How to Create an Upwork Profile: Step by Step

How to Create an Upwork Profile: So you want to make money with your tech skills, and are looking to sign up with Upwork to find your first jobs?

Now, you are likely wondering:

• How can I create an Upwork profile that allows me get hired faster?
• How do I stand out from other freelancers on Upwork?

Freelancing is more popular than ever.
With COVID-19, working from home has become a lucrative way to earn a side income with your tech abilities.

In fact, more than 53 million Americans are actually freelancing – that’s multiple in three people.

And with over 158,000 available jobs on Upwork, there may be a ton of demand for for skilled freelancers worldwide.

So, where need to you begin?

If you are new to Upwork, you want to stand out from the crowd with your profile.

You want potential clients to understand that you’re the right individual for the task.

If you fail to do this, all your hard work will be in vain.

You can write a hundred job applications – however you will never get hired.

Throughout this tutorial, We will show you real-world Upwork profile examples, too.

You will learn all the hacks that helped me land my first freelance jobs and ultimately become a full-time freelancer.

So, roll up your sleeves and get ready for those freelance jobs!

In this tutorial, you will learn-

Getting Started On Upwork

The first thing you need to do when starting on Upwork is to ensure which you create the right type of profile.

Note: Before you get started on Upwork and create your profile, it’s essential to select the right skill for your freelance business. Upwork is frequently rejecting freelancers nowadays as often, there’s a surplus of sure skills and not enough of any other. Don’t get your profile rejected.

Choose a skill this is in excessive demand (learn a new skill if need be) and create an Upwork profile primarily based on this skill.

Step 1: Sign up with Upwork

The first aspect you need to do is to sign up and create an account on Upwork.

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Step 2: Upload your picture

A professional-looking, bright photo will give your profile an approachable and pleasant experience.

Also, a pretty photo makes your Upwork profile more legit. It’s a simple way to let ability customers know that you are a real person.

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So what makes a good profile picture, then?

Here are some quick tips:

1. Flash a pleasant smile:

No need to exaggerate – however do not forget to appearance approachable.

2. Use a high-resolution photo:

You want your image to be sharp.

3. Use good lighting:

Bright pictures have a pleasant vibe.

4. Check your outfit:

Wear something you will normally wear for a meeting with a customer.

So, do you need a professional headshot taken by a photographer?

Not in reality, no.

Just use your phone and ask a friend to take your photo.

Step 3: Add a video introduction

One of the easiest approaches to stand out from other freelancers on Upwork is to add a short video introduction for your profile.

This is a high-quality opportunity to give a pleasant first impression to ability customers.

You don’t need a super professional video editing skills for this.

Simply shoot a quick 1-minute video in which you introduce yourself and highlight how you can help your client:

• Introduce your self in brief

• Describe 1–2 core skills and strengths

• Showcase your language skills

• Thank them for their time

• Express your desire to assist them together with your skills

• Invite them to peruse your profile

All in all, understand that freelance clients are interested in one thing only:

They want to know how you can assist them.

In other words: they have a problem that they need solved.

Thus, they don’t necessarily want to hear which programming languages you have learned.

Instead, they want to recognize what you can create and build with those languages.

Shoot your video, upload it on your YouTube account, and add a link to your Upwork profile.

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Step 4: Add your language info

By default, Upwork adds English for your listing of languages. Remember to select your skill level for it.

If you know different languages, add them to your list and select the right skill level for each language separately:

1. Basic
2. Conversational
3. . Fluent
4. Native or Bilingual

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Even if you don’t experience super confident in a certain language, don’t hesitate to add it on your list.

Some customers may also want a freelancer who knows just the fundamentals of English, for example

Perhaps they have a website wherein they simply need to add a link in English. Or they need your assist to translate their slogan or tagline to add to their website.

But recollect: be 100% honest about your language skills.

The last thing you want is to get hired for a multi-language job that you can’t finish due to the fact you don’t certainly speak the language.

Step 5: Add your education details

Next, you should add any relevant education information about yourself.

This will add credibility on your profile – especially if your education is associated with the type of work you’re looking for.

For instance, if you want to work as a front-end web developer, it’s crucial to say research in both technology and design.

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But what if you don’t have any relevant education to showcase?

No concerns.

If you’re entirely self-taught (kudos to you!), don’t fear about your education information. Seriously.

What’s more important to creating an Upwork profile that gets you hired is what you can create and build with your skills. We’ll look this in a minute.

Step 6: Write a value-driven title

Your Upwork profile title plays a large part in landing your first jobs.

And yet, most freelancers forget it altogether.

Now, your profile title is the primary thing your potential clients read about you..

Therefore, it’s your #1 way of making the right sort of first impression.

It’s an easy way to show them that you are the right man or woman to assist them out

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To catch people’s attention, follow these easy hacks:

1.Keep it short and simple:

Be concise and share how you assist resolve your customers’ problems. Highlight the solutions you can deliver– now not the technical skills you have per se.

2. Target a specific clientele and niche:

A simple way to get hired on Upwork is to select a specific niche of clients and projects. Working on comparable projects saves you time, so that you could make more money. Also, positive reviews from clients in a particular industry trend to draw in extra similar jobs.

3. Use relevant keywords:

Once you understand your niche, it’s easy to target the right keywords that capability clients search for. For instance, I specialized in building “WordPress websites” for “small businesses” etc.

Step 7: Add your profile bio

Your profile bio sits right underneath your title.

So, whenever your title catches a client’s attention, they will read through your bio to find out more.

This is wherein you elaborate to your title and pitch your services.

Needless to say, you want to make sure that your bio aligns with your title.

Hence, if your title highlights your logo design skills, don’t talk about how amazing your data science skills are.

