Do Freelance Sites Help A Creative Career

I Made $100K on Upwork In 3 Years

As a professional British Voice Artist, I’ve built a business on the back of long term clients and industry standard rates. Thats great, but when you start out in any creative field, you just need urgent access to the market to get some sort of foothold. There’s a whole group of freelance platforms that people in the Voiceover Community turn their nose up at. These are places where commodity services are offered and there’s no differentiation other than price point.

You’ll find hundreds of logo designers, voice artists, sound mixers and website builders in these places and it’s no surprise that they have a reputation as bottom feeder platforms.

I’m talking about platforms like FIVERR, Upwork and Freelancer, but there are many more.

So when I got an email from Upwork to say I’d reached a milestone of $100k in earnings, a feat that only a very small percentage of users achieve, it made me wonder if they were so bad after all.

Why Are Sites Like Upwork Good For Creatives ?

It’s a good place to start if you have little experience, but still need access to the market-place. This was my situation as a newbie Voice Artist.

In the early days of your career, the idea of being a specialist and having a niche is a bit non-sensical. It’s something that eventually discovers you and is largely informed by what people seem happiest to her you for. I now focus mostly on Audioguides, Audiobooks and Game Characters, but I only discovered my aptitude for these genres by submitting hundreds of auditions and seeing what was working.

You certainly gain experience, which I did. I started to learn my strengths as a British Male Voice Artist, earned money and started to build a good reputation. In the early stages of a Voiceover career, reviews are probably more important to you than project fees and that should be the case in any creative field.

Why Are Sites Like Upwork Bad For Creatives ?

You risk positioning yourself as a low cost, commodity service provider.

The rates on sites like Upwork are generally low and eventually you’ll want to break out and start raising your rates.

The problem is that building a client base is a big part of creating a successful creative Business, it certainly is with Voiceover and you risk clients dropping off once rates are raised. Is that necessarily a bad thing though ?

If your goal is to increase both your standing and your income, then you have to accept that you will move on. Parting ways with a former client doesn’t have to be mercenary though and I found a simple explanation of how things have changed was well received.

How I Used Upwork To Get Traction as a Voice Artist

When I received an email from Upwork to say congratulations for earning $100K on their platform, it felt like sweet justification for the hours put in and all the hard work. Here’s how that was achieved.

 Quantity At First Is Important

The initial focus was on quantity of jobs completed, rather than being precious about the rates. It was out of the question to focus on quality, I was untested, un-proven and still training. 

Improve Quality Before Raising Rates

I got consistent coaching, attended classes and learned my craft. At the same time though, bills had to be paid and I just had to take anything. It felt like eating dirt at times, but I new that nothing could be built without having both a solid foundation of skill and the basis of a good reputation.

Know Where You Stand In The Market

Sites like Upwork are great places to cut your teeth while you hone your craft. It’s so essential though to keep a realistic track of exactly where you stand in terms of quality against fellow professionals. You can’t allow your success on a freelance site determine this as it’s far from illustrative of the wider creative community. If you do, then you may be in for a surprise later on.

Reviews are Worth More Than Rates

My goal was to get 50 great reviews on Upwork and only when this was achieved could I arguably start demanding higher rates on that platform.

Over time, there was a balancing act between knowing the market-place and knowing your worth. There’s a ceiling to what most people will pay on sites like Upwork and that’s what gets them the reputation of being low quality and low paying platforms.

In my experience though, higher end jobs do exist on these sites and one particular client has paid me $50k over an extended period.

Selecting A Single Freelance Platform Is Essential

It’s tempting to spread yourself too thin across the multiple freelance platforms, but thats a mistake in my view. Being the ‘go to’ person on one platform should be the strategy to adopt. 

I selected Upwork and dedicated my time to satisfying clients, building my reputation and earnings on a single platform.

That in itself then created a positive feedback loop, as you’re likely to look more credible to a client with $25K earned on a site, than $250.

Only by being active every day on there, was I able to jump on the quality jobs when they did appear.

Challenge Of Breaking Away From Freelance Sites

There will come a point when you think you should be charging higher rates, more than can realistically be charged on places like Upwork.

There’s a reality gap to be bridged here. A good strategy for raising rates incrementally is to add a percentage each month, or after every successful project.

You’ll find that 20% of your existing clients will likely drop off every time you do this and that can be hard to stomach. However this is the only way to increase your income.

Ultimately, using platforms like Upwork exclusively is not a model for creating a successful Voiceover Career. The economics just don’t add up.

Burn out

When you start as a Voice Artist, or in any creative field, just earning ‘something’ can feel like a win. The mind-set at first is that it’s just a case of scaling. To be fair, there is truth in that and you may be incredibly good at securing a high volume of work.

Voiceover work is mentally demanding, as is the endless search for more and more work on Pay to Play platforms. You may be able to bring in decent money for a year or two, but seriously, how long before you burn out ?

You’ll eventually get better at your craft and inevitably start resenting the work, the clients and the platform you’re using. This will lead to you cutting corners and that important reputation you worked so hard to create can disappear overnight.

Eggs In One Basket

Earning all of your money from Freelance platforms is a hand to mouth existence. The platform owes you no loyalty and they also reserve the right to delete your profile if they deem you’ve transgressed their rules in some way.

So Where Do Freelance Sites Fit Into A Voice Career ?

Sites like Upwork have their place, certainly in the early stages of a creative career like VoiceOver. Don’t fall into the trap though of using these exclusively and seeing this as a sustainable business strategy long term.

As you gain experience, gather great reviews and hone your skills, you should also:

Get some professional coaching

Create a quality website to showcase your talent

Generate Leads

Market your services

Generate a client base away from these sites that pay market rates

Remember that Freelance Sites generally pay below market rates. Only by doing these things will you actually have anything that has potential for growth. Upwork has been good to me, but it’s so important to understand its role in the wider view of my development as a Professional Voice Artist.

James Fowler Voiceover

James has been a Professional British Voice Artist for 7 years, serving clients around the World with broadcast quality audio for Audiobooks, Audioguides and Character Voices for Games. He lives in Hampshire UK and works from a professional studio. He has a tone that’s popular with documentary, narrative styles and loves a character voice job.