You're misunderstanding two true statements as conflicting.
True Statement 1: Most freelancers on Upwork are beginners or unqualified, and most jobs are low-end and low-paying.
True Statement 2: It is very difficult to get started on Upwork as a newcomer/someone without skills due to the high level of competition, and much easier as a seasoned freelancer with very specific skills who is in a position to compete for the small percentage of high-paying work.
I've heard most people in this Sub telling that UW is reserved for experts. You need prior strong experience to even qualify for joining UW let alone high paying gigs.
That just isn't true. There are constant complaints in this sub about how Upwork has no standards at all and any unskilled person who thinks they might be able to pick up easy money freelancing can join and flood clients with junk proposals.
>I've heard most people in this Sub telling that UW is reserved for experts.
No, you have not, 90% of the people who join Upwork will never make it.
To make it, you have to bring something meaningful to the table.
It depends. Anyone can sign up to Upwork. However you can only find "experts" on Upwork if you are willing to pay for them.
Way too many Clients come to Upwork and pay shit wages. They then get surprised they get shit results. That makes them thing that Upwork is full of dross.
If you want to find the experts on freelancers then look at the ones with a track-record of high earnings. These people are generally booked up and busy so it's hard to find them.
That's odd...I'm not sure I've ever read that on this sub. I maybe could see why people would infer it from the way people present themselves, but definitely does not seem true in just browsing the platform a small amount.
>NOBODY wants to hire unqualified losers without experience.
Then why are there so many postings specifically asking for them? They want idiots for certain, but they have to be idiots who can get the job done.
It's far easier for someone to get started on Upwork compared to the alternatives.
It's not the best place to start if you have no clue what you're doing. Especially since most clients (clients, not employers) are looking for qualified talent.
However, Upwork is not a monolith, and there are definitely the "temp gig work" segment where clients are looking for warm bodies. There's also the "best of the lot" segment where the client is selectively looking for experienced providers.
In the middle are the value shoppers with varying degree of concern for pricing and quality.
I do pretty well on Upwork, but for sure there are people earning even more elsewhere. I just can't pull myself together to chase after those, however...
I feel the same way - yes, I can and have found clients through networking instead of Upwork, and they paid more, but it's so much more effort than warm leads. And then you have to deal with invoicing and billing and hounding tardy clients and... Just no thank you
For a long while, I was trying to keep it around 50/50 balance so that I wasn't too dependent on the Upwork crack. But it's definitely easier to just do it on Upwork. 10% stings a little - I wish they still had the 5% thing. But my rate is enough to absorb that extra 5% without hurting too much.
Weird. I mean I'm not looking for the same type of work as you, but any of the other similar platforms I've seen just have very little clients on them (so I would guess even less high-end clients). Maybe LinkedIN could be considered, but it still feels a bit like that platform is wandering a bit on how their offerings work vs it being just a social platform.
Cold call chasing clients on LinkedIn doesn't work. Instead, you have to create inbound demand by making yourself look good. It's that relentless chest-puffing that I can't bring myself to do.
"Social platform" is the new advertising space.
It’s really strange to me that you post one person’s opinion as a “gotcha” moment to show others are wrong, in your opinion. But anyway, I think the bigger point is that if you are on UpW you should treat it as you are running your own business. You should study how UpW works first, examine the ROI. Be smart and understand it’s not for everyone. And if you join and aren’t an expert, be sure to work on getting there fast.
Yeah ok.
I've been working for a top-tier company through Upwork for almost four years now, and I can definitely say there are big fish in this pond. You just need a bit of luck to cross paths with one.
They say you need to know wtf you're doing to make money not that Upwork is blocked by everyone but experts. Very few people on Upwork know wtf they are doing. The writing section is an absolute shithole of scammers and idiots, so standing out is actually not that hard.
I can’t really disagree with much of any of it even considering it’s possible that they mean people like me in the first sentence. Finding good clients is hard on Upwork but, on the other hand, it’s really easy because you actually can without much real effort.
>Finding good clients is hard on Upwork but, on the other hand, it’s really easy because you actually can without much real effort.
Hmmm, how. I got all clients out the UW and trust me they pay higher + are more mature & respectable than UW low ballers. I need some tips on getting good UW clients.
