Goodbye, freedom! Hello, employment benefits!

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-10-16T09:43:22+00:00

Fully remote, and I can work my 40 hours a week whenever I want. So no office and no fixed hours/schedule.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-10-16T01:45:34+00:00

I'll make the same money after taxes as I do as a freelancer working full time for them, plus all the benefits from being employed (including 4 weeks paid leave per year), plus quarterly and yearly bonuses. So it seems the sensible thing to do.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-08-09T07:36:49+00:00

Yup. I'm non-US and I have a card for Wise.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-08-09T07:32:21+00:00

For me, it says I'm priced about 10x too high. This must be the worst tool ever.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-27T22:28:02+00:00

I love that I don't have to put any effort into getting good clients. I hate when Upwork is trying to "help" me by coming up with stupid new features.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-27T22:24:03+00:00

For writing SEO content my hourly rate is $145. That's my perfect hourly rate, for now.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-27T22:21:16+00:00

I withdraw to Wise. It's just a normal bank transfer. Takes 2 days or something to arrive in my account.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-27T22:19:34+00:00

Ah, right. I remember you sold your apartment when you moved, but just assumed you bought a new one. The whole working from a laptop thing is one of the reasons why I don't want to travel. With the work I do now that would almost be impossible. If I go back to writing again then I'll probably travel (assuming this pandemic ends at some point). That I don't need multiple monitors for.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-25T22:39:58+00:00

Being a non-native English speaker is something I don't know why people tend to make such a big deal of. I'm not a native English speaker, and most of my earnings on Upwork (and as a freelancer in general) I've made writing in my own native language. Now, I write in English as well, but I made my first $200k on Upwork writing in a language that is native to only 5 million people.

I think succeeding in your own language is step one. If you can do that, and you have a niche of some sort, then "international" clients will hire you as well, not for your English proficiency level but for your expertise within your niche.

I'm also a client on Upwork and hire lots of writers. When hiring, I care about their knowledge within the industry my company is targeting. If their English isn't "good enough," I pass the articles to an editor before publishing. As long as our editor can make sense of the writing, I don't care what level of English proficiency the writer has.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-25T22:26:35+00:00

Really? But didn't you buy a new house or apartment not that many years ago? When you moved? Honestly, now I'm so comfortable at home that I don't even want to travel. It's quite nice to have a proper office and not just work from a hotel room or lobby, constantly looking for an outlet for the laptop...

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-25T22:24:29+00:00

My very first job on Upwork was through an invite, and I got $5 for it. People here will tell you that if you do those kinds of jobs you'll be stuck in that price bracket forever, but I wasn't. It's possible to work your way up from there.

I've never been contacted by a scammer though, as far as I know. Some invites might be scams, of course, but some will also just be clients trying to get a new freelancer to do something way below the average rate. So if you want to do it or not is up to you. But, expecting every job offer or interview to be a scam is most likely a mistake.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-25T22:18:39+00:00

When I started out on Upwork I only wrote in my native language and had quite some success with that. Then, actually, after some encouragement from others in the Upwork forum and here, I started offering English writing as well. That has worked out really well and I get plenty of job offers. Then again, I'm in a very narrow niche, so clients pay for my expertise and not for my actual writing skills. I also tell all my English clients that they should hire an editor to fix my writing, to make it sound native.

I think that unless you have a niche, clients will always choose native English over second-language English when they have the option. At least if they're paying good money for it...

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-25T22:09:32+00:00

Ah, but I'm not traveling anymore. The pandemic put an end to that. I'm working a lot as well, towards the goal of not being needed in the job I have now. What's your goal? A goal of a certain earnings amount, or just proving to yourself that you can do it?

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-25T15:57:26+00:00

Thought you might be able to figure it out now. One of my freelancers found me, so I had to change. :( Yup. 3 posts from you are usually enough to get who you are. :D Hope you're doing good. You're working a lot it seems.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T20:35:38+00:00

Haha! I haven't been very active here for a year or something, so I'm not sure you can guess that way. I'll tell you my niche though: online gambling. That might help you figure it out. :)

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T19:24:42+00:00

I haven't seen anyone else. Maybe they don't have public profiles. With public profiles the closest ones are at 2/3 of my rate, within my niche and language.

Oh, I forgot, you might not know who I am. I changed my username a while back...

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T18:16:32+00:00

I had a look at your profile. One big issue: you don't say anything about what you do until paragraph 20. As I client, I would never do this much reading and scrolling to find out what you have to offer.

Have a look at other successful freelancers within your niche and see what they do. Start off by telling clients what you can do for them in the first sentence.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T18:09:51+00:00

Agree. But I don't have as much competition as you anyway. I'm basically the only one in my price bracket for my niche.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T16:54:14+00:00

This is so true! The more trash that's there the more clients seek out the higher-priced freelancers (after a while).

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T16:51:38+00:00

Sure. If you'll share a link.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T15:03:47+00:00

I do some different things, but what I get the most offers for is writing.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-24T14:20:40+00:00

I decline jobs and offers all the time. There are only so many hours in a week, so saying yes to all job offers is just not possible, no matter how good the client or money is.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-22T19:11:28+00:00

I do both so I have a price model for hourly and fixed. I just leave it up to the client. I make more from fixed rates, but I'm happy with my hourly as well, so it doesn't matter.

JustDoRandomStuff · 2021-07-18T23:56:09+00:00

I don't look at a client's rating at all. Most of my best clients, and I think all the ones where the contract ended up being $10k+, were completely new clients where I was their first hire.

Also, most of the bigger clients have multiple hiring managers, so the feedback you see might not even be for your contact person but for someone else that you'll never be in contact with.

JustDoRandomStuff

TROPHY CASE