Upwork Profile Secrets I Used to Make OVER $1.5 Million (Advanced Tips + FREE Profile Worksheet)

Summary

Learn advanced strategies to perfect your Upwork profile and attract high-paying clients. This video by Freelance MVP highlights common mistakes freelancers make and provides structured tips to optimize your profile. By understanding client needs, utilizing the right terminologies, and focusing on results, you can significantly boost your earnings and appeal to more clients. With examples and practical advice, this guide aims to transform your freelancing career on Upwork.

Highlights

• Emphasize client results in your profile for maximum appeal. 🏆
• Research and use effective search terms relevant to your niche. 🔑
• Check top earners' profiles for inspiration on content and layout. 💡
• Craft a standout portfolio with high-quality work examples. 🎨
• Understand client frustrations and desires - cater to them! 🎯

Key Takeaways

• Nail your profile to double your earnings on Upwork! 💼
• Avoid common mistakes: no 'Hi, my name is' intros or repeating your title. 🚫
• Focus on client needs - they only care about what you can do for them today. 🕒
• Study the market: know what clients want and who your competition is. 🔍
• Your headline and first two sentences are crucial, make them impactful! 🎯

Overview

In this eye-opening session, Freelance MVP stresses the importance of a well-crafted Upwork profile, revealing tips that helped earn over $1.5 million. Avoid the common pitfalls most freelancers fall into, such as redundant introductions and grammatical errors. Instead, focus on demonstrating the value you can provide to potential clients by highlighting results and understanding their unique needs.

Dive deeper into the research aspect - familiarize yourself with the terminologies that potential clients frequently use, and differentiate between similar terms to maximize your visibility. Also, don't hesitate to learn from the best in the field by studying the profiles of the highest earners in your niche. This can provide a strategic edge in terms of how you present your abilities.

Finally, assembling your profile needs to be strategic. Create a compelling narrative that captures attention in just two sentences, followed by clear, results-driven work examples. Constantly evolve your profile by updating it with new learnings and feedback. This will keep your career dynamic and competitive on Upwork, unlocking potential for greater revenue.

