How we got started at Upwork (personal experience). How to start working for Upwork and earn $ 1000 per month. Several ways to earn money and useful tips ⇡ Communication with employers

Since the project exists on the Internet, therefore, it is possible to work on it, mainly in various areas of programming and those services that are monitored and executed online. Speaking simple language - on the site, customers are looking for freelance programmers, and also freelancers are looking for orders.

The main advantage appreciated by our compatriots is that payment on the site takes place in US dollars. This advantage has become especially extremely valuable after the crisis and the appreciation of the currency. At a time when there was complete uncertainty, many firms closed down, and specialists were left out of business. Making money on Upwork.com has become a kind of lifesaver for them.

An added bonus is the fact that most Upwork customers prefer to involve a specialist from Russia in their project, rather than representatives from China or India. This is due to the belief that Russian specialists are more qualified than others. Payment on the site can be fixed or hourly. And hourly wages are really hourly payments (a favorite in the West), not standard hours (a favorite in Russia and the CIS countries).

Specialists registered on the site, in order to increase the attractiveness of their services, must undergo verification and confirmation of the knowledge that they indicate in their questionnaire. This is done using special tests, according to the results of which an overall rating of attractiveness is given.

Speaking of the advantages of Upwork, one cannot but mention the disadvantages of the site. The main disadvantage is the language barrier... Communication on Upwork takes place on english language, and if you don't know it, then you need to learn it. And an online translator won't help much. As a situation often arises when communication occurs visually, for example, via Skype. By the way, returning to the tests, the knowledge of the language is also checked by the site. If you indicate that your knowledge of English is basic, then be prepared to take a short test or secret interview on the same Skype. Upon passing it successfully, you will receive a mark that your knowledge has been verified and confirmed.

Also be prepared that the geography of customers will be diverse, therefore, there will be a difference in time. And sometimes it will be significant. To discuss some points of ordering online, you often have to sit at the computer either late at night or early in the morning.

Pay particular attention to describing your services in your profile. The first lines should go your key features... For example, if you specialize in creating sites using WordPress, then be sure to indicate your achievements, such as, you created a unique high-load wordpress site in 3 hours. This will make you noticeably different from other specialists who simply write about their skills in WordPress.

Also, your public Upwork profile will be indexed in search engines, which will allow attracting customers from outside the service. The average salary for a small service provider at Upwork is up to $ 1000 per month. Narrow specialists, with great demand and lack of competition, earn much more.

There is also such a phenomenon as Upwork agencies ( managerial work at Upwork). The phenomenon has received strong development in the CIS countries, where traditionally universities graduate many good specialists on programming, that is, a consistently large number of offers on the service market. The direction is suitable for those who want to make money on the site, but do not have the necessary knowledge. However, it can be a great organizer. A team of freelancers is recruited on a remote basis and managers to work with direct clients on Upwork. Managers with knowledge of English take orders on the site, adapt them, translate and distribute them among freelancers, monitoring the progress of work. After completing the work, in the absence of comments from the customer, the managers hand over the order. All this is done under the account of an Upwork specialist. The main task of the organizer is to create the ideal profile in such a way that it facilitates the search for orders. Profit distribution usually occurs in a ratio of 40% to 60%. Where 40% is the salary of employees and freelancers, and 60% is covering current expenses (for example, renting an office for managers) and the organizer's profit.

Withdraw money from Upwork.com

UpWork commissions range from 2% to 20%. The service offers many means for withdrawing earned money. Among them are Visa, Mastercard, PayPal. But, more advanced freelancers prefer the system Payoneer. This system simplifies the procedure for withdrawing money from Upwork, bypassing various obstacles and maintaining anonymity, which is important for many professionals. Plus, by registering with Payoneer using this link, you can get an extra $ 25 on top of your earnings. Which will also be a good gift.

1. To excite or arouse one "s emotions. A noun or pronoun can be used between" work "and" up. " Try not to work up Mom too much. We just want to have a nice relaxing afternoon. I think you "re working yourself up over nothing. I" m sure the doctor will tell you it "s nothing.

2. To achieve a new level of ability, responsibility, etc., through continued effort. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "work" and "up." You can work up to the more advanced techniques once you "ve mastered the basics. Mr. Mahoney famously worked his way up from an entry level position to become the publisher.

3. To gradually build toward something, as a conclusion or climax. A: "What" s your point? "B:" Just listen, I "m working up to it." The story simmers, slowly working up to a chilling climax.

