The best way to freelance is either 1. start your own side business advertising on craigslist or whatever to get attention or 2. go to your normal job hiring sites or random businesses you want to work for and look for contract jobs. Going through any freelance website is doing yourself a disservice and cuts into your profits.
☹I know not the YT algorithm.... Here are two videos on why to use Fiverr and Upwork: Top 5: Best Fiverr Gigs: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CNl8QSfNzKU.html Freelance on Upwork (Top3): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vItgha09b3Y.html
I noticed the table of contents in the description. I think that's very unique and clever. Not too many youtubers do that and it means a lot to those who just want the info and not an intro. Thank you.
Great video, I wish there were more videos like this when I started out freelancing. I have to correct you on one point though; it's not your first $500 that is charged 20%, it's your first $500 per client. Each new client you get you are charged 20% for under $500 earned, then 10% for over $500 up to $10,000 and 5% for billings over $10,000. I was on Upwork for a few years and after a while I had to quit because it seemed like every couple of weeks they changed their policies to favour the freelancers that were more well established. So just like you said, they squeezed out the smaller freelancers in favour of the larger ones and agencies.
I wish I did more research before joining! I was only on for 6 months before I gave up. The amount of information they were asking for just to get my money was surreal! They literally could have stolen my identity online with everything they were asking for. They were almost impossible to contact to cancel my account. Then I had to basically threaten them just to close it!
I have used UpWork and had criminals as clients. I wish I would have understood better that they protect clients and NOT freelancers. I did everything right and still lost my dispute. Fortunately, I was considered an employee not a independent contractor and my state and federal laws protect me. If i would have saw this earlier this week I would have done things a bit differently. Thank you!!!!!!
Thank you! Knowing this, I will not pay one more cent for "connects" -- even after I become established as a freelancer, I still will not come back, because I have no intention of supporting this kind of exploitation. If you were applying for a job at an accounting firm, a bank, or a restaurant, would you have to pay them to submit an application? No -- because those businesses are legit.
I’ve been working on Upwork, its been 2months now, i think its a great freelancing website. You have to bid until you get yourself first job, make good profile and make sure you bid only on those jobs that you can get it done, and take connects as an business investment, once you started getting jobs you gonna build your profile and everything will be easier from there
I don't even look at Upwork anymore. Maybe if they get their act together, change leadership or figure out a way to make things more attractive for the freelancer, maybe then I'll come back. MAYBE!
Pretty much all is true. I'm making not a bad money on the Upwork, but I had almost a 9-year freelancer experience before the Upwork. This platform is REALLY COMPETITIVE! Thousands of freelancers from cheap countries can make your job for a couple of bucks an hour. So if you want to make a good start on the Upwork you need to have a really strong portfolio.
It makes it very hard for new freelancers to breakout, and as a client, it's much harder to find new talent.... Thanks for sharing how you were able to be successful!
I had my boyfriend hire me on the site, to get my first job and review. Thereafter it was not so bad. Also, pro tip. Don't work projects, only hourly, people will always try to take advantage of your services, so don't do projects!
From my experience, you still can succeed if you put 100% of your focus to freelancing. When I just tried to do it next to some other things I was busy with, it just didn't work. Once I decided to give it a chance for a month as a full-time work, things changed drastically. It seemed like a lot of opportunities just kept coming up and that I got that momentum
Thank you for this. As a new freelancer, I signed up on UpWork but I pretty much realised these loopholes through observations indeed. Also, the search function for UpWork sucks big time when it comes to searching relevant open jobs. The advanced search doesn't help either. If I decide to search via tags, it's no good either. Not a lot of clients put appropriate tags on their open jobs. Most of the time, it is a misleading tag of your skills for the job that is completely out of the scope of your skill. Anyone experiencing this? Tried searching and applying for open jobs on UpWork for a couple of months, but ultimately without any success just gave up altogether. I am now harnessing my own contacts (and their networks) and getting more jobs TBH (without paying any additional job charges). I guess, me and UpWork aren't really made for each other. 🤭
It's good go hear you were able to find success on your own even though upwork didn't work out. Congratulations and thank you for sharing your experience.
Fantastic review..,great that you showed the view from the client side so I now know why I haven't had any responses to my many applications for work!!! Thanks
@@mattmeade983 Yes like my rate is around $12 and clients reach back saying they can pay $5 $6, because there are people charging even lower than that. There are still clients that would pay your rate depending on your skills
@Jasmin Valencia Those are people from low income countries like india. The quality is in line with the price but clients don't seem to care. They just want cheap.
I realized these sites are mostly a waste of time if you are an American because you are competing against people in countries where prices are much cheaper. It's much better to reach out to businesses directly.
That is true, but on Upwork you can choose to only work with US clients and to bid on gigs that only want US based freelancers. In the end, bidding on work in any scenario is bad. Check out the book, "Win Without Pitching Manifesto" by Blair Enns to understand more.
