Need advice on freelancing- how to get my first job

[Pelin]

I've been working as an English teacher / Academic English instructor for the last 8 years (since I graduated from college), but I am getting less and less satisfaction each year, mostly because I've come to hate institutionalized education. I have almost made up my mind about going on another path (of social work or counseling related), but I need to earn money in this transition period too.

So I thought I could do some online tutoring/ proofreading/ translating, and I signed up with the well-known upwork website. However, I'm not sure how to get my first client, as I've never tried it before. Any advice for me is welcome, what to do to stand out, what clients to look out for etc. And if you know any other website in my niche, that'd be most helpful.

[Manjushri]

Hi, I made around $300 on upwork translating. PM me so I can send you my profile and answer any specific questions

General advice : write a killer profile, do some quick easy jobs first, get 1-2 feedbacks, do the readiness test, become a rising talent. have a good short proposal with a work sample and (Invite me for an interview to dsicuss more).

Edited November 25, 2018 by Gligorije

[Brandon Nankivell]

I've earned thousands and closed many clients on UpWork and here's how to stand out:

• Make a VIDEO proposal - 90% of people don't do this and just copy and paste their proposals. By making a short video of you going through their proposal and explaining what you can do for them, they will love you for it. I've got an inbox full of responses of those thanking me for going the extra mile
• Keep your proposal short and to the point.
• Whenever you are going to say 'I' or 'I am', 'I this...', 'I that...' - find a way to say 'You' instead. This was a game-changer for me. The client doesn't care about you, they care about what you can do for THEM
• Fill out all areas in your profile
• Have a trustworthy photo where you are smiling - You can use online tools to get people to vote on the trustworthiness of one of your photos (Google it)
• Be HYPER NICHE with what you do - Don't just frame yourself as a "video editor" like everyone else does. Be a "Travel Video Editor For YouTube", "Greenscreen Video Expert", "YouTube Video Strategist" etc...
• Charge high compared to everyone else. DO NOT compete with Indians and Filipinos charging $10 an hour. Aim for $35 - $80 per hour depending on your profession, although you should be leaning towards charging a fixed price to maximize your ROI

I've found that the proposal matters much more than your profile as the proposal is the first thing they see.

[Pelin]

@Shiva @Gligorije  @Brandon Nankivell Lots of great advice, thank you. Video proposal is a great idea. And also narrowing down my niche. As I didn't know what to expect, I put everything I can do, which sounds like jack of all trades, master of none.

I am such a beginner, and of course, upwork didn't accept my profile right away. I'll apply the advice and build a stronger profile when I'm done with my teaching job (hopefully in a month), it's consuming all my energy right now. 

[universe]

On 26.11.2018 at 0:54 AM, Brandon Nankivell said:

I've earned thousands and closed many clients on UpWork and here's how to stand out:

• Make a VIDEO proposal - 90% of people don't do this and just copy and paste their proposals. By making a short video of you going through their proposal and explaining what you can do for them, they will love you for it. I've got an inbox full of responses of those thanking me for going the extra mile

Great advice! So you mean a video where you talk about what should be in the proposal and how you use it to make the project or something more general? Do you have an example maybe?