Upwork is by far one of the most popular freelancing websites without any doubt. If you ask anyone about freelancing they would say Upwork, they would not probably even know the names of other freelancing websites. Apart from Upwork there are other top freelancing websites such as Fiverr and Freelancer. But to me, Upwork is the best among all others.
But getting your first client on Upwork is anything but easy. If you do not have any past experience, your bids are going to be declined continuously by the clients. Why would they even bother to let a rookie handle their website! So freelancing is not only about skills but is also a game of patience.
Now, how did I got my first client on Upwork? Getting your first client on Upwork requires hard work, patience and a bit of luck. At first, my bids were being declined by clients and some being completely ignored. But I kept on bidding, I did not stop, I kept on bidding like a machine. My formula was to bid and forget about it, move on to the next one.
So I held onto my technique and suddenly an Australian client name Andy Barnett responded to my bid. He needed sliders made for his website. I replied immediately and send him the links to my sample WordPress websites. He made a contract for me and I accepted the contract. Then he gave me the username and password to his WordPress website. He told me not to “break” his website. What does that mean? Well, if you try to edit the PHP code of a WordPress website, you might mess it up. If that happens the website becomes completely inaccessible. I assured him that I would be careful. The website was extremely important, thousands of visitors each day!
After making first few sliders for his websites, he loved my style. So he asked me to make sliders for the rest of his twenty-seven websites! I ended up earning $347 only from him. While working with him I realized that he did know a quite a lot about WordPress, Photoshop and a bit of coding. I learned a lot from him. After I was done working on all of his websites, he gave me a five-star rating and an awesome review. This review just made my freelancing career as a WordPress expert. I got hired by seven more clients afterward on Upwork.