@@SuzannaKiraly thats totally understandable. I'm taking on lean budgets at Upwork right now myself. However, its better than having to pick up a crap pay part time job somewhere. I've got higher value work and clients, but the volume isn't where I need it right now. Minimum I have to reach about $100k-$125k. I'm only about 1/2 way. Eventually my flow will be shifted so I can't afford to take on lean budgets or maybe I'll have a full time gig again and maintain the high value clients so I can dig out of debt and eventually leverage the extra money properly instead of buying food and gas.
@SquishyCandyftw I agree with you. For the lean budget US clientele, most are amateur buyers, bootstrap startups, hobbyist or just people with self funded one-off projects so their budgets are tight, they do not know how to provide art direction or communication and what communication they do need to have, they want it easily understood both phonetically and culturally implied. Often, if you are a seasoned profession (if you are on Upwork, then you must have taken a bad bounce along the way...that's why I use it, to bridge gaps in client payments and low months) you will need to guide them through the process. I've worked with people internationally as a buyer and as a vendor so I get the global economy and that there is sooo much talent worldwide. There are pro buyers on there too, but they are looking for cost savings on low risk projects, otherwise they'd hit up the talent pool in their own outsource stables. Personally, I don't try to get low to mid level clients off Upwork with difficult projects. Myself and a few of my peers look for the fast turnaround super easy work. I'd rather make a decent clip creating a vector circle than work for minimum wage doing something more complicated.
Not true Suzanna. I am italian. And I compete on Upwork against people from India, Pakistan, China that sale services for 8 dollars/hour against my 40 $/hour rate. This does not mean that I have no work. I have filled my 40 hours slots in my calendar for all tme. Who really is a serious and quality client will always choose freelancers that are not low cost sinec the word is: You pay nuts you get monkeys... most of the time. If what you say would be true, since I have a VAt number I pay taxes for my earnings and a lot of taxes... well I would not be an Upworker if it would not be the best place to find good quality customers- not ones willing to pay a dime and ask for a wonder. Dont trust me. Go check my profile www.upwork.com/fl/vasilebrindusaantonia
I love Upwork. And the price to apply for a job is from free to 15 cents. I've made over $40k on Upwork working less than part-time over a couple years. I would absolutely recommend it for a side hustle until you have your own website or online portfolio.
Upwork clients want a ridiculous amount of work for next to no money. I tried for a year to get work and finally gave up. I watched tutorials, asked for advice, made different profiles for different kinds of work, experimented with proposals... Not worth your time, at least as a freelance writer. Might as well use Craigslist.
It sucks they don't give newbies a chance. Hell, they don't even accept my application. I don't like "getting charged before getting paid" system as well because it sounds like a scam.
It's true. but I'm a new freelancer and I did made a few bucks there by giving a well-written pitch as a cover letter. At the end of the day, the client wants someone whom they can work with, can start immediately and are flexible. yeah. I won a few tho :)
No problem with me. I'm a top a rated freelancer I get my jobs mostly through invitations. Compared to fiverr, upwork has more good high paying clients whereas, fiverr costumers mostly are looking for fast and cheap jobs. Taking from my personal experience.
It's nice you can work without connects.... speaking as a client they are restricting the invitations now so we can't invitations as many freelancers as we want anymore.
Great information. A few years ago I used to get all kinds of work on Upwork, now it seems impossible because of the way they changed it. Also 20% loss on every project is crazy.
I’ve had great success with Upwork, but I also was added to the J&J freelancer cloud network that allows me to take on larger pharmaceutical freelance video editing work, so despite their credit system I have no complaints and with a Covid lay-off in March am happy to report that I’m doing better freelancing than I was with my 9-5 full time videography job with a media company.
I have tried all freelacing platforms. In my experience Upwork has been the best. Although the fee is higher than others but once you make 500$ it gets better.
You couldn't be more right! I have been a freelancer in Upwork for 6-7 years... (and employer for one year)... I realized that they are over their head with fees, and now they even charge for connects. Of course, I was fortunate to meet amazing customers (friends) from that platform... But when it comes to paying 20% of your hard sweat job to Upwork, and then Paypal, your bank transactions, etc.... you end up working for fees... I don't see them dropping fees or allowing free connects or even helping out veterans on the platform (or helping out amidst the COVID)... I am starting to look someplace else.