4. To produce through effort or exertion. I really worked up an appetite on that hike. Let "s grab something to eat.

5. To prepare or produce something, usually quickly or without being completely thorough. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "work" and "up." I can work up a draft of the script, but it won "t be anywhere near finished. If you have time, work some slides up for the presentation.

worked up

In a state of mental or emotional agitation. Often modified as "all worked up" or "really worked up." You "re getting worked up over nothing — I" m sure the doctor will tell you it "s nothing. Mom sounded really worked up when I spoke to her on the phone. The professor said she really needed to speak with me later, and now that has me all worked up that I might be failing the course!

work someone up

to get someone ready for something, especially medical treatment. (See also work oneself up.) The staff worked up three patients for surgery that morning. The doctor told the nurse to work Mr. Franklin up for surgery.

work something up

* worked up (over something)

and * worked up (about something)

excited and agitated about something. (* Typically: be ~; get ~; get oneself ~.) Tom is all worked up over the tax increase. Don "t get so worked up about something that you can" t do anything about.

work up

2. Increase one "s skill, status, or responsibility through effort, as in He worked up to 30 sit-ups a day, or She worked up to bank manager... Also see work one "s way.

3. Intensify gradually, as in The film worked up to a thrilling climax.

4. Develop or produce by effort, as in Swimming always works up an appetite.

work up

1. To arouse the emotions of someone or something; excite someone or something: The skillful politician worked up the crowd. What I read in the newspaper today really worked me up.

2. To increase one "s skill, responsibility, efficiency, or status to some level through work: I "m increasing my exercise routine and am slowly working up to 30 sit-ups a day.

3. work up to To intensify gradually to some state: The film works up to a thrilling climax.

4. To develop or produce something by mental or physical effort: I worked up my appetite while mowing the lawn. The doctors worked up a patient profile before making their diagnosis.

All freelancers registered on the Elance.com exchange have recently received a notice that the site will practically stop working in a year. From the beginning of August, it is no longer possible to register on Elance, in September new job offers will cease to be published there, and by the beginning next year it will be necessary to complete all started projects. Therefore, if previously novice freelancers thought about which large site is best to choose for remote work - Odesk or Elance, now there is no such dilemma.

Companies developing the largest freelance exchanges announced the merger at the end of 2013. Even then, it became obvious that two sites, intended for the same and managed by the same team, are unlikely to exist. As a result, the developers' efforts were concentrated on the new site, which was created on the basis of Odesk.

Odesk was renamed Upwork earlier this year. All Odesk users automatically became Upwork users. At the same time, accounts, contracts and messages were completely preserved. Freelancers with Elance are less fortunate - they will need to move to a new site by manually merging accounts.

But don't think that Upwork is the same Odesk, just under a different name. Along with the name change, a variety of changes were introduced on the site. Some of them migrated to the updated resource from Elance, others were created from scratch, but in any case, a completely new site was born. Mobile applications for iOS and Android were also created, the application for accounting of working hours was completely redesigned.

With the merger of the two remote work exchanges, the new Upwork site has become the world's largest place to find work (or a performer for your project). The creators of the site claim that it currently has 9 million registered freelancers and 4 million clients, and about 3 million job advertisements are published within a month. Well, if you've decided to use Upwork too, read on.

When it comes to remote work, for some reason most people immediately think of programmers, web designers and translators. In fact, representatives of not only the above professions can find work at Upwork, but also many others. The only thing you need to do this is to know English at such a level that you can grasp the meaning of the job offer and further in the process of communication understand the client's requirements. However, on the site there are also employers who speak Russian, and even job offers written in Russian, but the latter is rather an exception to the rule.

But the site has a lot of offers that do not require any special skills. For example, you may be asked to take a photo of the view from the window of your house in the daytime and at night, record your voice for Russian students, make a video commentary on laundry detergent, compile a list of large and small Russian choirs with their leaders, record a conversation with your a child with a picture book and so on. There are even such incredible tasks as "go to the local city archives and get a certificate that in such and such a year someone's great-grandmother was born in this city." And for all of the above, of course, they pay money (although, of course, the amounts are not comparable to how much, say, freelancers - software developers earn).

⇡ Registration and filling out a profile

So, you are ready to join the ranks of freelancers, joining their millions of ranks. What should you remember first? You should not invent pseudonyms when registering and indicate in your profile that your phone number is 322-223-322, like Freken Bock, and you live on 25 Third Street Builders, apt. 12 (unless, of course, your real address does not match the address of the heroes of the famous film).

Upwork is a place that gives you the opportunity to make money, and any financial business does not tolerate fake names, phone numbers and addresses. Therefore, indicate your real name (it is better that its spelling in Latin matches the spelling in your passport and on your bank card), the phone number you can call you, and the address, which can also be confirmed if necessary.

You will also be asked to upload a profile photo. Do not be original and place a picture of Bruce Willis, this is a violation of the rules of the service. The photo must be yours. If in the future you are asked to confirm your identity, then all specified data, including the photo, will be checked (more on this below).

Creating a profile starts with choosing the main type of work that you plan to do. You will also be asked to indicate a few categories that suit you best. Based on this information, the site will show you a feed of recommended job offers.

