How I Became a Top Rated Upwork Freelance Writer

As a freelance content writer in India, Upwork wasn’t really my first choice to find jobs. In fact, when I started freelancing, there was no Upwork, there was oDesk and Elance.

I always preferred to work through Elance just because the quality of jobs over there were pretty good. But soon, the bad news hit everyone around the world – oDesk was merging with Elance and the new platform was going to be called ‘Upwork.’

While there were still many months left for merge, after intimidation, I knew I had to quickly move to Upwork, and leave Elance for good.

Since then, I hardly worked through Upwork, may be 1 client a month, and those are the clients who invite me directly to jobs. I was lucky enough to not rely on Upwork

I might not have bid on many jobs but I have still managed to keep my Top Rated status on Upwork and my job success score is always more than 90%.

What does it mean to be a Top rated Upwork Freelance Writer

• Upwork lists all proposals to the clients according to relevance, which Upwork decides. So if you are a new freelance content writer on the platform with no experience, chances are, your proposal will be at the end of the list. But mostly, top rated freelancers are on the top of the list.

• Top rated Upwork freelancers often get a lot of invites. I usually get 1-5 invites every day. But it depends on other factors as well because I know some top rated freelancers who do not get any invites at all.

[bctt tweet=”Being Top Rated on Upwork is a badge, and it’s better to have it than not. ” username=”indianscrewup”]

The main conditions for being a Top Rated Upwork Freelancer

• Current Job Success Score should be above 90%

• You should have maintained a 90% + Job Success Score for 13 out of 16 weeks

• Your 12-month earning should be at least $1,000 or more

Check more information about the Upwork Top Rated programme here.

How to become a top rated Freelancer on Upwork

1.     Never take on a project unless you are sure

The number one reason of job success score going down is when a funded project is cancelled. So, only accept a job offer when you 100% sure that you can handle it and submit within the discussed timeline.

Also, make sure all the work has been discussed in advance, so there are no surprises later.

2.     Do not just work with small budget clients for good feedback

While it’s good to work your first or second project for good feedback, the buck should stop right there. The main goal of working on Upwork isn’t to get good feedback, you are trying to make a living out of it and become a well-paid freelance writer.

3.     After completing a project, urge the client to leave a positive feedback

Always ask the client to close the project because then they are directly taken to the feedback window. But before that, tell the client how much you enjoyed working on the project and you hope he leaves you a 5-star feedback.

Yes, it is important to remind your client because some of them don’t know how much feedback matters to freelance writers on Upwork.

4.     If the client does leave a bad feedback, talk and clear things out

Upwork now provides option for clients to change their feedback, and this gives you an incredible opportunity to talk with the client and get a better feedback.

So, if you did a perfect work and the client left you an average feedback, talk to him and ask him why. Tell the client feedbacks matter a lot for freelancers on Upwork and urge them to change it.

5.     Never work with clients who want to take the project outside Upwork

Conversations on Upwork are constantly monitored so if you are discussing with a client on Upwork to take the work outside, your account might get flagged.

Why I don’t recommend freelance writers to work only through Upwork

Platforms like Upwork can only help freelance content writers to get their first few clients,

[bctt tweet=”Freelancers shouldn’t make Upwork their main income souce because Upwork is client centric” username=”indianscrewup”]

t means that the client is always given preference over a freelancer. So, if a client is angry with you and reports you, Upwork has the right to flag your profile for 1-2 months or even forever. When the accounts get suspended, freelance content writers are not even allowed to take out the money that they earned from previous projects.

I will be doing a separate blog post about this topic but I just wanted to add a warning at the end of this one for all of you out there.

Are you a freelance writer from India? Are you a top rated Upwork freelancer or trying to get there? What are your thoughts about Upwork in general?