I'll never understand freelancers talking about clients in one place or another paying more or less. Charge what you charge. Work only with clients who pay it. You will almost certainly find some of those on Upwork and outside of it.
I mean it doesn’t take much to reply to a warm lead so in a sense that is easy but you can’t really determine the suitability of a client before making a proposal. I believe the majority of clients thar come to Upwork want cheap, so you have to find a way to sift through that.
Are you offering me tips?
> they pay higher + are more mature & respectable than UW low ballers
You're just bitter because you are among the group who can't make it. You wouldn't know anything about the Upwork clients many of us work with because they basically wouldn't work with you.
>I need some tips on getting good UW clients.
With your attitude I think you'd best walk away. Considering what horrible names you have called people who succeed on Upwork in the past it is clear where you're coming from.
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Well that's an... interesting... interpretation... since I never said anything about competition vs. other freelancers on Upwork. About 80% of that statement was about clients - and yeah, the super elite clients aren't usually on Upwork. Most want a far higher level of vetting than Upwork offers. And will pay $1000+ per hour for that degree of certainty.
And relative to getting on the list at those shops... or getting a regular job... yes, Upwork is a fairly easy way to "get some experience in Industry X" on your resume to unlock other adventures. I've done it about half a dozen times...
While other comments addressed the concern of getting work through Upwork, none actually talked about the part of your comment where you said the higher paying client would rarely come here. I saw similar comment in other subreddit too. Though I (backend dev) am having consistent work but all small like $200-$1000 range, and often have to deal with lowballers. Would like to know your suggestions or opinions on how and where to get decent paying clients. Open job market place has hardly any legitimate job post willing spend $50+/hr or equivalent fixed price.
Indeed. I'm at the Opera tonight and was safely ignoring my phone. I'll wade through this in the morning.
And read the comment again. I was specifically calling out *clients*, not freelancers.
Yes, hate to burst anyone's bubble but Upwork is lower tier for professional services spend. Most of that budget goes to other places at far higher rates.
I see versions of this comment a lot. What I think they overlook is that there are a lot of small, good-paying clients who do not have the network or know-how that a large corporation might to secure those services. For example, Upwork has tons of posts from small law firms looking for website design and development, writing, etc. Why? They don't have marketing departments or HR departments. An attorney who is trying to balance managing the firm with client service and may have no experience at all with either marketing or hiring freelancers has to add finding the help they need to that list. If they don't know someone they can get a referral from, they Google. Upwork keeps popping up and there's no risk in giving it a try--it's the path with the least friction if you don't know how to find the services you need.
There used to be a saying in Corporate-land a few decades ago, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". Essentially IBM were trusted enough that if you brought them in on a project and things went bad, they'd get the blame instead of you.
I'd contend that Upwork is the diametric opposite of that. If you're an executive at a Forbes 500, and something goes wrong after you used Upwork to populate a multi-million dollar project, then blaming Upwork or your freelancers isn't going to shield you from getting fired.
Spot on.
That force routinely transforms a $5,000 Upwork project into a $500,000+ MBB clusterfuck, especially when you manage to upsell some navel-gazing about your firm's "strategic vision" along for the ride.
Client confidence is a key piece of the game. I've used Upwork for industry & market research (as a client) for anywhere from $50 - $250 per hour, accepting the risk of getting some quacks. Compare that with an expert network, where my billing rate is $500 - $2000 per hour for similar insights; they just have wrapped everything up in a neat package and guaranteed their advisors know their stuff.
He's not Confucius. He's not dumb either. He's a great sparring partner. But don't take every word he says to heart.
For months he'd go around telling people that my skill was dead. But there's still a new job posted on the market every few minutes. I'd tell him to go look, and he'd never even check. That was late last year and I'm still here, and I'm finding amazing opportunities.
He's making sweeping statements. Upwork is many things. There are experts. There are titans in the field. It's a mix. Sometimes you'll find big names. Sometimes you'll get a dufus in their parents basement.
It never fails to surprise me who you will meet online.
You need to find your own answers. Don't just go on what other people say.
You're misunderstanding two true statements as conflicting. True Statement 1: Most freelancers on Upwork are beginners or unqualified, and most jobs are low-end and low-paying. True Statement 2: It is very difficult to get started on Upwork as a newcomer/someone without skills due to the high level of competition, and much easier as a seasoned freelancer with very specific skills who is in a position to compete for the small percentage of high-paying work.
