Why You’re Struggling on Upwork (And How to Fix It) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So, if you're an Upwork freelancer, but
2. 0:01you're struggling to land clients, then
3. 0:03chances are it's because you're failing
4. 0:04at one of the three stages that I'm
5. 0:06going to cover in this video. There are
6. 0:08only three main stages in the funnel
7. 0:09process to close clients through Upwork.
8. 0:11And so, you have to identify which of
9. 0:13these three stages that you're lacking
10. 0:15and fix it. And I'm going to provide you
11. 0:17solutions depending on which of the
12. 0:18three stages that you've identified that
13. 0:20you're failing on from watching this
14. 0:22video. So, let's jump into it. The first
15. 0:24and most obvious one is, are you
16. 0:26applying to enough contracts every
17. 0:28single day? And I get DMs almost every
18. 0:30day now where people are saying, "I'm
19. 0:32struggling on Upwork. I can't land
20. 0:33clients. How do I fix it?" And my first
21. 0:36question is, "Well, in the past 30 days,
22. 0:38how many contracts have you actually
23. 0:39bidded on?" And a lot of them reply 10
24. 0:41or 15 or 17 contracts. It's just not
25. 0:43enough volume. You can't possibly expect
26. 0:46to close five, six, seven clients a
27. 0:48month when you're only applying to 10,
28. 0:5012, 13 contracts a month. That's a 50%
29. 0:52close rate from application bid to close
30. 0:55client. And it's just not going to
31. 0:56happen. You have to bid consistently
32. 1:00every single day on contracts that are
33. 1:02relevant to your niche. Pick a number.
34. 1:05The best way to do this is to say, "I'm
35. 1:07going to bid on five contracts a day,
36. 1:11and I'm going to make sure with each of
37. 1:12these five contracts, I'm going to
38. 1:14include personalized Loom videos to make
39. 1:16sure that my cover letter is is
40. 1:18enhanced. I'm going to include a
41. 1:20personalized cover letter to make sure
42. 1:23that the prospect knows I've read the
43. 1:25job description." And if you're doing
44. 1:26this five times a day, let's say it's
45. 1:29seven days a week, that's 35 contracts a
46. 1:32week.
47. 1:34And so if somebody is applying to 35 a
48. 1:36month, you are going to outperform them
49. 1:38in the amount of meetings that you get
50. 1:39from prospects. You're going to excel
51. 1:41way faster. So volume is a big part of
52. 1:44this. If you're just simply not bidding
53. 1:45on enough, it's not going to work. How
54. 1:47can you possibly expect to get enough
55. 1:48active proposals if you're not bidding
56. 1:50and applying to enough contracts? And so
57. 1:52that's the first and most obvious one is
58. 1:55review the amount of contracts you've
59. 1:56actually applied to and submitted in the
60. 1:57past 30 days. And if it's very low and
61. 2:01in fact you know once you know the
62. 2:03amount you've done in the past month
63. 2:04let's say it's 100 divided by 30 and
64. 2:06calculate how much that is a day right
65. 2:09you want to bid ideally on 5 to 10 a
66. 2:11day. This is the sweet spot. And if
67. 2:13you're watching this thing and I just
68. 2:14don't have the budget and the connects
69. 2:16budget for, well, that's something that
70. 2:18you have to figure out how to address
71. 2:20because Upwork is a pay-to-play game.
72. 2:22You have to bid on contracts to be able
73. 2:24to build up your profile. And I assure
74. 2:26you, things get easier. There comes a
75. 2:27point where your profile is so credible,
76. 2:29you don't even need to bid anymore
77. 2:30because you just get invites. And so, in
78. 2:33the initial stages to build it up, make
79. 2:35sure you're bidding on enough contracts.
80. 2:37And if that's your your um bottleneck,
81. 2:39then it's a very easy fix. The second
82. 2:42one is view rate. Now what is view rate?
83. 2:44When you apply to an application, what
84. 2:46the prospect actually sees is a list
85. 2:51of different candidates who have applied
86. 2:53to the job. For example, here you can
87. 2:55see I posted a contract looking for an
88. 2:57additional account manager and a bunch
89. 2:59of people have applied. A view rate
90. 3:02means when I click on one of these
91. 3:03candidates, I'm viewing their proposal.
