Hello everyone, and welcome back to my channel Jennifer Marie where I teach you different
ways that you can make money online working from home.
In my last tutorial, I talked about the new Upwork project catalog where you can publish
projects that clients can search and buy from you.
This could be YouTube thumbnail designs they purchase from you video editing, social media
marketing, etc, etc, you can go to upwork.com/services, and browse different projects available to
get an idea of what clients are buying and what they are looking to buy.
In my last tutorial, I showed you how to publish and create your own project.
And in today's tutorial, I'm going to teach you how to design your own professional cover
image for your Upwork project, we're going to use Canva, which is completely for free.
Having a custom image that follows up works guidelines will not only help your project
to get approved on Upwork, my cover image just got approved yesterday, but it will also
make your projects look more appealing and professional to potential buyers.
So before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to my channel for more
videos on how to make money online as a freelancer.
Okay, so first of all, create your own account using Canva.
Using my referral link in the description below Canva is completely free.
But if you use my referral link, you can get a free trial of the pro version of Canva.
Okay, so the first thing you want to do after you sign up to Canva is click here on custom
size, then you're going to put in 1000 for width, and 750 pixels for height.
So 1000 by 750, then click Create new design.
And so this is the size for the project cover image on Upwork.
If we go here to the Upwork project catalog, you can see here all of these are cover images.
And these are different examples.
So you want to create something that stands out and will look even more appealing than
the ones you see here.
You can see some are really basic, they just have a generic image, and others have text.
So there are some basic rules you want to follow.
You want it to have an aspect ratio of four to three, which is why we put 1000 by 750.
We want the images to be clear and high quality.
We don't want to use too much text.
We can't use any logos other than your own logo, no watermarks, the images have to be
cropped correctly.
And don't put any of your contact information like your phone number, your email or your
social media accounts.
Okay, so the first thing we want to do is create a background color.
So click on the image, then click here on this color wheel, and you can select your
own background color.
You can also click here on the plus icon, and choose whatever color you want, or type
in a code of the color you like.
The next thing we want to do, let's say is add an element, we can click here on elements.
You've got all these different lines and shapes and graphics that you can use, I'm going to
click over here on lines and shapes and click see all you can use any of these.
I'm going to scroll down and use this one here.
So I can make like a two tone color.
To move the element we are going to click and drag it.
And then you can click and drag all these little nodes here to change the size of it
as well.
To change the color, we can click on the element, then click on the box.
And again, choose whatever color you want.
So for this one, I'm going to do an example of a cover image for a social media manager
job or that that's the project we're going to advertise.
We can use a website like unsplash.com for free, royalty free images that we can use
in our cover images.
Now let's say for this example, I'm going to type in woman smiling.
And let's say you want to use a picture of yourself to advertise yourself as a social
media marketer.
This is just an example.
So let's say you find the image that you like, you can just click on it, and then click Download
free.
And that will download the image for you.
Now I'm just going to use a woman as an example, but you should use your own picture.
So we're going to click here on uploads, then click on upload media and upload the picture
that you want to use.
So this is the picture I'm going to use as the demo.
So to adjust the size of this, we can click and again just click on the nodes.
Now if you have the Pro version of Canva you can remove the background here.
If not, I recommend you use the image and use the colors within the background or do
something like this.
And then change these colors so they match the background.
For this case, I want to remove the background because I have the Pro version.
So I'm going to click on the image, then click edit image, and click here on background remover,
that will remove the background.
And then click Apply.
OK, so from here, we can add any filters that we want.
But I don't want to add a filter.
So I'm going to go back, I do want to add a glow.
So I'm going to scroll down.
Again, we're on edit image, I'm going to click glow.
And that will add a little background glow to this woman.
Now I'm going to click on her and just drag it like this, I want to zoom up a little bit
her face.
There we go.
So now I want to make the background sort of match the colors of this image.
want to click on the background again, click on background color, then click here on add
new color, and click this eyedropper icon.
And I'm going to choose one of these yellows from her shirt here.
So it matches a little bit better.
Okay, now we want to add some text, I'm going to click here on text.
And I'm going to click add a heading.
And I'm going to type in virtual assistant then enter Social Media Manager.
Okay, so to move the text, so we just click on it and drag it.
And we can adjust the size.
Again, by clicking on the nodes or adjusting it here.
I want virtual assistant to be a bit bigger.
So you can click and highlight just the first part, I'm going to make this 55 Enter, and
the bottom one a little bit smaller.
Want to make this 42, Enter.
And if you want to change the font style, we can click and drag the text you want to
change.
Click here and choose any of the fonts that you want.
I'm going to use this one guy Golan.
And to change the color, click and drag again.
Click here for text color.
And you can choose any color you want.
And I want to use the same as this pink here.
Okay, that looks good to me.
Now I want to add another box to make this social media manager standout going to go
back to elements, click on this square and make this white.
And click and drag it and just sort of.
So it's it's highlighted here social media manager.
And I want to send this box behind so it's at the back behind the woman.
So I'm going to right click on it and click Send to Back.
And now it's behind her head.
Now we want to add some more elements.
A social media manager would create posts on someone's Instagram or their Facebook.
So we're going to click on elements again.
And under search anything from Canva, I'm going to type in Facebook.
And you can use any of these logos.
If it has a little crown, that means it's Pro.
So some of these are pro only.
But all of these ones are free to use.
So I'm going to click on this one, you can just click and adjust the size.
got Facebook, I'm going to type in Instagram.
You can see it has these automatic little guidelines.
So it's going to show you when it's the same size, Twitter.
Okay, and now I'm going to go to elements again, go down to lines and shapes and choose
this one here.
And this one has two different colors.
So I'm going to make this white.
And then with this yellow, sort of border.
And here I just want to put in the text some more text of what this person is advertising
as a social media manager or a virtual assistant.
So I'm going to click on text again, click add a heading.
We're going to click here on bullet points to make a list.
So let's put in content creation copywriting.
Now here I want to drag this out.
I'm actually going to click here on the alignment.
So it's just like this, just the font down as well make this 35.
Okay, and this would be an example of a perfect cover image for Upwork.
It's bright, it's professional looking.
It captures your eyes because all of the colors match and look good together.
So to download this from Canva we'll click share and then we click download and then
download it And here we have a really beautiful, bright, captivating image that you can use
for your project.
Now you don't have to create an image that's like this, if you think this is a little complicated
for you, you can also make a really basic looking cover image.
And I'll show you how to do that as well.
So let's go back to Canva.
Again, custom size 1000 by 750, like we did before, we're going to click again, let's
make a nice black or gray background.
Now let's say we go back to Unsplash.
Let's say I like this image here, I'm going to click on that download free, go back to
Canva, upload the image we want to use, we'll click to add it to Canva.
And then we can click here on crop and crop the image to whatever we want to use.
Then done.
Okay, then we can add text.
And then you can just change the text size as well.
Let's add a subheading.
Okay, so you could even do something as simple as that for your cover image.
It doesn't have to be as involved as this one that we did here.
And then again, just click share, download, download.
You can have multiple projects at once.
So I recommend you try a couple of different styles.
Some can be more complicated than others and see which one works for you for getting the
most amount of job offers.
Again, just make sure to browse your niche and see what other people are doing for their
cover images and try to do something that stands out a little bit more.
That's why I really like using bright colors like this that will capture the interest of
your potential buyers.
If you have any questions make sure to leave a comment in the comments section below.
Thank you guys for watching and I will see you in my next tutorial.