Interview Archives – Freelancelifemagazine

Ruslana Milikhiker Senior Manager, Events for the Women|Future Conference

Chrissie Stephen — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 09:30:52 +0000

The best way to describe Ruslana Milikhiker’s multi-faceted role as Senior Manager, Events is to say she is the ‘Boss Babe’ of the WomenIFuture Conference as her work covers every stage of the event, from planning to execution and within this there is an agenda framework and speaker management, sponsorship sales and live-streaming for every session of the three -day virtual event.

Ruslana brings a wealth of experience

After graduating from university with a Bachelor’s in Marketing and Master’s in Business administration, Ruslana describes how they ‘rolled together’ to lead her into the Events industry in which she has been working for more than six years. She gained a huge amount of experience working for a company organizing 30 trade shows, summits, and conferences each year for a variety of industries including aerospace, rotorcraft, PR, and nuclear deterrence. Ruslana quickly adds that-

‘My passion is in events rather than the industries. You don’t have to know everything about the industry. I know very little about nuclear deterrence, but I am an expert in events’.

With more than six years of experience as an event planner for various industries, Ruslana joined the Stevie Awards and soon found herself helping to transition the awards ceremonies and Women|Future Conference from in-person events to virtual events. She plans in detail everything she can and creates a master calendar that helps her stay on track and follow through all deadlines.

She admits though that she must keep a versatile approach as there are constant changes and she says it is key to always be ‘adapting to these changes.

A challenging role

The biggest challenge is working with high level executives who are signed up well in advance as speakers for the November conference but as the event draws closer, its dates and their busy schedules don’t always work, and Ruslana and her colleagues find themselves quickly finding replacement speakers. There are eight international Stevie Awards programs, which are the world’s premier business awards. As well as the conference, Ruslana also organises the Stevie Award Galas. She explains that it is very important to keep up with industry changes so that she can stay ahead. She cites as an example, the start of the pandemic when both the Stevie Awards and the WomenIFuture Conference had to be quickly pivoted from in-person to virtual events.

The WomenIFuture Conference is developing

Ruslana is extremely enthusiastic about the WomenIFuture Conference as she has witnessed how it is helping women to progress and develop in both their professional and personal lives. She also feels strongly that because the conference is now virtual, it is making positive strides in connecting the international community and as a first generation American she finds this is very empowering.

This year, the conference is going to be a little different. In previous years there was an eclectic agenda, but this year it has been streamlined-

‘This year we have decided to hone in on seven main tracks which are Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Marketing, Technology, Diversity, the Future of Work, Equity & Inclusion and Personal Development’.

Importantly, this year as Ruslana explains, the conference is ideal for teams –

‘Entire teams can join the conference and sit in on the tracks that are important to them. You don’t have to attend all the sessions, but you can pick and choose to build your own agenda and make it tailored to you – yet still be in regular contact with your team’.

An added bonus is that as well as watching live sessions, each one is recorded so that they can be watched at a later date –

‘Because we are an international event, we are juggling many different time zones so we give everyone the option to watch either live or pre-recorded versions of each session. We record every session and they are available for up to one year afterwards. This is super helpful for the busy entrepreneur who cannot dedicate three whole days in November as they can watch sessions on their own time afterwards’.

Another important bonus is that the Stevie Awards and the WomenIFuture Conference are linked so that women participating in one can become involved in the other and vice versa.

Active participation is easy…

There are exciting changes made to the conference every year and one exciting new feature for 2022 is that attendees can interact very easily with speakers by joining the ‘virtual roundtable’ with audio and video and they can question the speakers ‘on the spot’.

…and fun…

A recent addition to the conference, that is proving very popular is the women-owned business pitch competition. This is modelled on the ‘Shark Tank’ American TV programme in which new business owners can pitch to win funding for their business. Last year’s winner ‘Lamik’ who produces natural make-up will be back this year as one of the judges.

Why is the WomenIFuture Conference so worthwhile?

On the conference website there are a number of testimonials from attendees at previous conferences that explain what they have found value the conference has had for them. Ruslana is delighted with the continuing success of the conference and explains –

‘The takeaway that women get from the conference goes way beyond the educational part of it. We are creating a community for forward-thinking professionals across all different industries who not only talk about change, they can BE the change. The platform we have created – even though it is virtual- gives attendees the opportunity to learn from the women who do it best and they can expose themselves to new opportunities. As per our tagline – it is the opportunity to cultivate your tomorrow.’

The WomenIFuture Conference 2022 is taking place Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 November. For more details and to join the conference, log onto- https://womenfutureconference.com/

The post Ruslana Milikhiker Senior Manager, Events for the Women|Future Conference appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

The unimaginable bonuses of being a freelancer writer

Freelance Team — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 14:19:30 +0000

I found Chrissie Stephen sitting on a wooden bench in the local park and quickly writing her thoughts into a small notebook. She greeted me with a huge smile and laughed as she explained –

‘I have discovered that it is essential to always have pen and paper with me as I never know when I am going to be inspired! I have also found that I need to write every day. I have tried going on holiday several times without taking a notebook with me and end up running into the local shop to buy one as I am missing my writing!’

Chrissie has loved writing since she was eight years old and says that she was often reprimanded for writing too much in exam papers! She has large and very clear handwriting and when she was sitting her GCSE English Literature managed to complete 30 pages!

‘I went to a convent school and the nun who taught me, said that she felt sorry for the poor examiner who must have been exhausted by the time they had finished reading my exam paper!’

Chrissie started to write as a hobby when she became an Army wife and was living in Germany. Every time they moved, Chrissie managed to get work with local newspapers and magazines which she loved. When they were living near Southampton, she was highly delighted when she landed a job with the leading women’s magazine Family Circle as a food tester –

‘This was great fun, but my children found it very strange that I was giving them different Christmas puddings to sample in August!’

The family lived in Cyprus for a number of years where Chrissie worked on the military newspaper and garrison magazine and also wrote for several magazines and newspapers that she helped to launch for the English-speaking communities in Paphos, Limassol and Larnaca. By this time, she had also begun writing feature articles for in-flight and hotel magazines – which she particularly enjoyed. She also tried her hand at writing short stories for both adults and children and to her delight, several were published.

After a short spell in the UK, in 2015 Chrissie moved to live in south-west France and within a year and following the closure of the main airlines that she wrote for, she suddenly found herself without any writing work. She quickly began to research online to find freelance writing opportunities and joined several freelance websites. She soon landed some work writing hotel and resort descriptions, but felt that she had not found the ideal website for her.

On further investigation, she came across Upwork. The website was clear and easy to navigate, and she was soon applying for a variety of jobs. To make an application for a job you need to pay in a given number of ‘connects’ – these are virtual tokens and can be bought quickly and easily on the website – with the money being deducted from your earnings. To add to the fun, if you are applying regularly for jobs, you are given surprise bonus connects – something Chrissie feels is a fun incentive.

‘In the early days, the most difficult part was knowing how much to bid for a job. Competition has always been very strong and it is not unusual to see that there have been more than 50 other applications for the job that caught your eye. You can apply for a job giving the cash amount that you would like for it, or you can bid with an hourly rate. If you get this type of job it is crucial to keep an accurate time sheet – something I am hopeless at doing so I always suggest a set amount and clients are usually quite happy!’

Usually, if your application has been successful you will be contacted within 2- 4 days. Chrissie has written for clients in many different countries and has completed academic papers, lifestyle blogs and feature articles on a variety of subjects – both for publications and websites. She has also written regional travel guides that have been published on Amazon and has ghost written e-book on gut health and good eye health.

‘I am very lucky because I thoroughly enjoy working for clients long term as you have the chance to get to know them and exchange a few comments about local weather problems or world events. I have been writing for some of my clients for more than five years, so it feels lovely and sociable. An increasing number are using zoom through the website to meet the candidates for their work.

Chrissie likes the way that writers are protected by Upwork. When clients advertise a writing job they are requested to deposit the amount that they are going to pay for the job in Escrow. They can then trigger its release when the work has been successfully completed.

In the beginning Chrissie was slightly disappointed to find that Upwork takes 20% of all money earned on the website. On two occasions, she had problems getting paid by clients and each time Upwork has stepped in automatically to deal with the situation and to release the funds-

‘I think it is well worth paying for this level of protection and importantly, without Upwork, I would not have been applying for the work in the first place. On each occasion when I have contacted the Upwork Help Desk, I have been really impressed by the speed and efficiency with which my problem has been solved. The moment you contact the Help Desk your query is allocated to a designated member of the team who is swiftly in contact with you – something I find really reassuring’.

‘I do think that the website has been really well designed with great attention to detail. Your wages are paid in dollars at the end of each month, but you can request them as you go along if you prefer. At any time, you can see what your pending earnings are and you can scroll back through past payments. When you are searching for new jobs, you are always notified when previous clients are advertising a new job. You can also add filters to your search that include certain types of work, particular countries as well as the level of writing required and the number of applicants for the job’.

Chrissie certainly sounds delighted with her freelance writing and admits it is ideal as it can be wrapped around her day job and family commitments-

‘I love the fact that I have had some amazing jobs including researching about endangered whales, proofreading a book on The Beatles and writing about the stories behind famous poems. It really is great fun’….

The post The unimaginable bonuses of being a freelancer writer appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Jenny Stallard – helping freelancers and the self-employed to make the leap

Freelance Team — Sun, 28 Aug 2022 07:02:25 +0000

Hearing Jenny Stallard speak about how she discusses the pros and cons of going self-employed, is very interesting. Jenny is warm and enthusiastic and explains how she gently helps them to unveil their concerns about the various aspects of being self-employed or how they plan to ‘make the leap’ to being self-employed.

Jenny is very careful never to influence their decision; but through her client-led coaching she helps them to reach the right decision for them. In conversation, it is hard for Jenny to conceal the joy that freelance work has brought her over the years. She gets tremendous pleasure from empowering her clients to come to a decision if – after much discussion – it looks like it will be the correct one for them and their circumstances.

Jenny Stallard grew up in Reigate, Surrey, and she well remembers being given an electric typewriter as a young teenager and how it sowed the seeds for her love of writing. At that stage she thought that it would be fun to become either a journalist or fiction writer.

In those days, career guidance was minimal, and the main advice given was to pursue the subjects that you were good at. Jenny loved languages and was good at French, so it was a natural progression for her to go to university (1995) to study for a degree in French. Looking back, she wishes she could have linked her language course with media studies. Not long after her graduation, a pamphlet dropped through the letterbox at her home in Reigate one morning. It was advertising a City & Guilds course in journalism. She found herself filled with enthusiasm as the course sounded ideal for her. She enjoyed the course so much that shortly afterwards she signed up for the full NCTJ course (National Council for the Training of Journalists).

Her first job was on the Surrey Advertiser newspaper which she thoroughly enjoyed, but working for a magazine was her true ambition. She secured a job on That’s Life – a gritty weekly magazine and soon found herself making challenging interviews with everyone from victims of domestic violence and people who were seriously ill to women who had given birth against the odds and family pet stories, too.

It was certainly a steep learning curve for her, but she loved the challenge of meeting so many different people. A couple of years later she secured work with Woman magazine – one of the UK’s top-selling magazines – and again, enjoyed the challenges of working on a weekly magazine.