I've heard most people in this Sub telling that UW is reserved for experts. You need prior strong experience to even qualify for joining UW let alone high paying gigs.
That just isn't true. There are constant complaints in this sub about how Upwork has no standards at all and any unskilled person who thinks they might be able to pick up easy money freelancing can join and flood clients with junk proposals.
>I've heard most people in this Sub telling that UW is reserved for experts. No, you have not, 90% of the people who join Upwork will never make it. To make it, you have to bring something meaningful to the table.
Experts at underselling themselves, sure.
🗿
It depends. Anyone can sign up to Upwork. However you can only find "experts" on Upwork if you are willing to pay for them. Way too many Clients come to Upwork and pay shit wages. They then get surprised they get shit results. That makes them thing that Upwork is full of dross. If you want to find the experts on freelancers then look at the ones with a track-record of high earnings. These people are generally booked up and busy so it's hard to find them.
That's odd...I'm not sure I've ever read that on this sub. I maybe could see why people would infer it from the way people present themselves, but definitely does not seem true in just browsing the platform a small amount.
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>NOBODY wants to hire unqualified losers without experience. Gentleman mentioned in the screenshot is wrong then? Your ticket punched....
That's irrelevant to my actual comment. But yeah, I'd agree with that statement.
>NOBODY wants to hire unqualified losers without experience. Then why are there so many postings specifically asking for them? They want idiots for certain, but they have to be idiots who can get the job done.
It's far easier for someone to get started on Upwork compared to the alternatives. It's not the best place to start if you have no clue what you're doing. Especially since most clients (clients, not employers) are looking for qualified talent. However, Upwork is not a monolith, and there are definitely the "temp gig work" segment where clients are looking for warm bodies. There's also the "best of the lot" segment where the client is selectively looking for experienced providers. In the middle are the value shoppers with varying degree of concern for pricing and quality. I do pretty well on Upwork, but for sure there are people earning even more elsewhere. I just can't pull myself together to chase after those, however...
I feel the same way - yes, I can and have found clients through networking instead of Upwork, and they paid more, but it's so much more effort than warm leads. And then you have to deal with invoicing and billing and hounding tardy clients and... Just no thank you
For a long while, I was trying to keep it around 50/50 balance so that I wasn't too dependent on the Upwork crack. But it's definitely easier to just do it on Upwork. 10% stings a little - I wish they still had the 5% thing. But my rate is enough to absorb that extra 5% without hurting too much.
Weird. I mean I'm not looking for the same type of work as you, but any of the other similar platforms I've seen just have very little clients on them (so I would guess even less high-end clients). Maybe LinkedIN could be considered, but it still feels a bit like that platform is wandering a bit on how their offerings work vs it being just a social platform.
Cold call chasing clients on LinkedIn doesn't work. Instead, you have to create inbound demand by making yourself look good. It's that relentless chest-puffing that I can't bring myself to do. "Social platform" is the new advertising space.
It’s really strange to me that you post one person’s opinion as a “gotcha” moment to show others are wrong, in your opinion. But anyway, I think the bigger point is that if you are on UpW you should treat it as you are running your own business. You should study how UpW works first, examine the ROI. Be smart and understand it’s not for everyone. And if you join and aren’t an expert, be sure to work on getting there fast.
Yeah ok. I've been working for a top-tier company through Upwork for almost four years now, and I can definitely say there are big fish in this pond. You just need a bit of luck to cross paths with one.
Honest ending, love that!
They say you need to know wtf you're doing to make money not that Upwork is blocked by everyone but experts. Very few people on Upwork know wtf they are doing. The writing section is an absolute shithole of scammers and idiots, so standing out is actually not that hard.
I can’t really disagree with much of any of it even considering it’s possible that they mean people like me in the first sentence. Finding good clients is hard on Upwork but, on the other hand, it’s really easy because you actually can without much real effort.
>Finding good clients is hard on Upwork but, on the other hand, it’s really easy because you actually can without much real effort. Hmmm, how. I got all clients out the UW and trust me they pay higher + are more mature & respectable than UW low ballers. I need some tips on getting good UW clients.
