Tag: business

NEW course: Beginner’s Guide to Freelance

Just posted a new course. It’s called the Beginner’s Guide to Freelance and it’s teaching you everything I’ve learned from 10+ years of freelancing to help you get started, grow and be your own boss. Here’s what you’ll learn in the course: How to figure out what services to offer How to make money AND do what you love How to find people WILLING to hire you How to sell your services without having to become some sales genius or slime ball How to build your freelance business as a sustainable business you can sell or hand to your kids and grandkids

John Morris October 11, 2018

My hands were shaking as I sent the fax

I was 21. I’d been promoted to manage my first store. I’d been there a couple months and had turned around a failing store. I was set to get promoted in a few months and start making close to 6 figures. I still remember the day I quit vividly. I’d been wrestling with the decision for a few weeks. For a kid like me… Growing like I did… This was a golden ticket. A REAL way out. But, every day I was there I felt myself dying inside just a little bit more. I KNEW this wasn’t who I was

John Morris October 10, 2018

The bass-ackwards way most people think about making money

I came across this tweet, today: “If I started a shoe brand, understand that I don’t have to be Nike or Adidas. If I profit 65 off 2,000 people every year, I’m at 130,000. And if I capture .003 percent of the market share my grandchildren would be set for life. What we were taught: 20/hr x 40hours = 800 per week. What I’m teaching: 65 product x 40 sales = 2,600.” Funny, I found this today. I’ve been recording a “Freelancing 101” course, which’ll cover the “big rocks” you need to get rolling as a freelancer, and I’ve been looking up a lot

John Morris October 9, 2018

How to find the GOOD jobs on Upwork

I get this one a lot. It’s the most common refrain from the “Upwork is a SCAAAAAAM!” folks that troll my YouTube channel. But, there’s also some well-meaning folks who just haven’t learned how to do this, yet. Anyway, there’s a simple way to weed out all the junk projects on Upwork and get to the good, high-paying jobs… with clients that are easy to work with. First, log into your Upwork account and run a search for your niche: Then, click the “Filters” button. A list of filters you can apply will drop down: At a minimum, I recommend

John Morris October 8, 2018

The one thing your Upwork profile overview MUST have

There’s actually three… and an exact order to put them in. But, THIS is definitely the most important. It’s the one thing you can change about your Upwork profile overview, in a matter of minutes, that will have the most impact. So, let me show you. (Quick side note: In this article, I’m talking about the “traditional” method of getting work on Upwork and what you’ll, ultimately, want to do long-term. But, if you’re brand new, I have a non-traditional method that’s been working very well for my students. I wrote up an article on that HERE that I recommend

John Morris October 6, 2018

How to get your profile approved on Upwork

When I first started on Upwork, they didn’t do this. At least, not that I remember. But, apparently, it’s becoming more and more of an issue because I’ve been getting asked this a lot more lately. And, the thing here is… when you understand what Upwork’s goals are and how it’s technology works to support those goals, the answers here start to become obvious. Take this, for example: In case it’s not clear… This is an Upwork employee stating that WHO performs a search and WHEN they perform it affects Upwork’s search results. So, if you’ve been thinking that Upwork

John Morris October 5, 2018

You’re an idiot, please help!

This is the weirdest [email protected]# I get: And, this is not unique. I once had this guy stalk me for about a year. He’d send me these 10-page emails where he spent 9 pages telling me all the ways I was an idiot, then the last page outlining what he needed ME to help him with. I finally blocked him on email. Then, he went to Twitter. Blocked him there and he want to YouTube. Then, Facebook. He was obsessed with telling me how dumb I was… Then, asking for my help. I still can’t explain it. Anyway, to his

John Morris October 4, 2018

I shouldn’t be a developer

My older brother was a programmer. But, I never really was. Back in the 90s, he used to program games for us to play our little Apple computer. I remember one time I watched him for about five minutes and was like “[email protected]# that!”. He’d spend hours just sitting at his computer typing away. As a kid, I couldn’t understand it. Kind of funny to think about now. Anyway, what I’m getting at is… I was not “born” a developer. About the furthest from it. I grew up loving sports. In fact, I didn’t think much about computers until I was

John Morris September 27, 2018

You ever consider suicide?

Got this question: “This is going to be perhaps the most personal question you’ve received from anyone. With all the remarkable things you’ve experienced as a soldier, with all the setbacks in your personal life, with the setbacks in your professional life – getting the freelance career going et al – did you ever reach a point – and this is the touchy subject – did you ever think of ending it all? Did you glance over to that rope thinking this was your way out? If you do NOT answer this. I FULLY understand.” It IS personal. But, I

John Morris September 26, 2018

I almost killed this guy

It was Iraq. I was a Combat Lifesaver, which meant we got a little extra medical training. And, I’d volunteered to work at the on-base hospital, because they were short-staffed. So, whenever we had a “mass casualty” type event, I went up there. That day, a mortar round landed on base… Right in the middle of one of the unit’s meeting. There were over 30 people that got hit. And, the hospital had 2 doctors and 2 medics. We had to fill in the gaps on the rest of the casualties. The ones hit the worst went to the doctors

