Can you make money on Upwork? It’s definitely possible to make a part-time or full-time income with an Upwork side hustle, but it takes a strategy to land your first gig and build up to those high-paying clients.
The good news is it’s not difficult; it just takes some persistence and time to see results. I booked my first job in about a week, and after dabbling on the platform off and on for years, I turned my Upwork side hustle into a $ 6k a month income stream. Some months it’s closer to $5k, and others, it climbs to $7k, but my average overall is $72,000 a year just from Upwork alone.
Interested in trying it yourself? There are a lot of misconceptions and questions about Upwork that I’ll tackle so you can make the best decision for you.
Table of Contents
Is Upwork Worth It?
Yes, an Upwork side hustle is definitely worth it, but only if you plan to take advantage of its features and take the time to find quality clients. I secretly love it when I see Quora answers and Reddit threads claiming Upwork is only filled with low-paying work and is a race to the bottom. Meanwhile, I’m working with major brands, Fortune 500 companies, and smaller marketing agencies and websites that send a steady stream of work my way. You can also build your own agency through Upwork with an agency account where you secure the client and put your team to work fulfilling the requirements.Â
However, there are some downsides that come with the platform that you need to consider and weigh against your current freelance strategy. We’ll dig into all that and more to help determine if it’s a good fit for you.
How Much Can You Make on Upwork?
You can make as little as $5 to thousands of dollars on your Upwork side hustle and anything in between. There’s also no cap on what you can charge, so it depends on your skills and your job search strategy. Plenty of consultants on Upwork make $500 an hour on up; however, they are industry pros in their field.
I work with small business owners to enterprise corporations and earn between $50 and $75 an hour; depending on the gig, or other gigs, I may charge some clients $35 if it’s worth my time. For example, I do about five hours of work a week helping a an existing client upload, format and tweak the SEO for their content. I enjoy it, it’s easy, and I never have revisions to my work. I also do writing work for the same client for about $150 to $250 an article and enjoy the team. I specifically wanted something stress-free for those free hours in my schedule, so it’s a win-win as I still earn a decent hourly wage while listening to podcasts.
You may hear people say there’s no point in trying Upwork because someone overseas will bid $5 for the project you’re trying to land for $100. That is absolutely true, but only if you’re working with low-paying clients and offering basic services. Someone who needs simple data entry will pay an overseas freelancer $5 an hour instead of the $100 you’re asking for. If the labor is relatively unskilled, you won’t win in a bidding war against a freelancer who isn’t charging much.
How Does Upwork Work?
Upwork connects clients who need help with a project with freelancers who want more work. Freelancers are on Upwork to take advantage of the thousands of freelance jobs and build connections. The clients could be a giant corporation looking for someone to work full-time through Upwork or someone working on a project which needs a few hours of help.
So why don’t clients just hire freelancers directly off of Upwork?
There are a few reasons, including convenience and safety. Some companies need someone to work for them immediately and want to find ready-to-hire freelancers that have reviews and a work history. They can also choose a credit card as their verified Upwork payment method and contact customer service if things go awry with their freelancer.
What Does Bidding on Upwork Mean?
Freelancers are technically bidding on Upwork jobs, but it’s not like selling something on eBay. You set your rates in your profile, but when you “apply” to an open position on Upwork, you can give them a custom quote and a proposal about your skills and the work you offer. Some people will tell you Upwork isn’t worth it due to the bidding function, but I disagree. You need to pick and choose your job wisely and not compromise on your rate. When actively looking for jobs, I may upgrade my account to see more features, including viewing other people’s bids. I make sure I am never the lowest bidder. Sometimes I even set my price the highest and win that gig, which signals that I am worth my rate and expert status.
Once you earn feedback and have logged hours on the platform, you should start receiving invitations directly from clients to apply for jobs. The more you respond to these jobs, even if it’s to decline politely, the more Upwork seems to showcase your profile in searches. I’ve been on Upwork long enough that they also select me for “Enterprise” jobs. When high-end clients post a job, they can ask Upwork to send the top-rated freelancers their way, offering more exposure to land more work.
What Are Connects on Upwork?
