How to Make Money on Upwork in 5 Easy Steps

What Is Upwork And How Does It Work

An online marketplace called Upwork links customers with freelancers who provide services, including writing, graphic design, and web development. The website helps professionals find jobs, communicate with clients, and be paid for their work and we will explain in 5 easy steps how to make money on Upwork.

If you’re starting out as a freelancer or working in a new industry, you don’t always have to go out and locate cold consumers. You might gain valuable experience faster if you do this. The site is teeming with young employees, though, who are eager to accept work for less money, which might have an impact on how much money you can make.

In general, Upwork makes it easier to find jobs and make more money, but before applying for any gigs, you should think about it first. Although the pay may not be very high, and Upwork does take a cut of each transaction, this market is a great place to network with clients and expand your clientele.

For example as a graphic designer, you can use Upwork to find and apply for freelance graphic design jobs. If you are a graphic designer checkout CaveLions graphic design softwares reviews.

Upwork’s History

The freelancing website Upwork Global Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, was established in the United States and had offices in Santa Clara and San Francisco. In 2013, Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. amalgamated, giving rise to the company that would eventually become known as Elance-oDesk. Eventually, In 2015, after the merger, the company changed its name to Upwork.

In 2017, Upwork had over twelve million registered freelancers and five million clients. More than four million jobs totalling more than $1.5 billion in US currency were posted online in 2021. In March of the 2017, TIME magazine listed Upwork as one of the top 100 corporations in the world.

5 Steps to Make Money On Upwork

1-    First, You Need to Create An Honest and Robust Profile

For prospective employers, your profile performs the same role as a templated resume. It will be pretty challenging to obtain employment without one. Include the kind of job you are interested in, the particular fields in which you are an expert, and your degree of knowledge in this section. Since this is all self-reported, we depend on you to be honest. Your account can be suspended or shut down if you are employed for tasks that you are unable to fulfill. Next, you should provide a headshot and a thorough biography of your career. You may choose to provide links to specific examples of your work or to a portfolio.

Additionally, you might include your level of education, the number of hours per week that you are open to working, your chosen wage, and your location. If you are unclear about what to ask for, look at the rates that other Upwork freelancers with your level of expertise are charging for their services. If your Upwork profile can be validated and the information on it can be trusted, it will be authorized within the following 24 hours. Then you may start working.

2-    Choose A Membership Plan From the List of Options

There are two membership tiers available to freelancers on Upwork: Basic and Plus.

Basic Membership

Although this plan is free, there is a price if you wish to communicate with potential consumers. The most affordable package on the site gives ten free “Connects” to freelancers each month. Sending client proposals requires Connects, the platform’s own token currency. You may also choose to pay $0.15 for each additional Connect, which comes in packages of 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80, respectively. It is possible to earn Connects, and sometimes Upwork even gives the tokens free as part of special events. A limited number of unused Connects from one month may be carried over to the next one, but if they are not used within a year, they will expire.

There is no need for you to create any Connects if someone approaches you. Your chances of receiving job offers from potential companies increase as your profile seems to be more thorough and attractive. You may be able to distinguish out from the competitors by stressing a particular set of experiences or presenting your best work. Volunteer work may help you gain knowledge, even if you’re starting out. The Basic Plan also includes payment protection for the project- and hourly-based payments.

Plus Membership

With this $14.99 per month plan, you get everything from the basic plan plus 80 monthly Connects, the ability to see the prices that rivals have offered for a job, the choice to keep earnings private, the flexibility to change your profile URL, and the profile is never made deactivated due to inactivity.

3-    Make Contact With Prospective and Verifiable Employers

Using your Connects, you can submit proposals for projects that fall under your wheelhouse. The proposal should include an introduction letter, your desired rate, and any other relevant information, as well as any responses to any queries the client may have raised in the posting. Additionally, you are welcome to send any work samples you feel might be relevant to the discussion. Before submitting your application for a job, find out what the prospective employer’s reputation is like. The Better Business Bureau, Glassdoor, and a Google search for news articles about the employer are all great places to start your investigation.

Similar to the ridesharing apps Uber and Lyft, both parties rate one another following the conclusion of the contract. The scale used to assign these ratings, which range from one to five stars, is displayed on each employer’s individual page. Your profile will show your Job Success Score, which is a percentage that reflects the number of gigs that were successfully completed to the client’s satisfaction. The ratings you receive from your clients will determine this percentage.

Even if everything seems to be in order, you should still use the website to transact business and send payments. Because customers are aware that they will be held accountable if they make dubious payments or work requests or if they make claims about your work without in-site proof, scams are less likely to happen when behavior on both sides is documented.

4-    Prior to Start Working, You Must Choose Your Rate

Upwork may take a percentage of your earnings. The sliding scale fee structure is based on how much billing you do for a customer overall over the course of time. Therefore, the cut that is taken decreases as you collaborate with a client more. Either on an hourly basis or for a set fee, you have the choice of compensation. When using Upwork, both types of work do equally cost you. Prior to any service-related deductions, your hourly rate on Upwork represents the pricing.

If you post a rate of $20 per hour for your first job, you might expect to make $16 per hour once the 20% service charge is taken into account. You will earn $18 per hour working for them once you have invoiced that customer for $500. After that, the price will decrease to 10%. The same idea holds true when negotiating a rate for a job with a fixed cost: When the 20% cut is deducted from a job’s $400 payment, the remaining amount is only $320. After charging that customer a total of $500, the price will drop to 10%.

Hourly projects

Every hourly assignment you accept will be recorded in your work Diary, a crucial component of the Upwork desktop application. The application will keep an extensive record of the steps you took to finish a project once you enable this feature. The software tracks your time as well as your keystrokes, scrolling, and clicks in 10-minute increments. Additionally, it occasionally takes a screenshot. Although it is not necessary to use the Work Diary to be eligible for Upwork’s Hourly Protection service, doing so increases your chances.

You have the choice to turn it on and off whenever you want. This service guarantees that, even if a client decides not to pay you, you will be compensated for work that you can prove you have completed.

Fixed-price projects

Payment procedures for projects with fixed costs are made more accessible. The person or business that will be your contract partner must reserve a specific sum of money at the time of the agreement. Furthermore, the employer must set up milestones, which are essentially tangible deliverables along the way to the finished job. You will receive a portion of the deposit once you have completed each of these milestones, and the remaining amount will be paid to you once everything has been completed.

5-    Finally, You Get Paid

Freelancers who use Upwork have the choice of getting their payment by wire transfer, direct deposit, or PayPal. A weekly invoice is sent out for your whole portfolio of hourly jobs. Once the end of the billing period and after you and the client have both reviewed the work, you will be paid. Hourly protection and milestones are both helpful contingency strategies to put in place in the event that a project is shelved before it is finished.

On Upwork, there is a grievance procedure you may use if you feel your payment was inadequate. For a fixed-price project, payment will start when the set milestones are met. If the client refuses to pay for work that you consider to be completed or fails to pay for a milestone as promised, you have the right to file a dispute.