Someone asked me a question about whether to add paid reviews on their freelancing marketplace profiles. For example, adding a paid 5 star review on a Fiverr or Upwork profile by paying someone who will pretend to be client.
My answer: You do not need reviews. You need solid skills in a specific niche. However, if you have the skills, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to add a single review to showcase your expertise. But skill comes first.
The next thing would be market demand. Reviews won’t help if the demand is low cause in a low demand market, only the experts will get the jobs. Hence, new freelancers will have a hard time getting clients or they will have to reduce their pay rate.
For example, assume there are 100 clients offering 200 jobs in the graphic design niche and there are 1000 freelancers competing for the 200 jobs. Then, top 100 freelancers will take the first 100 jobs. Another 50 will be taken by the 101-200th freelancers. The last 50 jobs will go to those offering low rates or those with excellent communication skills.
As a new freelancer, your chance of getting work in such work environment is near zero. Hence, you should look out for other marketplaces where there might be higher demand instead of focusing too much on a few specific large markets.