Sep 26 2008
What Goes on a Freelance Website?
Let’s talk freelancing!
Now that you have a domain name, have purchased a hosting package, or have decided to use the free Geocities or Google Pages or some type of a blog template platform and forward your domain there, it’s time to consider what should be included on your freelance webpage.
The most important thing to include on your website is going to be your name and your company name. After that, you’ll need all of the following:
About Page
Your main page of your website is your welcome and for a smaller business, it’s probably going to be your ‘about’ page too. Here you want to tell the potential clients about your business, a bit about you, and provide the tone and feel for the rest of the website.
Contact Information
In order to get clients for your freelance business, they will need to have some way to contact you. I recommend using both an address and a phone number, as well as email addresses. If you’re worried about giving your home address out on the internet (and let’s face it, who can blame you?), I suggest getting a PO Box. However, not just any PO Box. If you go to one of the mailbox stores, you can usually get a physical street address, making it look like your address is a physical address, while not revealing anything personal about where you live. These can run anywhere from $35 per year up to quite expensive.
As for phone numbers, we all know that getting an address from a phone number is pretty easy to do, which would negate the need to get the PO Box. Another option for phone numbers is to get a toll-free number that forwards to your home phone line or to get a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) line. Skype has some that are fully internet based, while Vonage can offer you some that can double as a ‘land line’ type phone.
I personally got a second line in my home and then got a toll-free number to forward to that line. The line is unlisted, and the toll-free number doesn’t list a physical address, and that way, customers can call me for free from anywhere in the USA. There’s a charge of .25 cents per connect and .11 cents per minute for the toll-free calls that are incoming, but it’s worth it to me.
Then, of course, email addresses where you can be contacted are important too. Tomorrow’s blog will give you a nifty way to avoid having strippers/spammers grab your email address from your website but still make it clickable and available to your clients too, so stay tuned for that!
Services Provided
Depending on what type of freelancing you plan to do, you’ll need to determine your list of services and display those on your website, with at least brief information about what the services entail. If you want to post prices too, that’s okay. Some people do. I personally don’t put up my cost, because every project is unique and depending on how much work the project will require, how much I already know about the topic/subject, how much research, how much time… etc, prices will vary.
Samples / Mock Ups / Experience
First, if you have finished projects available for potential clients to see, by all means link to those. For example, if you design websites, link to some of the website you’ve worked on. If you are a writer, list the publications and sites where you have written in the past. If you’re a graphic designer, give links to images other clients have used of yours.
If you provide services, chances are you have some sample of the type of work you do that you can provide for potential clients to see. If you’re brand new to freelancing and don’t have any paid gigs yet to use as examples of past work, then simply create some mock ups or samples of the type of work you can do and put those up on your website for potential clients to see.
The services you provided in the past aren’t as important as the services you are talented enough and capable of providing now. The past services and work only serves to confirm that, but they aren’t required.
References / Testimonials
Rerferences and testimonials aren’t required either, but if you have good references or quotes from clients who have said you’ve done a good job, put them up as references for your work. Be sure not to give personal information about clients on your website though, like email address or phone numbers, without their permission to do so.
Essentially, a freelance website is a combination of a business website detailing services provided and a portfolio of the freelancer. Call it an interactive extended resume of sorts.
I highly recommend searching for other freelance websites and see what works and doesn’t work from looking at real-life examples of other freelancers.
If you’re just getting started and you have a resume detailing your experience, you can convert your resume to PDF and upload it to your website as well, and this will suffice until you can finish getting the site built.
The website doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. All you need are the basics and to have a web presence where clients can contact you and see a list of your services.
I know, these are just generic tips, and you’ll likely find what works for you after a bit of trial and error, tweaking and changing things, and getting it perfect.
Happy Freelancing!
Love and stuff,
Michy
