The Upwork Proposal System I Used to Make $500k (Live Applications) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Your ability to apply with high-quality  applications to high-quality jobs that you found on
2. 0:05Upwork is the number one barometer when it comes  down to your success. How many jobs you're going
3. 0:10to win, how much money you're going to earn, and  ultimately how successful you're going to be on
4. 0:14Upwork. So today, as a veteran with half a million  earned on the platform, 100% job success score,
5. 0:20and an expert vetted badge alongside it, I'm going  to go through two or three applications with you
6. 0:26and finding the projects so that next time you go  to find whatever niche you're in, you understand
7. 0:31some of the key and core fundamentals that I  use when I'm surfacing through projects and
8. 0:36the ability to be able to apply for them in a  way which resonates with the business. Because
9. 0:40I'm going to go to this now, find work. But what a  lot of people do is they make this common mistake.
10. 0:45And this common mistake is that they do do they  don't relay the business's requirements back to
11. 0:51the business. Why is this important? Well, this  business or individual is going to get inundated
12. 0:56with applications. The minute that their post  goes live, you check it 10 minutes later,
13. 1:01it could have 50 proposals alongside it. You have  to stand out in a crowd. Boosting will help you
14. 1:06with that. My last video was on connects. Go  and check that that out at the end of this if
15. 1:10you haven't seen it. I'll link it at the end.  But when it comes down to what you're trying
16. 1:14to do is capture the attention of the person who  posted the job immediately. And there's certain
17. 1:19techniques that you have to implement inside of  your application in order to make that a success.
18. 1:24And I'm about to show you exactly what they  are. Now, my industry is Google Ads Management.
19. 1:29So therefore, I'm going to search for Google  Ads Management here. When we go through this,
20. 1:33there will be an abundance of individual jobs.  There are always loads when it comes down to a PP
21. 1:38from a PPC perspective. But as we know, inquiries  are good, some of them, and other inquiries are
22. 1:43poor. So the filtration system that you use  in order to highlight high quality inquiries
23. 1:49is critical to your success. If you spend all  day applying to lowquality jobs, you're simply
24. 1:54never going to win anybody because they will  never pay you if their hire rate is really low,
25. 1:59for example. Or I don't like applying for jobs  that aren't in tier one countries, for example,
26. 2:03where they're used to paying decent retainers for  a high quality standard of work. I would rather
27. 2:08channel my energy into those than focus on job  applications that are pretty small and pointless,
28. 2:14a little bit like this one is right here. Well,  how do we avoid it? Well, the way that we avoid it
29. 2:19is we could go through some categories and we can  look at individual marketing elements and select
30. 2:24like sales and marketing, digital marketing, but  I've done a lot of that filtration by searching
31. 2:29for Google Ads management anyway. So really what  we're looking at is we're looking at the fixed
32. 2:35price values. So, we want fixed price and do those  four, which is $100 and higher. Stay with me for a
33. 2:43while because this here when it comes down to  the hourly, I'm going to set this at 30. Now,
34. 2:50the reason I'm going to set this at 30, and I  will go lower, I've won retainers that pay me four
35. 2:54grand a month off of a $15 job post. Like, they've  posted a job for $15, they've ended up paying me
36. 3:014K. Please remember this. When a business owner or  a staff member posts a job, they have no idea what
37. 3:06they should pay for it. The value proposition you  provide comes from within. You have to showcase
38. 3:11to the client why you are worth the money. And if  you can, they will pay you. My dad's got a famous
39. 3:15saying. He always says it to me. He always has  all my life. It's not what you pay a man, it's
40. 3:19what he costs you. And what that means is when  it comes down to your investment into something,
41. 3:24if I'm to give the client $10,000, but I'm only  charging $25,000 and that's profitable for them,
42. 3:32that's a win in their eyes, and that's the way  that you should look at every single project. So,
43. 3:36I don't focus too much on the pricing. However,  I do use it for filtering, which is why it's in
44. 3:40there. I don't care about the proposal numbers.  I care about payment being verified, and I care