If you don't want to "shine" your surname to the whole world (or, say, you have it not very sonorous), you can turn on the short display of the name. Then only the first name and the first letter of the last name with a dot will be indicated in the profile. Many people do just that.

Under the name it is possible to place information about yourself in one line. It is seen by potential employers, in particular when they are looking for freelancers on the site for their projects. What should I write here? Some list the programs in which they work, the technologies they own, others indicate their strengths or what kind of work they are willing to take.

In the profile, you need to briefly and succinctly inform potential employers about all your skills, abilities and best qualities. The main part is filled in in a free style, it is also possible to separately indicate when, in which companies and in what positions you worked, what work you did (as in your resume), what languages \u200b\u200band at what level you speak.

To increase the attractiveness of the profile, it is advised to attach examples of completed work (in particular, this is relevant for photographers and artists), as well as upload a short video where you represent yourself. But it is undesirable to indicate e-mail, Skype and other methods of communication outside Upwork - it goes against the rules of the service. The profile will also display your current and completed projects with feedback from employers, and an overall rating that is formed from customer ratings.

One good way to make your profile more attractive is to take tests. This, in particular, is relevant at the beginning of the construction of your freelance career, as it gives the client the opportunity to make sure of your professional suitability, even if you have not yet completed a single project. Upwork has many free tests for the most different professions... You can go through those that you think are suitable for your specialty, and the results will be displayed in the profile. Moreover, if the result is not very good, then you can always hide the display of this test and pass it again after a couple of months. For the buildup, it is advised to start with the Upwork knowledge test, created according to the freelancer's guide, which is sent by mail to all new registrants.

Your profile will also need to indicate how many hours per week you are willing to devote to working for Upwork. Don't know yet? Then choose the "I'm open to suggestions" option. In addition, you will need to indicate how much you estimate one hour of your work. This figure is relative, because for each project you will still discuss payment with the client. If you don't know how much to write, try to find freelancers with similar skills through applications for the job offers you are interested in and spy on them.

It is worth remembering that until the work on the profile is completed, you will not be able to apply for work. After you add your photo and tell about yourself, you can send your profile for moderation. The website support service will check it, approve it - and only after that it will be possible to try to get a job.

Finally, it is important to remember that a profile is not created once and for all. Chances are, you'll want to revisit it over and over again as your Upwork experience grows. Perhaps, after studying job offers, you will want to write in more detail about those of your skills that are more in demand, and keep silent about some experience. When editing a profile again, you do not need to wait for the moderators to check the changes.

⇡ Job search

You will most likely start your journey to Upwork by looking at job offers. In general, finding a job (especially at first) often takes longer than the job itself (when you finally get it!). When filling out a profile, you indicate your basic skills, and based on this information, the site itself generates a feed of suitable ads on your job search page.

You can also manually add the categories you are interested in working in. However, viewing all offers in categories is not an hour's work, so it is better to use keywords and filters. Using advanced search, you can receive ads that contain certain words, an exact phrase, or, conversely, do not contain some words. In addition, you can search by skill tags. The employer adds them when placing an advertisement.

When searching by categories, it is possible to exclude some subcategories from the results. In addition, you can filter ads by the following criteria: project duration, required number of working hours per week (freelance employment), total budget, type of work (hourly or with a fixed fee), client experience (calculated in freelancers who were previously hired by him for work). Experienced freelancers never ignore the latter parameter and try not to work with clients who do not have a history of completed projects on Upwork. In addition, it is dangerous to deal with those for whom the payment method has not been verified (opposite to such an employer, the job advertisement says: Payment Method Not Verified).

Looking through job offers, you may immediately find a dozen suitable ones that you are ready to take on right now. Unfortunately, before you start a project, you need to be hired by the customer. And here lies the biggest fly in the ointment of the largest freelance exchange. There are a lot of orders and offers on it, but, alas, no less freelancers who are ready, just like you, to take on work right now. One has only to look at the list of names of people who apply to understand that the whole world wants to work for Upwork.

Therefore, in order to get a job, you need to convince the customer that you are the one who will do it better than others. By looking at a job offer, you can instantly see how many applications have already been submitted by freelancers. Match the number of applications to your strengths that you can communicate to the customer and decide whether to add your own.

In order not to lose an interesting proposal, to which there is no way to answer right now, you can use the function of saving projects to favorites.

The list of saved offers can be viewed on a dedicated page. As soon as the client closes the project, it will automatically disappear from this page.

⇡ Applying for a job

By studying job offers in certain categories, you will probably notice that there are many projects that are similar in content. Therefore, in order not to waste time writing a letter of application every time, you might want to make a template greeting, reveal all your talents and skills in it, and then just sit and send it everywhere. Should not be doing that.

