You don’t necessarily need to promote your profile in order to attract more clients. If your skills and quality of services are extensively appreciated and recognized by a majority of people.
But if you are struggling to attract clients on Upwork and other freelancing websites and want to know how you can improve and promote your Freelancer profile, to finally make a breakthrough and get more clients and projects, then this article is written specifically for you.
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So in this article, we’re taking Upwork’s freelance profile as an example.
Upwork is a huge online platform with a large number of similarly skilled freelancers who are available to provide comparable quality services at extremely competitive rates for their efforts. A beginner in this arena will probably find himself almost invisible to prospective clients due to the intense competition, and it is natural to be dejected when weeks and months go by without any response from potential clients.
Having gone through the same grind of tweaking my Upwork profile, sending multiple job proposals each day, and still not engaging client interest for weeks when I started out a few years ago, I thought of sharing my experiences, mistakes and corrective measures so that it can help out new freelancers in getting more assignments.
Related Article: 14 Tips to get your first client on Upwork
Personal branding and visibility are of paramount importance on your Upwork profile. Clients looking to hire a freelancer for a project will have a truckload of people to choose from. All these people who are available to finish a project in record time and for the least amount of payment will grab the client’s interest immediately.
At this point, it is good to ask yourself what can I do creatively to reinforce my online visibility and presence so that the clients are drawn to my profile even among the sea of other profiles?
You may have exceptional skills and professionalism but unless you put yourself, or in other words your skills out there for everyone to observe and utilize according to their requirements, it’s all in vain.
So it is crucial to remind yourself that along with a never-give-up attitude, you need to present yourself appropriately and promote your profile proactively so that more and more people are aware of and pleased with the services you provide.
Clients are always looking for people who can help them grow their business further and by promoting your profile in a compelling manner you put yourself in a prime position for getting interview requests and eventually getting hired for well-paying projects.
How to Promote your Upwork profile and its advantages:
1. Facebook has an expansive reach and there is no better way to reach out to people than promotion on Facebook, it enables everybody to set up their own Pages for business and career purposes. So you can create your own page related to your skills, experience, and services provided and present yourself almost as a brand.
Adding your Upwork profile link to the “Add to Website” section can redirect a Facebook contact to visit your profile and by simply putting “Hire me on Upwork” in your description section you can influence potential clients to do so.
For example, if you are an expert in WordPress, you can add your own tutorials and solutions to technical issues on your Facebook page. This will not only establish your credibility on the subject matter at hand but will also make you more visible to the online community since they will appreciate the services you are trying to provide.
The quality of your services will attract more people and if you are consistent with your performance as well as promotion, then pretty soon you will be regarded as an expert in your field and people will be able to contact you easily through your Facebook page.
2. Pinterest, the visual bookmarking tool is an excellent platform to showcase your skills and get more clients. It can help you discover, save and share creative ideas with potential clients and this is especially effective if you are a graphics designer or artist. All kinds of designing practices and works in progress should be pinned on the respective boards to promote your image and display your proficiency in photoshop etc.
An increase in the likes on your pins will increase your chances of getting noticed by interested clients from Upwork and elsewhere and facilitate the relationship-building practice. Building a relationship with the influencers who already have the attention of your target audience also becomes easier with Pinterest as you repin and comment on their content, and this, in turn, will attract possible clients from Upwork as well.
3. Connect with professionals on LinkedIn and let them zero in on your Upwork profile when they think of hiring a freelancer. Top recruiters from Upwork and other platforms have been known to check up on the LinkedIn profiles of freelancers to gauge their skill and experience in a field, so it’s advisable that you create a crisp profile and join the proper groups related to your domain to increase visibility and promote yourself as a top-notch freelancer.
Build connections on LinkedIn to establish yourself as an expert in what you do and with time people will notice your competence and possibly hire you for projects on Upwork.
4. Create your own website that exhibits your passions, skills, and expertise in your respective field to expand your online presence and reachability. On the “About Me” page within your website, don’t forget to add a “hire me on Upwork” link while you add information about your skills, previous projects, and other professional interests.
Also, add this link to the Job Proposals that you send on Upwork because sometimes clients only have time to take a look at the Job proposals that they have received for a project. A content writer, for example, can garner the huge interest of visitors from Upwork by starting a blog that displays his or her writing skills in different genres.
Clients looking to hire a content writer on Upwork will be immediately drawn to a profile that has its own vibrant website because it is a testament to the abilities and versatility of the content writer in question, and thus the clients will not hesitate in calling the freelancer for an interview.
5. Start a Youtube channel to enhance the visual appeal of what you do and intrigue the interest of possible clients on Upwork. You can upload video tutorials and step-by-step guides to important tasks.
This will not only induce more traffic to your website and get you the deserved appreciation, but it will also help you in earning the trust of possible clients from Upwork because they will feel a hint of personal bonding when they see you in a video demonstrating your skills. Once again, remember to include the “hire me on Upwork” link to the video’s description to broadcast your availability as a freelancer.
6. Contribute to quora whenever you see a question that you may have an appropriate answer to, and you can also link your Upwork profile on Quora. Solving a problem that several people are facing at any given time is a commendable task and this can increase your popularity and reach in the online community.
It is possible that many prospective clients from Upwork or their influencers may also be looking for solutions to such problems, so if they come across an answer that you have provided and is helpful to them, then it is likely they would like to get in touch with you and possibly hire you for future projects.
7. Promote yourself Offline as well because as a freelancer you never know where the next project might come from. Openly communicate and advertise your skills as an Upwork freelancer to anyone who might be interested in knowing what you do and what kind of services you provide. Pass the word regarding your availability as a freelancer so that you create as many opportunities for yourself as possible.
The Suggestions presented above are a compilation of practices that you can adapt to promote yourself, almost as a brand, and be recognized for your skills in the online community. Clients from Upwork will get to know more about you, the services you render and consider you for hiring if they are impressed by your skills and your efforts in promoting yourself sincerely. These methods of promotion can be instrumental in several other ways, provided you keep an open mind and think like a freelancer instead of an employer.
Honesty is a cornerstone of the freelancing community and deception can dent your image in the long run so please keep in mind that if anyone contacts you via any of these aforementioned platforms to hire you for an assignment, you need to come clean and tell them that you can only be hired on Upwork for freelancing. Also, keep in mind that the above-presented methods are suggestions only and one should use his or her own discretion while applying these practices.
Unlike a traditional 9 to 5 job, successfully working and earning on a freelancing platform like Upwork needs a touch of ingenuity to stand out from the crowd and it demands constant learning and practice on skills to remain relevant. Once you understand the mindset of clients you can promote your profile effectively and are willing to put your heart into the projects awarded to you, you will have no shortage of clients ready to pay you handsomely for your hard work and efforts.
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This article is very helpful and interesting. Thanks for sharing nice article.
Fantastic tips! Standing out on Upwork is tough, but these strategies nail it. Love the offline promotion idea – so underrated! Thanks for these spot-on insights!