What's the first thing your client sees on your profile or your proposal? 1
Your profile photo. 2
They'll make a big decision, just by looking at your profile photo. 3
We all do that. 4
Let's play a game. 5
Rate from 1 to 10 how competent this guy looks like. 6
No need to analyze, just a first feeling from 1 to 10. How likely he is to get the job done? 7
I'm definitely giving him a 10. 8
He's smiling. 9
He's dressed well. 10
The background is pleasant. 11
Photo looks professional. 12
Now how about this guy. 13
I'd say 3. 14
I haven't checked anything else on his profile, but Vlad already looks like he wants to scam me off my 15
money. 16
That's how powerful photos can be. 17
You don't have to look handsome or pretty, because it's not a beauty contest, but you have to look trustworthy 18
and competent. So get a really nice headshot. And don't try to save time and go on Facebook profile and 19
grab it something from there. 20
Because most likely on your Facebook profile, you have photos that are either, you know, looking cool, looking 21
handsome or looking pretty. And that's not the criteria to use when getting a nice headshot, a nice profile 22
photo on Upwork. 23
Because clients are not looking for you to be, you know, handsome or pretty or looking like a cool guy. 24
That's not what they are looking for. 25
They are looking for a competent person. 26
So you have to find a photo where you look trustworthy and competent. So something where you are looking 27
directly into the camera, where you're smiling. And preferably on a plain background. 28
Now it doesn't have to be a headshot in the studio obviously, it can be on a background of a sky, Right? 29
You can be on a background of something plain, something that is not attracting attention and detracting 30
attention from your face. 31
If you only had one hour to prepare your profile on Upwork, spend 45 minutes on the profile photo and 15 32
minutes on the rest. 33
That's how important the profile photo is. And come on, 34
it's so easy. 35
We do have phones today. 36
Yeah. You probably have a really good smartphone, that takes amazing photos. 37
Just find a really nice place. 38
Dress well, get a haircut, maybe trim your beard and get a nice headshot. Upwork has an identity verification 39
process. 40
It's simple, you need to upload your government I.D. and complete a video call with them. Once verified, 41
you'll get this blue badge. 42
This is an excellent way to increase trust in your profile with very little effort. 43
Title is what's shown under your name. 44
Web designer is a decent title, but it's a little boring. 45
That's what most people do. 46
So nothing you will stand out with. Adding some extra punch is gonna go a long way. 47
For example, Expert Web Designer or Web Design Pro, Fast and Efficient Web Designer. 48
It tells a little more about you. Even though it's a self-proclaimed title, it still stands out. 49
Imagine there are two proposals, one says Web Designer and other one says Expert Web Designer. 50
You would be drawn a little more towards the Expert. Even better approach is to mentioned final results. 51
For example, Stunning Website Design and Build, Top-notch Websites, Hassle-free Web Design. To take it 52
a step farther, 53
you could even mix and match these styles, like Expert Webdesigner: Stunning, Powerful Websites or 54
Web Design Pro: Top-notch service. 55
These are proposals for one of the jobs that I posted and it was a landing page job. 56
Now how many of these job titles match what I posted. 57
Only one. 58
And even he has the most important keyword hidden deep inside the title. 59
I'm looking for someone who creates lending pages. 60
How can I tell you if you are the right person. 61
If there is no mention of landing pages in your title. Yes web WordPress and PHP developers can all 62
build landing pages. 63
But how do I know that? 64
I asked for a landing page, you give me WordPress as an answer. 65
What the hell is WordPress anyways? 66
I'm not a developer or a web designer. 67
If I was, I would build my own landing page. 68
I am not familiar with your technology and lingo. I'm probably entrepreneur, who needs a page for something. 69
And even if I was familiar with the technology and knew all the lingo, I would still want to find somebody 70
who specializes in exactly what I'm asking. 71
So, if I'm asking that I need to, you know, get landing page done. Then I would definitely want to go for 72
somebody who is landing page expert, or specializes only in landing pages. 73
If I want Facebook marketing, right? Maybe Facebook ads, I want somebody who is a Facebook ad marketer 74
and not a general digital marketer. 75
This is bananas. 76
What are they thinking about? 77
It's too easy to compete with most of the freelancers on Upwork. You can be the best damn web 78
designer out there, 79
but if you suck at selling, I'll never get to your portfolio. 80
Upwork 81
has this feature called specialized profiles. So you have a general profile, like a Web Designer and then 82
you can have a specialized profile like Webflow designer, or Landing Page Designer. When you apply for 83
jobs that are looking for Webflow designers, 84
then you can use that specialized profile and apply with it. 85
That's much more effective than just applying as a web designer. And then needing to explain in the cover 86
letter that you work in Webflow. They might never get to reading your cover letter. 87
Another information that really sticks out from the profiles, is the job success score badge. 88
Only 4 freelancers have that badge from all the proposals. And one has it at 88%, which is not 89
very reassuring. 90
So instantly these 3 people stand over the crowd. Even though there are 15 proposals, very easily 91
I was able to filter out most of them, just by checking this badge. To get this badge on Upwork, 92
you have to work with at least 3 different clients. So there is not a lot you can do about it. 93
You just have to wait. 94
But there is something you could do. 95
You could bring outside projects to Upwork, to get those minimum requirements as fast as possible. 96
You can find people or businesses in your network or in the website and do a project for them. And you could 97
give them a large discount. Or maybe even do the website for them 98
for a very small symbolic price. In exchange for doing it on Upwork, doing the whole process and Upwork 99
and then giving you feedback at the end. Kind of win-win situation for both of them. In the beginning 100
works for you. 101
You'll get some traction and you'll get these minimum requirements on Upwork and plus, you know, they'll 102
get a website for a very cheap price. Badge can improve your hiring rate significantly, so it can be worth 103
the trouble to go through this whole process, 104
if you are struggling to get clients in the beginning. In case, you do consider going through this whole 105
process, I have linked in the resource a page from Upwork on how they calculate this job success score. 106
Do you read that first, so you can understand how it works. 107
The formula is not shared fully, because it's a secret, so it's not guaranteed 108
when are you going to get it. But they give out 109
a good guideline on how it works, so you can understand when to expect to get that badge.