The joys of freelancing

In 2006, Jenny decided to go freelance as there was plenty of freelance work available on magazines and it was very varied – the daily rate of pay was good too. Jenny loved having variety in her work as she was able to take a shift for a few weeks with one publication and then take other shifts of different lengths with other magazines to cover for annual leave or holiday –

‘I really enjoyed shift work as I got to know all the teams of the different magazines really well but never got sucked into office politics!’.

When she was 29, she decided to buy her own flat and is proud of the fact that she applied for a mortgage and could provide 24 months of pay slips with just a one-week period when she wasn’t working – impressive indeed.

Deep down, there was still the wish to work on a monthly magazine, and with that in mind, Jenny took a job at Practical Parenting & Pregnancy, which she laughs and describes as-

‘Really challenging as I am not a parent and knew nothing about childbirth or feeding problems etc’.

She stayed with the magazine for more than two years, but came to feel that writing and journalism might not be the right career for her anymore. She decided it was time to take a break from writing and enjoy doing something different, while she thought about what path she would like her career to take.

Time away from writing

In 2011 she set off to South America to travel for three months, going to Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina.

When she came back, she completed a TEFL course, wondering if teaching could be the next step for her-

‘If I had ever wondered if I should have been like my Uni friends and followed a career in teaching, I soon found out how wrong that would have been! I loved teaching, and helping people learn, but I realised I didn’t want to be a secondary school teacher!’

She certainly couldn’t say that about skiing though and the next few months found herself working in the French Alps for the end of the winter season.

Jenny was surprised to find that the freelancing landscape had changed dramatically in a few years and that work was now far harder to secure. She still wanted to work on a monthly magazine but was happy to freelance as it gave her the opportunity to build up her portfolio.

Back in London in 2013, she would read the Metro newspaper and long to write for it. To her delight, she secured a job with Metro as Commissioning Editor on the Features desk- Metro is the popular daily newspaper that is distributed free throughout London, and she loved the job. It was varied and fun, with the chance to write about a wide range of lifestyle topics.

Redundancy poses a challenge

Jenny was made redundant in 2014 and it came as a bit of a shock to her. Looking back though, she feels it was the best thing that could have happened to her. At the time though, she felt apprehensive, and decided the best option was to go back to freelance work. She felt that things were changing, and that the digital world was gathering momentum so fast that she needed to embrace the new technology as this would make her more employable.

Jenny went back to freelancing, often working from home and pitching ideas to editors, as well as working in-house for different publications and agencies, including PA (Press Association), Future, and Archant.

A change in direction

It was at about the same time that she found herself also becoming increasingly interested in coaching. She had interviewed a number of coaches over the years and loved the way they talked and how empowering their words could be. She found herself thinking more and more about how coaching could be the way forward for her. During her years as a freelancer, she had faced many challenges and met many people who would like to be a freelancer but were apprehensive of making the jump to become self-employed. Jenny well remembers having these concerns herself. She thought there could be many people who would find support beneficial in helping them to explore potential opportunities and to then make a well-informed decision if it would be a good job move for them to make.

She was also finding it hard to be a freelancer, from the isolation to problems such as setting rates and securing work. She wanted to see if other people felt the same, and decided to ‘test the water’ with an Instagram account, which she called ‘Freelance Feels’. She was delighted by the positive response she received. The next step was to set up her own company that could become a meeting place for everyone who was considering freelance work and becoming self-employed. Freelance Feels launched in in June 2019 and soon a growing number of people were getting in contact with her to say they felt the same way about freelancing, too.

Jenny felt there was a real need for the type of support she was offering – especially as the number of self-employed people was beginning to rise.

Drawn by the idea of being an accredited coach herself, in October 2020, Jenny signed up for an intensive course with Ruth Kudzi MCC MA. Ruth is a highly qualified coach who is the CEO of Optimus Coach Academy. In early 2022, she became an ICF accredited coach and since then has been developing the role of Freelance Feels as-,

‘offering coaching and community for the self-employed’

Giving valuable support to freelancers

Jenny loves her work and has found that today more and more people are now deciding to work for themselves and that she is increasingly in demand. Many of her clients find her via Instagram, but she is currently developing her presence on LinkedIn too and her website draws a lot of interest from potential clients with its blog and newsletter.

She thoroughly enjoys all the conversations on Instagram and from them she gets clients who are keen to join group sessions or have a series of six one-to-one sessions.

Jenny finds her work incredibly rewarding as she is a real ‘people person’ who enjoys watching a person’s self-confidence blossom from one week to the next –

‘it is often the smallest moments that bring the most joy’ she explains ‘I love receiving a message saying that they have felt confident enough to apply for a particular freelance job or a few months after they have taken the plunge to say terrifying though it was, it was the best possible decision for them…’

This brings me so much pleasure because I know the joys of being freelance and the flexibility it offers. Freelancers have the reputation of not working as hard, but they do – at times to suit them! It feels so good to be able to ‘call the shots’ and decide how to fill and juggle your days. I often work in the evenings, but ease into Monday mornings – my labrador and whippet know they get a walk before work begins!’

Jenny Stallard – Founder of Freelance Feels

ACC accredited coach

www.freelancefeels.com

Newsletter: Freelancefeels.substack.com

The post Jenny Stallard – helping freelancers and the self-employed to make the leap appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Upwork – the perfect platform for side hustles

Freelance Team — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 17:00:35 +0000

Grace Tianmeizi graduated from university in 2019, just months before the global pandemic changed life as we knew it. With such a short time to get herself a good job and started on a career pathway, Grace found Upwork was the perfect way to to find work and gain experience during the months of lockdown.

Born in China, Grace now lives in San Francisco Bay. She studied at the University in Missouri as an Undergraduate – with Maths as her major and graphic design. Later she attended graduate school in San Francisco where she studied Jewellery Design and Web design.

She has always loved many types of art – including sculpture – and soon realised that giving a preference to maths, had probably not been the ideal choice for her. She found herself wondering what to do on the career front as she was pulled strongly by her love of art. Although she had thoroughly enjoyed jewellery making and was good at it, she could not see how it would make an ideal career in San Francisco Bay.

One of her professors at college had once mentioned Upwork to Grace as she herself regularly finds interesting jobs on the platform to complete in her spare time. After much heart searching, Grace found herself being drawn to a profession that combined maths, technology and creativity and thought that the ideal way to ‘test the waters’ would be to get some freelance work.

Grace applied for several jobs on Upwork seeking UX/ UI designers and website designers and soon found herself working on the home page for a HR Connection company. Several jobs followed that were coincidentally with similar companies and she found the work both challenging and satisfying. Some months later, the first company she worked for, contacted Grace again, requesting that she worked with them on their main product page.

Why Upwork?

Having heard about Upwork through her professor, it was a natural progression for Grace to try out the platform for herself. After the different periods of lockdown and a number of jobs successfully completed through Upwork, Grace was able to secure a full time position with a design agency which she is thoroughly enjoying. She is working with clients on a range of projects, including one that she has found particularly rewarding as it is using animation to make maths easy for Key Stage 2 children. As Grace says with a smile ‘ it is the perfect combination.’Grace goes on to explain how she felt about signing up with Upwork-

‘As a designer, it was super easy to sign up on Upwork, since I had a polished resume and professional design portfolio before landing on Upwork. I just added my skill sets and job experiences and then I was ready to apply for the UX/UI design jobs I want to work on’.

Certainly, Grace views the experience that she gained working with Upwork clients as invaluable. She reflects on how she lacked confidence in the early days to tell clients that their ideas would sadly not be ideal for their website but today, she confidently explains to them how she can take their idea and adapt it so that will be successful. She cites the example of how her thoughts on the web pages teaching children maths have changed. In the beginning, she used large, bright fonts to attract and keep the children’s’ attention, but has since found that children are also attracted to much smaller fonts and short, direct text that contains an interesting idea or fact.

What are the attributes needed for your work?

Grace is a perfectionist, who spends many hours getting her work exactly as she wants it, but she suggests that being a ‘people person and a good listener’ are key character traits for her profession. She explains that she listens to her clients’ ideas and then interprets them graphically. Her patience is tested because she is discussing subjective ideas with her clients and her interpretation of them may not be quite what her clients had in mind, so it can sometimes be a case of ‘backing to the drawing board’!

‘Over the past three years, I have worked with over 15+ clients, start-up companies, large corporations, and product owners.

At the beginning of my career, I gained and lost my confidence as it depended on clients’ feedback on my design. All negative feedback affected my emotion because I took all the design criticisms personally. This changed when I started working at K12, I met my manager, and she was a great mentor who encouraged me and gave me plenty of confidence’.

Grace has also learned that it can be really beneficial to invite clients to become teammates so that they can be involved in the project-

‘Many clients are willing to help with the design process. They know the target market and their users better than anyone. All the information is available as practical design resources. My teammates are professional and caring. Every time I needed help, they always offered to help and have given me valuable suggestions.

She also recommends that you –

Stop taking any feedback personally and really concentrate on the users/clients’ core needs, and maintaining efficient communication to improve workflow’.

Grace certainly loves the challenge and variety her work brings her and for this reason, regularly attends online course to keep herself current on new trends and fashions. She designs website pages and software for HR compensation software companies, as a UX/UI Designer and is currently working for Stride (K12) online E-learning software company, as a visual designer, where she is busy designing maths classes for 2nd-grade students- a job that she is particularly enjoying.

Grace really appreciated the variety of jobs available on Upwork and the fact that she could find ones that matched her skill set perfectly-

I am always willing to learn new things. For my current job, for example, I have had opportunities to sharpen my animation skills and comprehend coding languages.

Grace has found that she really liked her daily time frame when she worked with Upwork clients-

‘60% of the time, I designed online courses on web builder tools and used coding to check layouts and style accuracy. 30% of the time, was spent focusing on animation and illustration design. Only 10% of my time was spent on meetings and management.

‘My daily schedule was super flexible, and I decided whenever I wanted to start working and log off the day. It was an excellent benefit for night owl people like me and suits me perfectly now that I have a full -time day job.’

She loves the company of others, but is delighted that she began her working life working for Upwork remotely with only herself to set the working pace. She laughs when she describes her work today –

‘We still all work remotely, but come together for occasional team meetings, but after starting my working life working remotely, this feels normal to me’.

Determined to keep her work/ life balance perfect, Grace tries not to work at weekends and enjoys getting out and about visiting new places – but knows that half her mind is looking for inspiration! Now that she has a settled work routine, she is using Upwork to get some extra part-time work that will help her to expand her portfolio. She is full of praise for Upwork because she is able to easily control how much or how little extra work she gets and this can be altered easily, month by month, by the number of jobs she applies for. As Grace explains with a smile – ‘it is a win-win situation for me’….

Grace’s website is :https://tianmeizi.webflow.io/

The post Upwork – the perfect platform for side hustles appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

How I Went from ‘No Wifi’ to Top-Rated Writer on Upwork

Nazish — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 12:36:03 +0000

If you asked me 5 years ago if I was going to be where I am today, my answer would have been simply No!

The life of an international writer is so different from where I come from in Pakistan, and it didn’t make sense how I would end up in this new venture.

But nothing came easily to me, and the journey from being a school principal to an exceptional freelance writer on Upwork (formerly known as Elance-oDesk) has not been easy at all.

My name is Nazish, and I belong to a remote village in Pakistan. It was the end of April, and I was on corona leaves for two weeks. So, I started planning what was next for me! I decided that since I had always wanted to work from home and be a writer, I would give it a try and see if I could make it happen. Then if not, at least I would know! Well…I did try!

