According to CEO Stephane Kasriel, Upwork gets 10,000 new signups EVERY DAY.
As the site grows more popular, they’re also becoming more selective with who can apply for jobs. Lately, I’ve been getting an increasing number of emails from readers who are having a hard time getting their profile approved.
I know this can be frustrating. So today, I’m going to share the proven strategies my team and I have tested behind the scenes to increase your profile’s chances of being approved by Upwork.
Before we dive in, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:
1. Upwork’s rejection policy is a GOOD thing. Because it’s the best freelancing site in the world, a LOT of people want to make an account. Having a screening process means that when your profile does get approved, you’ll face far less competition and your account will be even more valuable.
2. When Upwork rejects a profile, it’s not happening randomly or arbitrarily. When a client searches for freelancers, Upwork uses an algorithm based on a specific set of criteria to determine who shows up, and in what order. While the account approval process may have a human component as well, it’s likely that the first “line of defense” is an algorithm similar to what they use to deliver up search results. If you take time to think about WHAT Upwork is looking for and WHY, you can take steps to significantly increase your chance of being approved. (These steps will also give you a better shot at being hired and quickly boosting your freelance career.)
3. If Upwork rejects your profile, it’s not the end. Even if you don’t get approved, you can always make some changes and resubmit your profile. There’s no reason to stop trying if you’re rejected the first (or second, or third) time.
Now, without further ado…
How to get your Upwork profile approved:
- Show Upwork you’re a serious professional – right from the start
- Tell Upwork EVERYTHING you can do
- Never choose just one work subcategory
- Try your best to list the maximum number of skills
- Don’t undersell your experience level
- Let Upwork calculate a personalized “rate tip”
- Make sure your title isn’t too vague (or too specific)
- Go beyond the bare minimum with your profile overview
- Yes, you DO have employment history
- Include ALL your education (not just college degrees)
- Treat your profile like a resume
- Bolster your profile with a few portfolio pieces (or make some quickly if you don’t have any)
- Have your other professional accounts “vouch” for you
- Keep improving your profile and try again
1) Show Upwork you’re a serious professional – right from the start
When you sign up for Upwork, you’re not just creating an account. You’re creating a freelance BUSINESS (or taking an existing one to the next level).
From the very first step, Upwork makes it clear that they’re looking for people who take freelancing as seriously as they do.
For example: when entering your email address, Upwork shows a preference for business email addresses (e.g., [email protected]) over personal emails (e.g., Gmail or Hotmail.)
If you don’t already have one, you can create your own business email through Gmail for just a few bucks a month (starts with a 14-day free trial).
2) Tell Upwork EVERYTHING you can do
Upwork wants its freelancers to win jobs and earn big money. To help make this possible, they’re always monitoring the balance between the supply of freelancers and the demand of jobs.
If too many freelancers are applying for the same types of jobs, it can put a strain on the market. To preempt this, Upwork may reject your profile on the grounds that there aren’t enough opportunities for the combination of skills and work categories you chose.
One way to prevent this from happening is to give Upwork as much information about your capabilities as possible to show you’re open to doing different types of work. This way, they can evaluate your profile against a larger pool of potential jobs.
3) Never choose just one work subcategory
After you choose a service, Upwork will ask you which “types of work” you’re able to do. The more of these you choose (up to 4 max), the more jobs you’re telling Upwork you’re likely to do.
You don’t need to have an ounce of professional freelancing experience to choose these. If you see something you can do, let Upwork know.
Keep in mind, a lot of job types overlap which can make it even easier to find relevant options. For example, if you can do “Article & Blog Writing,” you can probably write “Web Content” as well (do you know any blog that isn’t on the web?).
If you run out of options, you can always choose the “other” option, which is listed under every type of service.
4) Try your best to list the maximum number of skills
You don’t need to be a world-class expert to say that you have a particular skill. You just need a basic knowledge and familiarity with the topic. For example, if you’ve read blogs about using the web to sell products, you can list “Internet Marketing” as one of your skills.
With that said, be sure to only list genuine skills that are relevant to the service you offer — even if it means you’ll end up with fewer than the maximum of 10 skills. (Example: If you want to be a freelance web developer, don’t choose something like “Microsoft Word,” even if you’ve been using it since you were in elementary school.)
There are too many skills for Upwork to list them all out, so feel free to “go crazy” and type anything you can think of into the search bar. You never know what may pop up in the suggested skills.
Another great way to quickly find ideas is to check out the profiles of other freelancers who offer the same service to see what’s available.
For example, let’s take my profile:
As you can see, I didn’t stop after adding just the “Copywriting” skill. I also included:
- Other common ways of saying Copywriting (ex: Sales Writing)
- Related fields I advise clients on (ex: Internet Marketing)
- Fields that rely on copywriting (ex: Lead Generation)
- Specific types of copy I can write (ex: Landing Pages)
- And specific tools I have experience with (ex: ConvertKit)
5) Don’t undersell your experience level
In addition to categories and skills, Upwork asks you to select one of three experience levels.
