Upwork is a great site that has helped Kenyans earn thousands of dollars. In fact, it is the most loved freelancing website all over the world.
Unfortunately, through my research, I have realized that lots of Kenyans fear it.
Many people have really been waiting for this Upwork review.
Like most freelancers, I was once afraid of Upwork. I simply signed up back then when it was still Elance but didn’t use it for months. I later decided to give it a shot; in fact a really good shot to see how it works.
Results? I currently use it as my most preferred freelancing site.
Here are my honest thoughts on Upwork.
Advantages of Upwork
- It pays very well if you really prove your expertise. For example, writers can get clients who pay $35 to over $100 per 500 words, which is unheard of in many freelancing websites.
- It is hard to get scammed if you follow the site’s guidelines.
- Most clients are reasonable and courteous – unlike some of those harsh, unreasonable ones in Freelancer and Guru.
- You are guaranteed payment as long as you take either hourly payments or ask for escrow (milestone) in fixed price projects.
- The Upwork Help Center shows you exactly what you need to do to get started and increase your earnings.
- You can easily form great, long-term relationships with the awesome clients you’ll get there, especially if you’re good at targeting.
Disadvantages of Upwork
- It is hard (but not impossible) to get hired when you’re new. Some people send proposals for weeks before getting their first job. However, if you work smart or are well trained ,you can do it faster.
- Some people find it hard to complete their profiles, especially without proper guidance. This hardship is relative – some people find it hard, some don’t. The thing is there is a lot to do for it to be complete; such as the overview, specialized profiles, adding portfolio items, filling in background information, etc.
- You need to work smart. This means that you really need to know what you are doing to make it. Makes it difficult for some new freelancers who go in without getting enough info about it.
- It rejects some new profiles based on an undisclosed algorithm.
Some Few Things You Need to Know About Upwork
Proposals
Sending a proposal in Upwork means applying for a job.
Upwork Desktop App
Upwork guarantees your payments for hourly jobs. If you take jobs that pay per hour, you can use the Upwork Desktop App and you will get automatically paid on certain dates as long as the client approves the work you did.
Even if you prefer fixed price contracts like me, you can still use this app to communicate instantly with clients. If you’re on Upwork, you should definitely download and install it.
Connects
This is like some sort of Upwork currency for sending proposals. You get 20 free Connects when you sign up as a free user. Once they’re depleted, you’ll need to buy more Connects.
Sending proposals will cost you two to six connects.
Note that if Upwork staff or clients invite you to a job interview, you won’t use any Connects.
Learn all about using Connects here.
Escrow
This describes cash that a client pays to the site then it is held for a particular project. Once the freelancer finishes their work, the client can release the escrow.
When you are hired for a fixed price job, ask your client to fund an escrow. The good thing is that the site asks them automatically to do this as well.
There is a lot of great stuff on this site that you just have to see for yourself. Otherwise, on this Upwork review, I have highlighted what I believe you need to know to understand the site.
Check out the short video below on how to build your Upwork freelancer profile.
Final Thoughts
Personally, this is the refuge for most people who are bored with sites like iWriter, are looking for something more professional and classy than Freelancer, and are not yet ready to do cold-pitching.
I love the professionalism and thoroughness of the site but the best thing of all for me is the fact that there are clients who pay very well.
It becomes easier to work there once you get the hang of it.
Check out what you need to do to make good cash on Upwork.
Are you on Upwork? What do you like about it?
Hi Walter,
I came across your profile on Elance and Googled your name to arrive here. Perhaps some of what Elance advises is well founded, as when they suggest that a smiling face in a profile picture gets noticed.
I’ve been on Elance for almost two weeks, and I agree that completing the set-up process: profile, portfolio, testing, and familiarizing oneself with the workings of the site does require time and effort, as does the proposal writing. So far, I have submitted 11 proposals, of which 6 are still open. It’s been a difficult process, but I’m not discouraged because I’ve seen that many freelancers have attained a level of success by sticking with it.
