Freelance journey to $2000 a month

[Ethan Parker]

Hey!

Hope you are having a wonderful day. If you are reading this, that mean you are about to start following one of the rare freelance journeys on BHW which is supposed to last throughout my career. I will try to update it regularly, track time I am investing into this journey and create an income in the amount of $2,000 a month (this is my goal).

Background: I have some experience in this world, I have been here on and off for about 7 years already. In the last several months, I was not dedicated to accomplishing anything online, rather I have spent my time exploring some entrepreneurial opportunities. I gained some valuable experience but due to bad organization and lack of money, I haven't been able to achieve what I wanted.

I am back to freelancing after 13 months and I also plan to travel a lot. The income I plan to create will be from scratch; I do not have any money to invest or any resources I can use at this moment. I sunk all the money into my last venture, and I haven't been active online for a long time so I am not sure what will work or not.

What I have at this moment: A positive working attitude and a good writing skills set. I can write articles, blogs, eBooks...basically, any online content. I also have a lot of time to invest and I consider myself to be a fast learner with a strong will and dedication for success.

What I do not have: Clients, resources, tools... I am a lot behind my competitors in this business, but I believe I can make it. Either way, I am not going to give up until I make $2,000 a month and build a solid client list.

To-do list:

• Create a freelance account on Upwork- I have been using Elance back in the days and now it seems they have merged with Odesk and created a new company called Upwork. Hopefully, I will be able to get plenty of gigs on this platform as I am a native English writer with a nice background and a good portfolio of projects. This can definitely be a good selling point.
• Apply for jobs on Upwork- I plan to create a strong profile and apply for at least 10 jobs. Out of those 10 jobs, I will consider a success if I land at least one gig. I will keep tweaking my proposal, my profile and my prices until I reach a higher response rate and better conversion.
• Find new writing opportunities- I do not care if they are paid or free. I need to write, I need to get some nice additional links in my portfolio (I have a lot of those but they are old and some of them are gone, too).
• Explore places where I can get hired to write- I already started doing this and I am not impressed with the data I have collected. Huge competition of writers out there who are trying to beat one another by lowering the prices to the bare minimum. This smells badly as I am not ready to write below my usual prices, which are around $1 per 100 words (this is my minimum) and I saw people writing articles for as low as $2 per 500 words. BHW might be one of places I plan to additionally explore when it comes to landing gigs, and I saw several other forums where I can offer my services. I will give it a go, definitely, since I really do not have anything to lose.

If you have any advice for me, I would really appreciate it. I am on the beginning of a new career and I could use all the help I can get.

Thanks

Quote as a motivation: Be the type of person that when your feet touch the floor in the morning, the devil says "Oh, shit, they are up"!

 

[dhia27]

oh, seems you are already loaded.
Good luck, I might get in touch soon.

 

[Redblade]

I've reached the 4k month mark - I'm trying to transition into Ecom, because this shit got out of hand and I have no time for my family. I charge $22 an hour for web design stuff.

Here's a tip - When working on Upwork you have to give it 120%. When starting out, go in hard and apply like a madman. Aim for 5 star reviews at all costs. Also for job success scores always mark the job "Completed Successfully" to boost your score.

Looks like you're getting into copywriting. Hmm.. There was a book caled "Odesk Domination" that existed some time ago. The original creator took it off Amazon because it was too powerful to be honest. Usually there's shit products you'd come across for $997, but this one was a gem only for $8.

Anyways, its possible and doable. Give it your all. Good luck!

 

[Ethan Parker]

oh, seems you are already loaded.
Good luck, I might get in touch soon.

Great, if you need anything, feel free to reach me through PM here on BHW, I usually respond pretty quickly.

 

[Ethan Parker]

I've reached the 4k month mark - I'm trying to transition into Ecom, because this shit got out of hand and I have no time for my family. I charge $22 an hour for web design stuff.