honestly, I got my first 2 clients at first 2-3 weeks, but after that I couldn't find any more success looking. I even bought a monthly subscription with 70 connects/month, but it feels like I'm gonna just waste them all at this point
Jason, I think you need to expand your freelancing website horizons. I completely agree that Upwork and Guru are the top freelancing websites, but what some of the comments are revealing about the randomly closed profiles coupled with the scaled commission giving Upwork a vested interest in randomly closing profiles and forcing people to start over, means that I won't be recommending it without a warning about this in the future. I have been hearing more good things about Freelancer lately, but I would want to do some more research before recommending it myself because of past (10+) issues. This also goes for Fivver. However, you have had people ask you about very specific jobs, such as translating, and there are reputable websites that allow you to build profiles and cater to specific occupations, like ProZ (for translators). There are always going to be ups and downs with any freelancing website, but the goal is to avoid ones that attract a large amount of scammers and migrate toward those that have payment protection escrows and other features that protect both freelancer and employer. I think every person complains about "foreigners" who can work for less "stealing" jobs, but the real problem is location. Someone who lives in Switzerland once complained about me charging too little because the cost of living is extremely high there. If you are living in a place or following a lifestyle that your occupation does not support in the competitive market, you might need to make changes either in occupation or location. At the same time, I have had qualified freelancers from Asia/Africa complain about how the freelance market discriminates against them and makes it more difficult to find jobs. Everyone cannot be hiring people from these places at low cost if these people feel they are being discriminated against because of their location. I think both sides are just feeling the pressures of a saturated job market. From my view, as a freelancer and occasional employer, I hire the person I think can complete the job the best within my budget. My employers do the same. Sometimes, the job does not require perfect English, and if you are bidding on a job like that, you have to show you can do better than someone who can work for less or you have to be willing to work for less in an international market. There are many employers who don't care about the job for whatever reason and will simply take the lowest bidder, but it is fairly easy to figure this out from the job description and avoid bidding on those jobs. For example, I never bid on a job that wants it "cheap, perfect, and tomorrow." These employers don't have a clue what "perfect" is (or how impossible it is for one person to achieve that) and are willing to take the worst slop/plagiarized garbage as long as they don't have to pay much for it and get it quickly. At the same time, it is extremely easy to figure out which jobs you are qualified to do and make sure your profile reflects those qualifications before applying to them. Even if an employer has listed a book edit as a design job, if that employer looks at your profile, he/she will see that you are qualified to do what is needed.
🤔 Very even handed critique and excellent points. I agree that looking for more niche job sites specific to a profession/skill makes a whole lot of sense. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your own experiences. 🙏
Not saying Upwork is perfect but it does have advantages as well. The level of clients you run into may be better on Upwork than on other platforms. Also the fees may sound bad but depending on your skill set 20% from your first $500 then 10% after that is actually worth it if you find a really good paying client. It may not work for everyone but I like it better than the others. Plus depending on your business the headache of a merchant account or trying to obtain a merchant account outside of paypal is worth the 10% from Upwork. It all depends on what you want and what you are selling. The thing to remember is when on Upwork is that you are a business, you need to treat yourself like one.
Good counter points. Your right that we have to consider the cost of finding clients on our own. I don't agree with the fee being worth it since the $500 is per client and not lifetime. There are a lot of contracts that don't get there. I think the previous system of rewarding lifetime earnings made more sense.
I so wish I would have seen this sooner, I only searched videos about doing well on your Upwork profile! :( so much time put into this website and I believe I have a strong enough resume to be at least considered by most positions that I applied for, but I only got contacted back by scammers. So disappointing and a waste of time when I could have been finding real jobs! Literally put a good amount of work into... maybe 60 proposals and got contacted for about 15? They were all scams, Upwork needs to do something to control that, one week my whole timeline was flooded with the same exact ad... like 15/20 postings.
Great video, I’ve been on UpWork for over a decade now and it brought me great long term clients to my own business who continued to work with my own company for many years.... so, you can always count on UpWork as a cheap lead generation platform, as you’ll be proposing directly to a “hungry buying client”, you’ll be proposing directly to a client who already knows that he needs a help in a certain area and asked for help on that area... I can see those clients as “gems” if you’re someone who’s responsible for generating high quality leads. I’d also like to clarify that the 20% commission is worse than you have described... the fees ONLY goes down to 10% for ONLY the client who continues working with you after $500 Which means, if you got 10 projects each is $500 with 10 different clients (which is the common case), then you’ll have to pay 20% fees on every one of these projects, which means you’ll pay $1,000 fees out of $5k Still, for me, I consider that an essential part of my business cost and I’d still use the service even if the fees was 50% as long as I can price my service in a profitable way after the fees, which is your responsibility. The real reason I wouldn’t recommend UpWork for new users, is that it’s very very very common that UpWork can close your account if you applied to few jobs in the beginning and you didn’t get a response from client.... this doesn’t make sense and doesn’t make UpWork a safe place at all for any new commer to the platform
Thank your for taking the time to share your decade of experience with us! Very valuable insights and it's encouraging to hear you've been able to use it to grow your business off of UpWork as well. 🚀
i made 3K this month on Upwork paying 3% service fee and working half days, so all this was bs... You get ALL the good clients and a lot of perks once you get to the top.