As you browse jobs, you can actually see the number of jobs available for each experience level.
Upwork uses this information to determine which jobs you’re likely to qualify for.
One mistake I see people make all the time is underselling their experience. Just because you don’t have freelancing experience doesn’t mean you don’t have any experience at all.
If you’ve held a relevant job with a traditional employer, you should probably choose “intermediate” or “expert” — even if this is your first foray into freelancing.
Depending on how much you’ve done, you may also be able to bump up your experience level from having done lots of work outside of a regular job (like volunteering, or doing projects for family and friends).
With that said, if you really are entry level, that’s OK too. When I first started freelancing, all I had for experience was a few dead-end jobs that had nothing to do with copywriting. I didn’t let that stop me, and my only regret is that I didn’t start freelancing sooner.
6) Let Upwork calculate a personalized “rate tip”
A lot of freelancers don’t know this, but when a client posts a job, Upwork shows them how much they can expect to pay.
Keep in mind, these rates are NOT a hard rule – I’ve proven before that you can not only win jobs at much higher rates than the average freelancer, but also for much higher amounts than a client’s budget.
But when you’re first setting up your account, you should try to start with a rate that falls within Upwork’s suggestions. If your hourly rate is too far removed from what similar freelancers are getting, Upwork may think your profile isn’t competitive enough.
Luckily, Upwork will show you rate suggestions that match what clients see.
The rate tip that they provide changes depending on the skills, experience level, and work categories you chose.
If your rate is too low, raise it. Being the cheapest freelancer isn’t just a bad strategy for winning jobs, it will also hurt your account’s chances of being approved.
If your rate is higher than the suggested tip, you may want to consider adjusting it for now. You can always raise it later if you’re feeling confident.
A higher than suggested rate may also be a sign that you’re underestimating your experience level. Remember: just because you don’t have freelance experience specifically, doesn’t mean you have no experience at all. Traditional (and non-traditional) work experience counts too.
7) Make sure your title isn’t too vague (or too specific)
As I mentioned above, Upwork tends to give preference to freelancers whose skill levels are in high demand. If your title section is vague (e.g., “Consultant”), it may be considered low-effort.
On the other hand, if it’s too specific (e.g., “Legal representation for underwater basket weaving companies”), Upwork may think you’re not interested in any other jobs.
You can always change your title later, and creating a great one will also be much easier when you’ve had more time to see what types of jobs and clients are available.
8) Go beyond the bare minimum with your profile overview
Upwork’s algorithm is designed to accept serious and committed freelancers, and weed out the ones who appear to be taking shortcuts. Even if you’re planning to come back later and finish, Upwork has no way of knowing that.
People often get tripped up in the “overview” section, since it takes a bit more time than clicking a button or typing a number.
While your overview doesn’t need to be perfect right off the bat, you can and should take the time to write a strong profile overview if you want your account to get approved. This not only shows Upwork that you’re serious, but will eventually help you win jobs too.
9) Yes, you DO have employment history
You almost surely have some employment history — even if you don’t think you do. Even if you’re fresh out of school and you’ve never had a “real” job, don’t assume you have no experience to share.
For example, if you’ve done any freelancing work in the past, that counts as employment history even though it isn’t from a traditional 9-5 job. One clever freelancer did just that, describing her service and listing out recent clients:
You can go even further with this and write a separate entry for a few of your most impressive projects too.
If you’re new to freelancing and haven’t worked at a relevant job in the past, figure out a way to make your unrelated job relevant.
10) Include ALL your education (not just college degrees)
Include as many education items as you can, and write a detailed description for each one to show its relevance to your expertise.
I went to college for all of a week, and I still added it to my profile:
In addition to traditional education, you can also include school projects you worked on, online courses you’ve taken, mentorship programs you’ve done – even relevant books you’ve read. Use your creativity.
For example, on my profile, I mentioned that I took Ramit Sethi’s Zero To Launch program and related what I learned about building a business to my freelance services:
11) Treat your profile like a resume
Many recruiters for traditional jobs will instantly reject a resume if they see even a single typo. You need to take your Upwork account just as seriously.
Proofread each section carefully (including title, overview, education, and experience) looking for typos, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors. Properly capitalize the names of schools, companies, and other organizations.
It can be hard to catch your own mistakes, so ask someone else to help proofread if you can. Paste your overview into a program with spell-check like Microsoft Word, or use a dedicated tool like Grammarly to see if you missed anything. If you can use spell check, so can Upwork’s account approval algorithm.
