What is Upwork About? Find it Here!

Upwork is a website that offers freelancers and their potential customers a platform to conduct their business.

There are a lot of reviews about this platform, but I am glad that you landed on my page to learn more about Upwork.

After reading my review, you will have all the necessary information that will guide you to make an educated decision whether this Upwork is for you or not.

Upwork Review

Summary

Name: Upwork

Website: upwork.com

Star Rating: 4/5 Very Good!

Bottom Line: This is a legitimate platform out there for freelancers and it is one of the best online.

Check my #1 recommendation

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What is Upwork?
How Does it Work?
The Product
The Compensation Structure
The Price
Pros and Cons
Conclusion
Recommendation

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What is Upwork?

Upwork is one of the biggest, if not the largest, freelancing platforms available on the Internet today.

It provides independent contractors with a way to connect with employers from all over the world if the job on offer fits their respective skill set.

Resulting from a merger between Elance and O-Desk, this platform is one of the most well developed out there.

It boasts as one of the largest user bases, meaning that there is a significant chance that an employer will find the perfect freelancer for them and vice versa.

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How Does it Work?

Upon signing up to the program, freelancers are required to input various pieces of information to ensure the potential member’s legitimacy.

Unlike other online job platforms, this one ensures that a user’s information will be protected under their privacy policy and terms of service.

Freelancers are also required to have a solo photo of themselves on their profile for the same purpose as well as for easier identification should an inquiry arise.

Once all of this is done and dusted, a user can now begin searching for jobs on the site.

Jobs are categorized based on topics or the type of work that needs to be done.

This method makes it easier to look for the right job as creative and academic writing are separated, like how the multiple categories for writing are separated from say, coding work.

Once a member has found a job that piqued their interest, they can submit a proposal to their potential employer.

Members have a limited number of proposals provided to them every month, but they could always purchase more if they run out.

Aside from a proposal, they are also required to submit a cover letter as well as their resume; other employers may ask for sample work submissions.

All of these previously mentioned steps are performed to ensure that the freelancer responding to the job posting is a real person.

This site claims that on average it takes a person about three days to get hired, but this could take a shorter or longer time depending on how many people apply for a job and the employer’s screening process.

Workers on this site need to be persistent as there are times when they submit proposal after proposal, yet no employer responds to them.

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The Product

Once a freelancer gets hired, he or she will be given means of directly contacting the employer through the site’s built-in messaging application.

Here, freelancers can see notifications about their payments as well as the details of their latest jobs.

There is also a note function on this application, so it would be easier for the worker and his or her employer to throw ideas about the project back and forth.

Once a worker submits the work that they do, it is placed under review by the employer. If the employer approves this work, then the agreed upon payment will be made.

Once the money is in a person’s account it is their’s for good and neither the site or employer can take it back. Another good thing about this site is their support system.

Aside from having direct customer support wherein users can submit tickets, which will be responded to in due time, they also have an on-site forum.

On this forum, a user could leave a question or topic for discussion and fellow members and community managers will be allowed to share their knowledge on them.

Users can expect an answer to their queries in just a matter of days or a few hours in some cases.

Despite having a lot of positives, there are some things about this platform that has drawn the ire of its users.

For example, once payment is placed into the user’s account, they will have to wait a further five days before they can withdraw.

Doing this will put the money under a security period, which some users find it unnecessary.

Luckily, there is no minimum withdrawal amount, meaning that a person could withdraw from every job they accomplish.

However, a downside to this is that the site charges a service fee of $1 when transferring to banks.

They charge $2 when the money is transferred to an e-commerce site such as PayPal.

This process also means that while there is no minimum amount that a person could withdraw after the money has gone through the five-day security period, it would be wiser to allow the amount of income on one’s account to go up to save money on withdrawal fees.

Another downside is that this site takes a 20% share of all their user’s earnings, meaning that while it is easy to find a legitimate job on this site, a member’s income may be significantly lowered because of this cut.

This has become a deal breaker for a lot of workers on the site. Previously, the site’s cut was set at just 10%, but since it has been raised to the current amount, a lot of people have decided to leave the company altogether and search for alternatives.

Fortunately, the site’s share of their users’ income will be reduced to 10% once they earn $500 from a single contract.

It is important to keep in mind that this does not carry over to other employers, meaning that even if the cut is brought down to 10% for a certain employer, starting work on another contract would revert the site’s share to 20% until $500 is reached once more.