92. 3:08I'm looking at their proposed bid. I'm
93. 3:09looking at their cover letter. Now, this
94. 3:11is a view. And so, how do you increase
95. 3:14your view rate? Because we need a good
96. 3:16view rate in order to get a good
97. 3:17response rate. Usually, prospects are
98. 3:19going to view your actual bid before
99. 3:22they decide to message you or hire you.
100. 3:24And so, we have to get a good view rate
101. 3:25as part of the stage of the funnel. This
102. 3:27is stage two. How do we do that? Well,
103. 3:29the first is having a good opening line
104. 3:33to the cover letter. If we don't have a
105. 3:35good cover letter opening, then this
106. 3:37part is not going to hook them in.
107. 3:40So, let's see here. We can see Roy
108. 3:43for a contract where I was looking for
109. 3:45an Instagram DM setter. He posted, "Hey,
110. 3:48I've been DM setting for the past 3
111. 3:50years. I've closed $1.5 million US.
112. 3:53$92,000
113. 3:55was his biggest deal." And he gets 70 to
114. 3:58100 a month in show rate of 90%. This is
115. 4:02good metrics for somebody who's looking
116. 4:04for an Instagram DM setter, which is
117. 4:06what this contract was about. He has
118. 4:08hooked me with results.
119. 4:11And this is what you need to consider in
120. 4:13the opening line of your cover letter.
121. 4:15Results as opposed to the one above
122. 4:17which is hello, let me introduce myself.
123. 4:19I am Kin. I am from this location. I
124. 4:23live in Cambodia, working in Cambodia.
125. 4:25I'm a sales manager. This is not
126. 4:28appealing because you're not selling the
127. 4:29result. This is appealing to me. As
128. 4:31somebody who's posted a contract looking
129. 4:33for an Instagram DM setter, I clearly
130. 4:35want a good performer. And a good
131. 4:37performer showing me results they've
132. 4:39done in the past is a very big sell.
133. 4:42Now, if you're unable to do a cover
134. 4:45letter like this because you don't have
135. 4:46past experience, then you need to
136. 4:49compensate this by in in my opinion,
137. 4:51this is the most effective way to do it
138. 4:53by including a Loom video at the start
139. 4:57of your cover letter, saying, "Hey, I
140. 4:59just made this Loom video just for your
141. 5:00job. I'm confident I can deliver. This
142. 5:03is perfectly suited to my skills." And
143. 5:04then put the URL.
144. 5:06A custom URL is powerful. And if you
145. 5:08don't have past experience, then your
146. 5:10Loom is going to be very simple. It's
147. 5:11going to be, "Hey, I just came across
148. 5:13your upper contract. I am certain I can
149. 5:15deliver a project like this. This is
150. 5:16exactly what I do. Let me tell you a
151. 5:18little bit about the way I would propose
152. 5:20that we approach the strategy of your
153. 5:21project. I would suggest that we DM
154. 5:24seven different accounts a day. I would
155. 5:27respond to this. I would do this."
156. 5:28You're basically giving a strategy audit
157. 5:30in the Loom video. And if you have no
158. 5:33past experience, then this would require
159. 5:35recording a new Loom video for every
160. 5:37contract. And although that's t time
161. 5:39consuming, you have to do this to
162. 5:41compensate for your lack of past
163. 5:43experience and portfolio.
164. 5:45But if you have past experience that you
165. 5:47can leverage, then like Roy does, this
166. 5:49is very powerful. Sell the result and
167. 5:52the outcome. Don't sell who you are and
168. 5:55what like where you're working because
169. 5:57it's just not as powerful. Um, so Roy
170. 6:00has done very well with this cover
171. 6:01letter. Now, this is one aspect of
172. 6:04getting a view rate, a good view rate.
