Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Upwork

How Long Does It Take To Make Money on Upwork?

December 18, 2024

When I started freelancing back in 2011, it only took me one month to find my first paying client after I started learning web development. Is that still doable? If you’re already experienced, then I’d say you can certainly find work within a month. If you’re a total beginner like I ...

Is Upwork Premium Worth It?

June 7, 2023

I’ve been on Upwork since 2012. During the first couple of years on the platform, I made over $150,000 and worked for clients from all over the world. In recent years, I’ve naturally migrated away from Upwork - <a href="/blog/90-of-my-freelance-work-comes-from-recurring-clients-and-referrals" target="_blank">recurring work ...

How To Optimize Your Upwork Profile

May 10, 2023

Upwork sometimes gets a bad rep. There’s a 10% service fee, many clients are cheap, and the competition is brutal. It’s been dubbed a “race to the bottom” by many freelancing teachers who prefer other client acquisition channels. I have nothing against cold emailing , LinkedIn, or any other alternative to Upwork. ...

How To Make Money on Upwork With No Experience

April 5, 2023

I’ve been freelancing since 2011. From 2012 to around 2018, I used Upwork as my primary way to get freelance clients. Since then, I have helped many freelancers find their first projects. The one question that always comes up is: how can I make money on Upwork with no experience? Is it even possible? The ...

90% of My Freelance Work Comes From Recurring Clients and Referrals

February 15, 2023

Most freelancers dread the process of looking for new clients. It can be frustrating and time-consuming. Worse still, it can take away our focus from what matters most: delivering superb results for our existing clients. The first several years of my freelance career were a constant tightrope walk between working and finding more work. However, in the last 3 years, this changed. During this ...

How I Write Proposals That Win As Many Freelance Clients As I Want

February 1, 2023

What if I told you that you could get as many freelance clients as you want by following a few straightforward principles? Finding freelance clients can be more simple than you think. Note that I said “simple”, not “easy”. Writing great proposals to prospects is something most freelancers never master. I have over a decade of freelance experience and I’m still learning. Here’s ...

Should You Use Upwork or Cold Email as a Freelancer?

October 26, 2022

Freelancers face the same dilemma all the time — should you sign up for a freelance marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr, or make your own way by directly contacting business owners and offering your services? Some freelance teachers swear by one approach. Some swear by the other. I swear I will help you understand both approaches so you can make an informed decision. Is the Upwork fee ...

How I Landed a $100k Freelance Client

February 2, 2022

Freelance success rarely comes easy. If it did, a lot more people would be writing blog posts like this one. I spent a lot of time in the trenches before I started getting quality freelance work. Starting in 2011, I spent about a year on Freelancer.com doing mainly small Javascript/CSS projects. Then I switched to Upwork in September 2012 because the opportunities were much better there. ...

How To Find the Best Clients on Upwork in Three Steps

January 25, 2022

A lot of people complain about the quality of projects available on Upwork these days. Cheap clients , ridiculous requests, impossible projects — you name it, it’s there. Well, I’ve got some news for you. First of all, none of this is new. Upwork (and every other freelance platform, for that ...

I Published the Same Course on Udemy, Skillshare, and Gumroad — What I Learned

October 19, 2021

About a year ago, I decided to challenge myself to compress ten years of my professional experience into a 2-hour course. While I leave it to you to judge how well I’ve succeeded, I’ve learned a lot about the online course business and I can at the very least share that knowledge with my readers. Since first publishing the course, I’ve had ups and downs in traffic and conversion ...

The Best Ways To Find Freelance Clients in 2021

June 9, 2021

The freelance landscape is a constantly shifting one. This is a wonderful thing for adaptable, entrepreneurial people — and freelancers are nothing if not adaptable and entrepreneurial. Still, some dangers lurk in the mists of this landscape. For instance, it is not beyond imagination that you might find yourself looking for freelance work in an ecosystem that clients have migrated away ...

Six Ways to Monetize Your Upwork Profile

July 30, 2020

I’ve been a freelancer for 9 years. Upwork has provided me with the sort of work that I never thought possible before that. The sort of work that you can enjoy doing and make good money while you’re at it — all on your own schedule. But, that’s not the whole story. Contrary to popular belief, there is great value to be found in a ...

How I Made Over $150k on Upwork

February 4, 2020

Just so we’re all clear that I’m not making this up, you can visit my Upwork profile here. Once there, you will find out two things: I am not making anything up. I did not make that money by writing. Most of the earnings came from software development projects, with a bit of consulting here and there. But, I do invite writers and marketers to go through the points below — most of ...