What is Upwork?

Upwork is a freelancing platform and marketplace for freelancers in many fields.  It is ideal for those who are looking for work from home jobs, remote work opportunities, or simply want to earn an extra income online.  Some of these include writing, graphic design, marketing, and web development, among many other categories and subcategories.  Professionals can find work, called “projects”, send the client a message or proposal (also referred to as pitching), and get paid.

There is also a search feature which helps clients find your profile, from which they can invite you to pitch a proposal to a project.  So you get invitations too! But if you’re a relatively new freelancer, you can gain valuable experience, however there are many new workers who are willing to accept work for a lower rate, so that may impact your earning potential.

Upwork also offers an affiliate program for those wishing to earn an affiliate income by promoting Upwork on their sites and social media, among other methods, or Business Models.  Mine is still under review, but I look forward to promoting Upwork.

How to set up a profile on Upwork

Set up an honest and plentiful profile

Your profile is essentially a portfolio or similar to a general resume for prospective employers.  You can’t get work without a resume.  You also add experience and skills in various fields by completing a questionnaire on the platform.  That helps match you with prospective employers.

This is a self-directed and reported, so you have to be honest.  If you put false information and get hired for jobs that you don’t deliver, your account could be put on hold, or even closed.

You track all the money you make, the ins and outs of your cash, cards and bank accounts all at a glance.

You also add a headshot profile image, and a detailed description of your background.  There is a space on your profile to include links or a portfolio or to specific work samples you have completed. Similar to your resume, you can also put your education experience, state how many hours per week you are available, and preferred hourly rate.  Do remember that Upwork takes about a 10% cut from your hourly rate and project fixed incomes.  Check out other profiles of people with similar skills to get an idea of rates. Your Upwork profile typically gets approved within 24 hours, if your profile is verified and accurate.  Highlighting your best work or specific experience helps you stand out.  If you’re new to a field, even volunteer experience counts, too.

There is also Upwork Academy, a resource which offers free online courses where you can study Upwork, the way it works, tips on completing your profile, searching for work, writing proposals, and much more. A very helpful resource.

If you have credits or certificates from online courses, or even college, and have  Credly account, then you can easily import your credits, certifications from Credly into your Upwork profile.  Then it is verifiable and easy to manage.

The Various Upwork Membership plans

Upwork offers two membership plan levels for new freelancers: Basic and Plus.  

The Upwork Basic Plan

One plan, the Basic Plan is free, and you get 10 free “connects” per month, however you start out with 80 connects to get the ball rolling.  Connects are the platform’s internal tokens, which are used to submit a proposal to a client.  You can also opt to pay $0.15 for each new connect (however most proposals cost 6 up to 8 connects, just to apply to a job on the Upwork Platform). The connects are sold in bundles of 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80.  Sometimes there are promotions where you can earn connects as they award you new ones.  Unused Connects rolls over to the next month, however, expire at the end of the year, or if not used in one year.  If a prospective employer send you an invitation, reaches out to you, you don’t have to use any Connects.

The basic plan also include payment protection, or an “escrow payment” system, for hourly or project-based payments.  So it is secure, and in case of disputes, Upwork can help mediate that too.

The Plus Plan

The plus plan is $14.99 per month and though it includes everything in the basic plan, it also has

• Gives you 80 Connects per month
• Ability to view price your competitors have bid for a specific job
• Option to keep earnings secret or confidential
• Ability to customize your profile URL
• Better or wide visibility in searches
• Option to keep your profile visible as “online” status
• Profile never hidden due to inactivity

How to Connect with employers on Upwork

You use your Connects to submit proposals for jobs within your wheelhouse.  When submitting a proposal to an employer, you include a cover letter, or proposal letter, your desired hourly rate or fee, or if for a fixed price, by the employer, you can set a milestone to get paid sooner for a fraction of the work completed; and also answer questions the client includes in their job post.  You can also attach or send examples of any work you have done that you think would be relevant.  This is usually writing excerpts, online portfolio links, examples of graphic design files, or just about any other category.  It varies.

But before applying for a job, or gig, you can get an idea of the potential employer’s reputation by searching the Better Business Bureau, or running a google search and checking out their profile on Glassdoor or to see if any news coverage of the company can be found, and these are good ways to start your search.

