Can a freelancer really make a living on UpWork? This is a hard question to answer since success on UpWork depends on a lot of variables. For those living in middle-income countries, the answer to the question is a definite yes. On the other hand, those living in countries with very high standards of living such as the United States have to apply more tact than the average freelancer to make a living on UpWork.

Most people who join UpWork are just looking for a second income stream. If you are one of these people, joining UpWork is a no-lose situation since the worst outcome is you ending up with just a few dollars in extra income.

You really can make a living on UpWork. Before we discuss the strategies that can increase your chances of success on UpWork, I want to state that some freelancers may not find the site valuable.

UpWork Will Not Be a Good Use of Your Time If…

If you are an established freelancer, you should carefully weigh the opportunity costs that come with joining UpWork. The platform is set up in such a way that any new person joining will definitely have a slow first few weeks. You will have to build a profile and get it approved then spend the first few weeks trying to build a reputation for yourself using metrics such as Job Success Score, tests passed, and the overly valued clients’ feedback on jobs completed.

If you already have a process out of UpWork that brings you a consistent stream of clients and you make a decent amount of money working for them, hopping on the UpWork bandwagon will probably result in a drop in income. Your first few weeks on UpWork will not be as productive as you would like since a good number of the things you will be doing will not be actual revenue-generating activities. You can make more money doing more things for the clients you already have or by looking for ways to leverage the relationships you have with your current clients to get work from their connections.

Doing UpWork Right…

 UpWork has a lot of interesting opportunities that can only be discovered by people who stay on the site long enough to build a solid reputation and develop an eye for potential high-paying projects. You will be amazed at how many high-quality projects you get invited to when you have a track record of several successfully completed projects.

If you do UpWork right, you will be turning down a lot of invitations. This is one of those communities where the ‘rich’ keep on getting richer. The good news is, with the right approach, you can join the privileged ‘rich’ in a surprisingly short amount of time.

I mentioned that those from countries with high standards of living such as the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom will have to apply more tact than the average freelancer to make a living on UpWork. I should also add that freelancers from these countries enjoy a unique advantage that other users don’t. Every day, there are a lot of jobs posted on UpWork by employers from these countries stating that they will only consider freelancers from their own countries.

It looks like UpWork is an ecosystem that caters to pretty much every worker and employer wherever they may be in the world. Instead of worrying about whether or not you can make a living on UpWork, you can take the time to learn about the inherent characteristics of the platform and use the knowledge to increase your chances of making it big. Most freelancers never take the time to learn how the site really works.

If you can figure out how UpWork really works and apply the knowledge to your specific circumstances and situation, you will be miles ahead of the competition. Here are some of the things you should pay attention to if you want to make a living on UpWork:

The Variables Determining Ability to Make a Living on UpWork

1.Your Skills (Not Your Degree)

Believe it or not, the majority of clients on UpWork do not care at all whether or not you have a college degree. The nature of the site is such that people are looking for contractors who can help them achieve very specific objectives. Achieving these objectives requires very specific skills and the person who can best demonstrate that they have the necessary skills for the job will always win.

2.Reputation

On your profile, UpWork will display your job success score, jobs in progress, jobs completed, UpWork tests taken, portfolio samples, and feedback left by past clients. You start building your reputation the moment you sign up for an UpWork account. Nearly all prospective clients will check your profile before hiring you. Having a solid reputation on UpWork makes landing jobs much easier.

3. The Clients You Target

You have as much right to choose the clients you work with as clients have a right to choose who they hire. Working for the wrong people can lead to unnecessary poor feedback, unending demands for you to revise otherwise good work, poor pay, and headache as communication breaks down. If you spot any red flags when negotiating a contract with a new client, abandon ship immediately. UpWork has very clear guidelines on what clients and contractors can and can’t do. Anyone who persuades you to do anything against these guidelines – such as doing free work – is definitely going to be a headache down the line.

4. Ability to Sell

You will be constantly selling yourself and your skills on UpWork. If you hate the idea of constantly having to pitch your ideas and abilities, UpWork is not for you. Further, to make a living on UpWork, you will have to embrace the fact that salesmanship will play a critical role in your UpWork career. The good news is that most freelancers have no idea how to sell themselves and you can stand out doing the bare minimum.

5. Self-Discipline

One of the hardest things you will ever do is effectively managing yourself at the start of your freelancing career. If you’ve only worked in a structured office environment where you are told what to do and you have a boss keeping you accountable, making the transition to a situation where you are solely responsible for your time can be challenging. To make a living on UpWork, you will be forced to develop good self-management skills.

The Right Way to Approach Working on UpWork

First, Bust the ‘No Good Clients’ Myth

There is a myth going round in online freelance circles that online job boards only attract low-ball clients. If this were true, the good freelancers would have deserted these platforms in search of more promising opportunities. The reality is that popular platforms such as UpWork, on average, retain both freelancers and clients for more than a year.

Understanding that UpWork is an ecosystem with every type of client you can possibly think of will free you to look for the exact kind of client you want. It takes a lot of browsing but it is usually worth the effort. When you are just starting out, the clients on a budget may actually set you up for success. If you are a decent freelancer, you can complete several of these budget jobs to build a reputation on UpWork fast. You can then leverage this established reputation to score jobs from the kind of clients you really want.

Try to Limit One-off Jobs

You don’t get paid when sending proposals on UpWork.  You get paid when you complete actual work assigned by clients. If you want to make a living on UpWork, you should stay away from one-off jobs and seek out clients with on-going projects.

Doing lots of one-off jobs puts you in an unending race to find a new client every time you complete an assignment. It is a complete waste of time. The easiest way to score on-going work from one client is to work with an agency. Successful agencies of all types from web design companies to SEO agencies will always have a consistent stream of new clients as well as on-going maintenance work for the clients they have on retainer. Your job will be to do actual productive work as they handle client acquisition and client relations issues.

Focus Your Energies on UpWork

UpWork rewards new freelancers who build momentum quickly. If you are able to get and complete several milestones or work a significant number of hours during your first month, you will get a ‘Rising Star’ badge on your profile. They also have recruiters who match clients with qualified freelancers and they may invite you to select jobs that match your skills.

Send Few but Excellent Proposals

UpWork gives freelancers 60 connects every month to send proposals. You consume two or three connects to every proposal you send. You should be able to secure enough work to last you the entire month for a fraction of the connects assigned to you.

Job posts typically attract 15 or more proposals. When a client has so many proposals to go through, they immediately discard generic low-quality proposals. If your strategy is to send as many proposals as you can, almost all your proposals will be discarded. The smart way to go about sending proposals is to send just a few proposals but spend a lot of time making them so valuable that any prospective client who reads them has no choice but to interview you.

Actually Be Valuable

Most of the people doing the hiring on UpWork are not your typical HR professional. Most of them run small businesses and will be spending their own money. They have skin in the game and expect very specific results from you. The only way you are going to build long-term relationships that will make it easy for you to make a living from UpWork is if you actually become valuable to their enterprises. You can’t B.S. your way through the projects they assign you.