Freelancers receive free Connects every month to reach out to clients and bid on jobs. If you run out of Connects, you can buy more for $0.15 each at 10 to 300. The number of connections you need to apply is a bit of a mystery. You may only need one for some jobs but five for another. However, you do not need to use connects if you are directly invited to apply to a job by a client.
Upwork also has different account levels that impact your Connects. You’ll receive ten free connects each month with their Freelancer Basic, but their Freelancer Plus accounts receive 70 Connects each month (and another ten are given out each month on the first day your account is billed). You’ll need to speak to your accountant or CPA to verify, but your Connects, and the fees for a Freelancer Plus account should be tax deductible.
Find the Best Jobs on Upwork
The best jobs on Upwork combine your current skill set with well-paying work. Choosing data entry as your focus may work out okay if you just need a little extra income, but it won’t pay well unless you offer some kind of data entry expertise with a software program few people know. Instead, you should focus on skills you already have that you can build upon.
Get a comprehensive round-up of the best jobs on Upwork to kickstart your weekend side hustle.
How to Get Your First Job on Upwork
Getting your first job on Upwork could happen in one day or take a few weeks, depending on your skills, strategy, and persistence. Before you start on the steps below, decide if you’re really going to commit to it. Upwork can be a powerful way to connect with ready-to-hire clients, but it does take persistence and time to get up and running. It may work as a quick win for some people, but they’re in the minority. You will likely need to spend a few hours getting everything ready and then several more hours looking through listings and perfecting your approach.
I think Upwork is more than worth it. I rarely look for new jobs on Upwork anymore; they usually all come to me directly as an invitation to apply when clients search through profiles. Once you put time into the process, you will gain momentum and it gets easier.
Thoroughly Fill Out Your Upwork Profile
I’ll admit my profile isn’t 100% filled out, and I still land work! But as a beginner, you should fill in everything you can and upload a video of yourself to stand-out from the competition. You just need some natural light and just one or two minutes to talk about how you help clients. Just make sure your video and profile are about how you help clients, not about you. Clients care about what you can offer them, not whether you know Excel. Instead, tell them how you use Excel to help them and empower their business.
Here’s a shining example Upwork uses on their site as inspiration to set up your own profile.
Upload Previous Work or Create Samples
Depending on what job you’re trying to land, you need previous work or samples to showcase to clients. Upload some sparkling blog content if you want to apply to blogging gigs. Or, if you’re hoping to launch a social media management gig for your Upwork side hustle, make your own on Canva and upload them to your profile. Clients don’t necessarily care if you created the work yourself (unpaid) or produced it as a freelancer. They just want to know you can do the job.
I’ve hired freelancers off of Upwork before to help on projects and didn’t care much about their Upwork hours or if their samples were done on spec (for free). I was usually looking for an affordable rate and someone easy to communicate with and could demonstrate the work was within their wheelhouse. However, if you’re trying to book a $200-an-hour job, those clients want to see your previous work history and the results you earn clients.
Set Your Search Filters
Upwork’s search filters are your new best friend and will help weed out those low-paying clients and too much competition. Go to “Find Work” or “Job Search” and type in a basic keyword, such as blogger or content marketing writer.
Next, go to the Advanced Search link for more options and narrow your results, including hourly rate and the number of proposals. The number of proposals is critical to review as a newcomer to Upwork. If you see there are nearly 100 proposals, it’s going to be challenging to stand out. Shoot for a gig with 30 proposals and under before applying for a job. You can filter your results depending on client history and the project length.
Choose a Mid-Range Rate for the Job
When you set up your Upwork profile, you can set your desired hourly rate, so clients know what you charge in advance. However, it’s the norm to customize a rate per proposal depending on the scope of the project. For example, your general Virtual Assistant Rate may be $35/hour. But if you apply for a job that requires a broad scope of more specialized skills, like graphic design, you can set your rate within the proposal higher to reflect the responsibilities.
Write an Amazing Proposal the Easy Way
Freelancers seem to overthink the Upwork proposal and how to write it. Unless you’re pitching yourself for high-end advertising or marketing work, you’re better off keeping things short and straightforward. First, scour the posting and make sure they didn’t ask you to write a specific word, like “banana,” at the beginning of your proposal. Clients sometimes do this to weed out the responses and ensure you have good attention to detail.