Here's a tip - When working on Upwork you have to give it 120%. When starting out, go in hard and apply like a madman. Aim for 5 star reviews at all costs. Also for job success scores always mark the job "Completed Successfully" to boost your score.

Looks like you're getting into copywriting. Hmm.. There was a book caled "Odesk Domination" that existed some time ago. The original creator took it off Amazon because it was too powerful to be honest. Usually there's shit products you'd come across for $997, but this one was a gem only for $8.

Anyways, its possible and doable. Give it your all. Good luck!

Some great tips you gave here man, thanks a lot. I know it is going to be hard, but I ain't giving up. I will try to locate the eBook you have mentioned, but what I believe is that most of the stuff that comes out of eBooks are the information that could be found all over the web. People who create eBooks are only repackaging the information that has already been provided so many times.

Though, there is a slight chance that there is some unique information in the eBook.

I am also quite good at web design but I am still not providing any services in that area. Was it too hard to beat the competition when it comes to that area of expertise?

 

[gloryous]

Great journey! Also, i'm new on upwork. If do you want we can discuss together about some advices. I'm on webdeveloping & SEO.

Skype ID: xcipperu

 

[Boomba]

Like someone else said, do your best to make people happy on Upwork to get five star reviews. The last time I used it I found a writer who was new, but his content was great and he always delivered within a day. From what he told me, my five star reviews really helped him get some momentum going.

Best of luck on your journey!

 

[steveseos]

Nice journey , good to hear the story.

 

[Ethan Parker]

Like someone else said, do your best to make people happy on Upwork to get five star reviews. The last time I used it I found a writer who was new, but his content was great and he always delivered within a day. From what he told me, my five star reviews really helped him get some momentum going.

Best of luck on your journey!

Yes, I did a lot of research about Upwork and I have realized where the key to success lies. Reviews are one of the decisive factor in that game, but of course, there are more to success on Upwork besides that. A well-constructed profile with an attractive proposal are also necessary.

Thanks for the warm wishes buddy!

 

[okazaki]

Good luck OP.

 

[Ethan Parker]

Update 1: Today was quite a productive day. I've done a lot of work and in total, I have invested around 7 hours. That is little below my goal, since I plan to invest around 8 hours each day but I consider it to be okay since this was the first day of this journey.

Today, I have managed to set up an Upwork account, fill out all the necessary information, pass two tests and rank in top 10% and top 20% for those. I've put some portfolio pieces in my profile, found some good headshots for the profile image, and created a good looking proposal. I have my profile sitting at 100%, with a good structured proposal ready. I want to mention that I will not be doing a copy-paste on my proposals, as that would look amateurish. I plan to copy some of the things, though, most of the proposals will be edited according to the needs for a specific job.

I have also managed to set up a Facebook and Twitter account, and starting tomorrow, I will see how they might be useful for me.

I still have some time left on my day to apply for at least 5 jobs. In my to-do list written the day before, I have mentioned that my plan is to apply for 10 but I reconsider it as sending out 10 proposals will cost me 20 connects and I only have 60. I figured out that it will be much smarter to test the water with smaller amount of proposals, see if I am making some mistakes and land some smaller paying gigs that will get me 5-start feedback first. After that, I can get higher paying jobs easier and I will leave a better impression with some good feedback to support me.

I have explored some of the writing options but I haven't got to test anything. BHW is quite competitive, there are a lot of writers and editors at this place and some of them are definitely offering services below my prices. Setting up a selling thread here is something I plan to do in the near future, however I am not ready for that yet.

To do list:

• Apply for 5 more jobs tomorrow. I am not sure how long it will take me to land the first gig, but I am quite optimistic and I believe it will happen in the next 3 days (first 15 proposals).
• Keep exploring options, find some guest blogs and create a list.
• Start outreaching to some of the blogs in the IM, business and self-help niche. I would love to create a good looking portfolio made out of fresh links of some of the posts I wrote. That would surely boost my credibility.
• Set up a LinkedIn profile, and figure out how can I use Facebook and Twitter to land clients.