173. 6:06The second aspect is you might actually
174. 6:08just not have, let me get up this. You
175. 6:12might just be competing against people
176. 6:14who have just way better earnings and
177. 6:16stats because you can see there are two
178. 6:18proposals here. Let's pretend both of
179. 6:21their cover letters are exceptional. So,
180. 6:22the cover letter is not the bottleneck,
181. 6:25but one has 100K earnings, 100% job
182. 6:28success, 17 completed jobs, 10,000 hours
183. 6:31of past experience, and the other one
184. 6:33has zero. Now, one is obviously more
185. 6:36appealing than the other. This is a lot
186. 6:38more difficult to fix. If you have a
187. 6:41very low metrics on your profile like
188. 6:45earnings and job success and completed
189. 6:47completed projects, there are a few ways
190. 6:50to complete this. Number one, take
191. 6:54small
192. 6:55projects. Bid on small projects just in
193. 6:58the initial phase. It doesn't matter if
194. 6:59it's $20, $50, $80 projects. It's not
195. 7:02about the finances. It's about the
196. 7:03review and job success of completion.
197. 7:06This is a very short-term solution. You
198. 7:08want to do this in initial phase. This
199. 7:09is not a long-term play. But you need to
200. 7:11get a few completed projects under your
201. 7:13belt just really quickly. And the way to
202. 7:14do that is to find small jobs that are
203. 7:16small rate and just quick hires and try
204. 7:18and complete it fast to get the review.
205. 7:20This is what you want.
206. 7:23The second option is if you have a
207. 7:25client that you're working with off of
208. 7:27Upwork is to bring them to Upwork. So
209. 7:31existing clients that you've worked with
210. 7:34off of the platform,
211. 7:36say to them, "Hey, is it okay if we do
212. 7:38the next installment through Upwork? It
213. 7:39would really help me build up my
214. 7:40profile." and they can post a contract
215. 7:42and invite you and you could basically
216. 7:44get a review from that. That follows
217. 7:46Upwork's terms of service. That's
218. 7:48absolutely no no problem with that. The
219. 7:50third, and I see some people doing this,
220. 7:51I wouldn't highly recommend it. Do it at
221. 7:53your own risk, is to do a fake project,
222. 7:56get a friend to post contract, and
223. 7:59you get invited to it, you complete it,
224. 8:01you get a review. The cost of this
225. 8:03obviously is 10% which is Upwork's fee.
226. 8:05So, whatever the fixed project amount
227. 8:06is, let's say it's $100, you're paying
228. 8:08about $10 give or take to Upwork to do
229. 8:11this. I wouldn't recommend this. It's
230. 8:12it's the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
231. 8:14If you get banned, it's not ideal. But
232. 8:16these are the three main options. So, to
233. 8:19increase your view rate, this is all we
234. 8:20need. We need a good opening line for
235. 8:23your cover letter, which is powerful. It
236. 8:24sells the results. We need good stats.
237. 8:28And if we don't have it, we need to take
238. 8:29small projects. We need to get existing
239. 8:30clients to leave us project um a review
240. 8:34or at your own risk faking a contract or
241. 8:37two just so you can kickstart the
242. 8:39account. Now, if you do these two
243. 8:42things, there is one other variable that
244. 8:44we haven't talked about that even if you
245. 8:47have really good stats and you have a
246. 8:48really good opening cover letter, you
247. 8:50might still have a very low view rate.
248. 8:52And that probably means that in your
249. 8:55niche it's ultra competitive that there
250. 8:57are too many people boosting. So you can
251. 9:00see here these contracts are boosted,
252. 9:01boosted, boosted. In certain niches I've
253. 9:04seen there are so many people that boost
254. 9:07every single contract that if you're not
255. 9:09boosting, you're going to be left on
256. 9:10page two, which is basically when they
257. 9:12click show more, which most prospects
258. 9:14aren't going to see your proposal.
259. 9:16They're not even going to see your name
260. 9:17pop up for them to click on it to view
261. 9:18it in the first place. And so that's a
262. 9:21lot more difficult to battle against
263. 9:22because that means you have to consider
264. 9:24boosting.
265. 9:26This is only for very competitive spaces
266. 9:28and I've seen it a few times in a few
267. 9:31very specific niches. Um, one of them
268. 9:33can be SEO. There are certain contracts
269. 9:35with SEO where it's just ultra
270. 9:36competitive or very basic WordPress
271. 9:39websites. There are some contracts where
272. 9:42WordPress related websites get bombarded
273. 9:44with boosts. So these two are are some
274. 9:47I've noticed in but boosting might have
275. 9:50to be the answer if these two you've
276. 9:52done and they haven't resolved the
277. 9:54problem of a low view rate.
