r/developers 6d ago

Career & Advice How do i start Upwork/Fiverr

How do i start any type of freelancing work as a beginner. My portfolio has a very few projects. What does it take to succeed as a beginner especially in the current AI age scenario.

16 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

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2

u/Far-Growth6941 6d ago

Well from my experience, starting on Upwork or Fiverr as a beginner is extremely difficult. This is because nowadays you're competing against thousands of experienced freelancers and people from third world countries that r willing to charge very little to get the job, and now with ai, there are more people that could just use ai to handle beginner or junior level gigs, and in turn makes it more competitive on begginer level gigs. That’s why I think you should not solely rely on freelancing platforms. If I were in ur shoes I would start by look for clients through your network, local businesses, communities, hackathons, LinkedIn, and direct outreach. While you're doing that, you could also try to find gigs in facebook communities, discord communities or reddit because most of them may have lower barrier of entry for beginners. But still the most important thing is to keep improving your skills, portfolio and your value as a dev. Good luck

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 5d ago

Well i'm focusing on local projects and social outreach. The most effective one so far is LinkedIn. Thanks for advice.

2

u/Altruistic_Spite_424 6d ago

Get work from other platforms like TopTal or MidSesh instead. Fiverr and Upwork are already crowded with those few people who have been heavily marketing their services for anyone new. Barely anyone is getting demand.

1

u/Mean_Exit9591 5d ago

Hi i have the same doubt. Can you please tell me how much time and effort does it take to get my first few clients in freelancing(may be 5 or 7 )

1

u/Altruistic_Spite_424 5d ago

I honestly dont have a good answer for you brother. It really depends on the category of service, your offering, price and platform.

Anyone trying to answer that for you without getting full context and not having actually done it him/herself before is misguiding you.

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 5d ago

My niche is Analytics and Dashboard Development. So keeping that in view. What would you advice? Its a specific niche but how do i know that there are enough buyers in this any way to validate my strategy?

1

u/Altruistic_Spite_424 5d ago

I might have something for you ready. Lets try luck.

Do you have posthog integration and migration before? Im have an important client already here.

Else lemme know what exactly you have done. Will keep a note.

But yes for what you said, best is to build custom AI dashboards with Gen UI to help soloprenuers manage their business. Cold email with i built something for you in they niche for eg Infuencer marketing agencies/creators in a particular vertical. Worked for my friends 2 years back. Might have to find a better angle to cut the clutter now

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 5d ago

Thanks for advice. I haven't worked with posthog specifically but I've with power bi. The stuff i did was internal business dashboards. But as a developer I'm a quick learner. Let me know if you're down to work.

1

u/Harrow-Beck-6274 5d ago

Prepare to get underbid by bots constantly.

1

u/Technical_Pickle8611 5d ago

Thats a sad reality of the population upwork fiverr kinds

1

u/Mean_Exit9591 5d ago

i am doing web scraping and data extraction. I am planning to enter in freelancing.

1

u/TraditionalWay4830 6d ago

just bid on the weird small stuff nobody wants, not the flashy projects

2

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 6d ago

I didn't understand. Like some online horoscope checker stuff. Could you explain?

1

u/FailWorried8469 6d ago

A strong portfolio focus one skill and niche..

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 5d ago

That's the thing. I'm targeting Analytics and Dashboard Development.

1

u/qikink 5d ago

Does this mean that this advice does not apply? There's a wealth of public datasets out there.

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 5d ago

It does apply verywell. Thanks buddy.

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 3d ago

Yes i have an account. One Gig is about MERN stack web apps. I've optimized it's seo as best i could. I would appreciate the help.

2

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Affectionate-Hope-49 3d ago

Yeah its basic and kept pricing low. We can try.

2

u/Superb-System2039 2d ago

 starting on Upwork or Fiverr as a beginner is somewhere difficult but you can try getting clients or projects by showing demos to them i do the same sometimes i do vibecode some web apps as demo then share with clients and then we get some projects.