So, here’s my story about how I went from ‘No Wifi’ to Top-Rated Writer on Upwork!

You can learn as much as you want, but at the end of the day, if you’re writing isn’t good enough, no one will hire you. There are tons of people out there with way more experience than me who still struggle to get jobs writing on Upwork.

It’s definitely not something I ever expected to make my full-time living doing, but here I am in 2022, and that’s exactly what I do – earn $1K+ per month just writing on Upwork. In this story, I want to tell you how I did it.

The Challenge

How could a person with a medical background without any technical skills or work experience possibly land TOP-rated gigs on a site like Upwork, where professionals charge $100s per hour for their services? What I was doing differently than thousands of other freelancers? And how could you replicate it? Was there even anything special about my story at all? Would anyone care to read about my journey online as a freelance writer?

Perhaps, Yes!!!

I started differently. How?

I started my online venture from a mobile hotspot and later was among the TOP 10% of the writers on the platform within 6 months.

No Wifi, No Laptop

When you have no wifi and no laptop, it forces you to think differently. When there’s nothing else around, your creativity just takes off. Writing under these conditions will teach you a lot about yourself and how to work in situations that are far less than ideal.

Sometimes it feels like things are out of our control. But often, with just a little bit of hard work and creativity, we can still achieve great things without any backup or resources at all.

I had no wifi and laptop when I started writing. It was really hard for me because I didn’t have any backup or resources at all.

But with my curiosity and creativity, I just wrote articles without even thinking about it. And now I am a top-rated writer on Upwork!

It wasn’t difficult for me to get my first client, so my hard work paid off after some time. I strongly believe, with a little bit of perseverance, you can achieve anything you want in life! I hope you can learn something from my experience.

The Solution

I borrowed a laptop and started working during covid-19 with “Mobile’s Hotspot.” The internet connection was slow, but I didn’t care until I was able to get good work done there, but it wasn’t ideal for my needs.

In fact, there were several times when I had no choice but to keep my spirits high. Of course, I was aiming to fly high.

The Grind

It’s not easy being a freelancer, especially on an international platform. It takes time to build up a reputation and get clients – especially if you don’t have anyone who can vouch for you or your work. The trick is making sure your bidding skills are so strong that you win jobs, even when there aren’t any reviews yet.

I made my Upwork Profile on 11 December 2020 and was lucky enough to get my first project on the same day.

However, it took me several months before I started getting regular projects from them. In fact, it wasn’t until almost 5 days that I got my first five-star review!

My first project was for $60, where I wrote 2000 words for a cleaning company in the USA. I was over the moon as within the next 5 days, I won another 3 high ticket clients.

The next project was $150. I was assigned a project to write 20 short articles (of a few hundred words) about ECO-FRIENDLY Environmental Company.

The next project in December was $1500, where I was asked to write about 60 ANIMALS descriptions for Grade 1 & 2. The client was from Norway and was looking for a WRITER for their 3D learning app. So I applied, and they replied, that’s how I started my first ever big project. And then the story goes on.

So here are a few tips which helped me win projects even without any reviews:

Write a good cover letter with a link to your profile/published work. Make sure you write about yourself in your cover letter as well, so you can add some personal touch to it (I usually mention something about MY RELATED EXPERIENCE as well).
Provide the best possible samples with your application. You should always try to provide the best samples if you want to get hired by anyone.
Apply for projects which are relevant to your skillset.
Bid low initially and then raise it once the client starts replying to your bids so that you can win the project easily (this is especially helpful when you don’t have any reviews yet).
Don’t give up! It took me almost 3 months to build a regular income stream and almost 6 months before I became the TOP RATED WRITER on UPWORK.
Finally, never stop learning new things and keep improving your skillset.

“This is one of my favorite quotes: Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” – Steve Jobs

How Hard Work Pays Off

When it comes to landing top freelance writing gigs, you’ll need hard work and dedication. But those aren’t enough. There are plenty of other writers out there with talent, skill, and willingness to work. To stand out as a freelance writer in a crowded market, you have to bring something extra to every job and every relationship you build along your career path. You have to be relentless about exceeding expectations—and working hard is a key part of that equation.

When I wasn’t getting a response on my “cover letters,” I started offering 300-500 words FREE samples of my work. I won many projects after offering FREE SAMPLE; it built up my portfolio and helped me build my confidence as I was getting a response on almost every project.

One day, I was instantly hired after a FREE SAMPLE. The client was a professional COACH and Trainer from Ireland. She liked my writing style and was looking for a writer for 3 COURSES. She was willing to pay $900 for 3 short courses and asked if I would be interested in doing it. It’s not a lot of money, but it was quite a good start for me.

You can see her review afterward:

My Personal Life

Before pursuing freelancing part-time, I had a good career in teaching. (Though I’m still a full-time educational head)

I pursued freelancing part-time with my teaching job, which was very tough for me. I used to travel 15 km every day (one way). I belong to a remote village in Pakistan, where there’s no wifi, and I had to use my mobile’s hotspot. (Though I purchased mobile wifi later)

So, I had to depend on a 3G network, which cost me a lot of money. So, after one and half years in a part-time freelancing business, I still continued my full-time job and didn’t decide to take up freelancing full-time.

Freelance Career

Freelancing can be tricky, but it is a great way to build your brand and experience in your niche. To get started, you need to think about what you can offer clients.

Are you a writer? Or an editor? Or perhaps a full-service project manager who does research, copywriting, and media planning for every assignment? This will help shape your profile.

Then, you’ll want to create a portfolio that shows off your best work. You’ll also need to include links to social profiles or other online assets showcasing your work. The more complete and professional your profile is, the more likely clients will be to hire you.

Finally, it’s important to network with other freelancers in your field and participate in forums and communities where people discuss topics related to freelance writing (such as LinkedIn & Facebook). This will help you build relationships with potential clients who might need someone like you.

Freelancing Tips for Newbies

Starting a career as a freelancer can be both exciting and terrifying. If you’re about to break into freelance writing, here are some of my top tips for making your first year successful. Don’t feel like you have to take them all—it’s okay if you only follow one or two! But hopefully, they’ll help ease your transition into freelance life.

Start small: There is no need to jump right in with big clients and high-paying projects. It’s best to start slow by finding smaller clients who will pay less but still provide an opportunity for you to hone your skills. As you grow more experienced, taking on bigger and better opportunities will be easier.
Get organized: Freelancing means working when and where you want, which can lead to a lot of distractions if you’re not careful! Set aside time each day or week for freelancing work so that it becomes part of your routine. That way, you won’t be tempted to skip out on work in favor of other things (like watching Netflix). You should also keep all important documents—contracts, invoices, etc.—in one place so that they are easy to access when needed. This will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
Don’t get discouraged: There will be times when it feels like no one wants to hire you or pay what you think is fair compensation for your work. But remember that there is always someone else who needs your services, even if they aren’t looking right now. So if one client doesn’t want to pay what you think is fair, find another who does—and make sure their offer is worth accepting before signing any contracts!
Stay positive: It can be hard to stay motivated and positive as a freelancer. But try not to compare yourself with other writers or let rejection get you down too much. Remember that many of your clients are just as nervous about hiring a new writer as you are about working with them for the first time!
Be professional: You may not have an office job anymore, but that doesn’t mean you should slack off in terms of professionalism. Always respond promptly to emails and invoices, meet deadlines (or at least communicate delays), and treat your clients respectfully. This will help build trust between you and your clients, which is key to making long-term business relationships.
Network: The freelance world can feel pretty isolating sometimes, especially if you don’t know anyone else who works independently. But it’s important to remember that there are lots of other freelancers out there—and many of them are eager to make connections with new writers! So join forums and social media groups where other freelancers hang out and get involved in your local writing community. This will help you make friends and build your network, which will lead to more opportunities down the road.
Learn as much as possible: You may have been a top student in school or college, but the learning doesn’t stop once you opt for freelancing! There are always new tools and strategies to learn. Take classes, read books and blogs, and do whatever else it takes to keep your skills sharp. Your clients will appreciate your commitment to constant improvement.
Don’t give up: Freelancing can be challenging at times—especially when you’re just starting out. But don’t give up too quickly if things aren’t going well.

Services I Offer as a Freelance writer on Upwork

Upwork is a global freelance employment marketplace where businesses can hire freelancers in over 250 work categories. It’s free to post jobs. The fees are paid by businesses when a freelancer accepts an offer or completes a project.

I offer

Copywriting,
SEO Content Writing,
Technical Writing Services.

My specialty is writing content for “Real Estate” websites and blogs. Moreover, I have over 3 years of experience writing content for digital marketing campaigns.

I am a non-native English speaker with excellent command of grammar and punctuation. In addition, I have experience in writing for various fields such as digital marketing, AI, technology, finance, education, marketing, health, blockchain, business & fitness, etc.

My work is always delivered before the deadline, and if my clients are not satisfied with my work, then there will be no charge for that particular project. I can write at any level of complexity and manage tight deadlines. Moreover, my writing is error-free as well as SEO optimized. My work has always been appreciated by clients because it is fresh, original, and compelling.

I have a Master’s degree in English Literature along with a 2 YEARS of “Native ENGLISH COURSE.” My academic background has given me an edge over other writers because I am able to write content that not only appeals to readers but also helps businesses grow online.

I am very dedicated towards my work and hence deliver quality content within deadline.

Till today, I have earned 15k+ on Upwork by completing 71 projects with renowned COMPANIES worldwide. I aim to be “Top rated Plus” on the platform with a 98% job success score.

My Freelance Writing Tips for New Writers

-Always be genuine in your work.
-Consistency is key; try to keep a solid pace of posting every week. No skipping a day if you can help it!
-Take some time off, don’t burn yourself out. If you feel burnt out, take a week or two off and come back fresh!
-If you want to be a good writer, read a lot! Read other people’s work and try and learn from them.
-If you want to write for multiple sites, make sure your content is 100% unique for each site.
-Don’t be afraid of rejection! It’s just part of being an entrepreneur. Learn how to handle it and move on!

My Future Goals

My future goals are to build an agency on Upwork and make it TOP-RATED. I want to build a team of writers who are passionate about their work and can provide quality content for potential clients. My long-term goals are to start my own business in writing. With my experience, I know there is no better way than starting your own business. There are many options, but you have to choose what suits you best.

Bottom Line:

It took me less than years, but I learned a lot along the way. The journey can be lonely at times, and there’s a lot of hard work involved. But, if you want it badly enough and are willing to learn how to write well and often, then anything is possible!

Never give up, and always remember that your success is in your hands. No one else will make you succeed; it’s all up to you.

You can do it! Just keep pushing forward, learn how to write well, network with others, and don’t forget to have fun along the way!

https://www.nazishmohsin.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nazishseocontentwriter

The post How I Went from ‘No Wifi’ to Top-Rated Writer on Upwork appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Jerilyn’s Top Ten Tips to Freelancing on Upwork

Jerilyn Winstead — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 17:06:02 +0000

I’ve been freelancing on Upwork now for five years. When I first tried it years ago, I submitted several proposals and didn’t get any responses, so I gave up. Then I attended one of our local writer’s workshops and learned vital tips from a guy who’d been freelancing on Upwork for fifteen years. I made two changes and suddenly I was up and running on Upwork!

