The Style Files
My thoughts on design, writing and entrepreneurship.
Photo credit (background): www.pexels.com
Photo credit (background): www.pexels.com
Yep, it's that bad. Photo credit: www.pexels.com If you're a freelancer, you know what's up: Upwork seems like the answer to all your prayers. No boss, no commute, no annoying coworkers, no set schedule. I've watched the video of a young woman who quit her PR job only to hit the jackpot in less than a year and buy her mom a house. We all wanted in.
If you'd asked me six months ago, I was all for it. I bid on tons of jobs thinking they'd be a slam dunk only to have most of my points and proposals land in the trash. The worst part of all is knowing you can and have done your job for years on end only to hit a brick wall for no apparent reason. My next strategy was watching tutorials for a way in. I did get one client who liked my work and felt badly enough to offer a handful of articles at a ridiculously low price because she'd been willing to work with me at all. (Read: I have a decade of industry experience, dual qualifications, excellent reviews and zero Upwork potential. How?) Meanwhile, other jobs I bid on basically for a rating took me nowhere fast. Between trying to reason with someone asking for a book's worth of editing for half a day's pay, a $6 job for a $15 purchase or agreeing to write a fake product review for a quick buck, I wasn't having it. Guys, there's no way to hack it. For people who manage to climb the wall, I think they might be earning well. The problem is the whole site is set up to exploit new freelancers into doing the lowest of the low for actual pennies many times over. It's death by design. Doing that once might be okay if you knew it'd pay off. Doing it a dozen times while trading hours, days or months of your time for what you hope is a perfect score is actual slave labor. I'm out. I'm not saying finding your own clients is a walk in the park. That's just more common knowledge than this Ponzi scheme. What I'm saying is I'd be better of as a street sweeper than I am an Upwork hopeful since at least there's money to be had. Do yourself a favor and run.
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AuthorHi, my name is Martha Oschwald and I'm a content writer focused on design. This page is meant to give you a taste of my writing style and latest musings. Archives
April 2022
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