Furthermore, once a worker earns more than $10,000 on a single contract, the platform’s share is reduced further to 5%.

While this does seem enticing, a lot of contractors on this site work for smaller amounts, so it will take a considerable amount of time for them to reach the amounts necessary to lower the cut.

Some workers may not even be given a chance to reach those amounts off of a single contract.

There is a chance though that an employer would extend a person’s contract from what was originally agreed upon off the latter performed well according to standards.

Despite the lengths this company has taken to ensure that the independent contractors that sign up for their service are actual people that will accomplish the work assigned to them, there have still been complaints that there are scammers who employ using the site.

Workers should avoid jobs that seem too good to be true because most of the time that is exactly what they are.

Some employers may try to set the payments on their contracts to a fix low amount because jobs with higher potential for income requires a certain number of hours to be logged on the site.

This statement is not to say anything bad about the company or their platform, but freelancers need to learn how to be more diligent in weighing the pros and cons of a job that they are applying for.

Because this site is relatively new, there is also a lot of tweaking that still needs to be done.

While some members have spoken highly of the site’s services in their reviews, they have claimed that certain “procedures” are missing in their reviews, although they did not elaborate on what these were.

They added though that the inconsistencies present on the site are becoming less and less over time.

One of the Best

This platform is a perfect starting off point for people who just got into freelancing.

A lot of employers here are willing to hire novice contractors, albeit for a more modest price than on other freelancing platforms.

It is a great place to get experience to move on to a more demanding and higher paying freelancing jobs.

Once a member is capable of moving on to more difficult jobs, they could potentially work from home full-time and be their boss.

It means that they would be able to work on their terms, on their own time from the comforts of their own home and because of the legal measures this site takes, there are significantly fewer chances of being scammed.

When working on a job with a team, this platform will allow one to connect with a diverse selection of individuals from all over the world, which could prove to be an awesome learning experience.

This work from home platform has been featured in many credible news and media outlets as one of the best for freelancers.

They have also been very transparent regarding who runs the site and where it is based.

This information could easily be seen online with just a little bit of searching.

While there are a lot of other legitimate freelancing platforms available online, it ‘s hard to argue against working for this one.

A lot of the positives about this site massively outweigh the few negative aspects present.

This site continues to improve at a fast pace because they listen to the feedback from their users.

Summary Overview

Upwork Review

Summary

Name: Upwork

Website: upwork.com

Star Rating: 4/5 Very Good!

Bottom Line: This is a legitimate platform out there for freelancers and it is one of the best online.

Check my #1 recommendation

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The Compensation Structure

It varies a lot because it is up to the skill level of the freelancer and the agreed upon payment.

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The Price

They charge 20% cut from the freelancer’s earnings. It will be reduced to 10% if they reach $500 earnings on a single contract.

It will be reduced further to 5% once the $10000 is reached on a single contract.

It will also charge you 1% for a direct bank deposit and 2% on PayPal transactions.

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Pros and Cons?

Pros

One of the best freelance sites.
A legitimate and paying platform.
A good platform to earn money as a freelancer.

Cons

They charge 20% on freelancer’s earnings.

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Conclusion

Upwork is a legitimate company and freelancers with varying levels, and types of expertise can make serious money here.

Content writers especially are in demand nowadays. A lot of webmasters are outsourcing their jobs to platforms like this.

So if you are a writer this is a good place for you to make money, but are you planning to write for somebody all your life?

In the offline world, the disparity between the employer and the employee is so vast, because only those with capital can become employers.

If you are talented, the best you can be is in the top management position, but still an employee.

In the online world, the field is level as anybody with a very minimum investment can stop being an employee.

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Recommendation

If you like to write or if you are a good writer you have the advantage of running an online business as it really works around content marketing.

I got questions thrown at me like, “How about the technical aspect of running a website”?

I had zero knowledge of website building or online business when I started, and until now I don’t even know anything about codes.

I am now running multiple websites, and I built them all from the ground up. Anybody can learn WordPress and the stuff that is needed to run a website.

It is the writing part that is challenging to most people. Although by practice you can learn writing skills, it is the writers who have the edge.

So it is better to build your website, apply your content writing skills on it and you will find that it will be much easier to monetize it at a much higher level than writing for somebody.

It is much better to be an entrepreneur than working for somebody. If you are interested, join the community which I am already a member.

That community taught me all the skills needed to build and run this website. I also have the support of the whole community if needed.

So join now for free, without credit cards, and you will get two free websites as well.

Click here to learn more about this community.

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