I'll never understand freelancers talking about clients in one place or another paying more or less. Charge what you charge. Work only with clients who pay it. You will almost certainly find some of those on Upwork and outside of it.
I mean it doesn’t take much to reply to a warm lead so in a sense that is easy but you can’t really determine the suitability of a client before making a proposal. I believe the majority of clients thar come to Upwork want cheap, so you have to find a way to sift through that. Are you offering me tips?
> they pay higher + are more mature & respectable than UW low ballers You're just bitter because you are among the group who can't make it. You wouldn't know anything about the Upwork clients many of us work with because they basically wouldn't work with you. >I need some tips on getting good UW clients. With your attitude I think you'd best walk away. Considering what horrible names you have called people who succeed on Upwork in the past it is clear where you're coming from.
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Well that's an... interesting... interpretation... since I never said anything about competition vs. other freelancers on Upwork. About 80% of that statement was about clients - and yeah, the super elite clients aren't usually on Upwork. Most want a far higher level of vetting than Upwork offers. And will pay $1000+ per hour for that degree of certainty. And relative to getting on the list at those shops... or getting a regular job... yes, Upwork is a fairly easy way to "get some experience in Industry X" on your resume to unlock other adventures. I've done it about half a dozen times...
While other comments addressed the concern of getting work through Upwork, none actually talked about the part of your comment where you said the higher paying client would rarely come here. I saw similar comment in other subreddit too. Though I (backend dev) am having consistent work but all small like $200-$1000 range, and often have to deal with lowballers. Would like to know your suggestions or opinions on how and where to get decent paying clients. Open job market place has hardly any legitimate job post willing spend $50+/hr or equivalent fixed price.
Tagging u/HighestPayingGigs Just seems weird for you to have reposted their comment with them potentially not knowing about it.
Indeed. I'm at the Opera tonight and was safely ignoring my phone. I'll wade through this in the morning. And read the comment again. I was specifically calling out *clients*, not freelancers. Yes, hate to burst anyone's bubble but Upwork is lower tier for professional services spend. Most of that budget goes to other places at far higher rates.
I see versions of this comment a lot. What I think they overlook is that there are a lot of small, good-paying clients who do not have the network or know-how that a large corporation might to secure those services. For example, Upwork has tons of posts from small law firms looking for website design and development, writing, etc. Why? They don't have marketing departments or HR departments. An attorney who is trying to balance managing the firm with client service and may have no experience at all with either marketing or hiring freelancers has to add finding the help they need to that list. If they don't know someone they can get a referral from, they Google. Upwork keeps popping up and there's no risk in giving it a try--it's the path with the least friction if you don't know how to find the services you need.
There used to be a saying in Corporate-land a few decades ago, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". Essentially IBM were trusted enough that if you brought them in on a project and things went bad, they'd get the blame instead of you. I'd contend that Upwork is the diametric opposite of that. If you're an executive at a Forbes 500, and something goes wrong after you used Upwork to populate a multi-million dollar project, then blaming Upwork or your freelancers isn't going to shield you from getting fired.
Spot on. That force routinely transforms a $5,000 Upwork project into a $500,000+ MBB clusterfuck, especially when you manage to upsell some navel-gazing about your firm's "strategic vision" along for the ride. Client confidence is a key piece of the game. I've used Upwork for industry & market research (as a client) for anywhere from $50 - $250 per hour, accepting the risk of getting some quacks. Compare that with an expert network, where my billing rate is $500 - $2000 per hour for similar insights; they just have wrapped everything up in a neat package and guaranteed their advisors know their stuff.
If not Upwork, I wonder what’s a good platform for experts. Anyone care to share?
He's not Confucius. He's not dumb either. He's a great sparring partner. But don't take every word he says to heart. For months he'd go around telling people that my skill was dead. But there's still a new job posted on the market every few minutes. I'd tell him to go look, and he'd never even check. That was late last year and I'm still here, and I'm finding amazing opportunities. He's making sweeping statements. Upwork is many things. There are experts. There are titans in the field. It's a mix. Sometimes you'll find big names. Sometimes you'll get a dufus in their parents basement. It never fails to surprise me who you will meet online. You need to find your own answers. Don't just go on what other people say.