Upwork Profile Secrets I Used to Make OVER $1.5 Million (Advanced Tips + FREE Profile Worksheet) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Nailing your profile is crucial. No matter whether you've made $1 or $100,000. You need to watch this video because both your earnings and how fast you grow those earnings depends on it. You know what's nicer than a 100,000 a year? 200,000 a year. So if you wanna make money, it's time to listen up. This is the advanced class people. Stick with me, because we're gonna move fast. Today, I'm gonna show you how to totally reshape your Upwork profile, starting right now.
• 00:30 - 01:00 But first, we're gonna start off with the top three mistakes that even experienced Upworkers are making in their profiles. Number one: "Hi! my name is". Don't. You're wasting real estate. Stop. Number two, "why are you repeating things from your title?" I literally just read that, if I'm your client. Grammar mistakes? Seriously though, like $900K and you still have spelling mistakes? Oooh no no no. All right, I give up, I'm guilty, right?
• 01:00 - 01:30 I did this stuff too. I know that I've done it too because I have literally gone back and found spelling errors in my own stuff. Like my profile picture is not even smiling, right? When I first started, my profile was literally so bad, I didn't even know that it was holding me back until I started like actually looking around and seeing what other people were doing and seeing what was making them successful. So basically, what I have done now, for this video, is coalesced it into one nice little, like that package.
• 01:30 - 02:00 So that you can basically just follow a bunch of steps and do it all for yourself. When a prospective client is looking through a list of potential people to work with on their project, that prospective client on Upwork does not care about you. You need to assume that the only thing that an Upwork client cares about is: What's in it for me? They don't care about your current job, your career,
• 02:00 - 02:30 what your pet's name is, or anything like that. All they care about is what can you do for them today? Results. Tailor your whole strategy around that and you will do exceedingly well, my friend. Let's focus on what's most important. Numero Uno: Headshot. You do not need glamor shots. This is not a photo shoot. You are not going on the cover of Fortune magazine. This is a profile photo... just do a photo! For example, that one.
• 02:30 - 03:00 Ask me how I did that. No, Andrew just show them how I did that. Take some more. - Today, no school? - No, no school today. - Today, jump park? - Yeah, she's four. It's all over now. Now I've done it the right way and had my four year-old daughter take the photo. So what you don't need? You don't need edited photos. You do need good lighting, look at the camera, stand in front of a white wall, smile and take that photo. Professional photos are nice
• 03:00 - 03:30 but they are not required. It is simple, look like a professional and you'll get hired more. Job done. Moving on. For the next piece of this, we need a little bit of information about the supply and demand side of this marketplace. So first off, we're gonna research what the clients want. What are the terminologies that clients keep using for the jobs that you really want? In my case, for example: it's gonna be "Investor deck" - or is it "pitch deck"?
• 03:30 - 04:00 Two things that are saying kind of the exact same thing but maybe one is just far more common than the other. What you wanna do is, when you're going through the jobs that are out there, you want to search a ton of different terms and you want to write down the ones that just keep coming up in your space. We're talking unique words, ideally that could only be used in your space. So for example, if you do web development.
• 04:00 - 04:30 "Web", not great. "Development", not great. "Web development", also not great. However, what I've found that typically works extremely well is looking for specific search terms, representative of tech terms, specific platforms, things like that. For example, marketing automation. We're talking HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Infusionsoft, Zoho, Zapier, stuff like that. If you're an app dev then maybe it's a specific language.
• 04:30 - 05:00 Node.js, C++, C#. For me, I may have the problem that if two of the main search terms that I'm trying to rank for are going to be "investor deck" and "pitch deck". Well, I can't just say "deck" because all the time people pop up with "Design my deck" projects, and it's literally his backyard deck. Now, remember when you're doing this research, it is not about the work that you do. It's about the results that your clients get from it.
• 05:00 - 05:30 What you want to do is test your assumptions by writing down those specific terms that keep popping up, those unique things. And see what the results are, when you go back and search them. Are you getting closer or farther from the types of jobs that you want? You wanna mark the good ones and mark the ones that have a lot of job volume at a high level that are big budget things for the clients that you want. Then you're gonna end up with some pretty solid data
• 05:30 - 06:00 of some of the search terms that you should be using when you're constructing your profile. So once you've got search terms and you know which direction you wanna be going in. All right, let's look at the supply side of the equation. Who's doing it the best? You wanna repeat the same research that you just did on the client side of things on the talent side to see what the highest earning people in your niche are doing. You wanna use this as inspiration.