278. 9:57The last part to this is a a good reply
279. 10:00rate. Now we've got a good view rate
280. 10:0250%. This is fantastic. We apply to 100
281. 10:04contracts. 50 of them see it and they
282. 10:06look at our proposed bid. Now we need a
283. 10:09good reply rate. We need them to message
284. 10:10us so that we can get them on a call and
285. 10:12try and close them. Now, getting a good
286. 10:15reply rate, a big part of it is your
287. 10:18actual profile. So, let me show you
288. 10:21here. Let's go through an example
289. 10:24profile. So, you can see here Safi, he
290. 10:26has a very nice, well-laidout profile.
291. 10:28He's got job success, top rated. He's
292. 10:30got a good title, a good profile
293. 10:32description, good earnings. He's filled
294. 10:35out things like his languages, what he's
295. 10:36fluent in. He's got client testimonials
296. 10:38written in his profile description,
297. 10:40which is very smart. He's got completed
298. 10:42jobs with good reviews. He's got
299. 10:45portfolio which is nicely laid out in
300. 10:47terms of thumbnails and and screenshots
301. 10:50where if we click on it, there's more
302. 10:51information about those projects. He's
303. 10:53got a project catalog which makes his
304. 10:55profile feel more filled. Skills have
305. 10:57been filled out. Employment history,
306. 10:59things he's done in the past. This is a
307. 11:01nicely filled profile and this wouldn't
308. 11:04inhibit Safy from being able to get good
309. 11:06response rates. However, if we look at
310. 11:09another example, let's say this one. So,
311. 11:12this individual, we're going to we've
312. 11:14obviously viewed his contract because
313. 11:16he's come at the top and you know, his
314. 11:18cover letter is good and he's got, let's
315. 11:20say, good stats. We're going to view his
316. 11:22profile now, which is the next stage.
317. 11:24We're going to do the same for Gorby and
318. 11:26we're going to do the same for Muhammad
319. 11:28because this is what prospects are going
320. 11:30to do. when they look at the people that
321. 11:32have that have um bidded on their
322. 11:34contract, they're going to find three or
323. 11:36four that are like, "Okay, this is this
324. 11:38looks like a good candidate, good
325. 11:39candidate, good candidate." And they're
326. 11:40going to open up about three profiles,
327. 11:42and they're going to want to see
328. 11:45your full profile. Now, at that point,
329. 11:48they're comparing you against other
330. 11:50freelancers based on your profile. You
331. 11:52can see this profile here is not laid
332. 11:54out well. The opening line to the
333. 11:57profile description is rubbish.
334. 11:58Professional summary is not a good
335. 12:00opening. Season's tech seasoned tech
336. 12:04technical support engineer ver versed in
337. 12:07aiding customers. This is just very
338. 12:08badly written. Very short. He hasn't
339. 12:11spent much time optimizing this. The
340. 12:13title is not nice in terms of keywords
341. 12:15and layout. It's hard to understand what
342. 12:16he does. Is it tech support? Is it
343. 12:18customer service? Is it database
344. 12:19management? These are all completely
345. 12:20different things.
346. 12:22He's put three things in his employment
347. 12:23history. Very few skills. He hasn't
348. 12:26added anything to a catalog. He hasn't
349. 12:28put in a video introduction. He's barely
350. 12:30filled out the profile. When we compare
351. 12:33this to Gorby, who has great stats,
352. 12:36video introduction,
353. 12:38a nicely well-written profile
354. 12:39description, although this can
355. 12:40definitely be improved, and as can the
356. 12:42title, so this isn't ideal. He has job
357. 12:44success, top rated, which is great.
358. 12:47He has a portfolio, which is filled out,
359. 12:51skills, which are relevant, employment
360. 12:52history, education. You can already see
361. 12:54how he's beaten this candidate with
362. 12:56barely any skills,
363. 12:58nothing in his portfolio, very [snorts]
364. 13:00lazy written profile description.
365. 13:03You can see how Gorby is already on top.