Firstly, sending the same submissions is prohibited by Upwork rules, and your account can simply be banned. Secondly, a template application is always visible (customers are not stupid either), so the chance that they will choose you is very small. Some customers at the end of the job posting are asked to start their application with a phrase and thus weed out the "template" right at the start. Many also add additional questions that need to be answered by submitting an application. Sometimes, clients do not ask for a cover letter at all (that is, the usual text of the application), but simply offer a list of specific questions that the freelancer needs to answer. This application form leaves almost no chance for the "template".

Thirdly, the number of applications that you can simply send out is limited. As part of a free account, a freelancer has 60 so-called connections per month (this is a kind of internal currency). When you leave a request, the site usually writes off 2 connections (sometimes there are more, but for most of the works - just two).

Thus, on a free basis, you can leave about 30 applications per month. If you send your resume to just about anywhere, this is clearly not enough, but if you approach the choice of a job thoughtfully, write applications for specific projects and shoot with an eye, this is quite enough. Most likely, leaving 5-6 applications, you will get a job. As long as you work, there will be no need to leave applications. After several such "request-work" cycles, the month will end and the number of connections will be updated.

By the way, applications are spent only if the freelancer is looking for a job himself. If an employer found him and offered him a job directly, or if a client for whom the work was previously performed hires him again for a new project, the connections are not used. In a word, as elsewhere, it is profitable to work for your authority here, so that in the end you are not looking for a job, but the job is looking for you.

For active freelancers (including those working in groups), Upwork offers a paid account for $ 10 per month. By purchasing it, you will receive not 60, but 70 free connections, as well as the ability to purchase additional connections as needed. In addition, freelancers who have paid for the Freelancer Plus plan, before applying, can see how much competitors have requested for the work (they display the maximum, minimum and average amount of applications). Free tariff plan this information is not available.

When submitting an application, it is worth considering that Upwork's commission is 10% of all transactions. When submitting an application, remember that you indicate the amount you want to receive, and the client in your application sees the amount taking into account the percentage of Upwork. All Upwork projects fall into two categories: hourly wages and having a fixed cost (more about their features below). When submitting an application for a project with an hourly rate, the site automatically sets the cost per hour for the client, which is indicated in your profile. That is, if the profile says $ 11 per hour, then the actual cost of your work will be $ 9.90 per hour.

For projects with a fixed cost, the default fee amount is not specified, you enter it. At the same time, only a field is available for filling, indicating how much money you will receive after deducting the service commission. When placing a project, the employer usually indicates how much he is willing to spend on the project, so you should indicate your price, focusing on this amount. When adding an application, Upwork always tells you if you have entered more moneythan indicated by the client.

However, for many projects the price indicated when submitting an application is not fundamental - anyway, in the future, there is a discussion of the terms of work with a client, and when drawing up a job offer, he already indicates a more accurate cost.

All applications that were submitted by a freelancer are displayed on the Proposals page. If a client has selected you as a candidate for his project and the details are being discussed, the project will also be visible here.

⇡ Project types

As mentioned above, there are two types of projects on Upwork: hourly and fixed cost. Which one you prefer depends on the type of work you are willing to do and how long you are willing to work. It is clear that if you can devote only one and a half to two hours a day to work and at the same time be at the computer for 20-30 minutes raids, it is somehow not good to negotiate an hourly payment. In addition, for some types of work (say, for taking photographs or audio recordings of the sounds of the forest), the hourly pay looks ridiculous. And there are such jobs when a freelancer provides a client with a result, and prefers to keep the method of achieving it a secret.

On the other hand, many freelancers who work seriously with Upwork and give site contracts all their time prefer hourly pay. The fact is that with this type of contract, there is much less chance that the client will "throw" you. Working with hourly contracts is organized through a special Upwork Team App, which was completely redesigned along with the website rebranding.

To use it, you need to enter your Upwork account details, after which a list of current projects will be shown.

To start tracking, you need to select the appropriate contract and click on the start button. The Upwork Team App takes screenshots every ten minutes and uploads them to your office.

At the same time, within a ten-minute period of time, the program can take a screenshot at any second: maybe at the first minute, maybe at the fifth, or maybe at the tenth. If the screenshot shows that the freelancer was working on a project, these 10 minutes are counted as payment. From time to time, the freelancer should make notes in the application about what exactly they are working on.

At the request of the freelancer, the application can take pictures of the entire desktop or only the active window. In addition, the Upwork Team App, along with a screenshot, can take a photo using your webcam. This feature is not enabled by default and can be activated if you agree with the customer.

For each contract in the program, you can see the last screenshot taken and statistics of hours worked for the day and for the week.