45. 3:46about higher rates and percentages. Finally,  I care about the country that they're in. So,
46. 3:51United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia,  and New Zealand. Stick both of those in. Now,
47. 3:57I'm going to go to the top and instead of  filtering by best matches, I'm going to go to
48. 4:01most recent. This gives us we've now filtered  by hourly rate and price pricing. Basically,
49. 4:06we've done by payment verified. So, they've got  a verified payment attached to their account and
50. 4:11they've actually hired somebody on the Upwork  platform before whilst been based in the tier
51. 4:15one country. It's not rocket science. That's all  that it takes. You can play around with it. We
52. 4:19can move this up and down when it comes down to  the hourly. Maybe I'll do that if I don't find
53. 4:22what I'm looking for. But as I scroll through,  I'm looking. So, right away here, two hours ago,
54. 4:28some help with Google Ads. I'm running some  Google Ads, and I'd like to find an expert
55. 4:31who can look at the Google Ads dashboard with me  and help me understand some confusing things. So,
56. 4:34I'm going to open that link in a tab. It sounds a  little bit like a consultation, but it's something
57. 4:38that you might be able to twist their arm into a  fullyfledged project. So, I'm going to stick with
58. 4:42it. Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Google  Adwords specialist for local advertisements. That
59. 4:48looks like a good project. Let's open that one.  Google and Meta Specialists research peptides. I'm
60. 4:52going to skip that cuz I don't like SEM specialist  for law firm. Now, you see this payment verified
61. 4:57here. This on the surface looks good. However,  if we go inside of it, this is where my alarm
62. 5:04bells would ring a little bit because I'm sat  here looking at this now and I'm thinking, it's
63. 5:09great that they've got a good job history, but why  do they have three stars out of 12 reviews? So,
64. 5:13I instantly dodge it. That tells you everything  you need to know. Out of 12 freelancers,
65. 5:17they've got a very, very, very mid-rated review,  which means that they could be difficult to
66. 5:22work with. Auto repair shop, Google ads m in the  USA, multi-unit repair shop, Google ads for B2B,
67. 5:28no agencies. We've got a few here. So, running  some Google Ads to look at dashboard. Now,
68. 5:33what I'm going to do is I've just found them very  quickly with the filtration system that I've put
69. 5:38in place and what you should put in place. You  can find jobs very quickly. But what now? What
70. 5:43do we do as the next step? Well, we have to apply  for them. Maybe I'll do all four. Maybe I'll do
71. 5:47one or two just to showcase this to you cuz I  don't you may or may not want to see me do as
72. 5:52many looms. But there are some critical things  inside of these job posts and applications that
73. 5:57you need to see. So, you've got to stick around.  This here, $130K spent, $25 average paid. It's
74. 6:03basically a home run for me. They're in Philly.  I've just flown out of Philly not long ago. So,
75. 6:07we're going to apply now. Bradford is the name  which gets mentioned. Let's take another look. See
76. 6:13if there's any more. Yeah, Bradford. So, Bradford  is the name. We hit apply. Now, the first thing I
77. 6:17do as soon as I hit the apply now button before I  start doing my sort of presentation and pitch is
78. 6:24I will get the connect number in mind. So 50  connects here, 15 cents a connect. You know,
79. 6:30it's going to cost me next to nothing to apply  for this job. It's literally going to cost me,
80. 6:35I think, $75, but I'm going to go even higher  because I see the potential in the project. Now,
81. 6:40what else do I want to show them? Preparation.  This section is preparation. Well, I would like to
82. 6:45show them my YouTube channel. Subscribe. I would  like to show them my YouTube channel because I
83. 6:50have a lot of decent content on this channel  that's going to help in terms of the giving
84. 6:55somebody authority when it comes down to their  personal brand is never a bad thing when it comes
85. 7:00down to winning projects. I have loads of people  mention they found me on this platform before. So
86. 7:05I want to show them that. But I also want to show  something which is blurred on your screen right
87. 7:09now. I'm going to show them the individual account  section and I'm going to go back over the last
88. 7:171,200 days and I'm just going to show them the  spend that I've managed during that period. 35.9
89. 7:23million. So 36 million. So I've got credibility  now from a PPC perspective. If you don't have