• 06:00 - 06:30 Take your top search terms and search for talent. You want to then go into the profiles, look for commonalities among the most successful people in that space. Write down the specific words, tactics and focus down on those that are just gonna resonate with exactly what you want to do. Here's a pro tip. If you wanna go even deeper, here's what I did. Go to the top 10 highest-earning people and actually add up historical earnings for those who have earnings records.
• 06:30 - 07:00 How much did that person make in the past year? Some may have made a lot but they started 10 years ago maybe, other started more recently and have made $100,000 in their first year on the platform. That's the person who's growing. Look for the ones that are growing enormously because something is working and working really really well. And you're going to incorporate some of those tactics into how you construct your own profile.
• 07:00 - 07:30 As you go through all of this research, you want to be marking down the different ideas that you get from people's profiles that are just doing exceptionally well. The different categories of things that you're looking for are headshot ideas, headlines, cool descriptions and results oriented work examples. Every niche is going to be different. So everyone's notes are going to be different, but understand that for you, you need to be looking for, okay,
• 07:30 - 08:00 who then are the other people that are successful in my niche? What is it that they are doing for each one of these individual elements? What are the strategies that I then probably should be using in my own profile? Do not copy, you will get insta-banned. I've seen it happen. After you've done that, you'll then have a lot of data points from both the demand side of the equation, that's the clients. And the supply side of the equation, that's the freelancers. That point to the direction of who is your ideal client
• 08:00 - 08:30 and what did they really want? What did they want? What are they frustrated by? What are they tired of? And what is really their ultimate goal that is helpful in convincing them that yes, you can be the one that is the best in your space because you know what they care about most and you can deliver on it. Test your assumptions by writing down the specific search terms that keep popping up and see what the results are, are you getting closer or farther from your target client.
• 08:30 - 09:00 Mark down the ones that are really that good? The mistake that so many freelancers make in this process is that they're far too focused on the job. What's the project? What's the project called? That's not what's at issue here, that's not what you're tailoring things for. What is actually what you're tailoring things for, is what's the ultimate desire of that client. It's not about the web development job,
• 09:00 - 09:30 it's about I'm frustrated that my website doesn't work and there are 15 different systems and 14 of them I have no idea what they do and I don't know how to explain what I want but I know what I want and I know that I needed to work. It's about the underlying motivations. How are you going to feel as a result of getting the job done? Not what is the job? It's what's the feeling that you get when it's finished. Focus on that and you're gonna be in the money.
• 09:30 - 10:00 Now, armed with data, we're actually going to dive in to creating your description and your headline and constructing the rest of the profile. Here's an overview structure that I've found works pretty well. First, start with your two sentences. That's what's going to show up when somebody comes out and searches you, then get into good fit clients, focus on the client's struggles, okay. What are those frustrations? That's directly where those things fit. Remember: secret motivations. You gotta look deeper.
• 10:00 - 10:30 Then we get into the benefits. What's gonna happen? What are the benefits that they are going to get by working with you? Then you can get into what does a bad fit actually look like? Then you can get into about me. Which, keep it simple, keep it short. You don't have to go into great detail. There is a reason that the structure looks the way that it does. And that everything up until that point is focused on the client. Because guess who's most important in this?
• 10:30 - 11:00 See above, what's in it for me as a client? If there's one thing that you wanna focus on more than anything else in your profile overview, it is going to be those first two sentences. That's what's gonna pop up in search and that's what people are gonna see first. So that's gotta be results packed. The other thing that's going to be extremely important in all of this, is gonna be your headline. That's going to pop up in search too, it needs to be descriptive, it needs to be punchy and it needs to be extremely short.
• 11:00 - 11:30 You do not have a lot of real estate here, you need to come out of the gate swinging. Fun fact here, Upwork has actually reached out in the past and ask me to change my headline. I changed one word and they left me alone. So here's what a bad headline looks like. Now here's what a good headline looks like. Now let's get into the pretty pictures, whatever you wanna call it. Portfolio, work examples, it doesn't matter... It's pretty pictures, so that's what's also now new in Upwork search. That picture shows up when someone is searching for you.
• 11:30 - 12:00 You to make sure that yours is the absolute best possible thing that you can show in that instance to that client. Remember the research that you did of other people in your space that are extremely successful? Some people have some really good looking stuff and some not really that great. Focus on the stuff that is really, truly exceptional. And if nobody has really truly excellent work examples,