My first tip is that you have to be good at what you do, spend time studying and honing your skills all the time. I’ve been a creative writer my entire life, since I was a child growing up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I was a missionary kid and my dad is a theologian and a published author. I got the writing gene and a passion for history and knowledge from him. He encouraged the little imaginative stories I wrote. My mother took us to the library all the time – I loved it! I grew up immersed in Narnia and Middle Earth and reading many wonderful books – which led to me specializing in the fantasy/sci-fi genre today.

I lived in Brazil until I was seven, then we moved to a small town in Indiana, then to inner-city Chicago where I began 8th grade and attended high school. I enjoyed all these huge cultural changes and loved the energy of a big city. English was my favorite subject in high school and I became an English major in college. All my homework was reading and writing – my favorite things!

After college I got married and managed a small law office for a few years before I quit to raise our children – four came quickly in a row. We moved to Colorado Springs and I became an entrepreneur, trying out a small business venture when my babies were little. Later when they were in school full-time, I founded an online mermaid swim tail company, setting up manufacturing right in town and shipping mermaid tails all over the world. I helped co-found a local swim school with mermaid swim lessons and parties. These startups were great adventures and I learned so much about running a business. After managing them for seven and three years, I sold out of the swim school and eventually had to close my online shop due to lack of capital for expanding needs.

During this time I’d been writing my first novel on and off for several years. When I had to close my mermaid tail shop, I focused fully on my writing, joining several writing groups, learning the craft of writing and editing, and attending the Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference every year. I finished my debut novel and landed a literary agent. She and I spent a year honing and editing my novel even further. I learned so much from that process that I now offer this service on Upwork and am coaching new authors with their first novels.

Like I said, when I first tried Upwork I got no responses. After I attended the workshop on freelancing, I changed two things in my approach – first of all, I learned that it’s a numbers game. That teacher said that for every ten proposals he submits, he lands one job. So I realized I need to submit, submit, and submit – and not give up. That’s Tip #2.

Tip #3 is to word your proposals to show what you can do for the client. Like most people, I’d been writing my proposals listing my qualifications. After the workshop I changed my wording. First I repeat what exactly they are looking for, from their job posting, then I tell them why I’m a great fit for their project. Then I list my qualifications and experience, noting how I can meet their specific need and what I can do for them.

And voila – I landed my first client! I got a ghostwriting gig and spent a year or so working on this one client’s projects. Tip #4 for beginners: start with a lower rate, slowly build it up along with your experience and portfolio. You really have to watch for and ignore postings with $5/hour and very low rates. When I was first starting, I negotiated $20/hour. This was way low for a ghostwriter, but I was just starting out and was grateful for creative income work. While I was ghostwriting that first novel, I learned that the industry minimum pay for a ghostwriter is ten cents per word – I was making a fraction of that! So I negotiated a higher rate for the second novel – doubling my pay and including research time – and I got quite close to ten cents per word.

I’d learned to submit a lot of proposals, and I began taking on jobs in editing, proofreading, VA work, online research, etc. I built up my portfolio over time and have gotten high reviews on Upwork. I slowly began raising my rates, experimenting with this. Upwork takes a 20% fee, and as an entrepreneur I have to also set aside around 20-25% for taxes – netting me only 55-60% of my hourly rate. Tip #5 is to watch what you are netting, and always set aside 20-25% for taxes – consult with your CPA as this rate can shift year by year. You need to take into account these fees when setting your hourly rate.

I was still learning and made a mistake. Whenever I landed a job, I spent all my time working on that job, and stopped submitting proposals. Part of that was learning to handle my time and priorities. But several times I had a client suddenly end the contract with no warning – or sometimes I’d get close to landing an offer, and the client would suddenly disappear. Now I know not to count on a job until I actually receive the offer. And I’ve learned from experience that even though a client may say they have ongoing work for you, often they suddenly switch to other projects and pause or end your contract out of the blue for various reasons. I found myself suddenly with no income and no new clients!

You see, I didn’t enjoy the task of submitting proposals and searching for new clients. So while I did it several times a week, I wasn’t consistent. As soon as I landed work, I’d stop submitting and focus on doing the work. I struggled with my freelance income coming and going, and now I’m striving for full-time income to help put my youngest through college. It’s been a challenge learning how to uplevel my freelancing to full-time instead of just part-time income.

One tip I heard which has stood me in good stead is this: Tip #6 is to always deliver more than expected. Do a really good job. Go the extra mile. Give more than they expect. Treat the client as you would want to be treated. Surprise and delight. Be professional and courteous. Get the job done before the deadline.

But there’s a caveat to that, too. Tip #7 – rarely, if ever, do free work. I struggled with this for years. Even with a robust portfolio, which is enough for most clients, I still get clients asking me to do a free sample. Now if it’s a job I am really interested in and the free work will only take a little bit of my time, I might consider it. But I began getting angry at so many of these requests, and then I learned that it is against Upwork’s Terms of Service for a client to ask for free work. There have been scammers on Upwork who have gotten a bunch of free work done from freelancers submitting samples – I myself was scammed once this way – and they end up not paying for anything. If a client really wants a sample, they are required to pay you for your time. So now I have wording to that effect – offering them to hire me for one hour of work to complete the specific sample they are asking for. I sometimes gently let them know that it’s against Upwork’s ToS to do free work. If they are legit and serious, they will consider this or negotiate with you. If they reject it because they really expect you, an experienced professional, to work for free, then you’re better off without them. I now withdraw my proposal and flag these clients to Upwork so they can catch scammers.

Speaking of rules, here’s Tip #8: Never take your Upwork contract off of Upwork. It’s against your Terms of Service to do this, and if you get caught, you will lose your access to the platform, the services they provide, their protection, and your income source. I sometimes get clients asking me if we should just do this independently off the platform. I always say no, and let them know it’s against my Terms of Service. Clients who are wanting to do that may not come through with paying you, or could disappear like clients do, so it’s not worth it. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. It’s worth Upwork’s 20% fee for all the income and experience I’ve received over the years, for their payment protection and other services they offer.

Back to the day-to-day of freelancing. Tip #9 is to submit proposals every single work day. Make it a part of your day, a part of your regular tasks as a freelancer. It took me a while to learn this lesson. To streamline this process, I saved my most-used proposals, and now I can quickly copy and paste my various proposals into Upwork, customizing a few words to each job post. This makes it fast and easy. I have one for editing and developmental coaching, one for proofreading, one for ghostwriting, one for business writing and editing, etc. – all based on work I’ve done.

Even with that, I still only submitted 1-3 proposals most work days (not every day) to jobs which I was really interested in. I was landing between 1-6 projects each month, some of them more long term or full-time for a while, some shorter one-off projects. Now I’m experimenting and am submitting at least five or more proposals each work day. It’s been two months since I started tracking this and so far I haven’t landed more jobs than I was getting before, which surprises me. I’m now landing about 2-4 jobs per month, a mix of long-term and short projects. With one client I’ve become a regular QA reviewer at $40/hr, but their work ebbs and flows, it’s not consistent. One of my clients has returned to me to help edit their second novel, which felt really great!

Tip #10 is to set up your budget to handle feast-or-famine freelance income. This has taken me years to learn. Every time I landed a really good, long-term job which paid well, I felt that things would just keep getting better and my income would keep increasing. So I allowed myself to spend more and expected that income level to continue. But no, freelance income goes up and down over the year. With the holidays and everything, it’s constantly changing. I struggled with having enough to cover my bills when my income decreased.

Now I’ve set up my budget and I always allocate my percentages, no matter whether my paycheck is large or small. By sticking to my budget plan, the excess in the abundant months will cover the bills in the lean months. I’m learning to become disciplined with my budget, using YNAB to help me (You Need a Budget).

The Cons of freelancing on Upwork, in my experience, is the lack of consistent income and constantly having to seek out new projects and clients – time you don’t get paid for. Sometimes I get frustrated with my income being too low – even though my rate is now between $35-$50/hour, depending on the project. So on and off I’ve been looking for a full or part-time job to supplement my freelancing. In the meantime, I’m experimenting to see if I can get my freelance income up to $2,000-$4,000/month. I now track my Daily Gross Income I earn each business day, working towards a minimum of $100/day to start, which will net me a little over $1,000/month after taxes. Once I can consistently gross $100/day, I’ll increase that goal, working towards netting $2,000/mo, and so on.

The other con is, being a freelancer, there’s no paid time off. You only get paid for the days and weeks you work. So, plan and save ahead to cover emergencies and vacations!

The Pros of freelancing on Upwork, in my experience, is the total freedom I get in working for myself, choosing fun and interesting projects I want to work on, setting my own hours and schedule, taking time off when I want, working at home or at a coffee shop or on the road – the freedom is awesome. I really like working part time. Sometimes I make full-time income working part-time hours. Sometimes I don’t have much work to do, so while I’m seeking new clients, I have more time for my personal projects, like writing my novels.

One of the biggest benefits is my professional experience and credibility I’ve built up over the past five years. With my first agent, several years ago, she wasn’t able to sell my highly-unusual historical fantasy novel because I’m a brand-new author. But now, with a new agent and all my experience writing and editing on Upwork, a new publisher just requested my full manuscript and is looking at it. And I found my new agent because of connections on Upwork – through one of my ghostwriting clients. You never know where your freelancing path will lead you!

The post Jerilyn’s Top Ten Tips to Freelancing on Upwork appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Donna Faye Irene Rocamora, My Freelance Story

Donna Faye Irene Rocamora — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 15:30:22 +0000

When It All Started

While a non-native English speaker, I started loving the language as soon as I learned to speak it in middle school. In high school, I started dabbling in creative writing – poems to vent the woes of my emotional vulnerability and stories that, during that time, hinged on my life. But reality pulled me away from what I never guessed would be a passion.

Eldest in a brood of five girls and taken under the caring wings of three unmarried devout Catholic paternal great aunts, I felt responsible at the age of 10, albeit unconsciously. With both parents starting new families, I had no ultimate life goal but to be a pillar for my younger sisters. I didn’t even realize that I silenced a dream.

Life Happened

When I entered college in a community school, I started earning my keep. From being a school registrar assistant and a fast-food cashier to a beauty product salesperson, I drifted through life with no definitive aim on the horizon other than to get by day-to-day, even when I landed a contractual job at Procter & Gamble Philippines. However, my fascination with the English language and an innate passion to write kept pushing from the surface.

From simple email communications to written reports, I beamed at the pats on my back. What started as a basic secretarial post at a small networking company blossomed into spearheading and writing the company’s newsletter. I even traveled outside the city limits to lecture about the networking process.

Curveballs

Life went on and I entered marital bliss at 29, leaving the workforce to become a hands-on mom. But life threw me curveballs. I became a single mom after six years and got separated from my son. To care for his younger sister, I joined the BPO bandwagon. But caring for my daughter in the mornings and working at night soon burned my candle on both ends – until my sisters started their water refilling business.

Once again, my hibernating passion to write came alive. From cold-call emails to enticing proposals, my creativity juice flowed once more. I once shunned away from marketing, recognizing early on that it wasn’t my cup of tea. But as a startup business, I knew I had to dip my toe in strange waters.