Next, open your proposal with something knowledgeable and personable and how you can help them. Here’s an example:
Hi Erin,
I was thrilled to see your gig for a marketing Virtual Assistant and would love to hear more about the job. What are your goals for the project you’re working on? Are you hoping for someone to take more off your plate or a specific skill set to run with it?
I’m new to Upwork but have three years of experience working as a marketing admin in an enterprise office setting. I empowered my team by designing systems and processes to keep us on track. I also created deliverables in PowerPoint and kept track of budgets in customized Excel spreadsheets. It saved approximately 7 hours a week and increased our productivity 215%. It sounds like you also need someone highly organized who can keep projects moving and also has some copywriting skills. I added a sample below for your convenience; let me know if you would like to see something else.
Thanks so much for your time! Best of luck in your search for the perfect Virtual Assistant.
The above is a simple and to-the-point proposal, but it’s also powerful because it’s conversational yet professional. You’re also not hiding your lack of Upwork experience or apologizing for it. You’re simply laying your qualifications out there, how you can help, and talking to the person like a friendly acquaintance. As you gain experience on Upwork, you can also include a bullet point list of the skills you can offer that are relevant to the job.
Offer Value
It’s also savvy to add some value or a quick idea to your proposal. Here are a few examples:
- By the way, I took a look at your website and noticed the link from your About Us page to your services isn’t working.Â
- After reviewing your site, I noticed you work with landscaping companies. I’ve had success helping businesses get more exposure with their Google Business Profile – let me know if that’s something you’re interested in exploring. In the meantime, I would recommend adding an FAQ section via your Google Business Profile to capture more leads and engagement.
- Feel free to swipe these blog post ideas, even if we don’t end up working together: (Example 1, 2, 3)
Include a Video Link in Your Upwork Proposal
You can speed things up with your Upwork side hustle with a simple video. Taking a video on your phone and uploading it to YouTube, and marking it as “unlisted” is a powerful way to form an immediate connection with clients. When your video is unlisted, only people you give the link to can watch it. Introduce yourself and make it personable, mentioning some of your qualifications. Make sure you send in both a video and proposal, not one or the other. If you can only do one, send the proposal. Â
Double Check Everything Before You Hit Submit
I can’t stress double-checking your proposal in advance enough. You can withdraw it if you notice a mistake, but you’ll need to start the process again and it could cost you some Connects. Run your proposal through Grammarly, recheck the job posting for any details, and make sure you added some value to the mix.Â
How Soon Do You Get Paid on Upwork?
Some of Upwork’s projects are paid hourly or via a flat fee. Hourly contracts require using the Upwork timer to log your work. The timer takes periodic screenshots of what you’re doing online, giving clients peace of mind that they’re paying you to work and not surf and play. If you mess up and forget to turn off your Timer, you can easily go into your Work Diary and delete that time.
The client has ten days to review the work for flat fee projects. Once the weekly billing cycle ends, your funds are available ten days later, although some contracts are eligible for faster payments. Usually, my clients review and approve fixed-price contracts quickly, and I get paid a few days later.
Upwork offers payment protection to freelancers, but it won’t do you much good if you’re not following protocol and working before your contract actually starts. It’s critical to never start working for a client on Upwork until they’ve:
1) officially hired you and
2) set up a fixed-price milestone or activated your hourly contract. Otherwise, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to not getting paid or scammed.
Does Upwork Charge a Fee?
Yes, Upwork does charge a fee, and that often deters freelancers. Upwork’s fees were formerly 20% for the first $500 and then 5% once you hit $10,000 in billings. Their structure recently changed, and effective May 3rd, 2003, Upwork will charge a 10% fee based on your invoiced earnings. They automatically take it out, so you’re not paying it back to them out of your bank account. Freelancers currently on a 5% fee structure are grandfathered in until the end of 2023.
The fees can be a problem for some freelancers considering an Upwork side hustle, but it depends on what you’re looking for and want to accomplish. You can absolutely find your own clients and develop an independent freelance strategy. I have some clients off Upwork, but I factor the fees into the rate I quote. I prefer Upwork automatically pays me on time, generates reports, deals with issues, and finds clients for me. To me, it’s well worth the fee.