The good thing about these freelancer job platforms is that we have the option to select the job level we want and for beginners we choose entry level to get more chances of getting an opportunity
Working freelance, there is so much to consider and take care of. I just finished my first job on UpWork; I don't mind the service charges at the moment but I'm glad to know what the other platforms offer.
Having just received my first payment from Upwork I now agree with Jason. It costs you too much money to work on the Upwork platform. On top of the portion that they take on any job, there is also the small matter of a $30.00 cost for the 'wire transfer' of your money into your account. I guess that this depends on where you live, but in my case I earned $365.00 from a client and received $311.00 from Upwork (a difference of $54.00). When converted into South African currency at my freelance rate, this means two full hours of work just to feed Upwork. Does'nt seem worth it, so off to the other freelance sites I go.
😣 Ouch! Wow, those are some heavy fees that add up. Congratulations on your success getting a client - sorry the fees took so much out of your hard work
I did try upwork but the problem is that its not really newbie friendly. If you do land a job its likely to be underpaying and thats pretty much because a lot of clients are cheap and are saving a lot of money taking advantage of new freelancers. Which sucks.
As someone who's been on Upwork for the past 7 years and loves the platform, I came to this video with some hesitations - but I gotta say you made some great points there. I still think there's a place for newer freelancers on the platform, especially if they know how to stand out and market themselves correctly, but I won't deny it's been easier in the past.
Congratulations on your continued success! Thanks for watching and I agree with you on there being opportunities for those who are willing to put in the work to stand out
@@freelancingwithsilvia They are offering free basic packages for freelancers until there is a cure or vaccine for COVID. The coupon code "free basic" worked for me at check out.
I've been tried all these "freelancer" platforms: freelancer, fiverr, guru, etc. And etc. Never able to get any jobs from them but Upwork. What Freelancer do is only asking me to subscribe pay member which charged 10usd/month the minimum package. Bla bla Yes, service fee of Upwork is high especially for the new freelancer which never able to earn 1st 500usd from a client. But Upwork really gives excellent service. I never get disappointed with Upwork. Other platforms for me are only scam. And another thing, Upwork is really a business, no body can give you anything free. Pay something like it's a kind of respect other ppl's effort also.
@@thingshappen1213 I've been trying to apply few times always changing the profile in other to be applied but they always denied. I'm looking through other accounts which have been granted access to work and actually their skills were significantly fewer and the quality was lower. So , basically it's wrong place to start for now
it's honestly the worst unfortunately. I used to be a top rated freelancer for two and a half years and they always got 20% of every single penny I made and the only time I seeked their help because I got scammed out of 6.5k worth of work; they ended up suspending my account instead of backing my claims against the scammer.
Love to hear it! We still use it to find great team members, but it can be really tough for people who are just getting started. Thanks for the encouragement!
@James McKee Of course he could not be on UpWork for that long. UpWork was created few years back - Odesk bought eLance and created Upwork. I was on eLance since 2008. If not long term clients I have there for many years I would leave UpWork asap. It's crap. Don't start if you want to earn good money online. Go elswere.
Fiverr is working out so well for me after UpWork disabled my account because I didn't seem "active" on the account for about 1 week, maybe less. I get so many people messaging me every day about my Gigs on Fiverr and I love it. Super easy to use and a good platform for people who want to put their skills out there for people to see.
This is sad. I used to be on Upwork, and you are right: the customer is 'always' right; a freelancer has to have savy and use the platform to win disputes.
@@JasonAWhaling I thank you for the updating video. It showed me just how much Upwork has changed, and sadly, it is (more) not in the freelancer's benefit. I do hope it improves.
I had success on Freelancer in the past and I still believe in it for a while even though I'm getting less opportunities than in the past and the competition increased exponentially even though most of them are not very skilled or educated. However, I dislike the double standards they all use when it comes to clients and freelancers. Regarding UpWork? I've created an account as an established freelancer coming from the other website and I've paid subscription and other things to improve my profile and make it look professional and I've been bidding on projects a lot but I had no success and they even blocked my account because I have complained about it on Instagram. Therefore, even though I've been going to Upwork local gatherings, I'm profoundly disappointed by that website / service.
Blocked? Wow, if it's simply because of what you said on IG that's ridiculous... And I agree the double standard for freelancers and clients is unfair to the freelancers (even those who have been on the platform for a while).
I just accepted a contract for $200.00 in which Upwork would take 20% which would leave me $160.00. The client urgently wanted 202 images cut out as they were four days behind. After accepting the contract the person wanted me to do it cheaper.
I've been surviving off upwork since day one now you have to buy connects and get promo code. It's just sad.... I really didnt even mind the %20... I'll check out these other sites. Thanks much
I hope some of the other sites treat you better.... I agree the connects are outrageous particularly given how many clients don't wind up hiring anyone.
