Which direction should a web designer take on Upwork?

Question

Freelance

Hello.
I am at a crossroads in which direction to develop. If you tell me, I will be glad and grateful.
Which direction on Upwork to choose so that it:
- is relevant now and remains so in a year;
- allowed to earn from $ 2000 per month (we take into account the rate and workload of projects);
- had the prospect of official full-time employment;
- was not completely captured by "Indians" of all stripes.
Directions:
1. Mobile app design in Sketch (end product: Sketch layouts)
2. Web service design (Axure prototypes, PSD layouts)
3. Web service design in Sketch (Sketch layouts)
4. Bootstrap design and layout (layouts) design)
5. Design, layout, integration in Wordpress (site on Wordpress)
6. Site design in Muse (page / site with Muse-code)
7. Video editing and post-production (final product: video)

Answer 1

$ 2000 can be earned by doing any direction that you have listed. If you do it professionally enough and have an impressive portfolio. But the question is which one to choose so that a) the number of projects is large (there was plenty to choose from) and b) the number of competitors (read Indians) is small.
There is such a pattern here - the more popular the direction (the more projects), the more competition. For example, doing Muse-design, you will get a minimum of competition, your chance of winning a job will be 60-70%, but how many orders will there be? 2-3 per week. So a balance is needed.
PSD layouts, Axure, Bootstrap layout - these are all popular on the Russian freelance market. But on Upwork, people are simpler. They don't want to hire 3 different people to sketch, design, code. Most want an instant solution. And that's why the most popular category on the web is Wordpress (further Joomla, layout, etc.). You need to specialize in some narrow segment. Web development as a whole is too vast an industry for freelancing. A Wordpress developer or Magento developer earns more than just a web developer.
In essence, you will have to do the same work that you did. There you have HTML, CSS, PHP, JS and Photoshop, Illustrator. You just need to learn some native API of several popular CMS.
As I said, competition from the army of hungry Indians is guaranteed. You have to survive the first months as best you can. Work for pennies (or even completely free), dumping. But in the end, when you collect a normal portfolio, you will see that you are ahead of the majority. 80% of freelancers in this category have almost no real skills. You just need to let the client know that you are not one of them.
I advise you to collect a profile at 100% from the very beginning, fill in all the fields, and pass the exams. This gives you a real competitive advantage

Answer 2

Just go to the upwork and see what they order, it’s only for five minutes.