If Upwork feels “dead” or “hopeless” to you, maybe you’re just not seeing the full picture.

Hey, Nick Bandy here.

I’m a Top-Rated Plus copywriter and fractional CMO, meaning I use Upwork to make money AND spend money.

A lot of money, in fact—my clients sometimes hire me to manage six-figure marketing budgets involving a dozen other freelancers and agencies.

What I’m saying is…

I see Upwork from both sides of the fence.

I’m sure you’re WELL aware of how frustrating it is to use Upwork as a freelancer.

But what I’m about to tell you (from a client’s perspective) might change the way you approach Upwork—and help you win more jobs.

Let’s get right into it.

When you aren’t sure of yourself, how can your client be sure of you?

Listen, I know it’s hard to sell yourself.

But your client is running a business.

For many clients on Upwork, their “business” is on a shoestring budget. That means ONE bad hire could have drastic effects on their growth and success.

Even for established, legit businesses with big budgets, hiring the wrong person could mean MONTHS of lost time and effort fixing mistakes.

If you send me a proposal like the one above, it tells me:

• Tons more qualified applicants → I want to stop reading this immediately.
• Love the chance to work with you → Freelancer loses 100% of the power balance.
• Haven’t had much luck landing jobs → NOOOO please don’t say this!
• Free sample → ONLY bad clients will take you up on this.

Do you know what this proposal is like?

Imagine you’re looking for a place to eat lunch…

Would you feel confident picking a restaurant with an empty parking lot?

This proposal is an empty parking lot.

Hello from [CITY]!

Many client profiles display their city and country.

Many freelancers repeat the location in their proposals.

Why?

Do you think I’m going to be like “holy cow, you did research on my company already? How did you know I live in Aberdeen?”

This is the lowest-of-the-low-hanging fruit.

I only use the client’s location in very specific proposals, but NOT like this.

Worth noting, I believe at least the second proposal above was written using some kind of automated job post scraping—which is why it sounds even WORSE than the first proposal.

Speaking of AI…

This is actually two mistakes in one. How lucky for you!

OK, so the first mistake is “written by AI,” as I mentioned.

This proposal reads like the freelancer dumped my job post into Chat GPT.

It reiterates all of the points in my job post like it’s summarizing their client’s post, which is the second mistake.

Too many freelancers think that by regurgitating the same language used in the job post, they’ll “hack” the client’s brain or something.

That’s…not how it works.

You can do this subtly, but the “AI” way shown above is way too much.

• Sounds like you need X, Y and Z!
• Let’s [Solve Problem From Your Post] and get [Exact Result From Post]
• Etc.

Proposals like these SEEM specific and relevant on the surface, but they’re actually a HUGE turnoff for clients.

You hate AI job posts from clients, right?

Then write your proposals by hand.

Or, at the very least, double-check your AI proposals to make them sound more human.

AKA “please click all of these strange links with zero context.”

I know this looks like a good idea—showing off all of your greatest hits.

But it’s not.

When you dump a bunch of links or portfolio pieces into your proposal without telling me what they are, do you know what I do?

I do…

Nothing.

You’re asking a business owner to spend 10 minutes digging through your Gordian knot of links and websites when he has 50 other proposals to go through.

It’s just not going to happen.

Don’t ask clients to do work. They’re hiring YOU to do work.

You CANNOT send proposals like this:

Completely overlook that proposal’s content.

Just look at it. Take it all in.

Look at it!

If this was a Reddit post you KNOW someone would have replied with a “TLDR” already.

Listen, you need to make your proposals completely effortless for clients to read.

People always follow the path of least resistance.

Above?

That’s not the path of least resistance. There’s no PATH whatsoever. It’s a roadblock.

Check this one out…

I know this proposal LOOKS pretty good. It checks all of the boxes, right?

Experience. Expertise. It’s thorough. Kind of has a CTA.

But here’s what I see as a client:

No specific numbers or outcomes.

Lead quality and cost efficiency? Where are the numbers? What have you achieved for clients similar to me?

Strategic optimizations? Like what?

Extensive experience? How much?

Measurable results? LIKE WHAT?

And so on.

To be honest, this type of proposal is one of the most common I receive—and one of the first I send to the “archives.”

I can’t be bothered to pry specifics out of a freelancer when there are other proposals in my inbox that do all the work for me.

And here’s another “add-on” tip for you…

(Man this is more like 21 mistakes, not 7 mistakes…)

The other red flag in this proposal is all the “me me me” language.

Your clients don’t want to hear about you. They want to hear what you can do for them.

I know this isn’t revolutionary, and you’ve probably heard it before. So…

Why are so many of you still making this mistake?

Upwork is not a traditional job application.

So why do half of the proposals on my job posts start like this:

…And end with something like “respectfully yours?”

Whom it may concern?

Brother, I’m reading this at my dining room table wearing shorts and listening to lofi video game hip hop beats…don’t “whom it may concern” me.

There’s a time and place for formality, but you need to know your audience. And Upwork is not that audience.

I almost didn’t include this one, but I see this type of proposal frequently enough to call it out.

One of my clients showed this to me, and…

I kind of admire the balls of this proposal, but it’s JUST direct enough to annoy me.

There’s something to be said about polarizing messages like this. Some people appreciate the directness, others don’t.

When it comes to Upwork proposals SPECIFICALLY, I’m a big believer in “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

I once A/B tested proposals like this against my normal pitches, and they failed spectacularly. Maybe that’s just not my personality, but…I literally got hate mail from a business owner.

And it made me feel bad.

(I said their overuse of emojis made me need laser eye surgery. I still cringe when I think about it.)

If you’re slinging “truth” bombs like this, proceed with caution.

There’s no “magic pill” to writing better proposals…so I made one.

No, I’m not about to sell you something. Sir/madam, this is a blog post. Calm down.

I’m talking about my Proposal Cheat Sheet, which you can pry out of my stingy hands for the low cost of free.

My Proposal Cheat Sheet tells you EXACTLY how to fix all of these mistakes, including:

• How to sound like an expert—even if you’ve got zero reviews, self-doubt hangs over your shoulder like the Grim Reaper, and you’re sweating bullets when you hit “send” on your proposal…
• The “Club Sandwich” 🥪 portfolio trick that gets your work clicked and your milestones funded…
• Why breaking this ‘sacred’ Upwork rule makes GOOD clients trust you more…and banishes bad clients back to the Shadow Realm…
• And a whole lot more…

All you have to do is click the button below. Enter your email on the next page (JUST your email). And I’ll send you the cheat sheet.

Here’s the link:

P.S. Yes, I’m going to email you. I know, you don’t want emails from another random hustle-bro. Fair.

But…

I’m willing to bet you’ll actually LIKE my “hot tips.”

Plus, no hype…I’m not going to break into your inbox with a megaphone screaming about how you can make 9 figures working 5 minutes a day on Upwork.

(But if you know how, please tell me.)

Give them a shot. Worst case scenario? You get a totally free proposal cheat sheet from a guy who’s been on “both sides” of the Upwork battlefield.

And you can unsubscribe anytime.

Easy, right?

Get the cheat sheet here:

P.P.S. Here’s the kind of responses I get to my proposals…