You just confirmed what I intuitively believed. Many new freelancers upon signup usually land a client within days and then suddenly the entire site ghosts on them. Now that you mentioned that Upwork puts new freelancers on different categories where a client has to manually sort through to find them is essentially same as shadow banning. They want you to exhaust your connects and refresh the batch. I need to reframe the way I view Upwork.
I highly disagree with this advice. I''m one of the few Upworkers who made it to that 5% fee at $10,000+ with one client. Upwork is by far is the best platform for a real, lasting freelance career. It is biased towards clients and because of that, attracts better, higher-paying clients. If you play the game by the rules and do good work, you can make some real money, working for legit companies and clients.
I wish your experience was the norm. As someone who is just a client now, I'm not a fan of the changes. Congratulations on your success and thank you for the counter point.
UpWork is amazing. This video is highly misleading. I don’t recommend people who are new to their fields to use any freelancing site. Build your portfolio first then join them. I don’t have any issue getting new clients. I got 3 long term clients in the passed 3 weeks. All at solid rates.
I am a top rated freelancer for last 2.5 years with 6000 hrs of work history, still not able to get new project on Upwork since last 9 months. It's not worth it anymore.
I was just thinking about this. A fee to make money, a fee to buy tokens to submit for jobs, a fee to take your money out. Thanks for showing me other choice, since I decided to stop working for Upwork
I do strongly agree on Upwork is not the best choice for those newly registered accounts despite your qualifications and years of expertise. So, don't expect much even if you apply for LOTS of jobs.
Honestly, I'm a successful freelancer, I'm a map illustrator for the game industry, and have been for about 13 years, having gotten some big clients in that time, and steady smaller clients, most as repeat work. I don't remember which one, maybe it was Upwork, but on experiment, I joined, I participated - but you know what my targetted industry I serve never go there, never visit, they just don't use these online freelance services. Upwork, and I'll argue all online freelance referral services are crap, unless you're a newbie, trying to break into the freelance experience - even then I don't recommend it. The way I obtained clients was winning a couple of contests initially in various gaming sites, then through my portfolio, recommendations by satisfied clients, including referrals by satisfied clients, I've had an endless stream of commission requests - and not one time had I ever contacted a potential client and asked them to hire me. I've even gotten commission work from Activision. They found a map I created on FB page and hired me on the spot. They all find me - via FB, Google+ (not anymore, that's gone), DeviantArt, and Artstation. I never needed to pay for an ad, I've never needed to show my resume, explain my education, nor participate in some crap freelance referral site. I just get a request, offer a rate, and get hired. I say, don't waste your time on any online freelance referral service - market yourself like I do, at no cost at all.
They blocked my account for an unknown reason before I could even start, I hadn't even done anything, was just setting up my profile and few days later figured out it's blocked like wtf. Good to know about the fee system, I guess I'll stick with fiverr.
they even didn't explain what was the reason. They wanted to verify my identity, provided all needed docs and they suddenly blocked my account. The worst expierence in my life
i loved it too when it was Odesk, i wish i will not see you in same situation like me when you say i do not love upwork. I lost everything in my life behind upwork my health, wealth, mind, social life, respect, and more.
I've opened accounts on various websites for freelancing, I use upwork because it's where I got my first job and the second and so on, it's not bad after you break the first work
Great review! Also, I believe the wost side of Upwork is that they can close your account for no reason. I'm quite regretful for the time I spent on Upwork to build a good reputation.
not true, if you have a certain amount of pay or experience accumulated. Like any job if it shows that in your history you look for work every 3 months, whos gonna hire you ?
@@nerroseven I work on Guru and sometimes don't apply for jobs for 6 months. It has never taken me more than a few bids to get one because I have a solid profile that extends for years. If you have to rebuild your profile every time you want to look for jobs, then Upwork sounds more like a scam these days because each time they are restarting your $500 climb. It also seems that if you are not using their pay-per-use "connects" then you will be suspended even if you have an active job. Once again, this makes Upwork a scam and not the legitimate freelancing website it once was. As long as you keep paying them high fees, you can keep your account, but once you aren't actively engaged in giving them money up front or once you reach that 10%/5% tier and stop paying "connect" fees, then you lose you account and get to start over. I can't think of any other freelance website that closes accounts for reasons other than bad business practices on the part of the freelancer/employer.
Oh my, this is good information. I was a client at Upwork for almost a year. I hired multiple freelancers, all paid hourly, and up until yesterday, I had long-term contracts that generated thousands of dollars and good feedback from all. Recently, I hired this one woman and I was her first contract. She begged me to help her with her emergency medical expenses via Paypal, so I did and then I terminated the contract. In turn, she tells Upwork that I paid her via Paypal, and in turn, Upwork suspended my account because I violated company policy and will be suspended until I stated my case. Ah, yeah, no. They acted first without talking to me first or letting me know the situation. I'm telling you all this story because I'm a client. I had multiple contracts going. Although both contracts that I had when I terminated the Upwork relationship, were long-term, one account- I was their biggest revenue by double than any of their other contracts. This Freelancer just got cut off and since COVID, it's been painful for companies based in India. Freelancers beware! Always keep that in the back of your mind. "Upwork has a tendency to act hastily and is prone to upset clients at any given time for no apparent reason. In my opinion, this is an extremely shady practice for a company to do this.