There’s another upside to Upwork fees. It levels the playing field somewhat by keeping casual freelancers from showing up and applying to everything in sight.
Are There Scams on Upwork?
As with any online platform that handles money, there are scams on Upwork. The good news is they’re easy to spot and protect yourself as a freelancer. First and foremost, you should only work with clients with a verified payment method on file. In an ideal world, you should also only work with clients who have public feedback from freelancers (their review system goes both ways – you can leave clients a review too). However, I have worked with brand new clients to Upwork, and it worked out just fine.
Upwork also offers plenty of protection methods for both freelancers and clients, including tools to flag suspicious job postings or correspondence. Most scams I’ve seen are clients trying to hire me and then wanting my address to send a physical check.
Giving your address or communicating off of the platform is a big no-no. It ultimately allows scammers to send you a check, then ask you to wire part of the money back to them. Only you find out it’s a bad check that bounces, but not before you’re out some real money in the process. This is also NOT how an Upwork side hustle works; you get paid directly through the platform and no one else. If you use Upwork as intended and watch for too-good-to-be-true offers or anything suspicious, you will be fine. Beyond these tips, you should only start working once the client activates a milestone/fixed-price project or your hourly contract.
There’s also an Upwork Payment Protection feature, so even if a totally legitimate client refuses to release payment of agreed-upon work, you can take action to get paid. I’ve never had to do this, but knowing I can gives me peace of mind.
Should You Use Upwork or Fiverr?
The Upwork or Fiverr question is a good one, and it all comes down to how you prefer to work. I’ve heard of people absolutely crushing their freelance goals on Fiverr, and I have made some money there. But I couldn’t split my focus and make both platforms work, so I chose to focus on Upwork. Instead of waiting for people to find my services on Fiverr, I prefer looking through jobs myself with clients ready to hire. On Fiverr, clients look through freelancer profiles and choose a pre-set service and price from a menu, but as a newcomer, it takes a lot of work to stand out.
Fiverr also has a reputation for always siding with clients, even at their freelancers’ expense and reversing payments. Their search algorithm also mystifies people whose profiles and services aren’t showing up. At this point, I have enough experience on Upwork that clients find me and send invitations directly. As a beginner, I would want control over getting myself in front of interested clients and picking and choosing what I work on. Meanwhile, Fiverr clients can book your services immediately, even if they’re not a good fit for you. If you cancel the job, it can impact your score.
However, there are some upsides to Fiverr. They’re regarded as a good option for smaller, one-time projects. Their model is more of a productized service where clients can pick and choose add-ons you offer. An Upwork side hustle is better suited for ongoing freelance work and more complex projects. I also find Upwork pays better, but that also depends on the services you’re offering.
Alternatives to Upwork
There are other alternatives to an Upwork side hustle if you don’t feel it’s the right fit. Here’s a shortlist to explore:
- Fiverr – Good for one-off, productized services
- SolidGigs – Matches freelancers with top freelance jobs, but there is a $ 19-a-month fee.
- Freelancer.com – An online marketplace that works more like a contest to win jobs with sliding fees for freelancers based on lifetime billings with a client.
- Hubstaff Talent – Gain exposure and leads on high-profile jobs without bidding.
- Guru – Connects skilled freelancers with clients on a range of free to premium monthly accounts and fee structures.
I find that diluting focus across multiple platforms means you’ll never master one and see scalable results. However, you could pick two options to see which feels most intuitive and natural to you. Once you land on a freelancing site that works for you, treat it like your full-time job to build up the income and career you want.
Freelancing on Upwork: Next Steps
The best way to see if an Upwork side hustle is a good fit is to take action and try it. Commit to a month or two on the platform, give it a go to see how it works, and get comfortable with its tools, resources, and interface. They also have a community of freelancers who will answer questions in their forums if you need advice or insights. For me, Upwork was life-changing, and I was able to build a flexible side hustle around my interests, financial goals, and kids’ schedules.
I would never go back to relying on cold-pitching random people on LinkedIn or via email as my primary source of work. Upwork makes my life easier, has protections in place for freelancers, and is an endless source of eager clients looking to hire immediately. Good luck!