Anything But Dauntless

I believed that my sisters and I could deliver quality, but some clients focused more on spending less. So, it felt frustrating when a deal didn’t go through. But such was life – you could never please everybody. From listing prospective clients to crossing them off the list, I spent my days overseeing the operation and building a portfolio for the business. When I eventually did, I realized that if I put my heart and mind into something, there was time for everything – both new and old

In 2010, I started my manuscript. In between business calls to prospective clients, I sat outside the nearest Starbucks, pen scribbling on the back of used bond papers. I stayed late in my sisters’ business office turning those scribblings digital because I had no means to buy a computer. When eventually I owned one, I ‘met’ Quora, which was an interesting happenstance.

I came across the platform while searching for how to resolve an issue with my printer. As someone eager to exchange views, I joined. Given my limited interaction with the platform, I was surprised when I became one of its top writers in my initial year. It was also around this time that a sister introduced me to Upwork, which was oDesk back then.

Despite joining the workforce at the tender age of 16, communicating with foreign people was rare as a blue moon. Yet, I strived, banking on my love of the English language and passion to write. But life once again pulled me away. With a daughter about to enter high school and moving to my father’s place to keep him company, focusing on a full-time job at my sisters’ business felt ‘practical’ – until it wasn’t.

A New Sunrise

‘When a door closes, a window opens’ couldn’t be more apt when in September 2018, after nearly a decade, my sisters’ business had to close shop. I couldn’t recall when I started seeing my glass half-full, but despite being jobless with a daughter about to enter college, I revisited Upwork with no immediate expectations.

There was no small deed for me, so I started perusing the platform for projects that required writing. My first collaboration was a short story with the barest of prompts – two distinct characters and a setting. After 3,000 words of a world that only lived in my mind, I earned my first $5 in Upwork and I was in heaven! For me, it wasn’t every day to get paid for something you love.

Upwork was such a vast ocean of writing opportunities that I didn’t venture to sail other seas. It became my open window when the door of my sisters’ business closed. More importantly, it freed my passion to pen words that move and make a difference.

The Perks

Across my nearly four years at Upwork, I gradually sensed the beauty of freelancing. Having worked in a plethora of 8-to-5s, the key takeaway in freelancing is FREEDOM.

Yes, you’re somewhat bound by the project’s requirements and the client’s expectations, but the first step is yours to make. You’re in charge of what you want to do in a timeframe that you can customize.

There’s no ‘I have to’ in freelancing, like tasks in a job that you only applied for the paycheck. In freelancing, you spend efforts on things that interest you, consequently nurturing your skills and empowering what you can offer. You also can work on projects even before you brushed your teeth, something that will be frowned upon in ANY traditional and physical workplace.

But similar to a physical workplace, the virtual world of freelancing has drawbacks.

Not Always a Bed of Roses

Platforms like Upwork overflow with freelancers, competitors that you’ll constantly but wits with. Particularly after the pandemic slapped the world hard, many professionals shifted gears to the world of freelancing – and this somewhat ‘favors’ clients.

With several options at their disposal, some clients can drop you like a hot potato in a snap. Unlike in a ‘regular job,’ while freelancing platforms offer security for both clients and freelancers, job security isn’t high in freelancing. Unless you land a long-term project, your income isn’t a steady stream. Even these seemingly ideal collaborations can end with a single misstep or misfired communication, and I’ve had my fair share.

I feel privileged that I can only name two instances that nearly drove me to a corner. Both clients dropped off the radar when an initially agreed compensation should have been more. Constantly moving my best foot forward, I felt cheated. Letting go and filing them as learning experiences was the hardest decision I ever made as a freelancer, but I refused to sulk. Instead, I became cautious moving forward, with my passion, grit, and resilience as constants.

My Two Cents

Whether you’re only starting to ponder a career in freelancing, or you’ve been in this world for quite a while, experience taught me these key ‘ammunitions’ to keep your boat steady.

Don’t Do Things Half-Baked

Yes, rewrites are common elements in any writing endeavor, but it pays to prime your deliverables right off the bat. You save time from the back-and-forth and the client appreciates your dedication to revert with quality materials.

Be Thick-Skinned

It’s a dream to collaborate with clients who recognize that appreciative words are free. But you will come across those who think otherwise. When this happens, recognize that you can’t please everyone. Provided you’re confident of what you delivered, personalities are just diverse.

Time Management Is Crucial

On some occasions, I’ve multi-tasked two to three projects at the same time. If you’re new to freelancing, you might want to stick to one project at a time for a start. While the prospect of earning more is enticing, you might compromise the quality of one or all the projects at hand. Remember, quality almost always outshines quantity.

I only multi-task when the projects aren’t time-sensitive. When you become confident about working on projects simultaneously, create a workable timeframe and be upfront with the concerned clients, which leads to my next unsolicited advice.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

An open channel of communication eliminates potential hurdles before they become Mount Everest. I’m not saying that all clients do the same, but it’s wise that you’re doing the end of the bargain.

Impersonation Only Works Well on The Stage

When we submit proposals to projects, it’s customary to populate them with reasons why we’re a good fit. But there’s a thin line between pride and exaggeration.

NEVER claim expertise about something that you’re not. Be upfront with what you can – and can’t – do. Your clients will appreciate it, consequently building trust. I should know because I gained clients that way.

Clients: The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly

The client pool is as diverse as our (freelancers) pool, but there’s a way to weed out the chaff. Before submitting a proposal or responding to an invite (Yes! There will come a time when clients encourage you to look at their projects), read through the client’s past projects.

Both clients and freelancers can optionally leave feedback once a project concludes. Decide how to move forward from these invaluable insights from your co-freelancers.

Similarly, while it’s ‘safer’ to interact with clients with a project portfolio, don’t be quick in dismissing those who are new to the platform. One of my steady clients, albeit seasonal, only signed up with Upwork a few days before we started collaborating.

The bottom line is, employ critical thinking before moving forward. But sometimes, successful endeavors involve calculated risks.

Happy freelancing!

The post Donna Faye Irene Rocamora, My Freelance Story appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Silvia Pinho, Social Media Manager & Content Creator

Nebojsa Dolovacki — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 11:08:22 +0000

Silvia is Social Media Manager & Content Creator for FUN small businesses on UpWork. She was born & raised near Lisbon, in Portugal, and she love all things Disney, cats and videogames. I had the opportunity to talk to her, and these are her answers and advice.

– You studied Fine Arts, what attracted you to that?

I actually studied Multimedia Arts in a Fine Arts school, and what attracted me to it was the fact that I could not only improve my video creation and design skills (which are very useful now), but also learn about creating my own videogames, which I’ve done a fair share of, and am looking to do more of in the future.

– I see you have a cat. How important is a pet for freelancers?

I actually have not one, not two, but three cats! They’re the best, I treat them as my kids, they keep me company most of the time, and sometimes even entertain my clients when they show up on calls.

– Have you had the opportunity to work full time or have you always wanted to be a freelancer?

I never wanted to be a freelancer, because I never knew what it was. I kinda fell into it on accident, loved it, and stuck with it. But no, never had a full time, “real life” job myself.

– What influenced you the most to start freelancing?

The fact that I was able to make money on the side of my studies (back then) without having to leave my house…it was a no-brainer! Also, having the flexibility to work anytime, anywhere and do something I love is still to this day what keeps me going.

Social media can encompass a lot of things

– How do you approach failures or setbacks?

I’m not gonna lie, I’m usually pretty hard on myself and tend to get stressed and anxious when I fail or do something short of “perfect”. That being said, it’s something I’m actively working on and hoping to be better at looking at in a more reasonable and rational way in the future.

– What are your success habits?

Honestly, I used to really plan my days to the minute and have very strict boundaries, and it worked pretty well to get the job done, but I found it was compromising my mental health. So I recently switched to a more goal-oriented approach, where I write down my top priorities for the week/day and as long as those get done, I can call it a successful week! Work still gets done, but at my own pace, which feels much better. (I still time block upcoming weeks, just to make sure I have time for all my clients thought)

– How have you decided to become social media manager? Or did it just happen?

It kinda just happened, much like freelancing, by “accident”. I was offering illustrations and designs originally on Upwork, and kept seeing a lot of job posts looking for Virtual Assistants. I didn’t know what that was, but saw I fit the requirements, so I went for it! Eventually, most of my clients needed social media help, so I started doing it, learning more about it and eventually fell in love with it!

– How much would you recommend someone to start a career in social media? Is it a very demanding job?

Social media can encompass a lot of things. I’ll say that creating content for clients can be demanding…depending on the clients. Some are very chill and will love everything you do, while others can be…very picky. The worst is when they don’t know what they want and have you guess it for them. That being said, you can offer other services that don’t involve content creation, such as strategy, engagement or even consulting.

– How much do social media influence today’s business?

I think it’s a crucial part of any business for sure. It gives you a level of credibility, much like having a website, and also allows you to reach new audiences and connect with existing ones. That being said, it is a time-consuming thing, hence why a lot of people look for help in managing their accounts.

I’m proud of the content I create

– Are employers aware of the importance of social media or do you need to educate them about the need to be online?

I find they’re more aware now than they used to be maybe pre-pandemic, for sure, but I sometimes still find myself explaining the value of something to them. That being said, it’s now usually more explaining the value of a full management package vs just content creation (which is the bit they see), rather than explaining why they need to be on social in the first place.

– You are also an online educator? Tell us more about it.

I am! That’s again something I eventually fell into, and honestly have been loving every second of. When I started posting about my journey and services on social media, inevitably people started asking me about it, and I found myself answering the same questions on the daily, so I decided to pivot my content away from promoting my services (since I had Upwork doing that part already) and into educational content for my fellow freelancers. I eventually also started creating courses on how to get started as a freelancer, work on Upwork and even promote yourself on social media, to help them even further (while having an additional stream of income, of course).

– How much do online education and social media have in common? Do these two jobs require different knowledge and skills?

I get to use my social media skills to promote my content and courses, so they have that overlap for sure. I also get to use my marketing knowledge to teach my students how to position themselves and well – market their freelance business. That being said, you do need some additional teaching skills in order to be a good educator, which apparently I have since my students seem to like me!

– Which of these two jobs gives you more pleasure?

Honestly I love both, and like that I get to do them at the same time and have variety in my weeks. And while I’m super proud of the content I create for social media clients and that process is truly fun for me, seeing my students get their first clients and essentially change their lives because of me is a level of fulfilment that I think is unbeatable.

– You have a great Instagram profile and YouTube channel. Which of the two is more demanding to maintain and update?

YouTube for sure. While Instagram “requires” more frequent content, recording a YouTube video takes a lot of time and energy – from scripting to recording, since thankfully I have help in the editing process. That being said, video content is definitely more rewarding to see the final result of, and part take in the creation process.

– And which has brought more benefits to your freelance career?

Probably Instagram at this point, since I do have a bigger audience there, and get to have a closer connection with my followers, which can eventually turn them into clients or students much easier.

Send 1-5 GREAT proposals each day

– Can today’s freelancers make a successful career without promotion in social media?

For sure! I didn’t have social media myself for the first 7 years of my freelancing career, and I did just fine! That being said, I do always recommend choosing 1 social platform and 1 freelancing platform – not more, not less – in order to diversify your lead sources.

– Has today’s social media become more important and influential than a personal website?

Again, I mentioned before that they’re both really helpful to build trust and credibility. That being said, if I could only choose one, I’d go with social media since it allows you to reach more people, again pairing that with a freelancing platform like Upwork where clients can go to in order to hire you (or is that cheating?)

– What was the best advice you got at the beginning of your freelance career?