I have had no problems with Upwork. You need to have confidence in your abilities, life is not just about trying to save as many cents as possible. Sometimes it take an investment in your time to establish yourself. Be patient and do not worry about a measly 20%. Think longer term!
I've been working on Upwork for almost 3 years now. So far so good. I haven't got any issue with them. I can say that most of my income are from that job site. People complain that they got no job after spending all of their credits. The competition is higher now compared to when I first started. And yes I bought credits now to bid more. Because it is just a business expenses, and can be covered easily when you landed yourself a job.
I just recently got my first contract with Upwork (first mistake), with a fixed price (second mistake). After I completed the work, the client refused to pay the full amount, even tough it was recorded in the messages on the platform. The amount she would pay was a fraction of the agreed price on the contract. I tried to file a dispute but there is no way to enter a dispute for me, I tried to follow their instructions but kept getting a robot or the "community". I decided to let her keep my money after many hours of work. If the client and Upwork want to take money from hard working people, it is on them, not on me. It is one of the worst work experiences I have had. I have been literally robbed.
Hi Jason, thank you that was a great video. I am based in Canada. I know that some platforms only work with US based clients. Does Guru and Freelancer or any other platform you can recommend work with international freelancers? Thanks in advance!
Those are great alternatives to get started with. Your going to find the currency issue on every platform that you try. But there are always clients looking for freelancers from north america.
Back in 2015 when odesk and elance were joining together I knew at that point somone in the top management realized how much you can earn from FEES alone on a outsourcing platform. Upwork favors clients Whereas fiver favors you the person working on a specific gig. Also upwork gives hourly wages which is its edge over the rest.
You didn't mention the quality of clients we get on upwork, rather than freebie or cheap seekers on other platforms who look for cheapest work as possible so paying a quite high is still justifiable if you're good at doing something.
Thanks for the video. Even though I have many years of experience in my specialised field, I couldn't lend a chepest paying job there over the week. I just quit because I feel like upwork is putting me down.
Let me tell you that I have been working with upwork for last 6 years. It's the only genuine freelancing market place. Other like Freelancer, GURU are crap! Of course upwork is lil expensive. But the best!
Don't you think its possible that the platform has changed in the 6 years since you first made you account? I am happy for your success there, but it seems to be less profitable/more exploitive for new users who are joining the site in 2020.
@@MK-ih6wp yes, it's difficult to get on board for new freelancers. They might have made it purposely so to keep the marketplace genuine. But the market is with upwork, the freelancers and the employers, upwork being the most professional. And there is always a cost for premium product.
The internal traffic is weak on the other platforms, though. That's the only reason to use Upwork, because they're actually RANKING for some of the main service terms. Everytime I applied, I got jobs, so there is definitely a strategy to your applications, but I still don't use Upwork anymore. My problem with Upwork is that their review system is highly unethical. The actual jobs are not a problem... the hard part is procuring reviews, and even if you procur good reviews, there are all these subtle secretive signals, which can basically crush your score. I literally had only 5-star reviews, but I was literally told by support that, when a client DOES NOT leave any review, at-all, it counts against your score. I struggled to keep my score at 98%, and I had scenarios where I was literally getting 5-star reviews, and then my score was dropping. When I made complaints to Upwork support, they froze my account, and forced me to do a video ID verification process, as well as government ID. That happened at-least two times. I never had more than one customer complaint, out of about fifty jobs, or so, and when I came back to my profile, after a year, my JSS score was about 75%. LoL I complained to Upwork again, and they just gave me some bull-crap answer. Just a completely unethical review system. I was doing larger once-off consults. So, it seems to be that the secret is to be a trash overseas company, which sells at an hourly rate, and delivers trash products and services. That's the real secret to success on Upwork. They want slave labor, and if you do enough of it, you can keep your JSS score nice and high. As far as my experience goes, they're as bad as Envato, and possibly worse.
🤔 The ranking part is a good point. They do tend to rank for several service terms... Thank you for sharing your story on Upwork - I agree the review system is setup to hurt the freelancers more than it helps
In my review fiverr is the best platform. Although the clients came there are mostly looking for cheap and fast services but still its a great place to make money as it fiverr doesn't charge freelancers for applying jobs. You can make multiple GiGs that will help you to make a handsome amount at the end of the month. But Fiverr is also expensive regarding its charges. It charges 20% means if I earn $500 i'll get $400. This is the only negative point that I have seen on fiverr. I became level 2 seller on fiverr in 1 year. I forgot to mention upwork is a real crap, suspended my account and never restored.
