professional tips and examples can be found in our how-to guide for your perfect profile picture.
11. Include your contact information.
You provided your location during the sign-up process, but now we need a little more information, such as your address and phone number, to help us confirm your identity.
And if you're currently away from home due to travel or another reason? Type the address you use to file taxes.
12. Before submitting your profile, please review it.
You're almost finished! Before submitting your freelancer profile information, double-check it.
Important: You will not be able to begin submitting proposals right away.
On Upwork, trust is essential, and it is critical that people are who they say they are. You must first verify your identity before applying to any projects.
- Valid government-issued identification
- A visual verification online
Simply follow the instructions in your account to complete this process, which typically takes around 10 minutes. To find out more about the verification procedure, click here.
13. Get paid
Freelancers on Upwork can receive protected payments using PayPal, direct deposit, or wire transfer.
Your hourly projects are all billed once each week. Ten days following the end of the billing period, after you and the client have reviewed the work, you will be paid. Milestones and Hourly Protection are useful in the event that a project is abandoned prior to completion. Upwork includes a dispute procedure if you feel you weren't paid fairly.
As you reach the predetermined milestones, fixed-price projects begin to pay out. The client's failure to pay for a milestone or their refusal to pay for what you believe to be finished work can start a conflict.
14. Start a freelancing career on Upwork
Well! You are now prepared to begin working on your first assignment after setting up your Upwork account.
We'll discuss excellent practices in the section that follows to assist you in making a first impression that secures new projects.
There's a lot of information there to process. As you begin working as a freelancer on Upwork and in your new independent life, we hope it gives you more confidence. Create an account on Upwork right away if you don't already have one.
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