$5000 is no joke! Having it in your pocket is a dream of many, right? You can make it by working as a freelancer. That’s right!
Have heard rumors that reaching such a level is not possible? Haven’t seen someone really achieving it?
Well, they are just rumors to demotivate you from earning. I have earned $5000 from Upwork; I can attach proofs to back my claim. Really!
You can also learn how to make money from Upwork. It is not rocket science. You just need to put in motivation and do things right to get to that goal.
In this article, I’ll discuss when is it realistic to put $5000 as your earning aim from Upwork, how long can it possibly take and what exactly you should do to hold these dollars.
Is it even possible to get high-paying clients on Upwork?
There are multiple myths circulating different Facebook groups. One of them is grabbing high paying clients is not possible as a freelancer. Let me tell you that this is a demotivation tactic that some might use to reduce their competition while the others could be delusional by using the wrong strategy to grab clients.
You can have my word as it is not only for the sake of writing, I truly believe law of attraction is important and can shape your life. I have shown my earnings of $5000 from a single client through Upwork and here is the video.
When to set $5000 as your goal?
Jumping into the freelance market with a basic skill level isn’t the right time to set $5000 as your goal. Keeping your goals too high will not do any good to you.
So, you must keep them realistic. Ideally, you can set this goal once you have acquired at least an intermediate level of skill with a few clients on Upwork. It will show the strength of your profile and you can grab high-paying clients with ease.
How to make money from Upwork?
Applying for every job on Upwork is not the right way to grab the clients. You’ll waste your connects and lose all the motivation. What’s the right procedure? Let’s discern it together:
Establish a profile:
It goes without saying that you need to create the Upwork profile, covering all the details and completing it to 100%.
Filter out the jobs:
Now when your profile is ready. Go to the main feed for your profile, and filter out the jobs to apply on. By default, you’ll be seeing all the jobs posted related to the niche. But not all these jobs are for you. The sooner you realize this, the better results you can achieve.
Here are a few things that you might want to exclude when filtering out:
- Do not send out proposals on jobs with more than 15 proposals already sent (if your profile is new, set this to below 5).
- Do not apply on jobs where the method of payment is not verified by the client. You can use your judgment at the later stages, but initially when you have limited connects leaving out the unverified clientele is recommended.
- Select the complexity level depending upon your expertise. If you are just starting out with a skill, keep the experience level to “Entry Level” and nothing more.
- You can even set a minimum or maximum hourly rate to get the right clients. Setting the minimum rate at $15 is what I recommend. But it can be based on your preference.
- For the fixed price jobs, choose the jobs with $1k to $5k range. After all, we are aiming for more than $5000, right? But make sure you are ready to provide the quality services.
Another important check that you must apply before sending out the proposals is the effort the client has put in while writing the job description. Why is that important?
This is one of the basics of How to make money from Upwork? When a client has spent more effort on posting the project, you’ll be able to see it from the description’s length. Although not always, but mostly, freelancers skip reading the complete details and either apply on the project without going through it or skip it altogether.
This is where you can stand out from the crowd. By reading the job description in detail and writing a matching proposal will increase your chances of closing the deal. Imagine if you have spent some time on a project, you’ll want others to take time to at least read it instead of using their already built proposals. No?
Write a Killing Proposal
You might have previously landed up with a job with a simple proposal but that isn’t the method you should formally adopt if you want to earn more money from Upwork clients.
Your proposal sets an image in the minds of the consumers from the very start, so you have to make sure it is the BEST.
Now you must be stuck with the question of how to write the killing proposal that will actually land you to a high paying client.
For that, you must understand the backend of how your client sees your proposal. If you haven’t posted a job on the Upwork before, you might know how your client sees your proposal. So, let me help you here.
On Upwork, your potential client can see the top two lines of your proposal even without opening it. So, you have to ensure that the top two lines are so strong that they should open and read it.
Here is the complete procedure of how you can write the Upwork proposal:
Start with a hook
As I have mentioned, only top two lines are visible to the job poster, so you should not waste the opportunity here. Start with the hook. It must be something strong to make the client click on your proposal.
One more thing to note is you don’t have to grab attention by saying anything relevant to your experience or even the job posted. You can offer something lucrative as a hook. It always work!
Address the pain point:
Now when you formally start the proposal, don’t start it with YOURSELF. No one likes to read about who you are. All they care about is what you can do for them. So, address the pain points here.
Try using the language or keyword that the potential employer has used in the job post. It is human psychology that reading or hearing similar wordings as yours can build more confidence and credibility. So, you must use this technique while writing the proposal.
When I say pain points, I mean the problem that the job poster has highlighted in the description. They might be looking for specific work quality or the resolution of a particular problem. Address such points one by one so your potential client finds you the solution to their problem.
Explain yourself and your results:
The above two sections hold form the most part of your proposal. And this heading should only be the last portion covering a minute portion.
In this section, you can briefly explain that you are a writer and you have driven some great results. Do not focus on yourself much even in this section and keep it to the results generated for the other clients as it can enhance your credibility and client’s confidence on your abilities.
Call to Action:
At the very end, include a call to action. Just like any other form of writing, you must include a call to action at the end, highlighting what you want your reader to achieve.
For the Upwork proposals I recommend initiating the chat for discussing the project further because Upwork is not a platform where the clients will come and award projects readily especially when we are considering how to make money in large denominations.
So, focus on initiating the chat first and you can close the client by explaining what you can do for them in the chat or a call later on.
Deliver Quality Work:
Once you finalize things and start working with the client, ensure to deliver quality work for them. No client will come and give $5000 on a platter. You’ll have to work hard for it.
Mostly, you’ll have milestone payment even if you can get a high-budget client. So, to retain them with you or to get more orders from the same client, you’ll have to over deliver and maintain the quality if you really want to make your living from Upwork.
Improve your Communication skills:
Last but not least, communication skills are very important in the freelance market. From writing the proposal to interviewing and setting up the nItty gritties of the project, you’ll need to talk to the client. So, for that you need to have adequate communication skills.
Without great communication, no matter how excellent you are at your work, no one is going to hire you or retain you for long-term work. So, you must keep working on this side of your personality too.
Summing up:
There is no short cut to success so you cannot expect me to give you a time frame to the question “How to make money from Upwork?” It depends on your actual skill and communication. The better they are, there are higher chances of grabbing a client and retaining them for the long run and consequently more chances of your earning.
If you want to earn $5000 from a single client on Upwork but are new to the freelancing world, you can enroll in Aamir Ahmer Academy and get access to the digital marketing ecosystem from where you can learn, earn and create an impact in your life.
Be a part of our ecosystem and learn some amazing tactics to get long-term and high paying clients.