Freelancing is a challenging career. So you have to take risk to compete others and Still Upwork is a NUMBER 1 freelancing platform. Its not cheap like Fiverr where buyer have right to refund or unlimited revision. Who knows after 1 year of struggle $14 charge at upwork is nothing to someone.
Hi Jason Whaling, I definitely agree with your point. Its always to build a good portfolio and apply directly without sacrificing 5% to 20% of my income for some platforms. Thank you for explaining this.
I'm a client that uses Upwork regularly. From a client POV, I've always paid for work, even stuff that's maybe I should have disputed because it's shonky delivery. At the end of the day, all your client wants is a job well done. In my case, it's because my client wants something that I'm project managing via Upwork. The reason I don't look at new freelancers is because they have no track record, which makes it hard as a hirer to guarantee a job well done. So new freelancers could help themselves by linking to Google reviews or some other reviews to establish their credentials.
If you do not even look at a new freelancer (especially because the bid he/she submitted is on another page), how will linking to other work or other websites with solid, recorded track records help him/her? I also disagree with your statement that all the client wants is a job well done. I had one client who wanted me to convert her square-shaped print book into a rectangular-shaped kindle book. Because she didn't understand that I could not make the pages square-shaped on a Kindle without making it look silly (a square at the bottom of the Kindle instead of filling the whole screen with the image), she refused to pay me and said I had done a bad job because I changed the outside shape of the pages and did not keep them square (I did all I could to not change the images themselves and maintain as much of their integrity on the page as possible). I have had clients who wanted an upfront honest critique of their work, and when I gave it, they yelled at me over the phone and refused to pay because I am the only freelancer who didn't tell them it was wonderful (and we are talking incoherent plot, typos everywhere, inconsistent characters, and in one case a glossary in the middle of the book instead of at the end!) Sorry, it sometimes has nothing to do with how well you do the job and everything to do with how well the employer understands what he/she is asking the freelancer to deliver. I have also had a job with a professional publishing company, sent it to the editor and didn't hear back from her in the 4 weeks it usually took, so I sent an e-mail only to find out that the editor, whom I had been working with and who had paid me for previous jobs, was no longer working at the company, and they had never heard of me before (despite the company having books with my name on them on their website). So, there are many reasons you don't get paid in this business.
You make a valid point. I think we all understand why a client would choose someone with a track record over someone without a track record. That’s just good business “cents.” What some clients don’t seem to understand is that no track record on Upwork isn’t the same thing as no track record period. Some of us are intermediate to advanced writer/editors with college degrees and years of professional office experience. So, it’s a bit demeaning when sites like Upwork force us to reestablish credentials we’ve already earned by keeping our starting rate(s) low and having to manually input everything on our profiles instead of making it easy to link to other sites. You might not realize this as a client, but they literally won’t allow you to save your bio/intro if it contains a LinkedIn link (though I *was* able to provide my email address and a link to my website, thank God). We’re not living in a master/servant work environment anymore. I expect clients/employers to research me as carefully as I research them-to read my resume as carefully as I read their job description-to check out my portfolio as carefully as I check out their website-to research equitable compensation rates as carefully as I do-and to be able to see that I’m a competitive candidate even if my writing samples aren’t a direct match for their needs. I’ve already proved everything that needs to be proven by working my way through college, graduating with honors, and holding down several legitimate writing/editing jobs for which I can provide external references. If that’s not good enough for people who offer an insulting $50 to edit an entire manuscript, they need to consider doing the work themselves and stop pretending to be legitimate business owners.
@@jenniferreinoehl7883 I understand the frustration of what I wrote. The thing is, the quality on Upwork (and Fiverr and others) differs wildly and we often can't afford to risk hires. This is why we rely on reviews - even reviews like Google reviews work for me.
i started upwork when it was odesk. worked for years on and off. till they some years ago, all of sudden, they suspended my account simply bcoz i bid on 2 projects and couldn't get any of those. i got email saying since i am not getting projects, so they gonna suspend my account forever. they even didnt consider that how much i have earned already with 100% positive feedback.
@@JasonAWhaling and I had 0 dispute at upwork in all those years. that happened only bcoz my 2 bids were refused, and in that week i didnt apply for any other project. And their automated system kicked me out. lolz.
Upwork is a great place to start - The more the fees the better the clients and it filters out all the Indian and chineese spammers who create automated messages that just flood jobs, and makes it unfair and a very low quality experience for anybody - Just like in life - go to any open free event vs a paid event - 9 times out of 10 the paid event will be much cleaner, more organized, safer and most importantly have way more value - People who get excited about cheap this cheap that, will forever be in a cheap mindset and will forever be cheap - im glad all those losers in here complaining are not on upwork coz they r the ones who were runining it so thank u for making this video
🤔 I actually agree with your view of using the price as a way to protect quality but my point is the amount freelancers are required to fork over is excessive... I agree with fees but they shouldn't be in addition to a percent of a contract every time a freelancer gets a new client. Anyway, glad the platform has been good to you!
