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What's the first thing your client sees on your profile or your proposal?
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Your profile photo.
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They'll make a big decision, just by looking at your profile photo.
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We all do that.
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Let's play a game.
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Rate from 1 to 10 how competent this guy looks like.
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No need to analyze, just a first feeling from 1 to 10. How likely he is to get the job done?
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I'm definitely giving him a 10.
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He's smiling.
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He's dressed well.
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The background is pleasant.
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Photo looks professional.
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Now how about this guy.
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I'd say 3.
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I haven't checked anything else on his profile, but Vlad already looks like he wants to scam me off my
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money.
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That's how powerful photos can be.
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You don't have to look handsome or pretty, because it's not a beauty contest, but you have to look trustworthy
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and competent. So get a really nice headshot. And don't try to save time and go on Facebook profile and
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grab it something from there.
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Because most likely on your Facebook profile, you have photos that are either, you know, looking cool, looking
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handsome or looking pretty. And that's not the criteria to use when getting a nice headshot, a nice profile
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photo on Upwork.
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Because clients are not looking for you to be, you know, handsome or pretty or looking like a cool guy.
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That's not what they are looking for.
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They are looking for a competent person.
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So you have to find a photo where you look trustworthy and competent. So something where you are looking
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directly into the camera, where you're smiling. And preferably on a plain background.
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Now it doesn't have to be a headshot in the studio obviously, it can be on a background of a sky, Right?
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You can be on a background of something plain, something that is not attracting attention and detracting
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attention from your face.
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If you only had one hour to prepare your profile on Upwork, spend 45 minutes on the profile photo and 15
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minutes on the rest.
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That's how important the profile photo is. And come on,
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it's so easy.
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We do have phones today.
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Yeah. You probably have a really good smartphone, that takes amazing photos.
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Just find a really nice place.
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Dress well, get a haircut, maybe trim your beard and get a nice headshot. Upwork has an identity verification
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process.
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It's simple, you need to upload your government I.D. and complete a video call with them. Once verified,
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you'll get this blue badge.
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This is an excellent way to increase trust in your profile with very little effort.
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Title is what's shown under your name.
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Web designer is a decent title, but it's a little boring.
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That's what most people do.
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So nothing you will stand out with. Adding some extra punch is gonna go a long way.
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For example, Expert Web Designer or Web Design Pro, Fast and Efficient Web Designer.
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It tells a little more about you. Even though it's a self-proclaimed title, it still stands out.
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Imagine there are two proposals, one says Web Designer and other one says Expert Web Designer.
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You would be drawn a little more towards the Expert. Even better approach is to mentioned final results.
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For example, Stunning Website Design and Build, Top-notch Websites, Hassle-free Web Design. To take it
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a step farther,
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you could even mix and match these styles, like Expert Webdesigner: Stunning, Powerful Websites or 
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Web Design Pro: Top-notch service.
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These are proposals for one of the jobs that I posted and it was a landing page job.
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Now how many of these job titles match what I posted.
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Only one.
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And even he has the most important keyword hidden deep inside the title.
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I'm looking for someone who creates lending pages.
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How can I tell you if you are the right person.
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If there is no mention of landing pages in your title. Yes web WordPress and PHP developers can all
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build landing pages.
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But how do I know that?
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I asked for a landing page, you give me WordPress as an answer.
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What the hell is WordPress anyways?
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I'm not a developer or a web designer.
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If I was, I would build my own landing page.
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I am not familiar with your technology and lingo. I'm probably entrepreneur, who needs a page for something.
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And even if I was familiar with the technology and knew all the lingo, I would still want to find somebody
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who specializes in exactly what I'm asking.
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So, if I'm asking that I need to, you know, get landing page done. Then I would definitely want to go for
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somebody who is landing page expert, or specializes only in landing pages.
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If I want Facebook marketing, right? Maybe Facebook ads, I want somebody who is a Facebook ad marketer
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and not a general digital marketer.
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This is bananas.
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What are they thinking about?
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It's too easy to compete with most of the freelancers on Upwork. You can be the best damn web
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designer out there,
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but if you suck at selling, I'll never get to your portfolio.
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Upwork
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has this feature called specialized profiles. So you have a general profile, like a Web Designer and then
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you can have a specialized profile like Webflow designer, or Landing Page Designer. When you apply for
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jobs that are looking for Webflow designers,
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then you can use that specialized profile and apply with it.
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That's much more effective than just applying as a web designer. And then needing to explain in the cover
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letter that you work in Webflow. They might never get to reading your cover letter.
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Another information that really sticks out from the profiles, is the job success score badge.
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Only 4 freelancers have that badge from all the proposals. And one has it at 88%, which is not
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very reassuring.
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So instantly these 3 people stand over the crowd. Even though there are 15 proposals, very easily
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I was able to filter out most of them, just by checking this badge. To get this badge on Upwork,
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you have to work with at least 3 different clients. So there is not a lot you can do about it.
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You just have to wait.
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But there is something you could do.
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You could bring outside projects to Upwork, to get those minimum requirements as fast as possible.
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You can find people or businesses in your network or in the website and do a project for them. And you could
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give them a large discount. Or maybe even do the website for them
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for a very small symbolic price. In exchange for doing it on Upwork, doing the whole process and Upwork
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and then giving you feedback at the end. Kind of win-win situation for both of them. In the beginning
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works for you.
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You'll get some traction and you'll get these minimum requirements on Upwork and plus, you know, they'll
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get a website for a very cheap price. Badge can improve your hiring rate significantly, so it can be worth
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the trouble to go through this whole process,
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if you are struggling to get clients in the beginning. In case, you do consider going through this whole
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process, I have linked in the resource a page from Upwork on how they calculate this job success score.
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Do you read that first, so you can understand how it works.
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The formula is not shared fully, because it's a secret, so it's not guaranteed
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when are you going to get it. But they give out
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a good guideline on how it works, so you can understand when to expect to get that badge.