How to become a top-rated web designer on Upwork
How to become a top-rated web designer on Upwork
What is a web designer?
A web designer is a person responsible for working on the front end of a website. Their labors consist of planning website user interface design, creating mockups, and coding style sheets. A web designer uses multimedia elements such as images, video, text, and sound to create a good user experience. They can work with other professionals such as web developers and copywriters.
The difference between a web designer and a web developer
A web designer differentiates from a web designer in the aspect that they center on the front end of the website. This means their labor is more centered on the creative part of it. This doesn’t mean web designers aren’t able to code, they use coding but they do it for the structure and style. Web designers use HTML, CSS, and some styles frameworks to achieve this.
Is working as a freelance web designer worth it?
According to ZipRecruiter, freelancer web designers make around $56,000 per year on average and can go as high as $111,000 USD per year. This is very good considering that some of the freelancers work on a part-time basis. Aside from that working as a freelancer has some advantages vs working as part of a company or agency.
What are the advantages of working as a freelance web designer?
Full control of income
By working as a freelance web designer you have total control over your incomes and expenses. You decide as a business yourself if you want to spend part of your income on improving your business.
Manage your time
You also are in control of your time. You have the freedom to decide the hours for working and the hours for other activities. Also, you are able to agree on the schedule of the projects with your clients based on your availability.
Decision freedom
You have more flexibility regarding decisions when you work as a freelance web designer. For example, you can choose to work on the projects you like the most according to your skills and experience. Also, you’ll be free to choose the type of clients you want to work with.
More time for improving
If you manage your time properly, you’ll have more time for improving your skills as a web designer. You can use part of your free time to learn a new framework, or even to choose small projects that allow you to practice new skills.
Is Upwork a good platform for getting web designer jobs?
Upwork is a great platform for getting web design jobs as a freelancer. In fact, web designer is one of the most requested job titles on the platform as of 2022. You can get many types of jobs related to the subject, but it is not just about the quantity of the jobs you can get, but the quality of service. Upwork is one of the best-optimized tools for finding jobs. They allow you to narrow your search results by project budget, level of experience, location, and project duration. This allows you to find the specific projects you want. Also, once you start working, the platform makes it easy to handle your projects properly through their messaging app, time trackers, and payments system.
What is the top-rated badge on Upwork?
The top-rated badge is the badge that you can earn on Upwork by building a strong reputation within the platform. Upwork continuously analyzes your performance to make sure only qualified freelancers can earn the badge. The parameters they use to do it are based mainly on three aspects:
1.- Your job success score
which means the percentage of projects your past clients are satisfied with.
2.- 100% completed profile.
It means you need to fill in all the fields on your profile page.
3.- More than 1,000 earnings in a year
This means that in order to be eligible for a top-rated badge, you must have completed some projects that paid you $1,000 USD in a 12-month time lapse.
How to get my first job on Upwork?
If you are hoping to become eligible for earning a top-rated badge, the first thing you have to work on is the earning of your first job. The first job on Upwork is always going to be the more difficult as you won’t have anything supporting your experience as a freelancer within the platform. Your profile will be empty: you won’t have any reviews, any hours tracked, any earnings, and any jobs. This will make it more difficult to compete with other freelancers with more experience. Because of that, it’s better for you to start planning an strategy that helps you get your first job. It’s well known that once you get your first job, the next jobs will be easier to get. Here are some tips that will make it easier to get your first job:
1.- Build a strong portfolio
The portfolio is a great way to show your skills as a web designer. Therefore, you have to give your portfolio the importance it deserves. You can use many formats to showcase your projects such as full image captures of websites, videos, and graphics. It’s also a good idea to display case studies of clients you have delivered extraordinary results to.
2.- Search for small projects, typos
It’s a good idea to start bidding on projects with little competition when you are just starting on the platform. You can achieve this by looking for projects that have a low budget or are among the less relevant. Also, a good tactic is to perform searches with typos, grammatical errors. Sometimes projects like this are forgotten as clients never realize their errors. These projects tend to be less competitive as they’re not displayed on the main search results.
3.- Send great proposals
Proposals are the first contact you have with clients. So it’s better to send great-looking, short and concise proposals that get their job done. Consider that often clients don’t have the time to read long proposals, so it’s better to explain yourself better in a few words.
A proposal template for web designers
If you are unsure about how to send a good proposal, feel free to use this template. It’s a short cover letter that considers the aspects to send an efficient proposal. Feel free to edit it so it adapts better to you. Remember not to send the same proposal for all the jobs you bid for as this can make your proposals be automatically rejected.
Hello first name of the client,
My name is your name, a Web designer with write here years experience (avoid years experience if no more than 1 year) years experience providing my services to create outstanding great-looking websites that convert.
Three key aspects about my career:
🎨 First short relevant aspect of your career as a web designer relevant to the particular job. Don’t include information already on your profile.
🥇 Second short relevant aspect of your career as a web designer relevant to the particular job. Don’t include information already on your profile.
💵 Third short relevant aspect of your career as a web designer relevant to the particular job. Don’t include information already on your profile.
I invite you to take a look at my website: link to an external website where you can see my skills in action. Also, take a look at my portfolio to see some of the best projects I have worked on.
Regarding your project, let me recommend you write here some advice related to the job post. This will make the project easier, and your website will be more optimal.
If you are interested don’t hesitate to request an interview so we can discuss this proposal in detail.
Kind regards, your name
Other tips to get your top rated badge
1.- Specialize in something
A good idea to become successful as a web designer is to specialize yourself in some specific niche for web design. For example, you can specialize yourself in some topic or industry such as eCommerce web design, or portfolio websites.
2.- Start with low-rates
To avoid your proposals being rejected instantly, it is recommended to start with low hourly rate proposals. This only while you’re building yourself a reputation. Then, you can start increasing your rate accordingly to your performance. If for some reason your proposals are still being rejected, you can start adjusting your rates to make sure they’re not the reason.
3.- Deliver good work and on time
Delivering the websites as promised make the clients happy. Please avoid at all costs delivering projects out of time, or incomplete. It’s better for you to agree on milestones/deliveries that you are sure you can accomplish. By doing this you will maintain your job success high.
4.- Ask for feedback
When you finish a project/contract, you should always kindly ask your contacts to leave a review for you. Do this by explaining to them that reviews are beneficial on both sides, for you as a freelancer and for them as clients. Always do this as long as you perceive clients are happy with your work. If you know that they are not happy you better avoid it.
5.- Get some training
Another method that can help you earn your top-rated badge is by getting some guidance from true freelancers professionals. There are many freelancers that are willing to help beginners make their way on the platform, knowing that is not an easy task at first. Our founder and CEO Ross Jenkins is one of those top freelancers, and he’s keen on offering his expertise. You can learn many things by taking some training with him such as how to send outstanding proposals, how to find bigger clients and even how to launch your own agency. If you are interested click on the following button and fill in the form, so Ross can schedule a personal call with you.
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