Types of Ratings on Upwork Platform

Much like other freelancing platforms, similar to Fiverr or Uber, both parties rate each other after the contract is completed.  Employers are given a rating system on a five-star scale, and ratings are made public, by being visible on their pages.  You as the freelancer also get ratings from your clients, which make up your Jobs Success Score, which is a percentage that is displayed on your profile and represents how many gigs or jobs your have completed to the client’s satisfaction. Therefore the more complete your work is, and by doing high quality work, it helps you get more invitations from other employers, therefore you getting more work (Unless you just send many proposals, with using Connects).  When everything checks out, communication and payments are kept within the site system.  Documenting user behaviour on each side discourages scams, as the clients are held accountable for making payments or work requests, or they can’t make claims about your work, without proof, in-site.  A very reasonable system indeed.

Set your price, hourly rate and start working

Upwork takes a percentage of your earnings, or simply, takes a cut.  The fee structure is based on a sliding scale on the total amount you bill with a client over time or more work, so the more you work with them the smaller the cut taken.  Upwork takes:

• 20% for the first $500 billed
• 10% for total billings with a client between $500 and $10,000.
• 5% for billings with a client that exceed $10,000.

You can get paid in two ways: hourly or fixed price, and Upwork’s fees are the same for both methods.  You hourly rate is the price before the service deduction.  So if you set a rate of $20 per hour, expect to earn $16 per hour after their 20% fee.  After having billed $500 with the client, the cut fee drops to 10% and therefore you would be able to earn $18 per hour. Most people on Upwork have a set hourly rate, on average ranging anywhere from $15-$50 per hour.  It really depends on your expertise in your field and the higher quality you deliver, obviously can justify you setting a higher hourly rate.  For example, if you are certified in your field, have a Bachelor’s Degree, or expertise in any given field, you should value your work a bit more.

When you negotiate your rate for fixed-price jobs, the same thing applies to that: If you’re getting paid $400 for work, you will receive $320 after Upwork’s 20% cut or “fee”.  After having billed $500 with that client, the fee wil drop to 10%.

Hourly Projects

All hourly projects us the Work Diary, which is built into Upwork’s desktop computer applications.  Your hourly work gets logged in it, and with this function turned on, the app keeps a detailed record of your progress on a given project.  The app track your work time, in 10-minute billing cycles and records keystrokes, scrolling and clicks, and also periodically take a screenshot.  It is also possible to turn the Work Diary on or off at any given time, and log your work manually instead.  But by using the Work Diary tool, it helps you qualify for Hourly Protection, and Upwork service, which ensured you’re paid for work as you can prove you completed the work, even if the client refuses to pay.

Fixed-price Projects

The payment system for fixed-price is much more simple and straightforward.  The person, individual or company you have a contract with is obliged to set aside the certain amount of money, when making the agreement.  This is called escrow payments, a form of payment protection or deposit.  The employer all sets milestones, which are payment increments or checkpoints, based on certain deliverables as you finish sections, on the way to your finished job. You’re paid with parts of the deposit once you hit the milestones, with the remainder being paid once your job is complete.  So you complete your job, and get paid.

Getting Paid on Upwork

Workers and freelancers on Upwork can get secured payments through PayPal, direct deposit, or via wire transfer.

Your hourly projects are billed weekly, not bi-weekly.  You will get paid after the client reviews your work, and this is typically 10 days after the billing period’s end.  If a project is cancelled or dropped before you finish it, that’s when Hourly Protection and milestones are used, so if you think the compensation wasn’t fair, Upwork also has a dispute process which can be enacted during such a scenario.

You are paid for Fixed-price projects as you get to agreed-upon milestones, which is set up during communication with the employer, and starts during the proposal phase. You can start a dispute that Upwork mediates if the client or employer fails to make payment for a milestone or refuses to pay you for what you think is completed work.

Upwork is a great platform and marketplace for freelancers who are looking for remote work opportunities, or want to work from home.  Upwork is an excellent service platform and marketplace system, that provides a secure way of getting work from home jobs. If you have specific skillsets, why not put them to use and you’ll be earning money from the comfort of your home soon.