Upwork Top Rated Success: My 6 Best Tips

I’ve been Upwork Top Rated since Upwork was known as oDesk. Yeah, that’s a long time. In fact, not too long ago, I passed a huge milestone. My Facebook and Instagram memories told me that I’ve been Upwork Top Rated for six years. I’ve worked from home full-time for seven years. So, yes, I’ve been Top Rated (and now Top Rated Plus) since it’s been a thing.

If there’s one thing I can tell you about being self-employed (I do not refer to myself as a freelancer because even now people tend to think the word is synonymous with “unemployed;” and let’s not forget what California is in the midst of doing), it is that those of us in business do not determine whether a project is successful or how a quality experience is ultimately defined. Those are determined by each individual client. However, those are topics for another day. Instead, I’m going to share with you my 6 best tips as a successful Top Rated Upworker.

Upwork Top Rated Tip #1 — Be Reliable

If you want to learn how to be successful on Upwork, you must, above all things, be reliable. This doesn’t equate to never taking a day off, jump through hoops, being available 24/7, or the likes. It means that if you tell a client that you will do something, they know that you will do it. It means that if you tell a prospective client that you have the ability to do something, that you do have the ability to do it. You aren’t blowing smoke.

I work from home for many reasons. Frankly, my life won’t allow for a traditional job. My 11-year-old son is developmentally disabled. He will never be able to live on his own. My 66-year-old mother has cancer. As of March 2021, she requires chemo and radiation. Her chemo treatments are once a week for six weeks. Each treatment is 6.5 hours long. She doesn’t drive (rather, she can’t drive). Radiation is daily. She must also have weekly lab work. She also has a feeding tube. Her husband, my step-father, is legally blind. On top of this, I have C-PTSD. I’m also married.

And I have a business to run. I use my laptop. I have set business hours. I get up at 5 am. I answer emails. I return messages. I take the laptop with me and work from the oncology center. That’s reliability in action.

Last year, we were hit by a freak ice storm and I couldn’t work for two weeks because I had no electricity. I wasn’t taking my kid out to random places in the middle of a pandemic and risking COVID. I caught COVID two months later (he did not, thankfully). I worked while I had COVID (not a fun time, by the way…most of my clients didn’t know I had COVID until after the fact since I was not hospitalized).

Upwork Top Rated Tip #2 — Clarity in All Areas

Give yourself the best possible gift in freelancing: clarity in all areas of the project. Ask questions even if you think you know the answer. Seriously. Don’t leave things up in the air. Make sure that you and your client or prospective client are on the same page.

Be clear in all of your responses whether you are in the proposal process or you are actively working. Do what you can to make sure that misunderstandings don’t happen. Recognize that there is no such thing as tone when you are sending a message through a message. If you think there is a tone, check yourself. You are implying a tone unless there are words that show an obvious demand.

If you are unsure about a prospective client and they seem shady to you in any way, shape, or form, you need to remember that it is your Upwork account and reputation on the line. Use Upwork’s built-in video chat and get the answers you need. Then, summarize and confirm the discussion in the chat so that you have written proof (and their written yes/no) of what the two of you covered.

Upwork Top Rated Tip #3 — Choose the Right Projects

I’ve been on Upwork for seven years, and during that time I’ve met (and watched) a lot of freelancers who bid on anything. Don’t do that.

There are several problems with this “strategy.”

1. It wastes your connects. You only get 10 each month if you’re not an Upwork Plus member and if you’re not regularly invited to submit a bid (and accepting the invitation). So, you won’t have the connects you need to bid on Upwork projects that are actually a good fit for you unless you buy them. While Upwork connects are inexpensive, there are a lot of freelancers who complain about buying them. I don’t understand why since the connects that are unused are good for a year…and why own a business if you aren’t ready to invest in it?
2. You’re setting yourself up for vicious competition for projects you may not be qualified for to begin with. Some projects have more bids than others. If you’re just randomly tossing your limited connects out there and a project has 20+ applicants, what do you think your chances are of standing out if you aren’t really qualified?
3. You don’t have the skill set required, you get hired, and you end up getting negative feedback. One of my first ghostwriting jobs eventually turned into editing. The small indie publishing company said they hired ghostwriters who had English as a first language. At least, they thought they did, but the hiring team did not speak English as their first language. It turned out that a lot of the writers would write in their native language and then run it through Google Translate. The text would then be sent to me to edit…and trainwreck was a very nice way of putting it. These writers would be fired and they would receive negative feedback for lying that English is their native language (because you can also see in Word where the language is changed when people do not scrub their documents). It doesn’t matter what field you are in. While you should learn new skills, you should not lie and say you have certain skills just to land projects…because it can and will eventually bite you. Negative feedback of this kind can be very difficult to overcome.

Upwork Top Rated Tip #4 — Be Nice

It isn’t just my writing, editing, and SEO skills that lands me high-paying projects on and off of Upwork. It isn’t because I’m a great researcher (although I’m sure that helps). Honestly, I get so many messages thanking me for just being nice. Common courtesy will get you a very long way.

With that being said, being nice does not guarantee that you will get hired. It does not make you any more deserving than anyone else. However, it’s also really sad that common courtesy is so lost on society that it’s something that gets me both thanked and hired.

This isn’t just saying please and thank you. It’s making your clients and prospective clients feel welcome. It’s about being open and forthcoming with information. It’s about not making people feel ostracized or stupid because you are the expert (and you should be the expert).

Upwork Top Rated Tip #5 — Focus on the Needs of the Client

Yes, it is important to highlight what you know and what you can do for both clients and prospective clients. Otherwise, how would they know that you can solve their problems, right? However, there’s a big difference between “Look at me! I’m so amazing!” and “I know what you're struggling with, and here’s how I can help you.”

So many freelancers focus on the latter instead of talking to their market. You can focus on their pain points without making it blatantly obvious. You can talk about how you can help without using lots of “I” statements. If you’d like to see an example, check out my Upwork profile.

Revamping your profile to focus on how what you do helps your target market versus pointing out all of your credentials in the form of “I” statements can be an absolute gamechanger.

Upwork Top Rated Tip #6 — Go the Extra Mile to Stand Out

You can stand out from others in your industry by doing things differently. You can give out extra information and tips from the very first interaction. Tell prospective clients about similar projects and what you did to help. Give them a free tip that they can implement on their own. This does not take anything away from you. This showcases your knowledge. Because you are willing to answer questions and share information, you stand out among others who bid on the project.