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Getting notified about new jobs
After much a lot of trial and efforterror, here's the best method I've come across for how to be notified about new jobs:
- Install Feed Notifier.
- This is going to give you a desktop notification whenever new jobs are posted that match the filters you've chosen.
- Inferior alternatives to Feed Notifier that I tried:
- Feed Notifier doesn't display job post summaries as nicely as the Upwatcher Google Chrome extension, but that extension doesn't seem to work with the "My Feed" Upwork RSS feed, so when using that extension you have to settle for a single imprecise filter and you end up wasting time looking at a lot of job posts you're not interested in.
- The Upwork Feed Notifier Chrome extension won't let me turn off the notification sound and won't let me quickly preview new job posts, so it's an inferior option to Feed Notifier.
- Create one or more saved searches on Upwork.com.
- Click the green "Search" button to be brought to the advanced search screen.
- Set up the filters the way you want.
- Click the "Save search" button.
- Copy your "My Feed" RSS URL.
- Use Google Feedburner to get a new RSS URL that will work properly with Feed Notifier.
- I got this idea from here after I got an error while trying to use the RSS URL Upwork gave me with Feed Notifier.
- Add the URL that you got from Google Feedburner as a new feed in Feed Notifier.
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- Be aware that there are clients who will ask for help debugging code they're writing but (for some reason) don't know how to check the documentation for the libraries they're using, and/or don't know how to ask for help on Stack Overflow.
- One guy I helped with a single line of code I found with a few minutes of searching Google.
- Another guy asked for help with Pandas and I spent a ton of time trying things and writing up a non-Pandas solution, and then after he accepted my answer I asked for help on Stack Overflow and got a 1-liner working answer in about 5 minutes. So I should've just immediately asked on Stack Overflow once the client had given me a minimal example.
- This kind of "be the middle-man for people who don't know better" was basically the entire basis of the business of Westlaw Court Express.
- These clients probably also make good first clients for people just starting on Upwork.
- If you're starting out and bidding low to build up positive reviews, don't waste your Connects on job postings that are asking for "Expert" developers.
- Taking on Upwork clients who don't have a history is risky because they may give you an inappropriately-low score, which can mess up your job success rating, and force you to take low-paying jobs to get your job-success rating back up.
- My standard (generic) proposal:
Hello,
I'd like to be considered for this position. You can learn a lot about me at my website (which has links to my various online accounts), and my resume has links to some videos in which I explain work I've done for past clients.
I'd also like to highlight some Stack Overflow answers I've written, which--as far as I can tell--are the best sources of information on these topics currently available online:
How do I implement social login with GitHub accounts? - https://shorturl.at/lvQUZWhy use OpenID Connect instead of plain OAuth2? - https://shorturl.at/brwD7
- Someone on Hacker News wrote this about my answer: "Wow, this is the first comprehensible documentation on OAuth (post 1.0, which I actually did understand) I've ever seen. If the author of the StackOverflow post is on here, please publish a book, I'll buy it." (Source: https://shorturl.at/cjpsK)How do I read NPM dependency-conflict errors? - https://shorturl.at/qR137
Nathan Wailes
www.nathanwailes.com
Cover letter
- Start the cover letter with something a little formal like "Hello," to signal that you mean business.
- (As opposed to saying "Hey," or "Hi,")
- After two line breaks say something that inspires confidence in the client, like "I can do this." or "I can do this quickly."
- (As opposed to hedging yourself by saying something like, "I should be able to do this" or "I think I can do this").
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- Respond to the job post ASAP
- answered the job post in a matter of minutes, which speaks very well of their availability
- Communicate what you're doing / keep the client updated
- he was very communicative. He was sending me drafts of the project and giving me daily updates.
- Excellent communication too.
- Get the task done ASAP
- I was extremely impressed with his quick turnaround time.
- Finished the job in under 30 minutes
- He did miss the timeline we set forth by over 100%
- developed a solution in a record time that speaks very well of his skills.
- the project was completed within a reasonable timeframe.
- Completed On time .
- He went beyond all expectations to help me with a project when the deadline was tight.
- I like the way Project had been completed in adherence to scheduled time.Really very helpful.Nathan is very cooperative and his timeliness for the work is fantastic. (...) Thanks a lot once again Nathan for the Quick Work.
- Nathan did a great job with an extremely fast turnaround time
- Job completed very quickly
- Be patient with the client
- He was very patient and collaborative
- was super flexible and patient working through the process with me.
Starting an agency
- Having an agency is the only way to have another freelancer submit proposals on your behalf without needing to give them access to your account (which would be risky and apparently also violates the Upwork TOS).
- "The benefit of agency ownership that I think is rarely talked about is being able to hire a VA to submit bids on your behalf without violating the TOS. Even a small agency (yes, even solo ones like you) can benefit from this since ROI is potentially so high. I did this in the AI/data science area and it works very well so long as you have a high quality profile to submit. It’s a numbers game at the end of the day." (source)
- As of the time I'm writing this, you have to pay $20/mo to have an agency. There's a "free" tier but you can't do anything with it (you can't add team members and you can't submit proposals).
For clients
Job description
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