Is Upwork worth it? My first 6 months on the platform

It's Taco Tuesday!!!!
Is Upwork worth it for freelance web developers? In this video I talk about whether or not the platform is worth it and my experience in my first six months working on the platform.

[@renemorales9364]

Thanks for sharing your experience💯 Currently, Im learning WordPress & PHP. My goal is to be a freelancer and I hope I can leave my current job.

[@Tom-ly4xf]

Great video, I just started getting my portfolio on upwork and I have some clients who are outside of upwork and I want to start using the platform so I was thinking of using my clients as reviews on upwork. hopefully I can get jobs quickly through using them as reviews. How do you go abouts charging clients more? I see there are more smaller paying jobs than higher ones. Say if a client is charging $500 for a client do you just put your rates too 1k? Hopefully you are still on upwork! I would love to see more upwork content. You earnt yourself a sub :)

[@coding4tacos385]

Thanks so much Tom! That is a good question. I think your plan to get reviews in the beginning is a good one. As far as increasing your rates goes, I personally increase the rate on my profile, but that only applies to new clients. For existing clients, I have a conversation with them if I need to charge them more.

[@Tom-ly4xf]

​@@coding4tacos385 Anytime :), ooh thats a good way to put it, build a relationship and then charge more. I just got my first review yesterday from them which I am excited to start working on the platform. Thats pretty good that in 6 months you were basically earning a full time income! Are you focusing more on the smaller projects or bigger projects? ($500-5k) if you don't mind me asking!

[@coding4tacos385]

@@Tom-ly4xf Congrats on getting that review! I'm sure it's the start of big things for you. Right now I am mostly doing regular contract work, but the one-time projects I get are usually in the $500 - $1000 dollar range, which I consider to be on the smaller side. When I started, I was mainly doing edits and improvements to existing sites.

[@syedshehzadgillani]

how to apply to agency, can you make video on it or guide me at least

[@othmantaoufik7527]

Hi Taylor, i wish you were great health. i just was thinking , when you finish the project how you send it to the client(on upwork). just for known i wasn't get any project yet.

[@coding4tacos385]

Thanks for the question Othman! It can vary a lot depending on the project. Since most of the work I do involves WordPress sites, I usually update their website or their staging site (which sometimes I help the client get set up with hosting). For theme development, it's fairly common to have a GitHub or BitBucket repository I push to. If it is a static landing page, I might send them the files in a zip folder or use FTP. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have more questions.

[@markopaabel6446]

You should use a ringlight:)

[@annaterentjeva2156]

Hi Taylor, Am learning wordpress, and hoping to do freelance- but at the moment it feels like sky high and that I dont know enough ( I learned html&css, a bit of js, learning wp now) Can I start freelance ? I struggle to believe in myself. But I really want make it, as this is the only option for me to bring some income for my family. I have a baby and cant go work - and working from home- would be ideal.

[@coding4tacos385]

Hi Anna! First of all, you've chosen a very practical path, so don't stop learning! Next, I would start looking for clients and working on marketing and people skills as soon as you can. Many clients need landing pages, help with page builders, hosting setup, etc. No one is ever 100% ready to freelance, so it's important to start doing client work as soon as you can. That way, you're getting paid to learn and it's much more motivating. I often say that the business side of freelancing is harder than the technical side.

[@AbdulAhad-ff7dn]

Can you make a video on roadmap to WordPress web development ?

[@coding4tacos385]

Good idea, Abdul! I've got a couple videos that I'll be putting out first, but that's on the list!

[@syedshehzadgillani]

i am a full stack laravel php and wordpress developer , level 2 seller on fiverr with 110+ Happy Projects done, just started on upwork, want to work with you if you want to outsource your work , can show portfolio etc

[@angelocross1]

hey there, i like your vids...i was wondering how you handle taxes?

[@coding4tacos385]

Thank you! I don't do anything special. I try to save around 20% of what I make throughout the year in a separate account for when tax time comes.

[@angelocross1]

@@coding4tacos385 do you get any type of deductions? like what can you write off when doing this type of work? i was really wondering about that cause im gonna start doing this soon.

[@coding4tacos385]

@@angelocross1 I'm definitely not an expert on the subject. I plan to hire an account to do my taxes next year. Most software for doing taxes like TurboTax or H&R Block have options for freelancers too. You can typically write off any business expenses. For a web dev typical expenses might be hosting, domains, templates, outsourcing work to others, etc.

[@angelocross1]

@@coding4tacos385 alrite thanks so much for responding to this. helps a lot :)

[@coding4tacos385]

@@angelocross1 good questions, thank you!

[@jackkhalifa97]

What kind of WordPress job did you do at the agency?

[@coding4tacos385]

mostly custom theme development

[@jackkhalifa97]

Still learnir?

[@coding4tacos385]

Absolutely! As a web dev, you never stop learning