John Morris September 23, 2018

How I got 39 Upwork job invites a month step-by-step

I’d been on Upwork about a few months. And, I decided to try this “crazy” thing that ended up being the single most profitable freelancing strategy I’ve discovered. I wound up with 39 job invites that next month. I’d had none the month before and 3 the month before that. It got so bad, I had to turn off my availability in Upwork. And, that year I had my first six-figure year freelancing. When, I started teaching… I took the exact same strategy and applied it to selling my courses. And, it’s how I’ve sold 1000s of copies of those

John Morris September 22, 2018

My exact digital marketing strategy

This is what happened when I turned my digital marketing “machine” exclusively toward my courses on SkillShare: I went from 5,000 minutes of watch time in April… To almost 30,000 minutes in August. And, September is on pace to surpass August. That’s a 600% increase in watch time. And, this is real money in my pocket, because SkillShare pays its teachers based on watch time. So, that’s also a 600% increase in my earnings from SkillShare since April. Here’s another one: That’s 101 students in April to 441 in August. An over 400% increase. None of this is to brag.

John Morris September 21, 2018

Freelancing is SO dumb

“I got, I got, I got, I got Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA Cocaine quarter piece, got war and peace inside my DNA I got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA I got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA I was born like this, since one like this” — Kendrick Lamar Was rockin’ this song this morning. Got me thinking… My daddy was a gamblin’ man. Not in the old west sense, but absolutely in the early 2000s America sense. The first house I lived in in Colorado he built himself. Took a risk on owning

John Morris September 20, 2018

I just sold a script for a Toyota commercial

Came across this on Twitter: I booked this gig using @Upwork btw. This platform has been priceless in my freelance writing career. I’ve been using it for years now. Just passing on a useful tool for all the creatives out there. https://t.co/jQRjXplar8 — Rob Sherrell (@RobJustJokin) September 18, 2018 “But, but Joooohn…” “There’s not any good clients on Upwork.” “This. Does. Not. Compuuuuuuu—” Ooooooor, maybe just maybe all the know-it-alls who rant and rave about how awful Upwork is are wrong. Naaaaaaaaah. Couldn’t be. Sigh. Look. The truth about Upwork is what it’s always been. There’s amazing clients that pay

John Morris September 19, 2018

Why would anyone wanna freelance?

Got this from Nick: “If the unemployment rate in the USA is 3.9%, why would you Not Want a regular job especially when it clearly a employees market better than in the Dot Com days.” My response: I want to homeschool my kids. I don’t want to commute. I want to be able to work the hours I want. I don’t want to have a boss. I don’t wanna deal with co-workers. I wanna make what I want to make instead of begging my boss for a raise. I don’t wanna work on projects I don’t want to or for

John Morris September 15, 2018

Upwork clients don’t pay jack

Womp, womp. Ring the alarms, boys! We got us another “epic takedown” of Upwork. Read ’em and weep: Sigh. Guffaw. Welp, guess I’ll cancel all my Upwork contracts… And, pack it up. Seriously, though… average pay rates are maybe the least useful metric ON Upwork. Clients hire all sorts of freelancers… they could be paying some dude 5/hour to walk their dog for all we know. Anyway, Danny Margulies said it best: Here’s a great example. This client’s average hourly rate is 15.28/hour: Yet, they just dropped over 5k… 70/hr for 82 hours on a freelancer: Imagine if you wrote this

John Morris September 14, 2018

When I die

I’ll never let what happened to my wife… happen to MY kids. It was such a mess. Her dad recently passed away and had ZERO planned or prepared for his death. So, instead of focusing on grieving, my wife and her family were scrambling figure out all the details of his funeral and scrounging up the money to pay for it. And, it’s like I told her… That’s HIS fault. If you leave your kids in a bind like that when you die, you failed them. Matter of fact, after seeing it I had a uncomfortable talk with my own

John Morris September 13, 2018

I was 8 feet from death

After yesterday’s email, I had quite a few people ask me to talk about my Army experience more. To be honest, I’ve purposefully NOT done that because it just seemed sort of cliche and banal. But… If people are finding it helpful, I’ll give it a try. Depending on how you respond I may do more. Anyway, when I was in Iraq, I was stuck on the teeniest of teeny camps. It was 300 yards wide by 1 mile long. For comparison, Camp Victory, which was right next door to us was 20 square miles. And, in the year I

John Morris September 12, 2018

The day that changed my life forever

I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was working construction at the time. We all suddenly got called back to the office. The first plane had hit and we all sat there around the radio as the second one hit. Nobody knew what to think or say. We just sat there horrified and speechless. Our foreman then sent us all home. I had already joined the Army in their Delayed Entry Program and was set to start training in six months. I immediately called my recruiter. “What does this all mean?” “Will they be having me go to

