Every freelancer’s dream on Upwork is to get high-paying jobs; but, for most, that will only ever be a dream. It is also important to note that high pay differs for different people. This will also differ according to your country’s exchange rate. In this article, I will teach you simple ways to find the high-paying Upwork jobs you desire.
Filter Jobs
Search for your job role/skill by using the search box. An example of a skill to search for is “Facebook ads.” Since I offer FB ads services for clients, I can search for that and I will see tons of results.
Once you have searched for the role/skill, it will take you to the search page. On the search page, you will see a filter section by your left. scroll down to the job type filter.
Here, I will advise you not to deceive yourself. If you are a beginner on Upwork and you don’t have ample experience in your field elsewhere, don’t waste your Upwork Connects by applying to higher-paying jobs — it will likely not end well. But if you already have considerable experience outside of Upwork, then you can bid for higher paying jobs — but you must create your profile in such a way that it would highlight your previous skills and experiences. Also, you should write your proposal in such a way that you will highlight your previous experiences.
If you have no tangible experience in the job role that you want to apply for, then set lower targets for a start.
Using this job type filter, you can look for jobs with the kind of budget that you will be able to apply to. Again, it might be better to start low as a beginner.
When I mean low, I mean between $8-15 per hour. Anything equal to or above $15/hr is relatively higher. Some experienced freelancers even go as high as over $100/hr.
As for the fixed price budget, clients use this in different ways. Some set a fixed price for a monthly budget, some set it for the total cost of the project (irrespective of how long the project takes), and some set it for specific milestones. You will have to see the job post to better understand the type of fixed budget that has been set.
As for the fixed budget, anything below $100 is for starters. When you choose between $100 – $500, you get to see a wider range of prices. Anything above $1k and you are looking at more experienced freelancers. So, as a starter, you might want to stick to less than $1k.
Once you have chosen your preferred income range, then you can either start looking at all the available jobs, or you can use even more detailed filters to thoroughly narrow down the available jobs. Please note that your discretion is highly advised with these filters. If you don’t know what you are doing, you are better off sticking to the job type filter only. You can also tinker with the filters to see which ones you prefer the most.
You can choose the ones with fewer proposals to stand a better chance of getting a job.
Note: most of those job posts with fewer proposals will eventually end up with more proposals — so it is mostly just a game of who applied faster; but, applying earlier will give you a better chance of getting hired.
Here, you want to make sure the clients have their payment verified to slightly reduce the possibility of fake jobs.
You can choose those who have hired people in the past to be sure that the client isn’t a scammer or fraud. Be cautious of anyone who has spent less than $500 though – some spend a little to look legit.
You should note that many times, jobs with no previous hires can be good opportunities to get a job; so, your discretion is also highly advised.
In fact, I have gotten jobs from clients with no previous hires and those with less than $500 spent; so, you should be careful when discarding a job post.
Time Factor: Ensure you apply to jobs that have been published in less than 24 hours; you can apply to older jobs, but your chances of being considered will be incredibly lower compared to applying earlier.
Identify Fake Upwork Jobs
There are many downsides to using Upwork for your freelance career; and unfortunately, scams, frauds, and spam job postings on Upwork form great parts of those. To find high-quality jobs on Upwork and save your precious Upwork Connects from wasting, you must be able to identify fake jobs.
In fact, from my experience, the vast majority of job postings fall into these three. No matter how experienced you are, you might never be able to escape from them; but, at least, you can minimize the rate at which you fall for them. If you use the job filters properly, you will be free from most of those kinds of jobs; however, you will still likely see many of them as those filters won’t be enough.
Now, I will try to show you some of the ways to identify these scams. To do that, I will use this image as an example.
Here are the important things you need to check out:
Check the date that the client registered on Upwork: This info can be found under the “About the client” segment — check the “member since xxx” information there.
If the client registered on the same day as the job post, beware and check out other things before you waste your Upwork Connects — or worse, fall victim to a scam. While it may just be a new client, the fact that the account was created the same day or a day prior can also be pretty damning. Many scammers/spammers try to open new accounts if their previous ones are being banned by Upwork.
Check the payment verified status of the client: If the client has their payment method verified, it is a positive sign.
Check the hire rate: Some clients have extremely low hire rates; once a client has a hire rate below 40%, beware! The client may not be a scammer, but they might be a massive time-waster.
Note: Even clients with high hire rates can be time-wasters, but they are still preferable to those with low hire rates.
Too many invites: This client invited 24 freelancers to his job – that can be sketchy. At times, this can lead to a job; but, it is better to avoid it. Even if the job is legit (as in the example above), these kinds of jobs can also be frustrating as you end up competing with more freelancers for the same job. It is better to save your Upwork Connects than apply to such jobs — unless you are confident in your proposal skills and the client looks legit.
Check the text: When you read some job posts, they sound very scammy. Some may be promising you unrealistic benefits, while others may be asking for a really low-skill requirement for a highly skilled position. Some job posts will contain templated job postings with little input from the client, while others may include links that link nowhere.
Amount Spent: Some clients spend a little to look legit to unsuspecting freelancers. But be wary as clients with big amounts spent can also spam you with nonsense jobs. This is something I have seen several times. So always check various factors before deciding on what jobs to apply to.
Don’t be desperate or greedy
This is something you must pay special attention to. Desperation or greed won’t grant you better jobs; it will only make you susceptible to fake and scam jobs. Always be alert before applying for jobs.
Important to Note
No mention on this list is definitive — you will need to combine various things to determine a viable job. For example, a client may register the same day and be truly serious about getting a job done, while another may have their payment method unverified simply because they haven’t hired anyone.
But what I have certainly noticed is that: for clients who have spent over $1k, they rarely end up scamming freelancers – what they can fall into is unresponsiveness which is also a terrible trait that you will find in almost every client on Upwork.
Some clients have spent over $500k on Upwork, yet they have a bad hire rate; hence, you need to be really careful when you pick jobs to propose to. After all, your Uowork Connects are actual money that you use money to buy; you don’t want to waste them on any client – irrespective of the reason.
Conclusion
If you apply the job filters properly and avoid fake jobs, getting high-quality jobs should be much easier and straightforward. After Identifying a fake job, the next thing is to send proposals. Check here to find out how to write great proposals.
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