• 12:00 - 12:30 I'll tell you what I did. I literally modeled some of my early work that I posted up along the lines of what professional consultants are delivering to their clients. If you want to really stand out, that's what you're shooting for. The most professional work examples that you can deliver. A picture says a thousand words and you want those words to be results, results, results all the way into the future. For your portfolio, you don't need a hundred work examples.
• 12:30 - 13:00 In fact, you only need a couple. Minimum viable portfolio is going to be three work examples but just make 'em good. It is worth it, to put in most of your effort in this process into those work examples. Because if you can nail them, that will sell clients for you. Here is what a bad work example looks like. Here's what a good work example looks like. That's it. Let's dive a little bit deeper on description.
• 13:00 - 13:30 You're answering the specific question for a specific buyer, directly for that perfect client that we just did all that research on. That you're going to do their job better, faster and higher quality than anyone else. We're trying to speak to the things that are frustrating or upsetting them or making them tired or giving them headaches or causing business chaos to those specific ideal clients to that single one person.
• 13:30 - 14:00 For example, if I'm talking about a development project that I'm about to work on, I know what I want but I don't know where to start. I don't wanna reinvent the wheel, I don't wanna endlessly struggle with what could just be a simple solution, and I'm also frustrated about the devs that I might have to work with. I'm worried that that person might not actually know what he or she is doing, I'm worried that they might overcharge me,
• 14:00 - 14:30 I'm worried that they won't explain things or that I'll feel like an idiot or that when they deliver something, it might be messy code. These are frustrations that you wanna tap into and that applies sort of in different forms across niches. The clearest way to show results? Numbers are the transformation. So many people will say I'm the best writer, I'm a dedicated and hardworking person, but are you the writer that can deliver 1000% return
• 14:30 - 15:00 on ad spent for ad copy? Are you the marketing expert that can deliver three times more qualified leads for a client? In my case, are you the guy who can deliver me a pitch deck, that's going to help me raise tens of millions of dollars? Prove it as best you can in number terms. I'm an algorithm focused guy, and so one specific thing about portfolio that a lot of people actually don't talk about, is that yeah, sure, it doesn't have to necessarily be
• 15:00 - 15:30 from a project from Upwork. Everyone pushes. Oh yeah, you should always attach the work that you've done for Upwork clients. Most of my clients, if I ever put their work up on Upwork that would be a major, major problem. So what do you actually do about it? You can use work from projects that are not from Upwork, that's perfectly fine. Everyone pushes. Oh! you should always associate it with the Upwork project and everything like that.
• 15:30 - 16:00 Guess what? I have never found a benefit in that. Upwork is constantly updating their system, so if this video ever gets out of date then I'm gonna put a little card up there, right there for you of the updated video. Here's the one thing that doesn't matter, the video. I have had thousands of invites come my way, I have had hundreds of clients. The video that's on my Upwork profile has 160 views. You don't need to do it, skip it. The last thing that you have to do in this, is you have to beta test.
• 16:00 - 16:30 You have to search out yourself and see what does it look like from the client's perspective? What does somebody see when they search you? Do your first two sentences end in the right place? What is actually showing? You need to understand what is on the other side of the fence. What are people seeing when they're looking for someone in your space? I've got something for you that I wanna call the live stream challenge. I've been getting a lot of feedback from people that they want to see me on a live stream
• 16:30 - 17:00 and actually interact and talk and basically see me put together one of these profiles. So if we get 200 comments on this video and 200 likes, we'll sit there and construct a profile live. Step by step I'll show you how I would exactly write it, how I would construct it and putting that together and ideally so that you can do it yourself as well. Is this something that you want?
• 17:00 - 17:30 If so, in the comments, then just put something down below of what's the niche that you would want me to focus on in a live stream or alternatively what is your number one question about profile related stuff that you would want me to answer on a live stream. Now you've got to audit yourself. Be ruthless because your clients will too, they're not gonna choose you unless you are at the top of your game, and you cannot stop innovating.
• 17:30 - 18:00 You have to continually go back and do this over and over again over time. This isn't like a set it and forget it type of thing. Your profile's a living thing, you should be updating it regularly. Don't be afraid to go with your first draft though, because this is something that you can always change later. The number one thing that you need to do right now though is press pause, stop watching right now, open the description, download this guide, watch the video over again
• 18:00 - 18:30 and do it live as we go through it. You have to actually do this stuff guys. So seriously like press pause. Go ahead and I'll, I'll wait. (playful music) All right. So if you did what I told you to do and downloaded that guide and went through this entire video again and actually did this stuff. Then check out this video on how to win jobs on Upwork. Cause you're ready. (playful music)