John Morris September 11, 2018

What pisses me off about developers

This [email protected]#: “I really feel blessed now that I have stumbled on to you. I say you and not your YouTube channel or your patreon site. I have been in freelancing for many years. I cannot make a living doing what I do now, I don’t really have the passion for it that I had over 20 years ago, and felt a bit burned out on life in general. Not a good place for a father and husband to be.I contacted another much respected programmer over a year ago about my passion for coding but he is an employee and has

John Morris September 8, 2018

Freelancing is a lot of B.S. for pennies

It’s a kind of “tale of two freelancers”. Here’s the first: “Sounds like a lot of bullshit for pennies. There are simply MUCH better ways of making money using the skills you already possess as a freelancer. Ever heard of “high income skills”? Probably not…get paid what you’re worth.” — Steve Guzman And, here’s the second: “Thanks so much John! I recently started freelancing and all of your tips have helped me to stand out and land my first gig :)” — Jaaster Dev Opinion vs results. You’ll notice that the people who rag on Upwork or freelancing, in general,

John Morris September 7, 2018

I think I’m gonna give up on Upwork

It’s interesting when you talk to people who’ve had success on Upwork… how eerily similar and simple their approach is. A lot simpler than most imagine. This comes from this question I saw on Quora: “I’ve tried my best in UpWork, yet I can’t get any job. Should I give up?” Reading through the answers, you’ll see a pattern: Don’t copy/paste your proposals Specialize don’t generalize Be picky about the jobs you bid on Charge more Use good grammar It’s not rocket surgery. But, to the question, I think this answer said it best: “It doesn’t matter if the platform

John Morris September 5, 2018

Nevermind, Upwork DOES suck

I get a kick out of these guys… But, YOU have a choice to make. Who are you gonna believe? This guy: “UpWork is a joke… Clients on there are awful, getting paid is in no way guaranteed. I mean, you can’t even gain valuable experience, let alone earn a living. UpWork might not be a scam, but it is a joke.” Oh well then. You’re totally unsubstantiated opinion convinced me. Nevermind, Upwork does suck. Eye roll. So, you gonna believe that or these: “Yes! I get almost all of my work through Upwork. Great clients, long-term relationships, well-paying jobs. Upwork is

John Morris August 13, 2018

Upwork is NOT a scam so stop saying it

This is bigger than even Upwork, really. Take a minute and really think about it. But, anyway, let’s get into it… Web development was the first thing I came across in my life that I really believed, deep in my soul, was my “way out”. I’ve talked about this before… But, I came from a dirt poor family. I lived in a trailer house. A run-down, dirty one, in fact. And, when you grow up like that, you’re always looking for something to “get you out”. For some people, it’s football or basketball. Others it’s music. Whatever it is… It’s

John Morris August 11, 2018

The final blow in the language wars

This really is the definitive answer in the language wars. I mean, people won’t stop battling over it. But, if you just want the answer… this is it. Here’s the question I got: “Do you think there is more job security in Java programming for software as opposed to web development? “I find web development enjoyable but have been focusing on Java because of concern for this… I’m switching careers from social work. Currently in school for CIS.” And, Jesse responded with this: “There is a lot of Java work in large corporate environments – I’ve worked as a consultant

John Morris August 10, 2018

Not sure I’ll be a developer in 5 years

It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come. Back when I started in this developer thing, we were still using ugly-azz tables. There was no CSS. Most web pages were mainly just text. The fancy ones had a few images. Then, this thing called “Web 2.0” happened. PHP became a thing. JavaScript became more prominent. Before I knew what had happened, the internet as a I thought I knew it had completely changed. Today? It’s even worse. The kind of change I went through over a few years… Happens every couple months now. Take responsive design. That first article by

John Morris August 2, 2018

The simple secrets to high-paying freelance clients

What makes clients willing to pay $5,000, $10,000 even $20,000 and up for your services? Download and install my mobile app and I’ll show you. It’s free. Just click the button below:

Clients Like:

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

Jason Rumley

John has a habit of over-delivering on the expectations he sets up. That’s why he’s the best.

Daniel Mohlendick

On the Freelancing on Upwork course: “This is by far the best course i have watched on Skillshare!! Thank you so much.”

Xan Barksdale

Very professional worker who is extremely knowledgable in WordPress and Wishlist Member. I would definitely hire again.

Jim DeJonge

John has a relaxed and engaging manner. His advice is solid and the explanations are well thought out.

Andrew Malone

John Morris is exceptional in his ability to give focused insight into Freelancing and starting one’s business. His direct methods inspire confidence in his honesty.

Ray Edwards

I recommend John every chance I get. If every person I worked with were as committed to excellence, punctuality, value, and unquestionable integrity… the world would be a better place. Highest recommendation.

Bob Patterson

Not only is John a very talented programmer and developer, he is also an excellent communicator. He has a talent for taking complex subjects and communicating them in terms that anyone can understand. This is a rare combination. This ability has enabled me to take my skills and knowledge to the next level. Thank you John for for all that you do.

Tag: business

The simple secrets to high-paying freelance clients

Clients Like:

POPULAR TOPICS

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING