If you freelance on Upwork, then you’re aware that the competition can be stiff and every time you apply and don’t get hired you lose connects.
This can be frustrating and many freelancers lose hope of ever getting hired.
The alternative is to position yourself to get clients to invite you to apply to their job postings. This saves you connects and gives you an edge over other freelancers that have to apply.
Clients invite freelancers based on their profiles, work history, samples, location, etc.
Here’s a screenshot of a job invitation on Upwork.
So let’s take a look at the 7 easy hacks you can use to increase your job invites.
1. Update your Upwork profile regularly.
An updated profile that clearly indicates what services you offer or problems you solve can get you an invite fast.
When clients are inviting freelancers to apply to their job postings, they search for freelancers based on the service they need.
For example, if a client wants to invite Cryptocurrency writers to their job, they’ll search for freelancers with profiles that match what they need. This means that when updating your Upwork profile, clearly indicate the services you offer.
And this begins with your title and profile overview.
Have a title that indicates your service and the problem you solve.
Your profile overview should expound on your title and offer extra information about what you can do in detail. Always ensure you use relevant keywords in your profile.
2. Create Specialized Profiles.
Upwork has 2 types of profiles, a general profile, and specialized profiles.
The general profile is what you created when you signed up.
Specialized profiles are targeted profiles that focus on specific services that you offer. Your general profile can be that of a Crypto Currency writer but you have a specialized profile of a WordPress Virtual Assistant.
This helps potential clients to hire you based on the different profiles.
Upwork allows up to 2 specialized profiles per freelancer therefore use what’s allocated to you to target the jobs you need to be invited to apply.
Here’s how the general and specialized profiles look like.
RELATED: 8 Categories of Easy Jobs on Upwork That Require Little To No Experience (Examples Included)
3. End inactive contracts.
When a potential client visits your profile and their intention is to invite you to their job posting, they tend to look at the active contracts that you have.
If you have a tonne of inactive and active contracts, chances are they’ll move on to invite other freelancers that will have ample time for their projects. That’s simple common sense.
Here’s a screenshot of 13 jobs in progress on my Upwork profile. (Most jobs are inactive)
If most of the contracts on your profile are inactive, you can reach out to the clients, see if they are hiring you any time in the near future and if they aren’t, politely tell them to end the contract.
Always give them a time frame that you’ll end the contract in 2 weeks if there’s no new work or communication and they can always reach out if they need your services.
By doing this, you’ll free up your contracts on your profile and make way for potential job invites.
4. Have relevant samples or portfolio items.
Revant samples and Portfolio Items on your profile or when applying for work will almost get you hired. Your Upwork profile has a portfolio section where you can add relevant work samples.
When a potential client visits your profile and sees your samples, this can boost your chances of getting invited.
I’m writing from experience because a client hired me to do a wedding photo slideshow after visiting my profile and seeing my wedding slideshow video.
I cannot emphasize enough, why relevant Samples will get you invited by clients easily.
5. Share positive feedback you’ve received on Social (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
Upwork recently introduced sharing feedback on social profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter).
This is a welcome move that can potentially get you invited for similar jobs to the job you completed.
When you share feedback on your social profiles, an image is generated with the feedback and a link that redirects anyone that clicks it to your Upwork profile.
Chances are if a potential client likes the feedback and has related work to what you completed, they’ll invite you to apply to their job posting.
You can share your feedback from the Work history and Feedback section on your profile by clicking on the Share Feedback button next to the job and feedback.
Here’s how the share feedback button looks like on your Upwork profile.
6. Apply to Quick and easy one off jobs in the niche you’re targeting.
An active profile tends to stand out to potential clients than an inactive one.
One way to keep your profile active is by applying to ‘quickie jobs’.
These jobs require very little time and they are mostly one off jobs.
If the jobs are relevant to your profile, and a potential client views your profile and finds you’ve worked on similar jobs in the past, they’ll invite you and potentially hire you.
Always apply with a rate that you’d accept if a client invited you.
If you apply to jobs and price them below your normal rate chances are clients inviting you to their jobs will also target to offer a low rate.
7. Be online.
It’s good to take some time off especially over the weekends but one major issue I see is freelancers tend to set their profiles to invisible. This should not be the case.
Try setting you profile to Online, therefore when clients need to invite freelancers, they’ll see you’re online and will potentially reply to their job invite.
When you’re online and active there’s a green dot in your profile photo, while if your profile is invisible (or you’re offline), the dot is greyed out. When you’re online but idle, the button turns orange.
Here’s how it looks to have your Upwork profile as idle, active and invisible or offline.
That’s it for this post, which hack do you think you’ll implement first. Will you update your profile with relevant information or create specialized profiles?
Let me know in the comments.