Screenshots taken can be viewed by a freelancer. If you suddenly find something on them that you would not like to show to the client, you can simply delete the screenshot, but you will lose your payment in 10 minutes. Screenshots can be deleted at any time during the current week, after which it is no longer possible to edit the working hours. On Sunday evening, a report on the work done for the week is sent to the client for approval. He must review and accept it by Friday. If the employer has no complaints, the money for the work is transferred to the freelancer's account.

The great thing about fixed-payment projects is that in most cases you get paid for them faster. If the project is large, the employer can divide it into stages and set the amount of payment for each of them. However, here Upwork cannot check whether you worked on the project or not, and therefore you need to rely on the decency of the client. On the other hand, all transactions are carried out through the intermediary service Escrow.com, so there is still some guarantee that you will receive the money.

Projects with a fixed fee work as follows: the client sends a job offer, in which he indicates the amount of the transaction. After the freelancer has accepted the offer, the money is withdrawn from the client's account and transferred to an intermediary. Upon completion of the project (or the first stage), the freelancer submits the work. If the work has already been sent in a different way, then simply notifies of its completion by clicking the Submit Work / Request Payment button in the contract. After that, the client must accept the work or ask for changes to it. As soon as the job is accepted, the money migrates from the middleman to the freelancer's account. If the freelancer sent the work, and the client does not react in any way (does not accept the work, does not respond to messages, does not ask for corrections), then the service takes the side of the employee and after two weeks the money is automatically credited to the freelancer's account.

When working on a fixed-pay project, it can also happen that the employer has transferred more money upfront than the freelancer has earned. In such cases, the client can, at the time of accepting the work, indicate the amount to be transferred to the freelancer, and request a partial refund for the rest. The excess money will return to the employer as soon as the freelancer gives the go-ahead for it (thereby he confirms: he agrees that the amount paid to him is less than the one expected at the beginning). If the client gave the freelancer a request for a refund of part of the money, and the employee did not approve it, the problem will be solved through the Upwork support service.

It should be borne in mind that in any of the two ways of working, there is a so-called "safe period" during which money has already been earned, but it is not yet possible to use it. In the case of hourly wages, it lasts from the time the client approves the work report until Wednesday of next week, and for projects with a fixed fee, it lasts six days from the moment the client approves the work sent to him. On the reports page, you can always see how much money has already been earned and how much is planned.

The Work In Progress column shows the amount open projects with a fixed cost, as well as money earned on hourly projects during the current week. The In Review column shows how much you can get for submitted but not yet approved work on fixed cost projects, as well as money earned on hourly projects over the past week. The Pending column is money already transferred to your account, for which the "safe period" has not yet ended, and the Available column is the amount available for withdrawal. Please note that the first two columns show the amount paid by the client, and the last two show the "net" amount, from which 10% of the service has already been deducted.

⇡ Communication with employers

Communication with a client is a very important part of a freelance job. The successful construction of a career at Upwork largely depends on how competently it will be built. When you take on an order, you need to be aware that the person who hired you for the first time may be as worried and doubtful that you will do the job well and on time, as you yourself doubt that you will be paid to work in in full and on time.

Therefore, do everything to ensure that the client during the project is sure that he has chosen a good freelancer. Keep in touch with him constantly, inform about how the work is progressing. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask and discuss incomprehensible points, in general, show that the work is in full swing. Beyond that, creativity works very well. Even if your job is like an automaton to create a couple hundred categories for a WordPress site using a client-supplied wordlist, use your brains. If you find spelling mistakes in this list, a normal employer will undoubtedly appreciate it. Customer satisfaction (and getting more from working with you than he expected) can result in good review, in receiving a bonus, as well as in an offer new job.

You can negotiate with customers through the web interface and through mobile applications. In addition, notifications of new messages come to the e-mail address specified in the profile, and you can communicate simply by answering letters. You can also use the Upwork Team App for discussion.

Actually, the main task of the application is to track working hours, but chat is also built into it. By and large, by installing this application, you can open the site in a browser only to look for a new job, and under current contracts, limit yourself to using the Upwork Team App.

The platform for working with messages on the site and in the application is the same, therefore the interface is the same. Messages can be displayed in chronological order or can be grouped by respondent.

If communication in the chat room occurs in real time, you can switch to the voice / video chat mode (for this, the room.co service is used). If in the process of communicating with the client you exchanged files, it is very convenient to search for them by switching to the Files display mode. All files are shown here as a list and are available for download.

The Upwork messaging platform also includes the ability to invite other site users to chat in the current chat room, create rooms, and manually invite new members to it. If you are actively communicating with a large number of respondents, it may be convenient to use the function of adding a chat room to favorites.

The recently released Upwork Messenger mobile app for Android and iOS is designed to provide faster customer connections. It is created on the principle of a mail client: all messages received from employers are located in the Inbox folder in chronological order. Separately, you can view sent messages, as well as received job invitations. As soon as a new message or invitation arrives, the app sends a push notification.