This morning, I received my first invitation to submit a proposal. It was an exciting moment. After writing and submitting my proposal, I noticed that there were four other invitees who had submitted as well, along with 17 others. The client chose quickly and selected a company in India. That didn’t upset me, but their bid, which was oddly visible, was $8.77/hr for accounting work and tax preparation for a small business. Competition is fine, but there’s no way to compete with low bids like that, if the client is inclined to go with the lowest bidder.
Hopefully, that scenario won’t be repeated too often. I’m still excited by the possibilities, and look forward to landing that first job.
Hi Ray,
Good to know that my Elance profile led you here 🙂
I agree that it is tough to get that first client. Most freelancers give up in the setup process. I say it is well worth it to fight the good fight since once work starts flowing, it flows real good.
The last thing that you need to worry about is low bidders. As opposed to sites like Freelancer and oDesk, I found that Elance clients mostly prefer quality over price. Therefore as long as you give them a great proposal and winning samples, you’ll have the upper hand.
Otherwise, all the best and I really hope you get that first job soon. Be sure to let us know how it goes.
Hi Walter, Just came by to let you know that, as you suggested, I didn’t cave in to the “low bidders” and landed my first two jobs today — at my price! They were both one-off jobs delivered this evening, but one of the clients has already awarded me an open ended job for occasional projects moving forward. (Job #3). Awesome!
Hi Ray,
Thanks for the update.
I am so happy to hear that you got your first 2 jobs at your price. I believe you’ll do great in Elance.
Elance is indeed the king of its niche.
I have to say that i have been a writer on Odesk and its not that bad. I just joined Elance and just got ma first job and its not that bad though i have’nt completed my prof. Comparing the two it seems that Elance pays much better. However, i think that at the end of the day it is the writer who decides which works for him better, Keeping in mind that one has to build his profile so as to get work.I have never tried freelancer and i just don’t like it. Maybe i will try it later in life:D. Just try Odesk and be patient to get a job no matter the pay and get your first ratings and you will be on 7th heaven thereafter. Gosh!completing Elance is a mystery, its just so hard.
Hi Kendi,
Of course oDesk is not bad. It actually pays the bills of so many people and there is never a need to belittle any website. In our economy, it is still possible to earn a decent living from oDesk. The only thing is that it may require more work than sites like Elance. This also depends on whether your profile is convincing enough since Elance clients will need more professional services. In short, the better the services, the better the pay.
Many established people don’t like Freelancer, you are not alone. You can use it as a client one day when you get bulk work. Elance is not that rough if you follow the guidelines above. A friend of mine used the methods and was elated the other day when he got a job paying almost 4USD per 500 words.
All the best 🙂
Elance is a great freelancing site. But like you said, winning a bid takes time. The good thing about elance is that most if their exams are free and like what you said, the same exams are found at freelance and the freelance exams are not free. But my advice is that, the freelancer must be passionate about what he or she wants to do. For example, does he want to look for online jobs through this freelancing sites or does he or she want to earn an income through monetizing their blog.
Thanks for your comment as always Wilfred. Yes, Elance is awesome but it is hard for one to get their proposal accepted.
I also agree that you need to be passionate about what you do. Monetizing blogs, freelancing websites e.t.c. can all be intertwined and make one earn some good cash. For example, you can easily become an Elance affiliate on your blog.
wow, Elance is simply awEsome
Totally!
HI Walter,
Thank you for this resourceful blog. I joined elance two days ago and still no work, i was getting discouraged but after reading this I feel that I am on the right track, people have been doing this for long, I cannot expect to reach them in one week.
Thank you again and may God bless the work of your hands.
Hi Carol,
I am glad to hear you love the blog.
With Elance you have to be patient. Look out for my next blog post on how you can make it work with Elance.
Yes, you are not alone in that, even me it took ages before I got my first job which was paying peanuts. Right now, I am happy I waited.
Thanks and God bless you too Carol
Hi Walter,
Thank you very much for this blog and all the awesome advice you give to freelancers.
