introduction to upwork freelancing platform

The Largest Freelancing Platform Online

Yaser Harara

What is Upwork

Based on the former odesk

The Biggest Freelancing website in the market (after merging with elance).

9 Million registered freelancers

4 Million registered clients

What is Upwork

Stephane KasrielCEO

Thomas LaytonChairman

Upwork TeamMountain View, California, USA

Why Upwork

A lot of money is spent here

Consistent jobs are being posted

Great for both beginners and experts

It is FREE!

Why Upwork

Online Work Spend by CategorySource:

Upwork 2014

Why Upwork

Fastest Growing PositionsSource:

Upwork 2014

Important Dates

December 18, 2013

Odesk and Elance Merging into one company

March 2015Introduction of Job Success Score

April 01, 2015Introduction of connects and memberships

May 05, 2015Odesk and Elance launching the new website:

Upwork.com

September01, 2015

limiting clients from posting new jobs on Elance

Exploring UpworkUpwork.com

Uprwork Interface

Upwork interface relies mainly on tabs:

Find Work

My Jobs

Reports

Messages

Find Work Tab

Find Jobs

Saved Jobs

Proposals

Profile

My Stats

Tests

Find Jobs Tab

The juice is in the search

Jobs vary in Budget

Use the side search options

Proposals Tab

Active:

Contains Active Proposals and Active Candidacies.

Archived:

Contains: Proposals that are accepted, rejected and expired.

Profile Tab

Important for consistent career on Upwork

Good Title, Overview, and Details.

Only best work to be shown on Portfolio

Always make sure for 100% profile

Update availability regularly

Specialize!

My Jobs Tab

My Jobs

Contracts

Work Diary

Work Diary Tab

Keeps record of your working time

Important for Hourly based jobs.

Enables you from adding manual time (If Applicable).

Reports Tab

Earnings

Timesheet Details

Time Analyze

Earnings Per Client

Weekly Timesheet

Time Logs

Connects History

Transaction History

Certificate of Earnings

Messages Tab

Messages Tab

Real-time info (Availability)

Rooms

Clean design

Desktop app

Available on mobile

How to get a job on Upwork?

Search properly

Apply for jobs

Apply for jobs

Apply for jobs (different)

Job Types on Upwork

Hourly Jobs

Fixed Price Jobs

Hourly Jobs

Hourly jobs are divided into categories that clients choose upon job posting:

Entry Level

Client is looking for the lowest prices regardless of the freelancers experience.

Intermediate

Client is looking for quality but also is looking for a good price.

Expert

Client has no problem paying for those who would give the best quality.

Fixed Price Jobs

Fixed Price Jobs are protected using the Upwork ESCROW system to hold the money of a job or a part of it.

Fixed Price Jobs payment is automatically released after 14 days if the client did not ask for edits.

Connects

Connects are tokens that allow freelancers to apply for jobs.

Introduced on Upwork on April 2015

Most jobs require 2 connects

Free accounts get 60 connects per month

Membership costs $10/month for 70 rollback connects.

How to choose a job?

Search for Keywords

Apply Search filters according to your preference.

Decide whether you want to have an Hourly job or Fixed price.

Make sure if you have enough connects

Cheap Prices?

Search Properly

Save Searches into feed

If you cannot beat them, Join them

New Features

Job Success Score (My Stats)

Long-term relationships.

Repeat projects.

Missing feedback (Only when there are a lot).

Projects ending without activity.

Upwork Top Rated Program

Benefits (Perks):

A Top Rated badge on your Upwork profile

Exclusive invitations to submit proposals.

Personalized tips to strengthen your profile

Premium customer support, including phone and chat.

Upwork Top Rated Program

A Job Success score of at least 90%

12-month earnings of at least $1,000

An account in good standing with no recent account holds

A 100% complete profile with photo (90% for freelancers who brought their profiles over from Elance)

Up to date availability (if unavailable now, set a date estimate)

At least 30 days of work history on Upwork (not required for freelancers who brought their profiles over from Elance)

Rising Talent ProgramBETA

Benefits (Perks):

A Rising Talent badge on your profile

Inclusion in a premium talent pool from which top clients source talent

A one-time bonus of 30 free Connects

Premium chat and ticket support

Personalized profile tips

Rising Talent ProgramBETA

No Job Success score

Adhere to the Upwork Terms of Service

Maintain a 100% complete profile

Availability status up-to-date

Submit proposals to projects relevant to your skill set

Deliver great results to your clients as you promised when you accepted the work

Complete your projects on time and as promised

Frequent Answered Questions

How do I connect my Payoneer Card into Upwork Account?

Click on your name on the top right hand side:

Settings >> Get Paid >> Add Payment method

Frequent Answered Questions

Why are there a lot of cheap jobs on Upwork?

Upwork allows clients to hire freelancers for as little as $0.01. This means a lot of the job postings come from those who seek cheap labor.

However, there are a lot of decent clients if you use the search feature properly.

Upwork Help Options

Phone

Live Chat

Tickets System (Emails)

Upwork Community

Gives Credit to those who help others

Almost every question you have is already answered

Very Friendly (how freelancers are!)

Let s Explore!

Upwork Team Application

Upwork Bugs

Cache Bug

Taking too long to load for some pages and messages.

Solution

Those are technical problems that would be solved eventually.

What about you?

If you cannot beat them, join them!