There are a lot more things I need to do tomorrow, which will be revealed to me throughout the day. They are not worthy enough to be mentioned here, as those are the tasks that require 15-20 minutes to be finished and no one really cares about them.

Random quote as a motivation: How badly you want something dictates how hard you will work at it!

Thanks for the warm wishes and for following my thread guys.

 

[Ethan Parker]

Update 2:

Haven't updated this thread for couple of days. I was on a small 2-day trip so I was not working full time on this venture. Anyway, I am back and I have done couple of things. I have started applying for jobs and out of 8 proposals I have sent so far, I have received 3 responses which is quite good. However, I have decided that I will be skipping on all three offers since they were not type of writing gigs I prefer. I would love to get some work that I like doing as I cannot write top-quality content if I do not enjoy the type of work I get. It would be great if the clients would explain the type of work in the job description when posting a job offer so I know not to waste my connects applying for something I am not willing to work on.

Anyway, I am still glad I am getting some quality responses and that is what matters to me at this stage. I am going to get to my goal but it will be impossible to get it in a short time frame as I need to do a lot of testing and failing until I realize the ins and outs of this business.

Going to work really hard today, back to 7-8 hour work days hopefully.

Will update this thread as often as possible, but I will not be giving updates if there is not much to say.

Thanks for following and supporting me guys.

 

[MMJason]

Best of luck. I'd probably diversify my skills though since pretty much everybody can write online content and everyone is applying for those jobs!

 

[Cherry]

I've been actively working full time as a freelancer on Upwork for almost 4 years now. 5-star feedback or reviews really matter! Good luck on your freelance journey!

 

[Ethan Parker]

Best of luck. I'd probably diversify my skills though since pretty much everybody can write online content and everyone is applying for those jobs!

Realized that pretty quickly, though my services are of the highest quality. Such service is always in need, if you ask me. Anyway, I broaden up the list of services I offer and I am trying to acquire new skills everyday as I really want to make a successful freelance career and start a company in the next 5 years. Thanks for the tip brother.

I've been actively working full time as a freelancer on Upwork for almost 4 years now. 5-star feedback or reviews really matter! Good luck on your freelance journey!

Thanks mate.

Update 3:

Okay guys, I was not updating this thread as often lately as there was not a lot to update. I've been steadily applying for jobs on Upwork hoping that I would get a job and it paid off. I got a writing gig, though I needed to decrease my regular prices but I believe it will be worth it in the end as I am aiming to get 5-star reviews first. They will make other things possible for me. I have couple of days to finish this job and I will give my best.

Registered accounts on all of the social networks, worked on developing new skills and I had some offline activities as well. I am highly untrained and undisciplined at this moment, and that has to change drastically or I will never reach my highest goals. I was not able to score at least 8 hours of work every day as I had other daily commitments. I am a social person who loves going out as often as possible and I got lazy since I was not dedicated to my online ventures a long time. This left serious effect on me and I need to get back in the game and work way more or I am going down.

I also lack some organizational skills as well and it seems I am awful when it comes to time management. Got to fix all these up too.

I've done much more work in the background which I am not mentioning here on BHW. This is the foundation for some stuff in future and I will consider mentioning it here if I see anything out of it.

Thanks for the support guys, I appreciate it!

 

[SIRELLIOT]

nice post buddy,also starting up same thing but am making use of fiverr as my freelance website and advertisement are from my blog ,facebook page ,forums and with time i will let you know how am going .

 

[Mosso]

Best of luck!
It's a right way - to build business on your expertise

 

[incomesurfer]

Never stop sending proposals OP : ). Maximize all your connects.
Iv'e got a work on upwork after 2 mos. . My 1st and current job though the rate is quite low only 3$/hr

I've been actively working full time as a freelancer on Upwork for almost 4 years now. 5-star feedback or reviews really matter! Good luck on your freelance journey!

w0w, wondering what's your current rate/hr on upwork