The Write Way Round

I'd go so far as to say that applying to jobs and landing new clients is part of freelancing which I get a kick out of the most. However I think it's interesting that there are so many blogs on writing a great proposal, deciding how much you should charge and finding suitable jobs to apply for - but not many on what comes next. Winning a job is a great start - but turning that job into a productive, long-term relationship with a client is the next step. Let's talk about what happens next! If you've just arrived be sure to check out Part One of this blog here , which focuses on finding suitable jobs and writing a great proposal! Time for the highly anticipated Part Two!! Asking the Right Questions Even if the job description for your clients project was incredibly detailed, chances are you still have questions about how to make the project a success. Not only will finding out more improve your chances of nailing exactly what the client is expecting of you - ...

If you're looking for a few top tips for growing your business as a freelancer - which i personally think apply to any freelancer on UpWork and are reiterated in various blogs - feel free to skip to the last paragraph of this blog! Ever wanted to earn a six figure income on UpWork? Me too man! Naturally I've been putting in a bit of research as I write this blog and one name which keeps popping up in the freelance content writing niche - that of Danny Margulies, earner of hundreds of thousands of dollars on UpWork. His website, courses and blogs over at  Freelance To Win  are apparently the holy grail for thousands of freelancers. So what do I think? Is it for real? Let's split this article. I want to be fair to the fella, so we'll start with the positives. What can you learn from Danny? Danny is a great copywriter, and probably an even better marketer. This is evident from the get go, and even the personal blogs on his website are very well written. ...

So this week your boy has started checking out a few UpWork community pages and I've noticed that a lot of people are struggling to get their profiles approved on the site. It's not as hard as you think to get approved on UpWork! One of the ways UpWork distinguishes itself from other freelancing sites like Freelancer and Fiverr  is by enforcing a relatively effective vetting process to stop the website being saturated with freelancers who offer the same skills. This basically means that if there are too many freelancers who offer the same skills as you already, it's unlikely that you'll be able to create an account. So how can you get around this? UpWork has a two stage process for assessing applications. The first stage is automatic, relying on algorithms which probe your application. The first loophole to jump through is your email address - you're less likely to get accepted with a generic gmail or outlook account than you are with a company one! Stag...

My connects reset today which means it's been exactly a month - nice convenient time to reflect. So here's a blog vaguely based on where I am with my freelancing and where you should aim to be, I guess. I'd say the most important part of month one is building an application which works for you - check out an example of mine in this blog about applying for jobs. Whilst pinging out the same application for everything you apply for won't get you anywhere, there is a general theme and structure to get to grips with. Find out what works for you. Secondly, in the beginning it's all about building up a bit of feedback. Asking clients if they mind closing and reopening a contract so that you can build up 5* feedback is a good shout - once you've got a few under your belt it's much easier to land more jobs. In this initial stage of building up some feedback, you'll probably find yourself working for a bit less than you'd ideally want to get paid . U...

Recently I've been scouring around for blogs and there are a whole load  out there about how to become successful on UpWork. A lot of them are properly inspirational and tell you all about how the author earns 40k a year freelancing now, yadda yadda yadda. As inspiring as those blogs are, I realised that they're kind of all tell and no show, right? So I thought it would be handy to write a real life example of the step-by-step process I've used to land a client. Hopefully showing you how I do it is a better idea than just preaching general rules. Honestly I'm a few Heineken's in so you'll have to decide for yourself. Let's analyse my application step-by-step: Part One - Applying for the Job So obviously the whole point of this post is showing how to land clients on UpWork. But I'm going to add a second half which will focus on interacting with clients and how I actually produce them copy as well. The Job Description I've included a sc...

Great news lads, your boy is getting some fun new contracts in!! A few days off a month into my freelance extravaganza and things are picking up. For the first few months whilst I work and travel I'm keeping it casual. My legend girlfriend is coming out for three weeks in June and so is a geezer I went to school with in August - as I don't wanna have to work flat out when they're here, it makes sense to stick to a handful of decent clients. Your first month is all about building a portfolio and getting some good feedback in. I've secured the rising talent badge pretty easily so should be on track for Top-Rated by the time I start properly hitting this up.. I get back around September. I already posted about the fact that I've picked up a few jobs where i didn't really get paid enough which is basically inevitable when you're starting out. After a month though I'm riding a 100% job success score due to the seven five star feedback's I...

Today's morsel of wisdom comes from a blog I read  by Danny Margulies about attaching relevant writing samples to your application. Nearly all job descriptions for copy-writers and bloggers ask to include relevant samples - previously my tactic has been to include a few lines like this in my application: "I  have  attached some blog posts that I have recently created, as I believe that everyone has a unique writing style and I want you to see mine!     As you can see, I've written in a number of niches, from business and digital marketing to travel  and interior design. I am  more than happy researching any topics you might desire." Before including as many examples of high quality blog posts that I've already put out for previous clients, like so: In hindsight, this is probably  not the most effective way to score interviews, for a few reasons. One is that there is no way they are going to read all of them. They are kinda l...

Getting started on UpWork is a bit of a conundrum, right? You wanna smash out work but it's kinda hard with no feedback and you want to get feedback but that's kinda hard when you haven't done any work. Unless you have some mad skills in a niche I haven't heard of and a decent portfolio behind you to prove it, this probably means you're going to end up working for less than your time is worth. Admittedly this seems like a bit of a wonk job and yours truly has fallen prey to not applying to as many jobs as he should have because they don't pay enough. That said, I recently had this exchange with a client: In the end I banged this blog out anyway - to be honest, it didn't take that long but was still a bit 'below me' in terms of earnings over time. Plus digital marketing isn't really my jive. However the moral of the story is that when you're getting started on UpWork, you've pretty much got to take what you ca...

So I've been experimenting with a few different cover letters - this is a quick post about how to write a cover letter on UpWork. Finding a template that works for you not only saves time - with the right formula you can hopefully boost the number of interviews and successful proposals. It's raining in Ho Chi Minh City so with nothing better to do but sit in the hostel, I thought I'd share some UpWork wisdom. Don't copy it word for word, you freaks!! Okay, so key tips: If possible, find out who you're writing to. On the job outline, you can look at the clients feedback and often you'll find their name. Address it to them personally. If not I've been going with 'Dear potential client,' which might be more handy for formal proposals. Straight off the bat I've put why I am interested in that job specifically. Hint: I've never even had a dog. Be creative! Include your portfolio. If you've rolled out of bed and decided to ...

Today whilst scrolling through UpWork I came across one of my favorite kind of jobs. You'll occasionally see a client who needs something done urgently - in this case within an hour. Usually it's pretty simple, and the budget they've set is what they're willing to pay. Which was good for me on this occasion - because $40 per hour (after UpWork fees) is pretty tight huh? Especially when this one only took about 30 minutes. Took the edge off of being scammed twenty dollars by a shoe repairer in Hanoi earlier today. From what I can gauge, these jobs are all about getting in there quickly - having a quality application and being the first on the pile of proposals. My tips for this kind of thing would be: Only go for it if you're sure you can complete it in time. Obviously. This one specified 500-600 words, which I knew I could bash out. Try and find out as much as possible before accepting any proposals. This client wanted a press release, and I knew I c...