Should I Work For Upwork Right Now?
Ben Luthi started his freelancing journey as a freelance writer. Unlike the modern writers, he started as a guest post writer rather than working for freelancing marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Still Ben managed to make a six-figure business out of his writing skills. What made Ben so much successful? How creating a strong portfolio landed him top jobs without doing any work for Upwork?
Today, Ben’s story isn’t a mystery. Like many other writers, he didn’t take the path of being an Upwork freelancer. He took a different path that needed courage and patience. At first, Ben wrote free guest posts to get backlinks. Once he has a decent writing portfolio he started applying for staff writer jobs. Luckily, he found one at NerdWallet as a writer in Credit Cards. His work at NerdWallet helped him to make an impact without looking for Upwork Jobs or Fiverr gigs.
This article talks about whether you should work for Upwork or start a freelancing career in Ben’s ways. Before making a conclusion let’s start with the basics of Upwork.
What is Upwork?
Freelancing contributed $1.2 trillion to the US economy in 2020.
Upwork is the biggest freelancing marketplace in the world. It has almost 12 million registered freelancers working for different clients and corporations. Those who took freelancing as side hustles know that there is a large pool of Upwork jobs available to start earning immediately.
Upwork also offers jobs for beginners with little or moderate knowledge of a skill. Some clients love to work with beginners since they are cheaper than experienced ones. Stat shows that only 50% of freelancers are considered highly skilled people. Others offer a discounted rates to the clients so that they can also earn something.
How to Start Working For Upwork
61% of freelancers went into this type of work by choice.
You can easily work for Upwork by creating a simple account. The platform has a powerful website where both freelancers and clients can work seamlessly. The starting point is using the Upwork sign up option. You can get the Upwork profile sign up at their website.
Before you can start working for Upwork the profile creation process requires some personal information like Name, Address, DOB, Employment, and Educational qualifications. You must enter your skill level and availability so that the platform can suggest relevant jobs to you. Also, upload a professional-looking profile photo instead of a casual image.
Once you have finished writing your basic information, Upwork will ask about the skills you want to sell inside the platform. We recommend using keywords inside your profile title and description. For instance, if you are offering Personal Finance Writing use keywords like “Finance”, “Personal Finance”, or “Banking.”
After filling up all the necessary information now you can start using the platform. The Upwork app is quite good to notify you if a client sends you a message. You can also use the app to search for jobs even if you are outside your actual workspace.
Now, as you have the basic information about Upwork let’s jump right into the topic by comparing and finding out whether you should work for Upwork right now?
Fiverr vs Upwork: Which is Better?
While they’re more likely to earn more, male freelancers are also more likely to be tricked by clients.
Both Fiverr and Upwork provide freelancers a platform to search for jobs without going into the actual workplace. The concept of freelancing is well before the formation of these two platforms. The word freelancing came from Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. There are also books related to freelancing as a career. In most cases, work for Upwork or Fiverr is not a traditional way of freelancing. It is more considered a modern way of freelancing.
But there are millions of freelancers in the world who consider one of the platforms as the authentic source of freelancing. For example, I considered Upwork as the one true freelancing platform for a year since it helped me to survive the pandemic. But now I know that I can work for Upwork, Fiverr, or other ways to earn more without depending on one single platform.
Here’s a quick comparison of Fiverr vs Upwork-
- Fiverr dot com asks freelancers to create gigs. These gigs are ranked by keywords and are purchased by the clients once they find the gig packages perfect for their business.
- Upwork dot com has jobs for the freelancers where they are asked to provide a cover letter. Once the client is happy with the cover letter they can hire 1 or more freelancers to finish the project.
In my opinion, both platforms are real ways to make money but Upwork is better with wider ranges of services available for both freelancers and clients. Once you complete your profile and use the Upwork login button you will see how many jobs are updating each hour.
Upwork Reviews: What Others Saying?
Web designers, SEO specialists, and sales representatives are the top three most in-demand jobs in 2021.
Since the title seeks whether we should work for Upwork right now I went through some reviews of the platform. I tried to make the Upwork reviews based on different sources. Also, I excluded my own review as a freelance writer at Upwork.
Indeed dot com is a reliable source for any kind of job. There are scopes for getting hired for both traditional jobs and freelancing jobs using Indeed services. We went through a few Upwork reviews in Indeed to know whether we should work for Upwork or not.
Here’s the summary of the positive reviews in my words(You can check the reviews in the above link)-
- Freelancers love Upwork since they can work for Upwork on their own time.
- Anyone can work for Upwork without getting too much involved with the client or the employer. So freelancers get ample time.
- Some freelancers found great clients and long-term commitments when they worked for Upwork.
Here’s the summary of the negative reviews in my words(You can check the reviews in the above link)-
- Freelancers start work for Upwork but never get stable income until they create their own agency.
- Upwork takes the side of the clients when there’s a dispute regarding the payment issues.
- Finding jobs to work for Upwork is difficult for newcomers.
Final Verdict: Should I Start Right Now?
Finally, considering the information provided in this article we can come up with a conclusion- whether you should work for Upwork right now? We started with the story of Ben where we found him getting success without the necessity of Upwork or other marketplaces.
Next, we talked about the basics of Upwork. It will help you to understand how to start at the top freelancing marketplace. Then, we compared Upwork with Fiverr. Finally, we completed our journey by considering the reviews of Upwork on a recruitment agency website.
In my opinion, you should start working for Upwork right now. This is the best time to exploit the freelancing marketplaces as more and more companies are allowing remote work due to the global pandemic. Once the companies find office maintenance cost difficult to manage they will surely outsource the work to professional marketplaces like Upwork.
Get my free ebook on freelancing right here. It’ll teach you how to start your journey as a freelancer. :)
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