Secrets that Pro freelancers know, that Beginners DON'T

#5. Invites are the secret side of Upwork, and they're awesome.

After I started winning on Upwork, I started getting invites.

"This client has invited you to interview!"

It started as a trickle, but turned into a flood. At one point, I was getting 10-15 Upwork job invites per DAY.

Consider Job Invite rankings as Upwork's gift to freelancers that follow the rules, do great work, and help them grow. Job invites:

Mean that you were personally identified by the client** to take a look at this job (**except if it was from Upwork Talent Scout)
Can come from some of the highest-budget clients
Can be Invite-only jobs, meaning other freelancers can't even SEE the job unless they've been INVITED... meaning you're not competing with ANYONE else except the people who were invited!

Job invites are dependent on a number of factors, including the projects that you do, project tags, but it all comes down to this:

Are you giving Upwork clients a good experience?
How awesome is your profile at attracting clients?

...And that correlates into how high your profile will rank in search, when a client posts a new job and is shown a number of freelancers who "Could be a good fit for your project"

#4. Even though there's no way to ALWAYS rank higher when Upwork clients search... there ARE ways to consistently show up higher.

This one is crazy. I had to do a ton of research to learn about this. Over the course of years, I always noticed a few things that were weird...

Whenever a client approved a milestone and or I closed a contract with a client, I would see more invites coming my way.

Things that can help you rank higher on Upwork include:

Starting a new job
Having a milestone approved
Completing a job with a 5-star rating
Consistent project tags
Repeat hiring by a single client
High average client spend**

If you're relatively new to Upwork, you're probably saying: "But these are only things that happen once you GET HIRED! They're not in my control!" Keep reading, because some things ARE in your control.

But here's the weird thing: "more projects" is not necessarily going to make you MORE MONEY, because here's another secret...

#3. "BETTER projects" is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than "more projects"

Look at Upwork's incentive system:

20% up to $500

10% from $500 up to $10K

5% at $10K+

Let me say this clearly: THEY WANT YOU TO DO $10K+ PROJECTS! They are literally incentivizing you to do as big of projects as you can, ideally above the $10K mark. More money for you!

Here's what $15,000 worth of jobs looks like under the two scenarios:

30 x $500 projects x 20% Upwork fee = $3,000 fee

Doing only $500 projects, you end up with $15,000 - $3,000 fee = $12,000.

Compare that with a single $15,000 job, this is how Upwork fees work

The first $500 x 20% Upwork fee = $100

The next $9,500 x 10% Upwork fee = $950 (that's the amount you earned between $500 and $10,000)

The last $5,000 x 5% Upwork fee = $250 (that's the amount you earned above $10,000)

Doing a single $15,000 project, Upwork's total fees aren't $3,000... they're $1,300. And on that $15,000 project, you ended up with $13,700! That's $1,700 MORE than if you had done all the smaller projects...

...AND...

...you were able to focus more.

...because you were able to focus more, you were able to deliver better work and a better experience for that client.

...and because you delivered better work & a better experience, you crushed it with a glowing 5-star review on a $15,000 project.

...you didn't have to risk 30 potentially-negative reviews because you were working with so many clients, had to keep track of so many messages, deadlines and project issues to fix.

...and you were far CALMER throughout the entire experience.

(oh and by the way - if you end up doing another project for that same client, everything you earn will then be at that 5% fee level from now on!)

So why would you be doing projects for $500 or less and getting 20% of your earnings taken, when you could be doing fewer projects and making more?

We all know that winning large projects isn't easy when you first start. You build trust over time by way of positive reviews and delivering great client experiences.

As you go along, there are things that ARE in your control, that you can do to improve the chance you'll rank higher in search - and get MORE INVITES to jobs:

Updating your profile regularly
Uploading new, AWESOME portfolio work examples that represent superstar-quality work
Tagging your portfolio work examples with job skill tags
Re-checking and adjusting your profile skill tags
Regularly sending proposals
Leaving a positive Freelancer Response on feedback that clients give you

But that's only half the equation. Luckily, here's the next secret:

#2. Upwork wants you to keep succeeding, because Upwork is a MOMENTUM GAME.

I have no confirmation on this, but I believe that one of the reasons I was able to succeed so much on Upwork was in my ability to leverage momentum.

If $1 of earnings is worth $1 (or $0.80 if you're under $500 with that client), then a review is worth AT LEAST 10x that.

Here's why:

When a client looks at your profile, they see your 10 most-recent reviews. Imagine this:

Your 10 most-recent reviews (what clients see) are 10x 5-star reviews, all great feedback etc.

Scenario A: You get another 5-star review with great feedback.

What Happens: It'll be easy for you to not only win your next job, but you can probably even raise your rate.

Scenario B: You get a 2.5-star review, with not-so-great feedback.

What Happens: When a potential client sees your feedback history, they see the 2.5-star review at the TOP... and avoid you. You'll have to work HARD to get your next job. Forget raising your rate - you might even have to LOWER your rate to win the next one!

On top of that, the 2.5-star review STICKS AROUND on your profile until you complete 10 more jobs. You now have to complete 10 MORE JOBS IN A ROW with 5-star feedback.

And if your average project size is $1000, you might have lost out of $10,000 worth of work because of a single negative feedback.

#1. Your Number 1 Job on Upwork: DON'T LOSE.

Don’t stop the momentum. One bad project slows you down and brings all your work down. One bad review will stop you from growing - don’t let that happen.

So that means that you need to be DYNAMITE at choosing great clients, and avoiding any that are going to crush your momentum.

Mini-secret: Even though there are fewer clients that will want to pay higher rates, apart from lower fees, it’s actually SO MUCH better to charge higher rates.

Know why?

In general, the clients that pay more, are BETTER.

The smallest clients give the biggest headaches. Here's a just a FEW I've seen:

Incomplete project information
Ghosting
No-showing to project meetings
Not reviewing draft work, then showing up when the work is done saying "We need to totally redo this"
Not reading your messages / ignoring your instructions
Letting the project go on for MONTHS when it should have been done in 2 weeks
Complaining about "why is this taking so long"
Asking for more work (beyond scope) then asking "why did you work so many hours on this?!"

...and this can go all the way beyond just a bad review - you could end up in an arbitration dispute (I've been there!). You have to put up $297 for arbitration costs just to *hopefully* get what you're owed... so again - the bigger the project, the EASIER it is to stomach a $297 fee (especially if you're owed $1,000+, $3,000+ etc). But if you're owed $300, there's no way you're going to pay a $297 fee, right?

"Not losing" and constantly upping your game will get you away from the headache clients as quickly as you can.

BONUS. The best clients DON'T WANT CHEAP.

Imagine you're working with a billionaire. Do they want the person who's the cheapest? Or even someone who's cheap at all? They might have millions of dollars riding on the success of their projects!

They want High Quality x Fast.

They want a professional who is much smarter AND faster than them at what they need done. They want an excellent job, done well, done well THE FIRST TIME...

...and they're busy people, who don't have time for constant back-and-forth messages.

That said, always remember this one thing:

Just because someone has money, does NOT give them a free pass to act like a jerk!!!!!

So YOU are the ONLY one who can always make sure that you're actively avoiding people who turn into jerks.

-Leave a comment if you feel like you learned something-

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