Sam Lee

@Annoynymous about $1600.

What It's Like To Freelance On Upwork I've been freelancing on Upwork since September. It's a fine place to start and get your first clients. I do sales writing. My main client right now pays $20 an hour and I only work 20 hours a week. I take home $18 of that (pre-tax) after the 10% Upwork service fee I pay. You'd Be Surprised How Little Prep Work It Took I read about 10 books on sales writing and did the exercises in the books. Then I made some mockup pieces to add to my portfolio. Took a couple months to do that, but I was working another job at the time. First Gig (Underpaid) I was itching to take any job, and I finally got my first offer: $50 to write a landing page. I was underpaid, but so what! I snatched it up real quick. I did a good job and the dude gave me a five star review. From there it was basically off to the races. Where I'm At Now After setting up my profile, it took me only about a month to start making $20 an hour. The work is cool, but I'm in the market for a job that align more with my values. I am currently employed by an agency that advertises some products I don't agree with — casinos for example. So I've resigned and I'm just playing out my notice right now. I was getting 1-5 job offers a day, until I turned my availability off. I'm holding out for a job that I can really feel good selling the product, and I haven't found one yet. Here's some pros and cons that Arthur didn't mention above: Pros You can work anywhere in the world You can pick your own schedule You can move from job to job much faster than in the corporate setting. Expect raises from one to the next. Cons I don't clock 40 hours a week. Creative work is taxing, and I don't like staring at a computer screen for that long. It's harder to find good causes with lots of cash. Is It Worthwhile? Yes, if you have an entrepreneur, are a self-starter, and have some time to invest before seeing returns. I'm learning a ton of skills I'll use to run my own business someday.