@@JasonAWhaling Whenever you think something is expensive you have to ask yourself "What is the alternative?" They are taking 20% out of an amount that in itself its very rare for you to get it outside Upwork. So you can easily go to any random crappy freelancer website and sure they may charge like 9% but you will probably get paid only HALF what you will in Upwork. So its all relative my friend, don't get hung up on percentages, think of the macro net profit over the year. iTunes store takes 30% yet they r the reasons companies go from average startups to multi millionaires, had they had that same mind set and said "oh no 30% is too much, I'm gonna jus advertise my app by putting up sticky notes over my city, that will cost me NOTHING" - well good luck with that, u damn sure didn't have 30% taken out and kept 100% of the profits.. but guess what 100% of ZERO is nothing!
I got the job on my first bid. Granted, I was definitely over qualified but I knew I wasn't going to get jobs at my skill level right away without some positive feedback from an Upwork client. I was on Freelancer some years ago and constantly competing with people around the world willing to do a website for $5-$10. Not sure if they've added an "U.S. bidders only" option but they didn't have it when I was on there.
UPWORK is GREAT, LOTS OF JOBS, THEY HAVE A SPECIALIZED TEAM TO LOOK FOR JOBS TO YOUR SPECIFICS. With enough experience and or payment amount, you are in, if not then your account may get closed, until invited again. So start great, show your stuff and produce. Once In, use the membership to get more job connects, which is what you use to send your resume-coverletter, you are going against other countries where an employer may pay less for the same labor, thats not true, its not the same labor, so theres work. like any tool if properly used, it will show a result, so fine tune your account
i started upwork when it was odesk. worked for years on and off. till they some years ago, all of sudden, they suspended my account simply bcoz i bid on 2 projects and couldn't get any of those. i got email saying since i am not getting projects, so they gonna suspend my account forever. they even didnt consider that how much i have earned already with 100% positive feedback.
Awesome to know that you've had such a positive experience on the platform! As someone who hires on the platform, I know that it can be hard for some countries pricing to compete due to currency exchange rates.
I do SEO and Upwork is the only channel that owrked for me. Ther are some quality seo jobs there daily, but very tought to get. USA clients usually prefer USA people or Australians someone near their time zone. Freelancer and other sites are just terrible for seo work.I m sure now post covid the level of competition is all time high
I only work with customers who pay me what I think my value is and even then It blows my mind they’ll offer higher than what I was even asking add more to that, people who treat me respectfully, and people who I build long lasting professional relationships with. I am consulting and managing their products, socials, campaigns, projects, etc., and they may fit the bill but that’s because they need the help as well. I’ve now hired my own assistants and it just makes me livid seeing how upwork treats the freelancers making them money over a client subtly blackmailing me into an extremely underpaying contract so I didn’t lose my top rated status...which she still did. I’m torn about upwork but I have learned so much professionally from my business mentors I am definitely all for a more ethical model that what upwork provide 😁
Thank you for sharing your story and insights.... Really sorry a client did that too you. Upwork should have a system to be able to see that kind of behavior.
I own a company in India and outsource a lot of work to upwork and Fiverr ! It Is very helpful , professional and safe for me to hire people across the world without getting scammed ! Are there any other alternate options you can list which are better ?
As someone who uses the platform as a client too, I like it. For the freelancers it's become unfair and because of that it's harder and harder to find new rising talent.... The alternatives of Guru and Freelancer are the only big alternatives for world wide freelancers
The reason upwork favors top freelancers is a few reasons, they have good history of completing jobs and the second reason is, these freelancers dont realize they work full time FOR upwork, but upwork doesnt have to pay any benefits to them or insurances. Nobody really wins here other than upwork, you might be earning well as top freelancer, but upwork is still shorting you compared to what you could be earning working a proper job or owning a proper company.
I have just started to freelance and I was just going to register. I have decided to do otherwise. All the experienced people here, how do you actually get a project? I'm having a hard time getting my first project. Please guide/suggest me something if you can. I'll be grateful.
You're not alone here; it's a numbers game. All you can do is make sure your profile is complete; you can see freelancers who are experience to see what you can improve and then keep submitting customized proposals.
1. If you are asked to pay a fee for a chance to work, you are being scammed. YOU GET PAID FOR WORK, NOT PAY FOR A POSSIBILITY TO WORK. 2. Stay away from bidding sites. NORMAL FREELANCERS DO NOT BID, THEY GET WORK FROM THEIR CONTACTS AND JUST CONCENTRATE ON WORK, NOT BIDDING. 3 Price is negotiated before work, not after it. STAY AWAY FROM UPWORK SCAMMERS.
Both ways are tricky and both take time and effort. Making a new contact may be as hard as making a successful bid. The hardest thing about a job is getting one. Once you are in and you know how to do it things get easier.