Have mobile application there is another important function: it makes it possible to set your status by informing the client that you are ready to work or communicate immediately. In total, three statuses are offered: when you indicate that you are ready to respond within 10 minutes, that you are open to new offers, but cannot respond immediately, and that you are not currently looking for a job.

⇡ Receiving money

Even if you haven't earned a single dollar from Upwork yet, you may already be wondering, "How can I withdraw money from my account?" And this is logical, because if it is impossible to get money in your country or if this procedure is too inconvenient, then you should not take up the work either. Upwork works with almost every country in the world, offering a variety of withdrawal options.

For our citizens, it may be convenient to withdraw to a PayPal account, bank transfer via SWIFT, as well as withdraw to a Payoneer account. I would like to dwell on the last method in more detail, because many freelancers from the countries of the former USSR consider it optimal. The commission for a SWIFT transfer is much higher than sending money in other ways (about $ 30), and PayPal does not accept funds for everyone, so Payoneer is the cheapest and most affordable option.

Payoneer offers MasterCard international standard, from which you can withdraw money from almost any ATM in 200 countries around the world. The card is free to issue and the maintenance fee is $ 30 per year. They are withdrawn after the first deposit to your Payoneer account.

It can take up to one month to get your Payoneer card, so it's better to order it right away rather than waiting for you to earn your first money on Upwork. To register on the Payoneer website, you must specify your date of birth, home address and the details of one of three documents (civil passport, international passport or driver's license).

The process of verifying this data will take several days, after which you will receive a notification that your card has been sent by mail. You will receive it in a regular envelope, after which the card will need to be activated on the Payoneer website. Upon activation, you will need to come up with a PIN, which, of course, is best not to forget.

For each cash withdrawal from an ATM, a commission of $ 3.15 is charged, therefore, in order to pay it less often, it is beneficial to withdraw a lot at once (as far as the ATM restrictions will allow). The commission for viewing the balance at an ATM is $ 1, so it is better to view the balance in your personal account before leaving the house. In addition, $ 1 will be charged from the card if the ATM for some reason refused to issue cash (for example, you asked for more than is available on the card). But if there is no money on the Payoneer account, then the service does not need to pay any commissions.

When setting up a payout method, Upwork immediately checks the email address to see if the user has a Payoneer account. If not, you can create it immediately. But do not rush to do this, it is better to register on Payoneer separately.

The fact is that Payoneer, like many other services of a similar purpose, has affiliate program... Everyone who signs up using the affiliate link receives $ 25 to the account after his card was first replenished with $ 100 or more. That is, the first year of servicing the card almost completely pays off. The money is transferred within 30 days after the first deposit of the account (in other words, you will first be charged $ 30 for the service, and then the $ 25 bonus will be returned). In general, register outside of Upwork, but be sure to use the same e-mail address to which your Upwork account is linked.

The Upwork freelance exchange charges $ 2 for withdrawals to Payoneer. At the same time, you can withdraw the first money from the service no earlier than you earn $ 100. In the future, you can withdraw smaller amounts. But considering that the fees for transfers from Upwork to Payoneer and for withdrawing from a card do not depend on the amount, it is hardly worth transferring less than $ 100.

Payments can be made manually or automatically. In the second case, you need to choose the transfer method, the frequency of payments (weekly, twice a month, monthly or quarterly), as well as the amount on the account, upon reaching which Upwork will send money.

Transfer from Upwork to Payoneer takes a few minutes, but you won't be able to withdraw money from the card immediately. To do this, they need to be transferred from the Payoneer account to the card of the same name (this is done in your personal account). It's free, but you have to wait two days (or even a little more) until the money appears on the card. If you want to quickly recharge your card within two hours, you will have to pay another $ 2.5. Expedited card replenishment can be enabled for all subsequent transfers, so you don't have to log into your Payoneer account at all.

⇡ Identity verification

Under the terms of service, Upwork has the right to request documents that identify you at any time. And until the moment your identity is confirmed, the account's capabilities will be limited: it will not be possible to withdraw money, open new contracts, apply for a new job.

If the reason for the request for documents is one of the current contracts, it will also temporarily be impossible to work with it.

You can only exchange messages with clients and continue working on already open contracts, to which the site administration has no questions.

When exactly the identification request will happen and whether it will happen at all, no one can say for sure, but, most likely, they will be interested in you when you start withdrawing payments from the site. In addition, the identification request may not happen because of you, but because of your client. For example, here real case... Freelancer hired new client, who did not want to disclose his name and indicated only the first letters of his first and last name. He transferred money to the client several times for the work, after which he aroused the suspicion of the site administration. What if the employer and the freelancer are the same person who uses Upwork simply as a money laundering platform? The contract is blocked, the employer, and at the same time the freelancer (who has not violated anything) is asked to provide documents proving their identity.