90. 7:28this, don't worry. Not everybody's going to have  this level of volume. Like they're just they're
91. 7:32not in terms of like the substantial amount  of data you could show to somebody. However,
92. 7:36what you will have is case studies or you will  be attached to a project that was very successful
93. 7:42and you can use that as a reference. Even if  technically it's a gray area. You never lie
94. 7:48ever. But if you had a part to play in a project  that was a success, feel free to use it. That's as
95. 7:53simple as that. Everybody plays the game. For  me, I never lie ever. Like it's not something
96. 7:57that you'll see inside of, you know, clients and  relationships projects. You you can't lie cuz it
97. 8:03just sets a really bad tone and you will get you  nowhere. But what you can do is you can use your
98. 8:08your add the VAT and add emphasis onto things  that maybe you didn't quite as a beginner this
99. 8:15is you didn't quite have the full control over  but you were part of it then for sure you should
100. 8:21take the credit for that and showcase that as  a case study because you were a key component
101. 8:25inside of it and there is nothing wrong with that  don't let anybody tell you that there is so it's
102. 8:29time to submit a proposal so this is Bradford and  when we look at his job brief some qu suggestions
103. 8:34about landing page improvement ments and campaign  optimizations. Conversions are quite low. So,
104. 8:38let's hit the loom. Hope that doesn't break  your BS. Let's see, guys. Hey, Bradford. Michael
105. 8:44Elliot here. Top 1% Upwork freelancer for Google  Ads. Half a million earned on the platform. I've
106. 8:49managed nearly what 36 million in the last 3 years  or so. I also have a YouTube channel where I teach
107. 8:55people all about Upwork and how to use it. Feel  free to go and check that out. But let's focus
108. 8:59on your job at hand right now. you're currently  running Google Ads conversions are low and the
109. 9:03Google Ads dashboard that you want somebody to  run through with you and help you understand
110. 9:08some things that are confusing you. That is fully  natural to somebody who isn't doing this every
111. 9:12single day. When you're in that position, things  can get lost. But not only that, it can get very,
112. 9:17very expensive. It can cost the business a lot of  money for things which somebody like myself with
113. 9:22my level of experience working with some of the  world's biggest brands Viartics, Vodafone to name
114. 9:28a few. They that gives me a massive leg up. So  I strongly advise that we get on a call. I think
115. 9:33you'd struggle to find somebody better suited to  this job position as what I am. I can't help you
116. 9:38though unless you drop me a message. Drop me  a message. I will go through the landing pages
117. 9:42with you. I'll go through the dashboard with you  and we can look at what the relationship is like
118. 9:46from there on. My name is Michael just dropped  me a message and we'll speak soon. Bye-bye. So,
119. 9:50I nearly signed that off as a YouTube video.  But other than that, that was really good. Just
120. 9:54off the dome, off the cuff based off of what we'd  what we'd seen. And now I'm going to go inside of
121. 10:00this this job brief. And this is where the key  thing comes in. Never with the rate increase.
122. 10:05Okay. And I'm now going to use Whisper Flow  in order to draft a proposal for me. Bradford,
123. 10:10I have calls every single day where clients  struggle to understand a dashboard. And I get it.
124. 10:16Making sense of all the noise inside of Google Ads  is exactly what I am here for. New paragraph. New
125. 10:21paragraph. I've put a personalized Loom together  for you below. New paragraph. New paragraph. I've
126. 10:26handled nearly 40 million in spend in the last 3  years. I'm in an extremely strong position to help
127. 10:32you increase that low number of conversions that  you're talking about. Starting with a review of
128. 10:38landing pages and that dashboard. New paragraph.  New paragraph. Drop me a message if you need some
129. 10:43support. New paragraph. Mike. So, I hope you  just realize what I did there by listening to
130. 10:48what I said, but also by what I put together.  I've I literally fed back everything that he is
131. 10:54feeling inside and gave it to him in the first  line. Making sense of all the noise inside of
132. 10:59Google Ads is exactly what I am here for. He's  going to read that and he's going to feel like
133. 11:03he's not alone because I explained that other  clients struggle to understand the dashboard.
