With more and more freelancers signing up, Upwork now seems to be looking for freelancers with knowledge and those who offer the most wanted skills by clients worldwide.
For your profile approval by Upwork you can try the following guidelines:
Be part of an Agency Account
Upwork has two types of accounts, Individual freelancer and Agency accounts. Inside agency accounts, there can be numerous individual freelancers who work as business development for the agency. If any of your friends have an Upwork agency profile, be part of his agency profile and get your account approved. Remember the work you do may as a member of the agency may show on the agency profile, not on your profile. Beware of it. Again, it is not at all a recommended method but shared as it is also an option to get an Upwork profile approved. It is always better to get an individual freelancer profile.
Use Professional Email Address
As a freelancer, your email address is the first point of contact. If you are using a free email address like a ahmad143@gmail.com or @hotmail.com, it shows you aren’t very serious about freelancing.
I have always shared a view every freelancer must have a blog or a website. Having a website and blogs has many advantages. The key benefit is you can have your professional email address @yourdomain.com. It helps to startup your reputation on Upwork.
Start Creating Upwork Profile
First thing you should do if your profile is getting rejected on Upwork is change the email address from the free email to the professional email address.
Profile picture
Add your professional profile picture It shows your identification.
Write a Better Job Title
Upwork gives more preference to the job title, but often freelancers get it wrong. It isn’t the position of the company or the job title printed on the visiting card.
For visiting card job title: What Small Business Owners Job Title Be?
A job title like “Project manager” or “Team Leader” can mean your profile is sure to get rejected on Upwork.
Try to provide a Job title to describe your expertise in one single sentence. It should neither be too generic nor too specific.
If your title is too broad like a “consultant” or “marketing expert,” it doesn’t help much. Similarly, if the title is too specific like “PPC Marketing Expert For Amazon Stores”, Upwork may think you aren’t interested in other kinds of jobs.
If you work in technology or CMS, provide the title as “CMSNAME expert.” If the technology is too general or CMS is WordPress, be more specific like “WordPress Developer for Food Industry”.
Write a Professional Overview
It is an essential part of an Upwork profile. More often, the freelancer gets this too short.
The overview allows 5000 characters about the services you offer. Often freelancers add the bare minimum which is 300 characters.
Add Overview to Upwork Profile for Better Approval. Writing more details about your services is very significant to get your profile approved by Upwork. The overview can dispersed a lurking freelancer with the one who is serious about being a freelancer.
If you are serious about freelancing, take some extra time to write a detailed overview. What you do, how you can help clients grow their business etc.
You can even add a video to the overview. Though it isn’t mandatory, adding a video about your services can make your profile stand out. Ultimately it helps in getting approval.
Select Unique Category and Skills
The next crucial aspect of getting an Upwork Profile approved is have the correct category and subcategory of expertise.
You are free to choose up to 10 categories. Choose all of them to make sure you are more searchable by clients in the marketplace.
I don’t take up any client work in Sales and marketing. But because I know about sales and marketing, I have it as a category for my profile. Though you won’t rank very well for each category, it shouldn’t stop you from adding them. If you see something you can work on, put it on your profile to let Upwork know your full range of expertise.
Apart from the categories, we have skills. Again, one can add up to 10 skills and make sure you add each of those ten skills. Choose the one that you are best at first and then add the rest of the skills. Adding more skills are preferred. Again, remember you have to select proper skills that you know and not random.
As an example, a WordPress developer can choose PHP. However, CakePHP or CodeIgniter isn’t a bad option either though you may not be expert in those skills but have a basic idea of them. If you add a very different set of skills, Upwork may verify them with a test.
Add Portfolio / Project
Add every project you have worked in the past that you can share your work with your portfolio.
As a beginner, there must be some sample work you have done while practicing your skillset and you can show your best sample work as your portfolio. Add Past Project to Get Upwork Profile Approved.
Don’t miss on the Education and Certifications
We all have some level of education. So, it is always better to add all our education details.
Or if you have any additional certification, please add them to certifications.
Or if you have taken any course on Udemy, you can add them either under certification or under other experience levels. Let Upwork know everything you have done or can do.
Add Relevant Experience
One mistake I see freelancers often make is when entering their expertise. They consider the freelancing experience, whereas, in the Upwork profile, it is the overall experience of the individual in their best set of skills.
What I mean is – if you are a newbie in PHP development and an experienced C# developer. As a freelancer, you want to be working in PHP over C#. So if you choose PHP or WordPress as a skill for freelancing, you may be considered an “Entry Level” freelancer. But if you prefer C# as well as PHP and WordPress, you can be an “Intermediate” or an “Expert” level.
We aren’t providing any wrong or misleading information. It is the most experienced in technology. It is the primary skill. Though we prefer working in other areas more as a freelancer.
Add Past Employment
We all have some experience to add as employment to the Upwork profile. If you haven’t done any job and is straight out of college, mention the details of the final semester training program as employment history.
Link Social Media Accounts
Link your other accounts from other social networks and development site profile.
Upwork doesn’t offer LinkedIn profile, which is a more professional social network. Primarily because I think they consider LinkedIn as a competitive site than a social networking site.
Find a client to hire you on Upwork
Upwork has a program called BYOF or Bring Your Freelancer for clients.
If you can find a client elsewhere like from your blog or via a reference or forum networking, you can ask the client to invite you on Upwork. Your profile will be approved instantly.
It means your profile and expertise has demanded to bring more clients.
Don’t Create Multiple Accounts
Multiple accounts on a single freelance marketplace are prohibited. So, Do not create multiple accounts.