12) Bolster your profile with a few portfolio pieces (or make some quickly if you don’t have any)
This option isn’t actually available during the initial signup, but creating a portfolio may just put you “over the top” if you get rejected the first time (the option will become available after you submit your first profile, and you can edit it immediately).
If you have relevant samples of past work, add it to your portfolio and fill out as much information as you can. You’ll be able to select a work category and subcategory, as well as tag the portfolio item with skills. Be sure to write a detailed description that explains what the sample is and why it’s impressive.
Don’t have any samples? No problem. You can create a freelance portfolio from scratch in as little as one afternoon (even if you’re brand-new to freelancing).
13) Have your other professional accounts “vouch” for you
One easy way to show that you’re worthy of an Upwork account is to link your other professional accounts (available under profile settings).
These accounts won’t be displayed publicly on your profile, but Upwork uses them to get more information on what types of jobs you can do.
If you’re a programmer, linking to an active GitHub account can supplement the skills and work categories you chose. If you’re a graphic designer, you’ll get a similar boost by linking a Dribbble account.
Of course, if you’re like me and only have a personal Facebook filled with family pictures, you can always just skip this.
14) Keep improving your profile and try again
If your profile isn’t approved the first time, don’t panic. You can submit it again after making some changes.
Try adding more experience and experimenting with different skills, subcategories, and rates. Make sure to keep track of the various combinations you’ve submitted in the past and take into account any feedback that is provided by Upwork.
Remember, there’s no limit to how many times you can submit your profile on Upwork so don’t get discouraged. Continue to add new skills to your repertoire whether it comes from a book, your job, or by taking advantage of all the free information available online.
Get ready to start winning
Getting your Upwork account approved is only the first step in a much bigger online freelancing journey.
Hi! It’s a really great post. Thank you a lot! I’m just starting, within your help I think I, on the right way
It works! Can’t thank you enough!
Thanks soo much it had alot of information it helped me alot thx ❤️
Thank you very much for the insight and direction you provided. My initial Upwork application was rejected a few hours after I submitted. A friend referred me to your blog and I applied all your tips (got a business email address, expatiated on my degrees, work history and profile). A few things were different though- there was no rate tip/ suggested billing rate by Upwork. Probably this has changed since the time you wrote this blog… Anyhow, within 2 weeks of getting rejected, I re-applied and I was accepted in less than 24 hours! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Thank you very much
I read all what you writed
It is really helpful and Best Wishes 😊 in your life 💖 thanks
God bless you greatly for this
Should I wait for 6-12 months to resubmit?
I’ve trying last night and it was approved! Thanks!
Hello, I’m Fady from egypt, And I god rejected 3 times now, Do you have some advice for me
What job section did you apply too?
Created my profile as a data analyst, and I have been rejected like 4 times in a row
I’m a Data Analyst as well, and I’ve got rejected like 6 times…
It’s frustrating
I am reading all this before i sign up with Upwork and i am confident of sailing through. I will be back to testify soon….watch this space.
This is amazing! I’m glad I’ve found this one. I was rejected multiple times so I guess I have to try it over again. Thanks
Wow! That was a really wonderful write-up with so much value. I got knocked out a couple of months ago and since then, I’ve been having had time getting my new account approved.
Thanks for taking your time to do this. I am confident I will be approved in the next trial. God bless you real good.
Try submitting again in 6-12 months to see if we have new opportunitiesWe’ll also reach out to you directly if opportunities open up that require your skills. In the meantime, we encourage you to start or grow your business off Upwork. should i have to wait for 6 month? please i need help
Thank you, got approved as well!
This is super helpful for someone like me who is at entry level when it comes to freelancing. Kudos to you! 🙂 I’ve received a rejection email from Upwork in which they said I could resubmit in 6-12 months. You said there’s not limit to submitting your profile again and again. Please shed light on this. Again, thanks again for this post.
Thank you so much for your advice! This was really helpful!
Thank you so much just got accepted
This is amazing! Account was approved right after I click submit! Thank you life saver!
Thank you guys, I just got approved!
Hello, I would like to thank you for this article. I just got approved for Upwork from the first try after reading your text. I am not a native English speaker and I never attended college, but I guess they liked my profile 🙂 Thanks
Awesome Danny. I got my profile approved in 2nd attempt just by following your recommendation. Please share if you have a regular blog or something for more info. I trust your recommendation 100% now. Thanks again. .
What did you change in your profile
Hi! this article gave a way to reach out to have some considerations on the freelancing website that is upwork; but i need to know that when do my profile do get approved; so it just asked about coming after 24 hours so you can see the results as approved and if i come after 24 hours that it is just asking again to log in and it is showing that account is not available; what can i do for this problem?
Hello Sir, I don’t know how to say thank to you. I am really happy because my upwork profile got approved after I used the tactics given on your website. I was rejected 5 times but you helped me to get approved. Thanks a lot again.
