How to Become a Digital Nomad

How to Get on UpWork with No Experience

 

Let’s say you opt for Option 1, choosing a digital nomad lifestyle of freelance work. The next question becomes, okay, so how do I actually find clients? Chipp had significant success on UpWork, so we’re huge proponents of marketing your freelance services on that platform. 

 

UpWork serves as an online platform (app and website) for 1) clients to hire freelancers, and 2) freelancers to market their services to potential clients and apply for specific contract jobs. For digital nomads, UpWork essentially provides one-stop-shopping for securing freelance work. 

 

But, what if you don’t already have any freelance experience? Can you still get on UpWork with no experience? Absolutely! Just follow the below steps, ideally six months to a year before you plan on going full-time digital nomad, as that will give you some time to ramp up your client base:

 

• Step 1 - Conduct a Professional Skill-Set Inventory and Grouping: Consider this your professional skills inventory. Identify your professional skills (e.g. SEO writing, accounting, digital marketing, financial analysis, etc.), then group these skills into related categories. These categories become your potential freelance service offerings. 

• Step 2 - Familiarize Yourself with the UpWork Platform: Create an account and explore the platform. Honestly, UpWork’s pretty intuitive. But, if you need extra help navigating the platform, UpWork offers interactive help options and a community forum for asking other freelancers for help. 

• Step 3 - Conduct an UpWork Market Analysis: Next, analyze the listed jobs (i.e. the contracts potential clients have posted). You need to confirm that one of your skills categories aligns with a market for potential jobs. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to find people to pay you for your freelance services. 

• Step 4 - Create Your UpWork Profile(s): After confirming your skills align with a market of potential clients, create an UpWork profile 1) highlighting those skills, and 2) tailored towards attracting the client type identified in your market analysis. 

• Step 5 - Create Your UpWork Client Onboarding Processes: You don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time you lock on a new client. Yes, UpWork handles all of your client messaging and payment processing requirements, but you still want a professional set of processes for onboarding new clients and confirming you have what you need to complete a contract. 

• Step 6 - Apply for UpWork Jobs: Finally! You can now start actually applying for jobs on UpWork. The platform uses a system of “Connects” that you can buy (very reasonably priced), with each job requiring some number of Connects to apply. As a new freelancer (i.e. without any client feedback on your UpWork profile), your hardest contract to secure will be your first one. Bid at a lower price point than you normally would, and apply, apply, apply. Once you complete that first contract, ask your client, if he or she was satisfied with your work, to leave you a positive rating. This helps you become a “known entity” on the platform. 

• Step 7 - Conduct Regular Freelance Work and Gradually Increase Your Rates: After your first contract, continue securing new clients. Gradually, as your number of positive reviews and experience grow, you can increase the rate you charge for your services. That’s why we recommend starting well before you actually start living as a digital nomad - to have the time to build a high enough hourly rate and client base to pay for your travels. 

 

Other Digital Nomad Considerations  

 

Unfortunately, there’s more to the digital nomad lifestyle than just making money while seeing the world. You need to consider a number of ancillary admin and logistics factors. Though not an exhaustive list, here are some additional considerations successful digital nomads must account for: 

 

• Time zones: How will different local times affect any required remote work coordination?  

• Wifi / power reliability: Do the places you plan on traveling have reliable wifi and power sources? If not, do you have a back-up battery and wifi hotspot?

• Log-ins / IP addresses: Do the remote work websites and software you use require log-ins from a specific IP address location? Will these work without a VPN while overseas? 

• Virtual personal network (VPN): Do you already have a VPN for overseas travel? Signing up for one is critical for 1) digitally protecting yourself on unsecured wifi networks, and 2) allowing you to change the location of your IP address (e.g. use a US-based IP address while traveling in Southeast Asia).

• Laptop portable monitor: Does the work you do require a second screen? If so, you’ll likely need a portable monitor for your laptop. 

• Do you need any additional computer equipment for your remote work? 

• Office / coworking requirements: Will your work require you to spend any time in a physical office or coworking space? If so, have you identified some potential options in your different travel destinations? (NOTE: Chipp absolutely loved overseas coworking spaces. In addition to being more productive in an office-type setting, he met tons of interesting people in these spots). 

• Visas: Do the countries you’re visiting have visa requirements? If so, have you completed any associated tasks before leaving home? 

• Medical / vaccine requirements: Some countries also have medical and vaccine requirements prior to arrival (e.g. having your yellow fever passport). Have you completed these items? 

• Mail processing: How will you handle your “snail mail” processing back home? Do you have a friend or family collecting items, or will you use a professional mail processing service? 

 

Hope this article helps guide you on your path, and best of luck becoming a digital nomad!