Like the best wall…
With the best words…
It’ll be yuuuuu–
Anyway… I just finished recording Episode 3 of my “Get Paid to Code” series for Patreon (which, btw, I’ll be releasing on June 3rd exclusively for Patreon supporters) and in it I show you how to find the best clients and best jobs on Upwork… then exactly what to say in your bid to get hired for those jobs…
And, I couldn’t help but feel a bit like ol’ Don Juan Trumpey.
Because, as a freelancer, you should have “immigration” standards.
You shouldn’t just work with any old client.
You should erect a big, beautiful wall around your client list and only let the “best of the best” in. Specifically, on Upwork, you need to know how to sift through all the riff-raff jobs, all the low-ballers, drama kings and noobs to find the most seasoned clients who have a demonstrated history of hiring a lot, paying well and being easy to work with.
And, you can do it.
Take WordPress for example…
If you just search for “wordpress” on Upwork, you’ll see 13,000+ jobs. And, if you just start scrolling through… well, they’re posted in reverse chronological order. So, you might have to sift through 100 dirtbag jobs to find one good one.
Nobody does that.
Normally, you’ll just end up taking the first one you see…
That seems like a decent fit…
And, hope for the best.
However, if you search for “wordpress” and filter for clients who have 10+ hires and jobs that are fixed price and have a budget above 5K… you’ll get 36 jobs. Not only is that more manageable… but they’re jobs worth bidding on.
The best of the best.
And, it’ll save you a ton of time.
But, the point is…
You need to be picky.
And, you need to be strategic.
And, you need to know how to use the tools that’ll help you do it.
You need to kill that inner “desperate guy” (or gal) that tells you can’t win those big jobs, that you’ll take anything you can get, that doesn’t have standards… and start qualifying your clients as much as they’ll qualify you.
You’ll get better, hire-paying work that way.
You’ll feel better because you’re working on things you actually want to.
And, often, you’ll even got MORE work.
So, you might be “open borders” in your politics…
But, you’ll want to be very severely “closed borders” in your client work.
Of course, that’s just one example.
What about finding clients who you have the best chance of establishing a long-term relationship with? I talk about that a lot… to use Upwork to prospect for clients that will hire you long-term. How do you find those clients?
Or, what do you say in your bid to get them to hire you?
How do you analyze their job description and develop the best response?
There’s a lot of nuance to getting this right.
But, when you do… you can basically write your own check on Upwork.
Anyway, I get into all that in Episode 3 of the “Getting Paid to Code” series. It’s a screencast where we actually log into my account and I just show you how to search for jobs, how to pick the best jobs and clients and what to say in your bids…
So you can get more work…
With better clients…
That pay better…
And, are more likely to hire you again and again.
Grab even just a couple clients like that and you’ll be set.
Anyway, if you want in… you’ll need to get past the Patreon border guard and become a supporting listener. You can get all the deets on that at: https://johnmorrisonline.com/patreon.
I’ll see you on the inside.
Later,
John
P.S. Watch the video version of this message here:
https://youtu.be/0_pSH0QEnxg
Listen to the audio version here:
https://soundcloud.com/johnmorrisonline/how-to-get-more-it-jobs-by-erecting-a-big-beautiful-wall-around-potential-clients
