As a person who is starting out as a freelancer on Upwork, many often wonder how he or she can strengthen their profile to get more work and to make their profile stand out among thousands that are similar in nature. While we have discussed the importance of completing your Upwork profile in the past, here we will discuss the importance of writing a professional overview for Upwork.
Related: How to create an Upwork profile that’ll surely get approved
Upwork has an extensive list of standardised skills that can help you quickly identify your strengths and connect you with relevant projects. So when you write a professional overview for Upwork, it is important to highlight them.
Here are 7 things to keep in mind while writing a professional overview for Upwork:
1) Potential clients always look at your overview
Your overview, just like your profile is an opportunity to convey your confidence and competence to potential clients. It creates a critical first impression as they will start looking at your profile from two highly visible sections, that is your profile title and your overview.
These two things show up in search results and thus having a professional overview for Upwork should be on top of your list.
2) Remove the word “I” from your work vocabulary
Many people who write their professional overview for Upwork, they mostly write about themselves, how they have done certain jobs and how they have achieved certain goals.
Remember, when you are looking for work on Upwork, it’s not about you but about your potential client and what you can offer them with regards to their required work need.
So when you start writing your Upwork profile overview, articulate it with what your potential client needs and not what you have achieved.
If you are targeting someone in the health field, tell them how you can provide a solid health content based on facts, science and research.
If he is looking for someone who knows about sports, tell them how you can provide them content based on sports facts, history and research based on sporting event’s written rules.
Always make it about your client first and not about your past work.
3) Don’t just tell, show what you can do
Rather than just telling potential clients what you can do, show them what you are capable of. You can do this by providing portfolio samples, or showing your capability in your overview by adding client testimonials about your work.
You don’t need to add full testimonials and can just take a few lines from your LinkedIn “Recommendations” and add it as part of your overview.
Once you have worked with few clients on Upwork and they have left you reviews. Pull the best ones and add it directly into your overview so that it’s front and centre for your clients to see.
You can also show your ability by highlighting your statistics and hard numbers. For example, you can add stats like “An article I wrote for Sample A generated 5 million views and 400 comments organically.
Articles you may like:
- How to get work on Upwork with no experience
- Top 9 disadvantages of working from home that every freelancer must know
- A complete guide to GST for freelancers in India
4) Always add a call to action
You might have the best profile there can be on Upwork, but you lose a lot if you stop just there. Always add a call to action in your overview as it would be missing a critical element if the reader who might be interested is not asked for action.
People need guidance and thus it’s your job to ask at the end. Don’t just expect people to make the leap all on their own and guide them on how to get in touch with you.
Remember, Upwork has rules that cannot invite potential clients to email or call you or even visit your website. But what you can do is encourage them to contact you through Upwork.
So at the end of your profile overview add simple statements like “Feel free to contact me using the buttons at the top of the page, and I’ll get back to you ASAP” which will guide them to your profile where they can get in touch with you.
5) Make sure your title compliments your overview
Your title has very little time to score a win and impress your client. Just a few words on your title can have a big impact on whether they want to read more or considering you for their project. Thus, make sure that potential clients see a catchy but well-written title that compliments your profile overview.
The above will have an impact on you getting work as it will be an indication of your expertise and quality of work.
Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest updates on freelancing and remote working delivered right in your inbox!
[mc4wp_form id=”102″]
6) Be original and creative
While it’s important to have a well-detailed professional overview for Upwork, it’s equally important to be original and creative.
Don’t just copy what everyone else is doing on their profile overview. If you want to be noticed, you need to stand out and to do that you need to original and creative so as not to bore your potential client.
Let your personality shine through your profile overview and include a bit of your excitement for the said work rather than just talking about facts.
7) Organise and proofread
Once you’ve written your Upwork profile overview, figure out the optimal way to organise the given information in a structure that is in a logical order and is easy to scan through.
It needs to be easy to see what your primary skills and experiences are and what extra you bring to the table.
Also, don’t make the whole thing in bullet points as it might help emphasise on certain areas, but it looks like a laundry list of skills with no examples.
After you have organised your overview, make sure that you have proofread your profile overview for spelling errors, typos and grammatical errors. Also make sure that you don’t have any slang words, symbols, or abbreviations that are not relevant and might be misunderstood.
Liked it? Read more on freelancing here:
Upwork vs Freelancer: The Platform To Go For As A Freelancer
11 Best Apps For Freelancers To Stay Productive & Organised
How To Get High Paying International Clients As A Freelancer