I have been a “silent” reader of your blog but after reading this one today, I had to respond. Your response to one of the readers “Don’t waste much time with oDesk, they pay peanuts there” caught my eye and I thought I should give my 2 cents if you don’t mind.
Just for the record, in freelancing, just like any other job in the world, you don’t get paid what you’re worth. You get paid what you negotiate for.
Yesterday April 15, 2013 marked my third year as part-time oDesk freelancer (I have a full – time job), and coincidentally, when I hit my $10,000 milestone. And no, I haven’t been working for peanuts, except on my first job that I did out of choice, coz I wanted to hit my 100 oDesk hours milestone. Please see my post at http://www.makealivingfreelancing.com/2013/04/16/how-i-made-my-first-10000-online/
What is my point here? On any of the freelancing platforms, it all depends on what services you offer and on your negotiating powers. Offer competitive writing services, bid well, negotiate well, get paid well.
Hi Eva,
First of all you have an awesome blog. Kudos for that. I hope you’ll manage to market it some more and multiply your income from it. I’d advise all writers to click on your link and check it out.
Second, I totally agree with what you are saying. I personally made thousands of dollars on Freelancer which is considered one of the lowest paying sites on the planet.
What I’m talking about in that comment is that in general people tend to pay less in oDesk, then Freelancer when compared to Elance, iWriter and Fiverr. For example, I am currently working for a client in Elance who will pay me 4 dollars for just editing an article. I also have other clients outside who will also pay me $25-$50 to write a normal article. One famous writer I know charges $250 for a normal blog post.
Its like comparing Google Adsense with affiliate marketing. Google AdSense will drive your traffic away from your site (when readers go to check out the ads) and give you peanuts (unless you have one of those extremely popular, giant, high traffic sites which are countable on the planet). On the other hand, one affiliate sale can give you anything between $25 to an unlimited amount on a normal, well optimized, medium traffic blog like this one or yours.
Are there people getting rich on oDesk or Freelancer? Yes, there are but not as many when compared to other better paying platforms.
Once again, great comment and awesome blog you have.
Feel free to share any more thoughts.
Cheers 🙂
Thanks Walter for the response and for the complements. I hope I do get time to work on the blog. I have a full time job plus the oDesk thing so I basically use the blog to share practical resources here and there. Probably when I go full time freelancing I’ll put some more work into it. Keep up the good work of educating Kenyans to leverage the vast opportunities the internet has to offer.
Hi Walter,
I love your blog and the fact that it seeks to empower Kenyas make money online. I have been working in Elance and I must say I just love working there, for that is where real money is! Your observations are very true about how difficult it is to find jobs in Elance. Been there too. Besides writing, I also am also the founder of http://www.copytoprofit.com, a copywriting agency that helps small business create content for their websites. I wanted to write a post about “How to Make Real Money in Elance and Silly Mistakes that Contractors do when Bidding” Is it possible for me to write the post as a guest? Here is my profile Here is my profile. https://www.elance.com/s//charles_langat/.
Thanks
Charles
Thanks for your comment and the kind words. Sure you can do the guest post and include an author bio and link back to your site.
Looking forward to read from you!
PS. I have checked out your site and it looks awesome.
Cheers 🙂
Nice article. I opened an account at elance as well as at oDesk. Completing the elance profile has been difficult just as you have stated but, after your post, I’ll try my best on it. The oDesk profile is complete but getting hired is quite difficult. Nevertheless I’ll put in more effort. My passion is in web programming(CSS, HTML, Javascript, PHP etc).
Hi Matthew,
Yeah, make sure you complete that Elance profile. I had been sending proposals for weeks before I got my first job but something simple as identity verification and completing of my profile got me my first job and from then they’ve kept rolling in.
Don’t waste much time with oDesk, they pay peanuts there. You can use Freelancer and Elance for now. Additionally, you can try out Fiverr which may not give you much but is easy to work with and you determine your pay.
Cheers 🙂