...
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.
...
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").
Cover letters that have gotten me responses:
Hi <first name>,
I was invited to apply and I'd like to be considered. I bid on the low end because my schedule is currently free, but I'd appreciate a higher rate if your company can afford it, as I only bill for time actually worked rather than clocking in at 9am and clocking out at 5pm, so I generally end up with much fewer than 8 hours worked per day. You should be aware that some devs on Upwork will bid lower amounts and then fake activity to increase the number of hours they can bill for. You should also be aware that some devs will lie about their past experience, so I recommend discounting anything you're told that can't be verified.
Time tracker
Important: Be aware that if you don't provide descriptions of what you did in the "Work Diary", a client can refuse to pay and you will get nothing. So whenever you click the 'Start Tracking Time' button, immediately update the memo of what you're working on.
Email I got from Upwork when a client's payment didn't go through:
Anytime a client’s payment is not completed, Upwork will review the Work Diary and reverse any billed time that does not meet Upwork’s Hourly Protection criteria.
During our review we found that some or all of the hours billed did not meet the criteria due to insufficient or no memos recorded in your Work Diary.
We would like to use this as an opportunity to send you a courtesy notice of the policy instead of reversing payment back to your client. Please note that if there are other issues with your work diary you will receive a separate notification with the reversal reason listed.
Having detailed memos related to the work being performed ensures your client is aware of the tasks being completed and is also a requirement for Hourly Protection. Going forward, any hours not logged in accordance with the policy will be reversed.
When entering manual time via the Upwork desktop app, the app assumes the time zone that you have specified in your profile rather than your computer's time zone.
It seems Upwork only bills clients for full ten-minute chunks of work, which means that you could be losing about 5 minutes' worth of pay per day, on average, for each hourly job you have. Or maybe more if you have several blocks of work during the day and each is being rounded down to the nearest ten-minute chunk of time. I need to learn more about how this works.
...