Again, do not forget to consciousness on a particular niche:

• Who are your ideal customers?

• What are their biggest problems?

• How are you able to help them solve those issues?

• How do your competencies help them obtain their business goals faster?

It all boils down to knowing a way to deliver value to capability customers in your niche.

For instance, from experience that most small businesses struggle with getting their websites up and running.

They may be expert in selling their products to their clients. But they don’t know anything about building websites.

So they need a person who can make their lives less complicated.

I know how to set up a professional-looking website that is easy to use and navigate.

See what I stated there?

• “Professional-looking”

• “Easy to apply”

• “Easy to navigate”

Those are subtle key keywords and triggers that assist my ability clients see that I can assist them resolve their biggest problem.

So, what are your strengths? How are you able to help your subsequent freelance consumer?

When you have written your Upwork profile bio, check your grammar and spelling at no cost with Grammarly.

Nothing gives a extra unprofessional impression than poor grammar. Hence, constantly double-check your writing.

Step 8: Showcase work samples in your portfolio

Your portfolio is perhaps the most vital a part of your Upwork profile.

Especially in case you are new to the platform, that is in which you can display the quality of your work.

Your portfolio allows you to build trust with capability customers. They want to see the value of your skills and the results of your work.

Focus on work samples that are relevant to your target clientele.

If you want to build websites for small business, don’t showcase your mobile app projects in your portfolio.

Instead, choose projects that show every body your most beautiful websites.

Your portfolio is a fantastic way to provide capability customers hands-on proof of your knowledge. Use it accurately!

Step 9: List your skills

Your skills should – again – reflect the type of work that you are interested in.

Be conscious of your goal clientele. Find out what they want help with.

Then list 4–10 of your most relevant skills based at the projects you are looking for.

For example, if you need to find website tasks, don’t point out “mobile app development” on your skills. That’s not relevant on your target niche.

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You also can adjust the order of man or woman skills to your list. Simply drag-and-drop them in order that your most vital and relevant skills come first.

As your capabilities enhance, consider to update your skills list, too. Also, if a certain skill isn’t relevant anymore, remove it from the list.

Step 10: Create your project catalog

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Now this is the fun part of Upwork!

Your project catalog allows you to create a list of standardized projects that clients can purchase.

You can describe the scope of each project, the cost, timeline, and deliverables.

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This simplifies the initial stage of landing your first jobs on Upwork because it adds transparency.

Especially if you are trying to work on similar tasks, it’s a good idea to provide a standardized project package. It should consist of the most relevant and in-demand services your customers want.

In short: you can pre-define everything upfront.

Interested clients can then purchase a project and place an order. Thus, they consider what you have pre-defined for the project.

Step 11: Choose your experience level

If you want to create an Upwork account that gets you hired, you ought to pick out the precise experience level in your profile settings:

1. Entry level:
   You are relatively new to your field.

2. Intermediate:
You have good experience in your field.

3. Expert:
You have comprehensive and deep know-how on your field.

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Your experience level tells capacity clients how acquainted you’re with the type of work you are looking for.

Hence, it’s now not about whether you are new to Upwork or freelancing.

If you are new to the type of work you are looking for, choose “entry level”.

If you have worked within the field, you may want to make some extra money on Upwork. In that case, “intermediate” can be the right choice.

Step 12: Add your employment history

Adding your employment history is an smooth way to construct trust and credibility with your clients.

This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your qualifications, expertise, and experience.

Again, focus on relevant work experience.

If you want to become a freelance web developer, and you have been flipping burgers for 5 years, it’s better to leave that out.

If you don’t have relevant jobs to add on your employment history, it’s perfectly OK to leave it empty.

Instead, emphasize how you can help your target clientele by using constructing some extra portfolio projects.

Step 13: List your certifications

If you have any relevant certifications, consider to list them on your Upwork profile, too.

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For instance, if you have finished a comprehensive coding course or even a bootcamp, list those here.

Now, I know there are hundreds of certifications available for tech skills. So it’s tough to understand whether a certain specification will help you get hired.

I don’t have anything against certifications, but I’d say this plenty:

A coding course certification doesn’t assure which you know how to build a real-life project for your client.

Instead, you must showcase real-world projects to your portfolio. They need to display your customers that you can actually build useful and helpful stuff with your skills.

Step 14: Add other stories

Your Upwork profile also has a separate section for “other studies”.

So what should you add here exactly?

This is an appropriate spot for listing activities which include:

• Volunteer work

• Research projects

• Competitions

• Extracurricular activities

• and many others.

Add an in depth description to each person experience and – again – emphasize those aspects which are relevant to your target niche.

Create an Upwork profile that gets you hired

By now you ought to have a clear idea about how to set up an Upwork profile that honestly lands you more jobs.

Let’s do a brief recap of the most vital points you have to maintain in mind:

1. Define your target clientele and niche

2. Find out what they struggle with (What do they want assist with?)

3. Highlight your most relevant talents that could assist your clientele

4. Showcase relevant work samples, skills, and experience

It all boils down to knowledge how your abilities suit your customers’ pain points.

And that is in which most freelancers fail.

They create a profile where they listing their technical talents: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.

Remember: your freelance customers don’t know what those skills mean.

They don’t even care what tools and programming languages you use.

Instead, they need to understand how you can help them and deliver value with those skills.

Therefore, usually think about on what you could create with your skills, and how that’s assisting your capability clients.

So, what are you looking forward to? Head over to Upwork and create your profile right now!

Even when you have no freelancing experience yet, Upwork is a fantastic platform to begin incomes a few extra money at the side.

One job at a time, your skills will improve, and your clients will write positive reviews to your profile.

Hence, your profile will become more trustworthy, and you could slowly increase your hourly rates as you go.

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