Identification can take up to three or four banking days, although in practice everything is usually solved faster: sometimes, in a day, sometimes in two (even if one of these days is Sunday). To verify your identity, you need color photographs of two documents, which must clearly show your name and address.

The first document can be a passport or driver's license. If the address is not indicated on the rights, then only the passport. For a passport, the address is optional (although it is there that we write it!).

The second document is either a bank statement or an apartment bill (electricity, gas, telephone - all the same, the main thing is that the name and address are printed there). It is impossible to upload a foreign passport as the first document, and a civil passport with a registration address as the second, since at the second stage there is simply no document type "passport". In addition, the date of the second document must be "fresh" - no more than six months from the date of uploading the documents. The date of issue of the document must also be selected from the list, so the passport does not fit in any way (unless it was issued a couple of months ago).

The second document must contain your name and address. If the bill includes the wife's name, it will not work. They will not accept it even if only the address is printed there, without a name. Therefore, if a suitable utility bill was not found, you will have to go to the bank and ask for a statement on any account or card. The main thing is to clearly explain to the employees what exactly you need. For example, in one of the largest banks it took four days to receive a statement, where the client's address is indicated - standard templates do not contain this information, and non-standard ones are issued only through the head of the department making a request to the central office.

Why such difficulties, if the surname, not printed on the apartment bill, can be inserted into Photoshop without any problems? Forging documents in the identification process is even more foolish than using a fictitious address when registering. No matter how master of "Photoshop" you are, most likely, the invoices and certificates edited in it will not be accepted (in the best case, they will give the possibility of a second attempt to send documents). The rules for uploading documents clearly state that scans or photos sent to the service cannot be edited at all, including cropping, rotating, improving contrast, changing colors, and so on. Well, it is very simple to check whether the photo has been processed.

In order for your name and address to be verified, they must match those indicated in your profile during registration. In addition, the same person (presumably you) must be shown in both your passport photo and your Upwork profile. If you provide the service with authentic documents, meeting the requirementsthen very soon you will receive a pleasant message by e-mail and will be able to look for work again.

⇡ Conclusion

Freelancing, like any other job, has its pros and cons, so it is not suitable for everyone. Someone in remote work lacks a smoking room where you can chat with employees, someone cannot imagine how you can work without a social package and a paid sick leave. But freelancing can be very attractive for people living in small communities with limited jobs; for disabled people and other people who, for health reasons, cannot go to work; for students and young mothers who can set aside a limited number of hours per week for work; finally, for all those who, against the backdrop of protracted crises, are thinking about getting income in hard currency.

Even if you don't know exactly what you can offer employers with Upwork, but just want to try something other than your main job, a freelance exchange is a great place to start.

A guide to making thousands of dollars on the Upwork freelance exchange
(previously - freelance exchanges Odesk and Elance, now united under the Upwork brand)
and others.

When asked about better ways make money, I often laugh. Not because the question is stupid, but because there really is no “right” answer to it. The truth is, almost anything can make money.

But first you must change your thinking. You should start to view your skills and experience as valuable business resources that should be paid for. You (yes, YOU) can help someone with the skills and knowledge you already have.

And the easiest way to do this is by freelancing.

As they say, I have 2 news: good and bad.

The good news: There are several online freelance exchanges - like Upwork, Elance, and oDesk - that allow you to offer your services, get orders and start earning quickly, even if you're a green newbie.

Bad news: These freelance exchanges are incredibly and overwhelmingly competitive. If you don't know for sure what you are doing, it can be very scary.

But don't let this fact get in your way.

Today I'm going to show you a simple hack that helped me make over $ 23,000 with Elance in just 4 weeks designing simple WordPress sites.

(Note: The strategy described here applies to any freelance skill, not just web design.) For those who read to the end, I will give you some tools to help you take an even bigger jump in this competition.

Step 1: The Tricky Way to Study Competitors

Before you start, you need to figure out what exactly you are getting yourself into. In particular, you should know:

• Exactly what strategies your successful competitors are using to stand out from the crowd.
• How can you completely eliminate them from the competition at the expense of your much better preparation?

To find answers to these questions for myself, I posted a fake assignment to see what types of answers I get. I recommend that you do the same!

Here's what I posted on Elance:

My goal was to attract my own competitors and see what kinds of offers they send me - and then use this knowledge against them.

Note: to get a good result, you do not need to publish the fake assignment, as I did. The main idea here is to show you what happens when you actually test the process and act on the results obtained in practice.

And here's what I learned from my test ...

Step 2: Analyze Results

Within 30 minutes, I received almost 100 offers - and learned two very valuable facts:

• More than half of the applicants for my assignment were not native English speakers.
• Most people submit template suggestions without any personalization.