What did you change in your profile??
Hi Danny, this helped me big time. This is my 3rd time and got approved today! Thank you.
My profile was accepted but I have sent in so many proposals with no responses. Where can I have my profile reviewed so I can make changes if necessary?
Thank you for your article. My application was rejected yesterday. I resubmitted my application after stumbled upon your article. It’s approved today.
I feel so happy today, this was my four time and finally got approval. I follow the steps and after 5 minutes I just check my account and was approved. That is super amazing, thanks Danny for your advice so right know I go for my first gig
Hi Danny
Thank you so much for the advice!
Besides getting my profile finally approved, I had a boost in courage to JUST go for it.
Thanks a lot for all the tips. I was quite taken back when I received the message that Upwork rejected my profile.
But well. Guess I keep on trying (after doing some changes of course : )
thanks a bunch
Sandro
Thanks Danny!
hey danny is it mandatory to have a buisiness gmail id
hey! Danny is it mandatory to have a business account?
Thanks so much Danny! I had been rejected 3 times and I eventually just gave up. Yesterday I decided to try again but googled tips to get upwork approved. Applied all of your tips and BOOM!! the sent second I pushed the apply button I was approved! thanks so much.
Did you use a business email ID ?
Great stuff – followed all the steps -fingers crossed !!
thanks for this post very helpful article
Hi Danny. Your article is so helpful. Thank you. I created my Upwork account in 2013 and it was approved but I only just started using it last week. I bid a lot of jobs and some clients started a conversation on working with me. Unfortunately, Upwork suspended my account before we could go further citing that I had done a lot of biddings without a success within one week. What would you advise on this?
try to reapply and don’t forget to contact the help support of the up work I had a similar issue too and it was resolved
Thank you so much! Your tips got my profile approved when I previously had two denials! Now if I can just get my first gig….
hello can you help me the approve my accout?
Thank you so much sir
Hi Danny!
You mentioned your “students”. How do I become one?! I’m 20 years old and a self-taught copywriter who’s continuously looking for a mentor that I can take valuable knowledge from.
I’ve dived into the deep end and have worked on Websites, SEO-focused content, inbound/outbound email campaigns and more.
Reading the above blog, you’re definitely someone I’d love to learn a few things from!
How do I get in touch about becoming a student?
Thanks,
Saeed
Hi, Saed, Take courses from Dan Kennedy. You will learn a lot from it. Sorry for spamming by the way. I’m trying to recommend something valuable to you since I tried it myself.
Thank you so much sir very used full article for me
I tried one time and got rejected .now im gonna follow your all tips hopefully i will get approved!!
Can someone pls help me with my profile https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01fa3cd806c576b42a.
Hi, i have completed all the steps but still not approved
https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~014e3215a15f053afd
I did too, and have no idea why still not approved. Anyone able to assist??
Hi Danny,
I’ve done all tips mentioned in your article. However my profile is rejected. Please help.
https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~01dc814704b6f09025/
I noticed some folks are asking each other how to help get approval from Upwork. Why not just follow Danny’s article? No one will hold your hand or write it for you. Be willing to work for it!
Thank you, Danny! Following your advice, my account was approved in the first attempt! I can’t wait to start some jobs. I’m sure I’m going to take your courses in the future.
Thais! plz inform me whats process to approved a account in pakistan. i try more time but account can not be approved…….
plz thais reply me how your account is approved give me some tips.. my account is rejected 3 times
plz thais reply me how your account is approved give me some tips.. my account is rejected 2 times
Thais! plz, inform me what process to approved an account in Bangladesh. I try more time but my account can not be approved…….
Nice Advice’s, Thanks a lot. Continue your posting
Great article thank you so much
Thank you for the great article and tips about Upwork. I am new to their platform, and have yet to get my profile approved. Could someone kindly view it and give me feedback? I have included a lot of information on it, and done a variety of the upwork skills tests. Thanks!
https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~019c1aa7cac9d32d76
Hey Danny, thanks so much for this post! While I’ve never had an Upwork application rejected previously (mostly because I’ve been too nervous to even submit it for review), I found your tips extremely helpful! Using them I finally finished a profile I am proud of, one I believe will speak to potential clients, and submitted it for review… fingers crossed!
Hey Danny, I just wanted to let you know about my Upwork journey so far. I have been reading your blog posts and letters that land in my inbox for several months now, absorbing all of the rich information you offer about getting approved on Upwork and how to win freelance jobs. This morning, I finally decided to take the plunge and sign up for Upwork. Using your techniques, tips and tricks, I took the time to fill the application out completely. I included some of your writing strategies in my overview and other areas such as my education and… Read more »
On a mission to get my darn Upwork profile approved and this wee comment and article has me super motivated!
I will let you know how I get on
can you please tell can i did from pakistan?