The best advice I got was actually from a client and that was to raise my rates. I’ll never forget that I quoted them on a project and they wanted to pay me more than that since they knew it was worth more. They also advised me to raise my rates with each new client I got, especially in the beginning, to reflect my increased skills.

– And what’s the worst advice you’ve ever got?

This wasn’t given to me personally, but I’ve seen it floating around the internet – to submit A LOT of proposals to jobs each day, in order to have more chances of getting noticed. I definitely think quality trumps quantity anyway, and I’m a big believer that you should send 1-5 GREAT proposals each day, to jobs that you’re genuinely interested in.

– Have you worked on any freelance platform other than UpWork?

I’ve tried Fiverr for a while, but only ever sold two gigs there. I know of a lot of people that do well there, so I’m assuming I did something wrong, but eventually gave up since Upwork is enough for me and I’d rather focus on one platform versus many. Again quality over quantity.

– Why has UpWork become your choice?

It was the first platform I was on, back in 2013, therefore the one I have more experience and reputation on, giving me the best results.

– What are the advantages of a freelance lifestyle for you?

I’ve mentioned this before, but being able to work at the times that I’m most creative and feel my best, as well as working from home or from anywhere I may be (i.e. while travelling) are definitely the biggest selling points for me.

– And what are the disadvantages?

You’re responsible for everything – no one’s telling you what to do and when, so you do have to manage your own time so you get to everything you need to do. Also it’s usually harder to shut off after work, since you may not have that change in scenario, or if you’re like me you can be tempted to do “just one more task” at the end of the day.

– What was the hardest decision you ever had to make as a freelancer?

When I started to hire out and grow my team, that was hard. I’m very frugal and very much a perfectionist, so having to delegate work to someone who may not do as good of a job scared the crap out of me. Thankfully I’ve found a great team that does as good if not even better than me, and I absolutely love working with them.

– There are many freelancers with skills like yours. What makes you stand out and make you more successful?

I like to think my fun vibes – both in my personality and the work I do – are what makes me stand out the most, and what I tend to hear clients rave most often about. I’m also again very much of a hard worker, so I always get things done on time and as best as possible, so there’s some bonus points as well.

I’m a native planner

– To succeed, freelancer must also possess certain soft skills, such as communication, organization, time management … Which soft skills were the most challenging for you?

I’m a native planner, so time management is easy for me (maybe too easy since I tend to overdo it). I’d say the most challenging is communication, not because I don’t love talking to my clients – I truly do – but because of my social anxiety I’m always a bit afraid of saying the wrong thing or coming off as someone who doesn’t know what she’s talking about (when I do).

– What has benefited you the most to become a successful freelancer? Your education, certain books, courses, forums, instructions on freelance platforms or something else?

Online courses have been great, and have taught me not only different skills but also different viewpoints on things. I’m also eternally thankful that I found Upwork when I did, since it essentially introduced me to the world of freelancing, and made it as easy as it could be to start & succeed in my journey.

– If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?

I’d have charged higher, for sure. I didn’t value my work as much as I should’ve back then, and I left a lot of money on the table by doing that.

– What is your biggest motivation?

My biggest motivation is being able to essentially design a life I love – from my schedule to my workplace and the work I do – while making an impact in others’ lives and businesses.

– How important is constant professional improvement?

It is key, I’m always listening to podcasts and watching educational videos to improve my skills and learn something new.

– What are you most grateful for in your freelance journey?

Again, the fact that I found Upwork and all the clients it introduced me to – some of which I ended up working with for 3-4 years straight.

– Can you give one free tip to all freelancers, how to improve presence on social networks?

Focus on the client, their pain points, and how you solve them. Truth is they don’t care about all the features of your packages, they care more about the end result. Will you save them time? Get them more leads? Increase their ROI? Focus on THAT.

– What is the best way to organize multiple jobs and private life?

Time blocking, to an extent, is great. Also knowing when you need to stop and honoring that is key for not reaching burnout down the line.

– Several factors are important for success. Can you name some of the most important for you?

I’d say video. Being present on video, whether it’s in your Upwork profile, proposals or Instagram stories has been life-changing (or business-changing rather) for me. Video gives you the opportunity to show your personality, while creating a deeper connection and trust with your client, making them more likely to want to work with you!

– Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube – which social channel can contribute to the success of freelancers the fastest and most?

I think it truly depends on where your ideal client is the most.

– If you had to single out one characteristic that is most important for the success of a freelancer, what would it be?

Definitely knowing what you offer and who you offer it to, as well as what motivates a client to seek out that particular service. This will help you write your content, your profile, and even the proposals you send, while again keeping the focus on the client.

– What advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t undervalue yourself. The work you do is great and valuable for the client, so you can safely double your rates and still get hired.

– The best advice for those who are considering a freelance career?

Just start. Obviously figure out what you want to offer and all that first, but don’t tell yourself you need to take “one more course” or create a website or this and that before you start. Those are excuses we tell ourselves and they don’t matter. You can learn a lot on the job, you can work on your website while you work with clients, just start today and figure it out as you go – that’s what I did!

The post Silvia Pinho, Social Media Manager & Content Creator appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Mike Lane

Nebojsa Dolovacki — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 10:37:53 +0000

The number of different professions that freelancers are engaged in is constantly increasing. We are used to freelance designers, programmers, writers… but not so often to freelance math teachers. And Mike Lane is just that, a math teacher. I had the pleasure to ask him about his life and freelance career.

– Please tell our readers something about you and your interests.

I have two older brothers and a younger sister. We were all born in Texas, but moved around a lot growing up, almost yearly. We put down roots when we moved to Virginia, so I consider that to be home. My mother is from Kentucky; she moved back after my sister graduated high school. My oldest brother lives in Virginia with his wife and kids, my sister lives one town over from mom, and my other brother lives in the same town as mom.

My wife and I live with our son here in Virginia. She is a former teacher and works in the library system in charge of children’s programming and community outreach. I am a full-time virtual teacher. I enjoy listening to audiobooks while driving, building projects with my little monster, and cooking.

– You are a math teacher; did you love math when you were a student?

Fun fact, NO! I was always good at math, but it was one of my least liked subjects, as I did not see much use for it. It is also basically the last subject I thought I would teach, however, in the last seven years of teaching I have come to truly appreciate the subject! One of my main goals is to help students understand the why behind the what. It isn’t enough to just learn the concepts, we need to make sure students understand the importance behind the skills. To help with this I will develop lessons that are real-world based. By real-world, I don’t mean, “Mr. Lane was buying 63 watermelons.” No, instead I strive to build lessons that have real, practical applications. One lesson that comes to mind was when my seventh graders were learning about inequalities. To demonstrate, we spent the day learning about circuit breakers, and how they are a tangible example of how inequalities are used in real life. Almost everyone has experienced overloading a circuit and tripping a breaker, and now my students understand it on a more fundamental level.

I had various jobs in lots of different places

– How did you decide to become a math teacher?

I will be the first person to tell you that I was a terrible student. I cared more about the social aspects of high school instead of the classes, so I did just enough work to keep my grades eligible for sports. I carried that attitude with me to college, and I was twice asked to leave (very politely, of course). So, I struggled for quite a while. I spent a total of six years in the Army, mostly in the Reserves, although I did do a year of active duty at Fort Lee, Virginia. After that I kind of drifted around. I had various jobs in lots of different places: waiter, bartender, bouncer, logistics coordinator, overhead hoist operator, electrical grunt, QAQC Assistant Superintendent building windmills. I was an insurance salesman, a general manager for a gas station, and an assistant manager for a fast-food restaurant. And I realized, “I’m NOT lovin’ it” (pun intended). It was around that time that I found a college that allowed you to take 99% of your classes online, was nationally accredited, and had killer military benefits. So, I started taking classes, and I finally found a learning environment in which I thrived. I was able to work at my pace, and I am very much a “start the project and get finished” kind of guy, so when the course opened on a Monday, I would go on a bender and finish the class by Saturday. Virtual learning allowed me to obtain my degree (four degrees, actually). The only drawback was even though I had a bachelor’s degree, I did not qualify for a teaching license because I hadn’t had the supervised classroom experience.

So, I started working as a Teaching Assistant, serving K4 exceptional learners. While I was gaining valuable experience, I kept looking for a teaching position. I applied to everything, Language Arts, Math, Science, Physical Education. And a school responded by needing a math teacher! They asked me to prepare a sample lesson, and my interview was literally me teaching a 7th grade math concept (surface area of rectangular prisms) to the principal and the math coach. Turns out, all those years of being a bad student have helped me become a good teacher, because I knew how the students were thinking. The principal sponsored me for a provisional teaching license, without which I would not be where I am today. I am licensed to teach math in seven different states now!

– New technologies have affected all professions, is the job of a teacher changing?

Technology is always changing, and it affects all professions. With teaching, I think there is both a significant PRO and a significant CON that is most profound. The pro is the access we now have. We are able to do more, research more, share and collaborate more. I participated in the Rural Math Innovation Network, which connected rural math teachers all across Virginia. There are so so so many amazing teachers out there I never would have had the honor of meeting but for the ever-changing world of technology.

The biggest CON about technology is the detrimental influence social media has on students, particularly middle school students. These “challenges” kids are doing these days are dangerous. Maybe not physically, but the emotional trauma kids are experiencing, the societal pressure to make poor choices, it is truly disheartening to see.

– You are also a military veteran; can you tell us something about that?

I loved serving my country. Most of my time was in the reserves, and I primarily did paperwork in an S1 shop. My military time really helped me learn my organizational skills and attention to detail.

With Upwork, I am building relationships and collaborations that are paying what I feel my profession is worth

– How did you discover freelancing?

I have been fortunate over the past several years to have the opportunity to work on grant-funded projects in education. These projects allowed me to continue growing professionally, and the side money was very helpful! When the funding ended, however, I was at a loss. How could I supplement my income while still continuing to hone my craft? This led me to frequently searching the internet for side jobs in education. One thing led to another, and I kept seeing a common theme, “Work as a freelancer.” So I started researching. Several articles I read talked about freelancers doing well on Upwork, so I decided to give it a try. It has been an amazing three months! One of the chief complaints you hear from teachers is how the pay isn’t reflective of our professional knowledge. With Upwork, I am building relationships and collaborations that are paying what I feel my profession is worth.

– What is the biggest difference between classroom teaching and online teaching?

For me, the biggest difference is the time. As a classroom teacher I would get to school two or more hours before the students. I was often the first person in the building, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to be the last person to leave. I can remember several times when I wouldn’t leave until well past midnight. With virtual teaching, I am fortunate enough to have found a company that truly believes in self-care. They have entire teams building and perfecting the curriculum, it is the educational version of “plug and play”. I see my family so much more now.

– What are the biggest challenges of online teaching?

Virtual teaching can be lonely. You miss the connections you build with the students, your coworkers, the community.

– What are your success habits?

For teaching – continuous improvement. What we know about how students learn is always changing, so you have to always be willing to adapt your methods. I am a huge fan of productive struggle, pushing your students out of their comfort zones, but still supporting them so they don’t crash.

For freelancing – Daily monitoring. I check the app probably a dozen times a day using the “Best Matches” feature to look for work. If I see something I like, I submit a proposal. If I don’t see anything I like, oh well! There will be something next time!

– What influenced you the most to start freelancing?

My goal is to build a client base that will allow me to cover my monthly expenses from freelancing part time, so that my full time pay can go straight to savings.

