I have been using Upwork for around 2 years only as a client, I have never used Upwork as a freelancer. I have hired over 100 different freelancers and there are 3 main things I look for when hiring freelancers for the following skill sets:
- Article writing
- Lead generation
- Virtual assistant
- Social media manager
- Graphic designer
If you are looking to land your first client for any of the above then follow each step to really impress clients.
Article writing
Lets be real, if you have no articles out online chances are you will not be able to prove your work is good, sure anybody can write articles if your English is at a good level but can you engage users? Drive traffic? And most importantly drive sales and conversions. Prove this with screenshots and data and you will be hired!
Lead Generation
This is the same story, can you prove your leads convert? The biggest issue I have with lead generation is that leads bounce so prove that your leads do not. I always offer people the job if they offer to do 5 samples for me that I require so that I can see the quality of work. Also the quicker you can get me to leads the better. If you can do 100 in 24 hours you are more likely to be hired.
Virtual Assistant
This is the hardest job to win from clients and also the highest paid. I have paid freelancers anywhere from $3 up to $25 per hour to be my VA. The jobs are always different. The biggest issue I would have is hiring freelancers with no skill before they heard from a friend that it is good money to be a VA. The trouble is you have to have something to offer, I want to see proven history or references of work you have done for clients previously.
Social Media Manager
Usually a lot of clients want to see pages that you have either started or grown. We all know pretty much anybody can put content out on social media… it is just clicking a button. But if you show you have grown a page from 0 to 1000 followers in 2 weeks then I want to hear from you! If you can’t prove this then there is no chance I will hire you
Graphic design
I know for a fact many people just use Canva or stock images which is fine if I am paying $5-$15 for a logo but if you try charge $80 because that is what people in the USA, UK and Europe charge then you are asking for trouble. The reason they charge this is because they do bespoke designs. I can tell a stock image copy and paste a mile off. I do not want to just see images you have created! I want to see images that are LIVE on other business websites in your portfolio. This is the key to winning graphic design clients.
Just to summarise it is hard to win you first job but you need to bare in mind that business owners have a duty to their business to run it correctly and we can’t afford to make a bad hire.