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Course: Secrets of a 6-Figure Upworker
About the creator: Danny Margulies is a long-time sales guy, but a relatively new freelancer. When he quit his job to “go freelance,” he had no idea what he was doing. But within a few months on Upwork (formerly Elance), he was charging premium rates.
Now a successful copywriter, he’s created the course Secrets of a 6-Figure Upworker to walk you through the step-by-step process he used to ramp up his career and make bank doing it.
Price: $297 for the whole thing. Includes the full course videos, worksheets and forum access.
Who It’s For: Any freelancer who wants to learn how to position and sell themselves. The course is specific to Upwork, but these tactics are useful for anyone, new or established, looking to charge more and bring in better clients.
What It Will Help You Do: The self-paced course takes you through everything from your profile to your portfolio to your proposals.
Each section features a handful of videos ranging from just a few minutes to over half an hour. Each video is a simple PowerPoint with Danny’s voice walking you through his strategies, while also showing you real-life examples. All the content is available to binge-watch in one day, but be sure to watch them in order since they do build upon each other.
This is not, however, a course about how to use Upwork. Because I’d never used the platform before, I had questions about things like tests, reviews and setting my rates as a newbie. Danny does not address website specifics, probably because platforms like these change all the time.
But after finishing the course, I’m glad he didn’t go into these aspects. His strategies really aren’t about Upwork at all — he really teaches you how to sell yourself as a freelancer no matter where you go to find clients. Upwork’s idiosyncrasies are easy enough to learn on your own.
What’s Included: Secrets of a Six-Figure Upworker is broken into four main sections: Your Business (positioning yourself), Your Leads (tapping into the Hidden Upwork Economy), Your Proposals (selling yourself) and Your Results (keeping clients for life).
There is a small on-site community forum that’s pretty active, but I didn’t get a ton of benefit from talking to other members. For me this was a heads-down, do-whatever-Danny-tells-me type course.
What Would Make It Even Better: My only real complaint is that Danny isn’t a natural presenter. He recorded a few calls as part of the bonus section and he’s charming and engaging. But his videos? It’s very obvious he’s reading from a script. The result was a lot of rewinding when I’d find myself dozing off.
The content is compelling, don’t get me wrong, but I wish the videos themselves were a little more lively.
My tip: Find something else to do while listening. You don’t really need to watch the videos so I had fun with markers and a coloring book while I listened.
How It Changed My Life: I started this course just a few weeks ago. I had no Upwork experience and assumed the platform was full of low-balling freelancers and low-quality clients.
But within just three days I landed my first job, though a private invite, at $95/hour (double my usual rate). Just a few days after that? I was hired through a proposal just a few hours after sending it. Both new clients have now hired me for ongoing work and I’m in the process of interviewing for three more projects.
I took this course because my clients weren’t lighting my fire. I attract tech companies, but I much prefer working for lifestyle businesses. When I found Danny’s course I figured it could help me both branch out and and also increase my rates. In just two weeks I’ve done both.
Danny says, “The moment you try to win on Upwork by doing what seems natural, you’ve already lost.” After taking his course, I couldn’t agree more.
I thought I was pretty good at attracting and keeping new clients, but I see now I was doing everything wrong. Whether on Upwork or not, I will never go back to how I was pitching before. I think Upwork and I are going to have a beautiful relationship.
Our Recommendation: Secrets of a Six-Figure Upworker should be required watching for freelance copywriters. Danny’s positioning and pitching advice is the most comprehensive and fascinating I’ve ever experienced. The format is clear and his strategies are easy to implement. To be honest, I’m nervous about publishing this review because I’m scared of additional competition.
So, you know, stay away. Shoo!
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