Don’t sell yourself short

– What was the best advice you got at the beginning of your freelance career?

Make sure your profile picture shows your character, have patience, and KNOW YOUR WORTH! When I was building my profile, I spent a looooooooong time considering what to put as my hourly rate. I settled on $50/hour based on a project I had recently finished building lesson plans. Each lesson plan took (on average) about five hours, and I was getting paid $250 each, so I figured, why not? So don’t sell yourself short. If you believe your work merits the price, ask for it. Just be certain that you deliver.

– And what’s the worst advice you’ve ever got?

Take any job offered to build a profile. If you are not going to enjoy the work, don’t accept it.

– Have you worked on any freelance platform other than UpWork?

Nope!

– Why has UpWork become your choice?

Honestly, it was the first one I found, but I am having a blast using it so I don’t feel the need to expand my horizons!

– What are the advantages of a freelance lifestyle for you?

Freelancing has given me more freedom and flexibility, a stronger sense of control.

– And what are the disadvantages?

Sometimes a client “feels” fishy. I only submit proposals to jobs that have the “Payment Verified” designator, and I make sure to report any client that tries to break the terms of service, such as trying to work off-platform.

– Are you still teaching, or have you become a full-time freelancer?

I am a full-time teacher and part-time freelancer.

– What was the hardest decision you ever had to make as a freelancer?

When to say no. There are jobs out there that are easy to do, but can quickly become very time consuming. I have had to set boundaries for myself. I like to use the “gas station” standard: If I can earn the same amount of money in the same amount of time working at a gas station then this is not a project I should accept.

I can attribute my success to the experiences and lessons learned from working in the classroom

– To succeed, freelancer must also possess certain soft skills, such as communication, organization, time management … Which soft skills were the most challenging for you?

Thankfully all of the soft skills needed for teaching coincide with the soft skills needed with freelancing, so the transition has not been a struggle for me.

– What has benefited you the most to become a successful freelancer? Your education, certain books, courses, forums, life experience or maybe your military background?

The majority of my freelance work has been centered around educational topics, such as tutoring, assessment creation, and consulting. I can attribute my success to the experiences and lessons learned from working in the classroom, and the opportunities that came with.

– If you could start all over again, what would you do differently in your life?

I would try and do a better job planning and setting goals.

– What is your biggest motivation?

My little monster! I want to make sure I do what I can to take care of him, make sure he is safe and knows his mother and I love him and want the nest for him.

– What do you like most about teaching?

Knowing that I helped someone be a better person.

– How has COVID and lockdown affected your personal and professional life?

I have grown closer to my son, gotten the chance to know him better. Professionally, I truly believe if it were not for the lockdown I would still be in the same school, teaching the same thing, and not doing freelance work. While it has been a horrible time for everyone, there have been some silver linings.

– What is the best way to organize freelance jobs, regular job, and private life?

Scheduling! We don’t have access to good internet, so I have to rent an office in town (for now at least). Juggling my job, my freelance work, my wife’s job, it can be a bit of a struggle. The best advice I can give is get a paper calendar and actually use it. Put it somewhere visible and be sure to update it regularly.

– Several factors are important for success. Can you name some of the most important for you as a teacher and freelancer?

Flexibility – I had a drill sergeant that would say, “The best laid plans go out the window as soon as the first shot goes downrange.” That is something I have always kept in mind. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I was driving to school and realized a better (sometimes) way to teach something, that I thought would resonate more with my students, so I scrapped the lesson plans I had written and started over. Or even revised and adapted between classes. There are so many factors that influence everything we do, and most of them are out of our control. Just roll with it and do you.

– If you had to single out one characteristic that is most important for the success of a freelancer, what would it be?

Be confident. You are the one who knows you are a professional, so it is your job to show the client why they should pick you. I have one client who decided to interview me because my proposal was, “the only one that sounded like a real person who actually knew what they were talking about.”

– What advice would you give your younger self?

Eat more salads, drink more water, nothing good ever happens after 2am.

– Do you think freelancing will change the way of teaching in the future? Or has the future already begun?

I don’t think freelancing will change the future of teaching.

– The best advice for those who are considering a freelance career.

Don’t give up. I didn’t get a response to my first couple dozen proposals, but I kept trying

The post Mike Lane appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.

Momoko Takahashi, freelancing is a double-edged sword

Nebojsa Dolovacki — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 09:08:32 +0000

Freelance Life Magazine always tries to present you interesting freelancers and their stories, this time we have the pleasure to present Momoko, translator and content writer on the UpWork platform.

Science and art are symbiotic

– Tell us something about yourself.

Currently, I live in Malta, a super sunny island close to Sicily. It has beautiful beaches, warm people, and delicious food. I live with my husband and my daughter who is going to have her 1st birthday soon.

I grew up in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It is a very busy and crowded city, and the thing I miss the most about Dhaka is my friends and the street food. I have also lived in Japan, Ireland, and Denmark. My father is from Bangladesh, and my mother is from Japan. So, when I was growing up, me and my family used to travel back and forth between Japan and Bangladesh.

I completed my bachelor’s degree in Bangladesh, and by that time, I was dying to go out of the country and to explore the world. It finally became possible when I was hired by an Irish company to work for the Japanese market. Then I moved to Ireland and lived there for two years. During this time, I met my husband, who is from Denmark. Therefore, we moved to Denmark together. We were planning to stay in Denmark for a while, but I found out that there were not many jobs in Denmark for Japanese speakers, so we moved to Malta.

– You studied genetic engineering and biotechnology, but also photography. How did you combine science and art?

It might seem like art and science are somehow against each other, but I think you can find art in science, and, without the help of science, art would be very boring or one-dimensional. So, I could say science and art are symbiotic (science term!). I get goosebumps when I go to an art museum and stand in front of a magnificent painting, but when I look into a microscope and see the utterly breathtaking beauty of a plant cell, I get the same goosebumps. Also, my foundation in Physics helped me quite a bit when I first joined a beginner photography class – there were many scientific things we had to learn, starting from how light rays are bent, how cameras work, aperture, exposure, and so on.

– Apart from work, what are your other interests?

In my free time, I love reading, taking photos, and exploring the neighborhood.

I love reading both fiction and non-fiction and am especially into reading short stories with a good character study.

I tend to combine my exploration of the neighborhood with photography, and it helps to appreciate the beauty in small details of seemingly ordinary alleys and streets. It is amazing how different the same location can appear, depending on factors such as the time of the day or the weather.

I enjoy content writing projects

– Which has been more valuable in your career, your education, or your experience?

To be honest, I have not done any work related to what I majored in (Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology), so you can guess – it was definitely my experience. However, I would say this, the fact that I have a college degree, has helped me tremendously in opening new doors of opportunities. So, I am happy that I did not quit my college, even though I wanted to give up on college halfway through (as I realized that I did not want to work in my area of study).

– How did you get started, what was your first job?

My first job after graduating college was in Ireland. I was very eager to go out of the country I grew up in, so I can explore the world and expand my perspective. So, I started applying to anything and everything I could find on the internet that provided visa and relocation support to Japanese speakers. One day, a company from Ireland replied back to me – it was a sales job, and I could move to Ireland through this job. The job entailed calling and writing to Japanese businesses and selling novelty products to them. It was always night shift due to the differences in time zones, but I was highly motivated and determined to do well. In the beginning, I was scared out of my wits, because I have never studied anything business-related in my life, let alone ‘sales(!)’. We had to reach challenging weekly sales targets and most people who joined with me did not pass their probation periods due to not being able to reach the sales target. But I did everything in my power to improve, and within a few months, I was the top sales agent in the team.

– What are the challenges of a translator’s job?

I think the most common challenges are

Specialized topics (e.g., computing, academic writing, legal, etc.)
Difficult to understand source materials (bad handwriting, dialects, terms specific to certain regions)
Tight deadlines
Having to learn different platforms to work in
Understanding language nuances and subtleties and make sure it reaches the target audience

– What is the mistake you have learned the most from in your career?

I think I have always been a bit shy of asking questions, always trying to solve things on my own, and try to figure things out without taking help from others. But time and time again, I am reminded that trying to figure out everything on your own and avoiding asking questions (no matter how silly it might appear to you) is highly unsustainable, and tragically inefficient.

When I first started freelancing, I was very careful of the way I appeared to my clients (very few first clients), in terms of skills. One of the tasks required me to figure out some technical aspects of a specific online software. I researched for days using every available source, and still could not figure it out. So, finally I asked the client if he could show me how to do it, (thinking in my head that they must be so disappointed and would probably ask me to stop working on the project). It turned out there was an error in the system, and they were happy I noticed it, so they fixed it, and came back to me, and the issue was solved in a matter of minutes! All I had to do was ‘Ask!’.

I also realized that most clients do not expect you to know everything from the start. They also prefer someone who might not know everything, but is eager to learn and improve, rather than someone who does not ask questions, and does everything on their own.

– What is your biggest motivation?

My biggest motivation is the feeling I get when I am able to complete a project successfully even when it is challenging. Every time I receive an offer to work on a project that seems ‘way beyond my league’, I try to assess, if there is a way for me to push myself beyond my limits and work on it – if the answer is yes, I take it on wholeheartedly and give everything in my power, even though it might mean going to bed late, and having to miss out on a few meetings with friends. It is because, once you have overcome that challenge, it means you will not be afraid to work on something similar in the future, and the next time it is going to be a whole lot easier.

– What do you enjoy more, the job of a translator or content writing?

I enjoy content writing more because it allows me to have room for creativity and freedom. Translator jobs can be fun as well, if it is a topic I am interested in. For example, there was a project I worked on, where I had to translate and explain Japanese comedy videos. How fun it is that you get paid for watching comedy videos and translate the content so that someone else can laugh along with you! However, translating projects that are fun are few and in between. So, most times, I enjoy content writing projects more.

I have always been motivated by working

– What influenced you the most to start freelancing?

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had left my last job because the company was moving to Japan, and it required me to relocate to Japan if I wanted to keep my job. I was not aware how difficult it can be to find a new job when you are pregnant. I have had interviews that went perfectly well, and the interviewers seemed super hyped to take me on to the team, and then the moment I mentioned my pregnancy, they would send a vague email later stating that they cannot hire me.

I have always been motivated by working, and I was losing my mind not being able to work. I was 4 months pregnant when I opened my Upwork account, hoping that I will be able to find ‘something’ to do. For the first few months, there was nothing. Then finally after a few months, I got my first project on Upwork, and I did not have to look back since then. When I started freelancing, I did it as a necessity, but now, I do it besides having my full-time job, and a 11-month-old baby – only because I enjoy it.

– Do you have experience with any other platforms?

I have done a few freelance styles works before Upwork, but the set up was informal and not on any official platforms. For official platforms, I do not have experience outside Upwork, but someday I would like to try out different platforms as well. For now, I am quite happy with the jobs and clients I have in Upwork.

– Why has UpWork become your choice?

To be honest, I decided to focus only on one platform and to strengthen my profile as much as possible; otherwise, I think I will be stretched out too thin. Also, my experience in Upwork has been for the most part, very positive. I also had a case of an unresponsive client, and the customer support at Upwork has been quite helpful. I do wish that Upwork fees were a bit lower, or there was some way to make up for the portion of the earnings we pay to the platform, but I think any platform takes some kind of fees, so it is something I just have to accept and move on.

– How important are platforms like UpWork for finding new customers?