134. 11:07And then he's going to understand that I can make  sense of all of the noise inside of Google Ads for
135. 11:12him and it's exactly what I do. Then he's going  to watch the personalized loom, see what I've
136. 11:16handled. I'm going to edit this mbit and please  see the video testimonial from the Canadian YPO
137. 11:24president attached. So this is not going to show  on your screen. It's going to be blurred probably
138. 11:29depending on the file names. So I'm going to  attach the the testimonial that is now there. Add
139. 11:35Upwork jobs. A tip when it comes down to adding  Upwork jobs is that when it comes down to your
140. 11:42project sizes, I have like really large project.  Look at my largest project here. It's $111,000,
141. 11:48right? And it's probably my best testimonial that  I've got and I will add it to this, but I don't
142. 11:53just add all of the big ones because it makes  you remember the whole point of this is to get
143. 11:59a conversation. It's not to sign the client right  now. It's about like quick ad campaign help $1,500
144. 12:07fixed campaign. This is what the client is looking  for. He's not going to be the huge fish. So,
145. 12:12I'm just going to do that. Then I'm going to hit  portfolio. Then I'm going to probably hit this big
146. 12:16brand here that I work with, perfect draft, and  I've got a proposal inside of there as well. Add
147. 12:21it to the highlights. Now, here's the key thing.  I think that working with Bradford is going to be
148. 12:26valuable, but I don't think he's going to be an  extremely large client. So, what am I going to
149. 12:29do? I see that it's at 50 connects, but I can  see that people are replying consistently. One
150. 12:34person applied 57 seconds ago when I originally  clicked the link. I do not want to be out of that
151. 12:39top four in that first 2hour period because  that's when the most conversions happen,
152. 12:44right? Around 2 hours mark, two to three hours,  because the client then reopens their job proposal
153. 12:48and has another look. So, I'm actually going to go  and I'm going to applyund I'm sorry, 150 connects
154. 12:54for this. And you're like, whoa, why are you  tripling and inflating the ad spend? Well, one is
155. 12:58because I have the financial ability to be able to  make myself visible for projects like this, which
156. 13:04is key. I understand some of you might have to  trickle the the bid up and you can come back and
157. 13:09look and make edits if the client hasn't viewed  it. But for me, I want to know that the jobs that
158. 13:13I apply for and spend time putting effort in are  seen. Like when he opens the project, he's I know
159. 13:19that I'm in the top positions to be seen. And if  he chooses somebody else, that's just tough luck.
160. 13:23That's just part of the course. But considering  I have like a 70% open rate of my applications,
161. 13:29that leaves me in a pretty good position.  And he's a massive avid Upwork user. So,
162. 13:33I know that he's willing to pay me. So, that's  that one out the way. Now, Google Ads specialist
163. 13:37looking for local advertisements. $20 an hour,  18k spent. Looking for an experienced PPC to
164. 13:43help users rebuild for local specialtity retail.  This is focused on booked appointment conversions.
165. 13:47Lingerie. This business is is a specialtity  lingerie boutique in Cherry Hill. primary goal
166. 13:53is not broad e-commerce. We're focus on generating  high intent local traffic that books professional
167. 13:58fitting appointments. So, this is an interesting  one. This is unique and this is right. So,
168. 14:03rebuilding after a suspended or frozen compromised  account. I'm going to close it straight away. I
169. 14:07don't deal with those things anymore. I used  to, but I don't I'm not going to now. Auto
170. 14:10repair shop. Google Ads 29K spent reasonable spend  from the US tier one country. Out of 34 reviews,
171. 14:17he's got basically a fivestar review, 4.9. So, I  know this is a good client. Do not be put off by
172. 14:22the fact that the client actually has such a short  brief. This feeds into what I'm trying to educate
173. 14:28you in this video. Why does the client produce  a short brief? The other one that we just saw,
174. 14:33this has a 99% chance of being AI written.  This one is written by somebody who needs help,
175. 14:38a human naturally just typing it in D. Once LSA2  multi-unit auto repair shop in the US, the focus
176. 14:45should be on automotive repair shops. Proof of  previous work is required to ensure relevant
177. 14:49experience. That is written by somebody who's  ready to hire. That's written by a human being,
178. 14:53somebody you could probably speak to, get along  with, be friends with, because I'm friends with
179. 14:57a lot of my long-term clients now. And that makes  me even more aggressive when it comes down to the
180. 15:02application. They haven't just stuck it in Claude.  They haven't just stuck it in chat GPT. They've
181. 15:06come to the platform. They've spent serious money  on the platform before, and they simply just did
182. 15:12not want to waffle inside of their summary.  And it's the exact response that you go with
183. 15:17like we've just seen, we pair it. We don't write  massive paragraphs of responses because he's not
184. 15:22going to read it. He couldn't even be bothered to  write out a massive Oshi. Couldn't be bothered to
185. 15:26write out a massive summary for their job brief  in the first place. See, this is how timestretched
186. 15:31they are. So, you want to hit this really hard  and fast. I mean, is there any name in here? Yeah,
187. 15:36Cody. So, we've got Cody. Hey, Cody. Michael  Elliot here. Top 1% Upwork freelancer,
188. 15:41half a million earned on the platform. I've been  an expert vet and I've been on the platform for
189. 15:45many years now. When it comes down to who I am, I  teach other people how to use the Upwork platform,
190. 15:51which is like a passion project for me. Not only  that, I've handled nearly 36 million in Google
191. 15:57ad spend in the last three years. A lot of that  for local service lead generation businesses and
192. 16:02I'm happy to showcase a few for you. There's  conveyances, there's uh body repair shops and
193. 16:08things like that. So, it'll suit your industry as  well down to the bone. Feel free. I can showcase
194. 16:12that to you, maybe even put you in touch with the  owner. But I see that you need somebody to run the
195. 16:17holistic marketing strategy for your business. I'm  not going to take up any more of your time. You
196. 16:21want somebody to come in, generate inquiries that  are high quality that can fill your auto repair
197. 16:27shops in America. It doesn't get much simpler than  that. And that is exactly what I do every single
198. 16:32day. When it comes down to the focus, you're bang  on. That's exactly what the focus should be on.