As soon as I received this important information, I knew that my proposal would be unique. Why?

Well, the majority of freelance clients are from the US and the UK, which means, often, there is a language barrier. And people are always more comfortable communicating in their native language.

And because of this language barrier, most of the sentences were very dry and uninteresting. For example, one of the messages I received ...

See what I mean? Such boring!

You can do much better. And here's how ...

Step 3: How to stand out and start receiving orders

To stand out from the ocean of freelancers, you must show that you understand your prospect and give them a reason to come back to your application. Your approach should be warm, interesting - and above all, personalized.

Nobody wants to feel # 573 for a day.

Research your prospect's profile ahead of time for these details:

• Shopping History - Does he regularly hire at Elance? If so, this is a good sign that he is serious.
• Feedback History - What types of feedback did he provide about previously hired freelancers? What did he like / dislike?
• Personal data - name, interests, location, etc. Anything you can use to build contact with this client.

1 Hit Knockout: Mini Pitch Video

Once you've gathered all this information, use it to create short “mini-pitches” from an unregistered YouTube video.

Your mini-pitch should:

• Be no longer than 90 seconds
• Introduce you and give you a brief introduction to your background
• Telling why you like this particular project (so the customer will understand that you have read his assignment)
• Give a simple call to action to get contacted

Bonus: if you have any related this project experience and general personal data - include information about them, it helps.

The whole further process is very simple. Instead of submitting another offer like everyone else does, just send the customer a short message with a link to your video.

The method works SHOCKINGLY well because it dramatically sets you apart from the crowd and shows that you really care about what the client is working on. It cannot be faked.

Get the very videos and texts I used to make $ 23,700 in 4 weeks!

At this point, you are probably wondering what this approach actually looks like in reality. I have prepared an advanced guide to "Elance Exchange Hacking" which includes:

• Exactly those scripts and screenshots that I used to negotiate with clients and receive orders
• Real videos of "mini-pitches", sending which, I received orders for thousands of dollars
• The main mistakes people make when trying my trip and recipes on how to avoid them
• Checklist of answers to the main objections of the client

Here in the near future there will be a link to the translation of the guide Daniel DiPiazza - co-founder of Rich20Something, where he writes about starting a business that cares about you, the way to more happy life, and sometimes bacon.

If you liked this article, join the WOB blog, which translates the best English-language articles for you weekly by signing up for a free newsletter.

- an American platform for finding remote work (freelance). I hope these tips are helpful for aspiring freelancers.

Why Upwork?

At the moment it is the largest international job exchange on the Internet, hence a large number of orders. Your work is paid more generously than on Russian sites. Customers on Upwork are also considered to be more adequate.

Who is Upwork suitable for?

• people with the profession of a programmer, designer, tester, copywriter / translator, SEO specialist, content manager - that is, with the ability to work remotely
• those who have basic knowledge of English
• those who want to organize their work independently, have a free work schedule, do not depend on the workplace

To whom not work for Upwork is fine

• freebie lovers. The amount of money earned directly depends on the amount of work done
• those who need a boss to issue assignments and make them work
• complete beginners in their field. It's better to come to freelance with some knowledge base.

Where do you start?

It's time to learn how to start working at Upwork. First of all, of course, we register - create a Freelancer Account.

The profile has been created! But do not rush to immediately look for orders. First you need to fill out your profile - without this, you are unlikely to be paid attention to.

In section Overview you need to create a description about yourself - work experience, skills and technologies that you own. This text should interest a potential customer, give him confidence that he needs to hire you.

In section Portfolio it is advisable to add examples of your work with links to them. The presence of such examples can also interest a future client, as well as show your professional level. I do not recommend adding other people's work here, it can quickly come to light 🙂

To section Certifications you can add a list of your certificates, if any.

Important section Tests- some clients are looking for performers that freelancers had to go through. Tests in your specialty are important to validate your skills, so it's best to pass them with a score of at least Top 30%.You also need to take a test Upwork Readiness Test for Independent Contractors and Staffing ManagersIs a simple test of knowledge of the Upwork rules. Without it, the system will not allow sending many requests for order fulfillment.

Employment History and Education: In these sections, it is advisable to fill in information about previous work and education experience. As a rule, customers do not read this, but it certainly will not be superfluous.

In general, take the time to fill out your profile, because the client's first impression is based on him.

How to get paid for work done

Upwork offers several ways to withdraw funds:

For Russia, the most profitable methods are Payoneer and PayPal. To transfer money to Payoneer Upwork charges a commission of $ 2, and to PayPal - $ 1.

You can connect the payment method you need in your account settings in the “ Get Paid» .

Now how to start working at upwork? - Search for orders!

At this stage, you can already try to find your first order. In future articles, I will describe how to correctly compose (cover letters), as well as many other things.