366. 13:05And this is why
367. 13:08you could have a good view rate and a
368. 13:11bad reply rate. You have to look at your
369. 13:14profile and think, how can I improve it?
370. 13:15You need to make your profile as
371. 13:16optimized as possible. If you can
372. 13:18optimize your your profile more and more
373. 13:20and more, then it's going to be easier.
374. 13:22And that really is the main cause of a
375. 13:24bad reply rate at that point because
376. 13:26your view rate will be good if your
377. 13:27proposed bid is good. Your cover letter
378. 13:29is good. You've taken time to make a
379. 13:31very good application. The only other
380. 13:33thing and metric for them to compare you
381. 13:34on is now your profile. That's that's
382. 13:36the only thing in in your hand. Now,
383. 13:38there's things outside of your control
384. 13:39that the prospect may have decided not
385. 13:41to reply because they've decided not to
386. 13:43hire someone for this contract or they
387. 13:45unfortunately spoke to another
388. 13:46freelancer earlier on and decided to
389. 13:47proceed with them. That's out of your
390. 13:49control. But what you can control is
391. 13:50your profile.
392. 13:52And those are the three stages
393. 13:55that you need to get clients. Because
394. 13:57once you get a good reply rate, now
395. 13:58you've got conversations happening.
396. 14:01You've actually got conversations that
397. 14:03are taking place where prospects are
398. 14:04messaging you. And now you can get on
399. 14:05calls, you can negotiate, you can talk,
400. 14:07you've got the lead. Whereas, if you
401. 14:09can't get the reply rate, if high
402. 14:12enough, you're not even going to get the
403. 14:13reply or the message to have an
404. 14:15opportunity to try and close the lead.
405. 14:17You need to to assess every single one
406. 14:20of these three in the funnel to optimize
407. 14:23this.
408. 14:25And so hopefully from this video you can
409. 14:27identify, am I applying to too little
410. 14:30contracts? Well, then I need to apply to
411. 14:31about five or 10 a day and stick to it
412. 14:33for at least a month. Am I getting a
413. 14:36rubbish view rate? Well, then I need to
414. 14:37think about the cover letter I'm
415. 14:38applying with. I need a better opening
416. 14:40line. I need to consider if my stats are
417. 14:42low, how do I improve that? let me take
418. 14:44on some small projects.
419. 14:46And then look at your reply rate and
420. 14:47think, okay, well, how can I improve my
421. 14:49reply rate now? Let me look at my
422. 14:51profile. Can I fill out my portfolio?
423. 14:53Can I make my portfolio look more
424. 14:55engaging? Can I make the the thumbnails
425. 14:57enhanced? Can I write a better profile
426. 14:59description? Can I do a better title?
427. 15:01Can I add more things in my testimonial
428. 15:04section? Can I get more reviews? There's
429. 15:05so many variables now to increase your
430. 15:07profile. And if you're thinking about
431. 15:09this, then I can almost guarantee that
432. 15:10this and this and this will all
433. 15:12increase. and you'll get more messages,
434. 15:15which means more closed deals.
435. 15:19This is a money sign. And so, I wanted
436. 15:21to make this this video because I speak
437. 15:23to a lot of people, especially in our
438. 15:24school community,
439. 15:26people who are messaging me and posting
440. 15:28posting things inside saying they're
441. 15:30struggling to land their first job. And
442. 15:34I ask them, how many contracts are you
443. 15:35bidding on? What's your view rate?
444. 15:36What's your clos rate? Uh what's your
445. 15:38reply rate? Sorry. And almost always,
446. 15:40it's one of these three. So if you can
447. 15:41identify which of the problems you're
448. 15:42facing, then you can easily fix it and
449. 15:44you won't have the problem in the
450. 15:45future. So guys, I hope you found this
451. 15:46video useful. Feel free to join our
452. 15:48school community. You connect with me
453. 15:49inside of there. It's completely free.
454. 15:50Um I provide as much value as I can. I'm
455. 15:53going to start doing weekly Q&A. We've
456. 15:54got a classroom with a bunch of
457. 15:55additional uh resources for you guys and
458. 15:57you can speak with me directly in there
459. 15:59as well as the community. So, speak to
460. 16:01you guys in the next