The key to Upwork is to position yourself as a premium solutions provider. I know it goes counter to what Upwork stands for - competition and lower costs, but this is what I have done early on and has worked for me.
You want to accomplish a few things by positioning yourself on results vs. cost:
1. Filter out shit people who only see you as a cost
2. Not have to compete on price
You can do both of these things and get people to come to YOU instead of bidding left and right. Here is how I did it as a UX designer:
1. Position your profile as a SOLUTION provider, not a code monkey. That means showcasing working products with a side of description about the tech stack.
2. Accept some projects at lower cost to get yourself to 100% "top freelancer" status. This process takes time but once you get there you will see people reaching out to you instead of the other way around.
3. Say NO to many projects. I know I know.. you are thinking I should say YES to everything so I can maximize my chances of finding work but in reality you want to say NO to as many projects as you can. There are QUALITY projects out there that hire long term coders and you can get them if you position yourself as a solutions provider. The big benefit of this is that you get ongoing work and not a fly-by-night single page app.
4. Set a high price. Again, this is counter to what everyone does, but you want to attract companies / individuals who filter out by price (ignore the low costs and look for presumed quality - higher cost). As a UX designer I found my ideal rate to be $75/hr - BUT, I do not charge $75/hr - this is just what's on my profile, I actually charge on a weekly basis at ~60/hr. (I don't work a full week 8 hrs a day).
There was an excellent comment from a team of developers who position themselves outside of Upwork really well: https://codetree.co/
This is what you want to do, follow their footsteps, both on Upwork and off. Set up your website to communicate a professional image and a solution provider mindset. You are there to deliver a final product, not code. The people that want to pay the lowest price for your work see you as a "he may leave shit unfinished half way through or take forever to get anything done" therefore they want to reduce costs.
I know all of this because I started on Upwork and I frequently post jobs to work with developers. I have a few side projects where I outsourced all of the development work having done the UX myself.
Also, by weeding out price-driven projects, you are weeding out ignoramuses who do not know the value of a good freelancer or the reality of their project’s scope. I kid you not, one of my developers told me a story of a client from Upwork asking him to build a me-too Google search engine...
You want to accomplish a few things by positioning yourself on results vs. cost:
1. Filter out shit people who only see you as a cost 2. Not have to compete on price
You can do both of these things and get people to come to YOU instead of bidding left and right. Here is how I did it as a UX designer:
1. Position your profile as a SOLUTION provider, not a code monkey. That means showcasing working products with a side of description about the tech stack.
2. Accept some projects at lower cost to get yourself to 100% "top freelancer" status. This process takes time but once you get there you will see people reaching out to you instead of the other way around.
3. Say NO to many projects. I know I know.. you are thinking I should say YES to everything so I can maximize my chances of finding work but in reality you want to say NO to as many projects as you can. There are QUALITY projects out there that hire long term coders and you can get them if you position yourself as a solutions provider. The big benefit of this is that you get ongoing work and not a fly-by-night single page app.
4. Set a high price. Again, this is counter to what everyone does, but you want to attract companies / individuals who filter out by price (ignore the low costs and look for presumed quality - higher cost). As a UX designer I found my ideal rate to be $75/hr - BUT, I do not charge $75/hr - this is just what's on my profile, I actually charge on a weekly basis at ~60/hr. (I don't work a full week 8 hrs a day).
There was an excellent comment from a team of developers who position themselves outside of Upwork really well: https://codetree.co/
This is what you want to do, follow their footsteps, both on Upwork and off. Set up your website to communicate a professional image and a solution provider mindset. You are there to deliver a final product, not code. The people that want to pay the lowest price for your work see you as a "he may leave shit unfinished half way through or take forever to get anything done" therefore they want to reduce costs.
I know all of this because I started on Upwork and I frequently post jobs to work with developers. I have a few side projects where I outsourced all of the development work having done the UX myself.