Upwork is not that easy. Don't expect it to be.

I've been sharing a lot of my successes on here, but #Upwork hasn't always been easy for me. Even just in January of this year, things were a lot different.

This is going to be a personal story, so feel free to skip this. But there's a lesson in it for you at the end:

Surprisingly, my highest-earning years were during COVID. Staying at home did wonders for building good habits and 2021 was a record year for me.

But then came 2022. For a number of reasons, my family and I had to move internationally 4 times (downside of being a digital nomad).

It burnt through what I saved up in 2021 and left me no time to look for work. I was surviving off a few old off-Upwork clients from before, even though the pay wasn't great. I made just half of of what I made in 2021 and had to take on debt.

I was only able to restart on #Upwork in March/April of this year. I hadn't properly applied for jobs on it in over a year. A lot of stuff was new: the messages app with zoom integration, the connects system, etc.

But I felt confident: after all, I did great in 2021, I just had to repeat what I did back then. I had a strong profile with great reviews - surely things would go well?

Spoiler alert: I did MISERABLY. First 3-4 weeks I didn't get a single job. I don't think I even got an interview.

You can imagine that as someone who had recorded a whole course on how to apply for jobs on Upwork, I was feeling EXTREMELY insecure. Add on top of that that one of my long-term clients from before had fallen off, leaving me with just one other 7 hrs/week client to provide for myself and my family.

Doubts were bouncing around in my mind that I had stayed away too long, the platform had moved on, and my previous experience was useless.

I even started considering -*gasp* - looking for a full-time job.

But in the meantime, I just kept grinding it out and trying to adjust my strategy. I even took my own course to review my methods from several years ago.

I finally landed a project or two at about the 1 month mark. Then another one a week or two later. Invitations started to trickle through, although nowhere at my 2021 rate, and most of them nothing to write home about.

I kept going and kept applying.

I'd just like to point out: I have ADHD (as I recently found out). Focusing on something for 30 minutes is a huge victory for me. Normally my attention span is about 5 minutes (not an exaggeration).

So "grinding it out" is really, really difficult for me.

My son was born in August of this year. By that time, things were going better, but I was still making just over 50% of my 2021 monthly average. I took a few weeks off to help welcome a new life into this world and then went back to the grind.

I felt things pick up in October - 6 months after I first started really pushing it on Upwork .

By mid-November, I had so many clients coming to me that I 1) raised my rate and 2) stopped applying for job posts.

I had to start working 12-hour days, sometimes 7 days a week to meet the demand.

Despite raising my rate, it looks like December will be my first month when I'll match or maybe even surpass my 2021 monthly average.

That's 8 months later, 6 of which felt like I was barely moving, and the last 2 were full of 60+ hour workweeks.

And that's with a 6-figure profile, a 100% JSS, Top-Rated Plus status, a ton of Upwork experience, and glowing reviews.

I'm a pretty private person, so I'm not sharing this story because I want the world to know. I'm sharing it to show people that success on this platform takes TIME.

And like with everything, the initial stage moves so slowly that it feels like no progress at all. Most people give up at this stage.

Upwork is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a platform to build your own personal business, and like any business, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to succeed.

So don't give up.