199. 16:36Tight keywords in order to avoid wasted spend. and  the proof of previous work. I've just showcased to
200. 16:41you nearly 40 million in ad spend managed in the  last three years, but I'm happy to share any more
201. 16:46further deep dives with you on a call. Drop me  a message. We can discuss. Speak soon. Cheers,
202. 16:51Cody. Second application done. Now, we go back in  here and I'm going to make this even shorter than
203. 16:57what I did with the other one because when it  comes down to the actual application process,
204. 17:01he's given an extremely short brief and he's  done it for a reason. So, in this I currently
205. 17:08work with auto repair shops in the US, New York  specifically, and I'd be more than happy to run
206. 17:14you through what I've done for that individual  business, the cost per conversion, and the account
207. 17:19structure so that we can hit the ground running.  That's my explanation for uh recent experience.
208. 17:25Now, for the cover letter, Cody, running ads for  an auto repair shop is 100% based on granularity
209. 17:31of Google ad structure. Too many people get  this wrong. New paragraph, new paragraph. I
210. 17:36can generate you highquality leads that are ready  to pay for your service, but I can't do so unless
211. 17:41we have a chat. In order to instigate that chat,  I've put together a loom below. New paragraph,
212. 17:45new paragraph. You want to focus on running your  business whilst a trusted partner runs your Google
213. 17:50Ads account. That's what I do every single day  for my clients. New paragraph, new paragraph. Drop
214. 17:55me a message. New paragraph. Mike. Kind of wonky,  but I like the fact that it's in there. I'm going
215. 18:00to attach the testimonial again so that it gives  us the credibility, but it's it's a it's a local
216. 18:07service business. When it comes down to this,  let's search just scroll through some of these
217. 18:11jobs in terms of PPC strategies. I'm going to do  this search ads management. Uh let's put the big
218. 18:19one in there again. And let's just put that in and  that add to the highlights. 55 connects. I'm going
219. 18:24to do exactly the same thing I just did a minute  ago. I'm going to set the bid at 150. It'll be a
220. 18:28small auto repair shop, but it'll pay more than  that in the setup fee that it will cost me when
221. 18:33it comes down to applying for jobs. So, what  have we learned? I think that's good. I mean,
222. 18:36the next one is a B2B Google Ads. I think this is  actually a really good project that I am going to
223. 18:43apply for, but I think I would rather give you  the lessons now of what we've just done. What
224. 18:47you've seen by these applications is highquality  looms that are short, dense, but provide value
225. 18:53that somebody could literally just watch on their  phone in a matter of seconds without thinking.
226. 18:57You've also seen how short the applications are  with a 70% open rate. Let's say you cut that in
227. 19:05half because of my Upwork authority and what  I have as an on my Upwork profile. Cut that in
228. 19:10half to 35%. That will give you a 35% open rate.  That is still extremely strong. My response rate
229. 19:18is very very very high because of the way that I  do my applications. So, if you copy this model,
230. 19:23you should be getting like a 60 70% response rate  alongside a 60 70% open rate. And when you get
231. 19:29those two things, that means that you're going  to get out of every 10 applications that you do,
232. 19:33you're going to get a couple of responses. Do  10 applications a day, that's two conversations
233. 19:37a day. If you're in one in every four, that's  one client every two days. Spread that over the
234. 19:41course of a year, you've got too many clients,  you don't know what to do. You're growing a
235. 19:44business. That's exactly what I'm here to teach  you how to do. My name is Michael Elliot. If
236. 19:49you've enjoyed this video, go and watch this one  about connects. I'll catch you in the next one.