How To Get Started on Upwork as a seller 2023

Your freelance business is planted in an ecosystem designed specifically to connect you with prospective long-term clients when you use Upwork's work marketplace. To put it another way, we want to see you succeed! Upwork is built to make it simple for you to market your most in-demand services, highlight your best work, welcome new client connections with confidence, and see the results of your persistent efforts. How can you use this information to your advantage? To provide you a strong foundation, we'll discuss resources and best practices in this article.

1.Visit Upwork.com and select "Sign Up."

Click the "Sign Up" button in the top right corner to get started with Upwork.

2. Register with your company email address, an Apple ID, or a Google Account.

For your free account, you have a few choices:

• You can login to the website with your current account if you continue with Google or Apple. One fewer login and password to remember, plus any notifications you've enabled for your Upwork account, such as suspicious event detection.
• You can also create a distinct login that isn't directly linked to other services by using your preferred email address.

3. Include your individual information

Add a few more details to complete this first step in creating your account:

• your name, both first and last
• Your account's password
• where you are

After reading the Upwork Terms of Service—including the User Agreement and Privacy Policy—select the "Work as a freelancer" button, determine whether you want to receive our best advice, and then click the corresponding checkbox.

As you may imagine, there is a lot of information here. However, it's also vital to your company's success and your performance on Upwork. Discover some of the highlights right here.

When you're prepared, select "Create My Account" to go to the following step: building your Upwork profile.

On Upwork, there are two ways to communicate with clients:

• Through your profile or in Project Catalog (a marketplace for projects you've already established), they come across you.
• By sending them a proposal for their job posting, you approach them.

You must have a freelancer profile that presents your company, emphasizes your experience, and grabs their attention in any scenario. You can always return to amend and improve your profile; we'll look into it further in the future.

Let's cover the fundamental details you should include for the time being.

4. Describe your work in your Upwork profile's opening paragraph.

You must complete at least 60% of your Upwork profile before you can begin applying for job postings:

• a picture of you
• Your name
• Your summary
• Work Experience
• a minimum of one skill tag

Of course, we advise filling out your profile completely! However, you don't have to finish it all today. In fact, you'll probably make refinements to it frequently.

Peggy stated, "I've probably rewritten my profile 75 times." "Within your own field of expertise, you must position yourself in line with the needs and preferences of your target audience. It must be pertinent to my potential clients, which is why I constantly editing my profile, even if I only update one sentence.

You are prompted for details about the services you provide in the first two sections:

• Your total field of expertise
• your specific areas of expertise
• The degree of your experience

Up to four different work categories are available. We advise selecting the most powerful, specialized, and/or in-demand candidate. You can apply to job ads in any category, but the categories you choose will affect how clients find your profile

Choose up to 10 skills from Upwork's comprehensive list to highlight. Upwork will propose skills from a defined list as you begin to type. You may drag and drop these abilities into the exact order you want them to appear in your profile, which will assist prospects determine whether you have the competence they require.

Select the choice that best describes your degree of skill on the next screen: Whether beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

5. Describe your academic background

Your official education is outlined in this section. All of the information, with the exception of the institution, is optional if you decide to add entries.

We advise adding:

• the degree obtained, even if it hasn't been finished
• The subject matter
• Additional information, such as honors or prizes obtained, or extracurricular activities you participated in (teams, clubs, etc.).

6. List your previous employment highlights

Particularly if you're new to Upwork, your prior work experience can help you establish credibility with a potential customer. It can highlight not only your level of competence but also any existing knowledge you may have of particular fields or businesses.

You might wish to add:

• Organizations you have previously worked with Projects finished prior to joining Upwork Projects 
• you can share from other freelance websites

7. Include your linguistic skills

You must specify in your profile that you are proficient in English because Upwork only works with English-speaking clients. However, companies on Upwork are from all over the world and frequently conduct business in other languages, so be careful to mention any additional languages you may be fluent in.

When evaluating one's own language abilities, be as exact as you can to ensure that you're setting realistic expectations for potential customers.

8. Decide on an hourly wage.

If the thought of determining your rates makes you nervous, bear these two points in mind:

• You are always free to change your overall rate.
• Every single time you submit a proposal, you can alter your rate.

New freelancers on Upwork frequently make the error of basing their rate on their hourly wage as an employee. That may be a good place to start, but it doesn't take into consideration expenses you're now accountable for, such the equipment you rely on, your home office setup, taxes, professional fees, and continual skill development.

Starting at one rate and adjusting it as you establish a reputation through completed projects and client feedback, better grasp the value you provide to long-term clients, and gain a better understanding of the amount of work each client project entails may prove helpful.

9. State your title and summary

Since they're among the first things clients will notice, a strong title and summary might influence the answers you get from them. To begin, let's consider what users will see in search results: In essence, it's a promotion of your offerings.

What can you do to encourage potential clients to visit your whole freelancer profile and click through? Here are some suggestions:

• Your title should be brief. Send the most crucial information out as soon as you can. Remember that after 35 or so characters, your title will end with a "..." in the mobile search results.
• Include keywords that potential customers might use to find you and be descriptive.
• Make your opening statement count. Your entire bio can be a valuable asset for attracting new customers, but the first few lines will stand out the most.

In fact, Overholt advised keeping your overview to a few brief paragraphs, despite the fact that it can be up to 5000 characters long. "If the 'read more' option pops up, you've got too much," she added.

Not only as a freelancer, but also as a customer who has hired other freelancers to execute her ideas, Overholt has a wealth of expertise. She said, "I've employed freelancers who had no prior experience on the platform simply because I was impressed by their portfolio and bio.

"Your summary should consist of one or two succinct sentences that state your profession, your level of experience, the types of projects you're interested in, and what you can accomplish for them. Short, simple, and finished

10. Add an avatar

Businesses want to collaborate with experts they can rely on for important tasks. Is there confidence in your profile picture?

There are a few requirements for profile images under Upwork's Terms of Use. For instance:

• It cannot be empty.
• You must be able to see your face.
• A logo or caricature are not permitted.

You don't have to hire a photographer to take your picture. But how can you make sure your image is of a good caliber? Check out our how-to guide for your ideal profile image for useful advice and examples from industry experts.

11. Include contact information

You provided your location during the sign-up process, but now we need a little more information, such as your address and phone number, to help us confirm your identity.

And if you're currently away from home due to travel or another reason? Type the address you use to file taxes.

12. Before sending, review your profile.

Your task is almost complete! Before submitting it, double-check all of the information in your freelancer profile.

You won't be able to start submitting proposals right away, which is really crucial to note.

On Upwork, people must be trusted, and it's crucial that they are who they claim to be. You must use one of the following methods to confirm your identity before applying to any projects:

• valid ID from the government
• a visual verification online

Simply follow the instructions in your account to complete this process, which typically takes around 10 minutes.

13: Join Upwork to become a freelancer.

Ta-da! You are now prepared to begin working on your first assignment after setting up your Upwork account.

We'll discuss excellent practices in the section that follows to assist you in making a first impression that secures new projects.

Future Steps

That is a lot of data to process! As you begin working as a freelancer on Upwork and in your new independent life, we hope it gives you more confidence. Create an account on Upwork right away if you don't already have one.