I love working remotely. It gives me the freedom to do what I want, travel whenever I want, and just feel more in control. I know that a lot of other people feel this way and, thankfully, remote work is now more accessible than ever.

There are a lot of platforms for freelancers out there but so far, Upwork is probably my favorite. I did try other platforms like Guru and Freelancer in the past, but I keep coming back to Upwork. Besides pretty high fees, this platform is a joy to work with. And it only gets better once you start using it right.

Consultations

Most people on the platform just apply for jobs. Sometimes, they get invited to apply. But did you know that there is a way to have clients coming to you instead? Setting up consultation services on UpWork is pretty easy — you select what kind of services you offer, when, and how much you charge for them. That's it! After you are done, clients who find your profile have a great way to contact you and discuss the projects directly. And, most importantly, you are getting paid for it.

Since I published my 30-minute consultation a few months ago, I had a few requests coming in already. One of the people that contacted me became a good client of mine.

Portfolio

Having a nice Upwork portfolio (or at least a link to one you built somewhere else) is vital if you want to get noticed. It's also a great conversation starter and a way to show potential employers what you are capable of.

My portfolio is far from being perfect, but that one project I posted there already brought me one potential client who wanted something similar to be done.

Free connects

Upwork has this thing called connects that are required to apply for jobs. Each project costs differently (usually, around a few connects). Plus, you can boost your bids with connects, which is cool but...connects cost money. Upwork wants you to buy them so they never really advertise that they give these connects for free. I receive them frequently for things like:

• Quick responses to clients
• Responses to invites
• For using new features such as consultations

Show all jobs vs the US jobs only

When you search for jobs, there is a small toggle on the right that allows filtering all jobs. By default, it shows me the "US Only" jobs and for quite some time, I had no idea that I see only maybe 20% of all job postings. Once I unselected this option, all kinds of jobs started to pour in. A lot of them don't pay well but you can find some really good offers there too.

Reviews

And finally, always ask people for reviews. Yes, it might sound uncomfortable but the more reviews you have, the better. Upwork knows that it's hard to ask for reviews directly so they added a button that sends automatic review requests. You can use it 30 days after the start of the contract or when the contract is finished, whichever comes first.