I think it is extremely important, depending on what kind of field you work in. Also, for someone like me, who is very busy with the family, there is not enough time to invest in networking and finding clients. This is where platforms like Upwork are very useful. Another great thing about Upwork is that it allows the freelancers to know their clients before sending a proposal, such as verification of payment, reviews from other freelancers, and other projects by the client.

– What are the advantages of a freelance lifestyle for you?

I have a full-time job (work from home) and I do freelance as my ‘side hustle’. There are many advantages to this and below are few:

It helps me to always be in a state of growth in terms of career, knowledge, skills, and networking. Working for different clients through freelancing means I am able to learn how to use different platforms, and software’s, and also to be comfortable doing various types of work. For example, I am comfortable using Slack, Todoist, Teams, Zoom, Google sheets, buttercms, freedcamp, Loft, Loom, Workbench, Zendesk, and many other programs that I would not even hear the name of if I was not doing freelancing.
It gives me the peace of mind that if we were to relocate to a different country or to change jobs, I would have at least one source of income where I can earn enough to sustain our family.
I can choose what type of projects I want to work on, and when. If I have a month where I am on a long vacation, all I have to do is make sure I don’t take up new projects with tight deadlines. On the other hand, if I want to make a little extra money to buy my family a gift, and I have some extra time, I can choose to work more than usual. It gives you far more control on your working style and schedule when you are freelancing.

– And what are the disadvantages?

Freelancing is a double-edged sword, and as much as the benefits are great, there are some serious disadvantages. Below are some of the main disadvantages that I have to overcome as a freelancer:

In general, pay is unbelievably low. Sometimes you wonder how someone can feel ‘okay’ paying so low for a task that requires so much work! It is important to be careful not to take on projects where you might be underpaid. That being said, these extremely low-pay projects might be the ones you have to take on to build up your profile.
As if the low pay was not bad enough, you then have to pay 20% Upwork fees, so then you end up with an even smaller pay for your hard work.
To maintain top freelancer status, there are certain criteria to maintain, for example, having a certain amount of earning each year, having good ratings, etc. and it is always an ongoing process. So, you have to constantly keep on working and maintaining a top freelancer status in Upwork.
Some projects require you to pass test tasks which might or might not be paid for. Looking for new clients and projects, and then sending proposals can be time-consuming. (And also costs you ‘connects’.)
There is no ‘real’ security when it comes to freelancing tasks, so you can never rely on just one or two clients. This is because if something happens to the projects on the client’s side, you lose the job, and there is not much to do from your end.
For most projects, there is no ‘work culture’, or benefits that you can find in non-freelancing jobs. For example, you might be working as a team on the same project with other freelancers, but you will never meet them face-to-face. The most you might know about your team members might be just a line with their names and contact details in a Google sheet. Also, there are no employee benefits.

– What do you love most about your job?

What I love the most about my job is the fact that I get to work in so many diverse types of projects, with people from all over the world, and learn new things. It always keeps things interesting. For example, I have clients from Canada, Japan, Europe, India, Turkey, USA, and so on. I also get to work on different types of projects from different industries -data annotation for social media content, data analyzation of customer reviews, transcription of videos about fitness, Japanese dance, comedy, gaming streams, translation of legal documents, content creation for the coffee industry, and so on.

– How do you organize your time?

When I did not have my baby yet, it was easy to organize my time, working when I could, as much as possible, and making sure to have a time of the day, for example, the evening free from doing any work. This meant turning off notifications from various types of channels through which the clients might contact me, because once you read the message, you are tempted to get back to work, and it can kind of create a havoc in work-life balance. However, now that I have an 11-month-old to take care of, it is quite difficult to manage my time. I work when my baby is sleeping or playing on her own, making sure that I get enough sleep and at least a day off during the week when I do not do any work.

My greatest strength is my resilience

– If you could start your career again, what would you do differently?

I think I would have liked to have a degree in Japanese languages, linguistics, or become a certified translator. There are some specific fields in translations that pay very well, for example medical, academic research, or legal. I would like to study something related to these fields.

Also, I would like to build a proper and complete home office. Right now, I am working on a tiny secondhand laptop that is almost 10 years old. It is painstakingly slow, and ineffective. I would love to invest in having a proper work desk, a fully-fledged personal computer, and a good recording environment, as it will allow me to take on recording jobs, and be able to do simultaneous translations of online meetings and interviews.

– What do you think is your greatest strength?

I think my greatest strength is my resilience. Even when things are very difficult, I do not give up. I press on.

– And greatest weakness?

My greatest weakness is that I overthink. I am working on it, but as they say old habits die hard, it is quite difficult to not overthink. For example, I would be spending a lot of time worrying about certain projects, and if I should have phrased something I had said to a client differently.

– What was the hardest decision you ever had to make as a freelancer?

It was during the first few months of my freelancing journey. At that time, I was working for only two or three clients, and I had a very good client who was actually my first client on Upwork. Although in the very beginning I was very happy to work for whatever he was offering me in terms of remuneration, I realized that other clients were offering more for the same work. I was torn between whether I should keep on working at the same rate or if I should bring this up to the client. I was scared to damage a very good relationship that we had built and losing this client could mean I will lose 60% of my work in Upwork at that time. For a few weeks I kept on working at the same rate, not asking for a raise, but then I realized that the thought of being somewhat underpaid was always burning at the back of my mind – it affected the quality and motivation of my work. Then I finally brought it up to the client, and he was very happy to raise the rate to the price I was asking for. I still work for this client, and he has been one of the best clients on Upwork; I am very happy that I decided to pluck out the courage to talk about this openly with the client.

– What are you most grateful for in your freelance journey?

My freelancing journey has given me the courage and confidence to be comfortable in taking on new types of work and to work with people from all over the world. Before freelancing, I would shy away from types of work that entailed doing something that was new to me, or I did not have enough knowledge about. Freelancing has changed that forever, now I am even more interested in taking on projects that are new to me, because I know that it is very possible to learn new skills and become knowledgeable about new topics, and that if I work hard enough, I can succeed even in things that might seem impossible in the beginning.

Most important characteristic is to be hardworking

– What advice would you give to someone starting out?

When you begin freelancing, remember that it is not going to be easy, it is going to take time, and you will have to work hard to get to where you want to be in freelancing. Many crash courses and freelance trainers promise you success in a week, and that you can become rich very quickly through freelancing. I don’t think that could not be further from the truth, at least for the majority of us.

During my first months of opening my Upwork account, there were days when I would send out proposals after proposals (but at the same time, afraid that I was wasting my ‘‘Upwork connects’), then not hear back from anyone. I have cried. I was this close to giving up, to never check my Upwork feed because it was too frustrating. It made me feel like a failure.

However, I kept on learning more and more about Upwork, how it all works, how to write effective proposals, and which job postings to apply to. I read articles, watched videos, went to reddit and Quora and read what other freelancers were saying. Then slowly, with time, I started to apply the things I have learned, and after a few months, I finally realized the small details of what I was doing wrong.

When I got my first project, I gave it all I had in my power, and made sure that it was the best piece of article I have ever written. Once I got the knack of writing an effective proposal, I started to get responses from other clients. So, my number one advice would be please, please, please, do not give up, be patient, and keep on working on how you can improve your performance in freelancing.

I would also like to share a little bit about how my proposals started to get responses from clients, as I feel like it was the most crucial point at the beginning of my freelancing journey. In the beginning, I was writing short, generic proposals, and never got responses from any clients. What worked was when I started to put in effort into writing each proposal, just pretending in my head that I was getting paid for writing the proposal or that the proposal was part of the project (I mean, you’ve got to find some way to keep yourself motivated, right?!)

The proposals I sent out were long, divided into sections – for example, in the beginning I would start with an introduction section, then my language abilities section, my work ethics section, and then ‘why I think I am a perfect fit for your project’ section. I made sure that the proposals were personal, (I always look at other freelancer’s reviews of the client, and then if I can find the name of the client, I make sure to start my message as ‘Dear/Hi _name of the client), and that it showed how ‘desperately’ I wanted to work on the project, and that I will be serious about the job if I get it.

Another thing that helps me to make my proposals better is that, if I see the client is Japanese, I write an English proposal, but also include a Japanese version of the proposal below, this already gives a practical proof of my bilingual abilities to the client).I also attach samples of my past work if I have any that is relevant to the job I am applying to. So, the second advice is, send out a good number of proposals, but make sure that each one is made especially for the job you are applying to (not copy pasted), and it shows how much getting the job means to you.

The third advice is learning how your freelancing platform works. Not just the main things, but the small details too. For example, it made a huge difference when I learned how to decide whether or not to apply to a job. On Upwork, this meant learning which information I really need to take into consideration about a certain job posting. For example, how long ago the job was posted, how many people have already applied for the job, whether the client is already interviewing someone, if the client has already hired someone, etc.

The fourth advice is to build trust in the client. The client does not know anything about you, other than the fact that you are a freelancer. Ask the client questions – what are his/her expectations from the project, is there a deadline, is there any concern the client might have, is it better to have a call to discuss the project better, etc. Then try your utmost best to respect your client’s expectations. You have one thing to gain the trust of the client, and that is the quality of your work, so give it your all and take it as seriously as possible.

– What skills would you recommend new freelancers to learn?

It really depends on your expertise, but there is some work on freelancing platforms that are especially open to beginners from any field. Some of them are as follows:

Data Entry
Transcription
Content writing
Virtual Assistant
Customer Service

I would also suggest that if you are going to learn a new skill, learn it to develop a skill that you are interested in, or feel like you are good at. On freelancing platforms, most fields have lots of competition and to stand out in the crowd, you have to be either good at, or love (or at least enjoy to a certain degree) doing the job you are applying for.

– What are your success habits?

Finding the time of the day when I feel most productive/creative and getting most of my work done during that time. For me this time tends to be early morning. So even if I am tempted to stay up late and work when my baby is sleeping, I make sure to go to bed, get enough sleep, and wake up early and work during the early morning hours.
Checking in with clients throughout the project. For example, if I start working on a project and it has a deadline of a couple of days, I contact the client every two-three day to let him know of my progress and ask if there is anything the client would like to add.
Not to let a negative experience with a specific client or my proposal being rejected affect me for a long time. After all we are humans, and of course something like that is going to feel pretty bad. If it is difficult for me to get over something like that, I take a day or two off, spend some time doing what I love, and come back to work.
Tracking the projects I am working on and to keep record of my past projects.

– Several factors are important for success. Can you name some of the most important for you?

Hard work
Consistency
Having a dedicated time and space for your freelancing work
Not staying in your comfort zone for too long
Good communication
To know your worth
Not giving up when things get hard

– If you had to single out one characteristic that is most important for the success of a freelancer, what would it be?

I think the most important characteristic is to be hardworking. To be hard working is not to kill yourself working day and night for a bad client who underpays you. It is to always be vigilant for new opportunities and to snatch it when it comes your way. It is to be consistent in the quality of your work, it is to keep promises you make to your clients, and to give your best to the projects you have on your hand.

– The best advice for those who are considering a freelance career?

If you are starting out your freelancing career, be prepared to work very hard for a few months, at least until you have more than one client who gives you constant work and has a good relationship with you. It can be frustrating, time-consuming, slow, and tough in the beginning, but in the end, it is going to be worth it.

The post Momoko Takahashi, freelancing is a double-edged sword appeared first on Freelancelifemagazine.