Earning $100,000 From Freelance | Zero to Hero

Alexion said:

A lot of us gave you some solid advice on how to get the ball rolling on upwork, even without reviews.

Communication skills is key. The better you talk, the greater the chances of getting an interview.

If you get an interview, you get 10 connects back, so at least you don't waste away your connects.

I can't stress enough how communication is important.

I once did a test where I posted a job just like the ones I was applying to, just to see how people bid.

I got 48 bids. Do you know how many were actually worthy of reading? 3

The rest were pure crap like "Hello dear, I can do job quick sir". Nobody reads those, especially on a good job where the budget is $300 and up.

I would also caution you to pick your rate wisely. Don't go on the low end. Start from $25 an hour. People with a decent budget will always skim through the low end offers simply because they think they won't get value.

The last job I got 2 days ago was from one that had a budget of $500. I bid $350. After I got it, the guy told me most of them were around $80 and he didn't even bother to read them. He also kept the contract open for future jobs.

You don't need a lot of clients like it is on fiverr. Three good clients per month will bring you close to $2,000 or more.

Just spend some connects first. Apply to 15-20 jobs. See what's your conversion and adjust your cover letter. That's all there is to it.

I often meet python devs in my line of work that make more than $10,000 per week from SIMPLE JOBS.

Don't get excited when you see a big spender offering a low paying job. Those guys are usually some type of agency or just outsourcing to make a profit. I usually don't apply to those, as the pay is 5-8 times lower.

The perfect client is one with a very low spent balance. Some people call them sleepers. They will always pay a premium, and often they have workload on a continuous basis.

I have an open contract with a real estate agency in UK for over 8 months. They provide weekly small jobs for automating their work. Total spent with me is shy over $5,000. Before working with them, they had $400 spent in total on Upwork from just one job, and no feedback.

If you talk like a normal human being, and not in a funny way like 90% do, you're all set.
People need work, not fluff talking.

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Influence said:

It was ridiculously easy as of yet expected it to be way rougher. I even bought credits because I anticipated an incredibly low conversion rate per proposal sent. I made a very compelling one, seems like; I've sent 19 in total and got 7 replies back (I still get belated ones). Of those one rejected me after calling me (funny, because his expectations were insane), and I rejected another 3 when I found out more details about the job, too demanding work for the price tag. Took me so much time to find quality jobs to apply for, though. I was incredibly selective.

Anyway, thanks for reading, man! A detailed update will be dropped in a couple of hours. Huge progress, very pleased!


I'm using Fiverr too.


Thanks for catching up, Kate!

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vedeus said:

I didn't read whole thread because I am too lazy, but I have similiar journey in freelancing mate I will watch this one closely - one thing though. I don't recommend you to get on platforms such as Fiverr.

1. Clients will pay you $20 to move the mountains
2. You are competing with xxxxx same people that have the same offer like you

You need direct relationships with the clients. Think outside the box.

Good luck

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Influence said:

Thanks for reading James!

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Brilliant Digital Services said:

Why not BHW to reach your goal? 200% better return here. And there will be less effort required.

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stepdub said:

All the best. Glad to see you switching to Upwork. In 2020, I started a journey thread on BHW with the goal of making $150K from freelancing on Upwork. I reached that goal in less than a year, so I can validate that your goal is super realistic and achivable.


My advice - after a couple of months bidding on Upwork, it gets boring. On days you are bored and demotivated, you won't feel like bidding for jobs, and you'd lose out on opportunities on those days. So as soon as you have some surplus cash, invest in hiring a high-quality freelancer who can do the bidding on your behalf. Prepare proposal templates and train them to do the bidding for you

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DanDD said:

How did you do this part? Giving account access to a freelancer is silly. Plus against tos if i recall

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stepdub said:

You are right. I'll follow TOS strictly from now. Thanks for the heads up.

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DanDD said:

Dude im just asking how you deal with it as i wanna do it myself but without getting flagged

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stepdub said:

The freelancer I hired was from my city. Even otherwise, my Upwork is logged in from multiple devices all the time. The freelancer messages me when he's using the account to bid, so that I don't use it during that time.

So far we haven't faced any issue.

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DanDD said:

Yeah this gotta be the best way to go forward. How has it turned over for you? Job applications are a real deal breaker for me

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Influence said:

Hey fellas, things are moving but I had lots of unexpected IRL issues, updating you all soon!

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