What a Successful Freelance Web Site Looks Like

Secrets of a freelance Web site that sells! A Web site is a reflection of the person who created it.

When you see a disorganized site, you can infer that the owner is probably disorganized. When you see a site that is loaded with photos of cute puppies, you can infer that the owner either has a dog or at least has a love of canines. For many people, the Web has become their face to the world. It is far more expressive and revealing than anyone could have imagined when it was being created years ago in a university as a way to share academic information.

Back then, it didn’t matter what you posted. Only a very select group would see it. But a little over a decade ago, when the Web began to become commercialized and opened up to the general public, everything changed.

What you post now is potentially seen by millions all over the world. You can get more exposure on a Web site than you can appearing on the evening news. This has raised the stakes significantly and has made creating a Web site a make or break task for many people, including freelancers.

So far in this series, we’ve looked at the benefits of having a freelance Web site, the mistakes freelancers often make with their Web sites, (like putting puppies on your site), and the essential elements to include in a Web site for freelancers. Now I want to show you my own Web site and what I’ve done to make it successful. And by successful, I’m talking about how it presents information about my freelance services and helps me generate paying clients.

Part 4: An Example of a Web Site That Works

I’m a freelance copywriter, designer, and consultant. And my business is called Direct Creative. I specialize in direct mail and direct marketing. Let’s take a look at my Website. Click here to look at my site in a separate browser window.

The first thing you’ll notice is that my homepage makes it instantly clear who I am and what I do. Both the headline and the photo of me with the mailbox let people know that I deal with direct mail. I have an introductory paragraph that provides some details about my services. Plus, there are links to all the main sections of my site.

In the “services” section, I provide a menu of my main services. Any potential client can look at this page and see what I offer at a glance. And if they have additional questions (and they almost certainly will), I include a “faq” or frequently asked questions section with many questions and answers about who I am, what I do, and how I work. I can’t anticipate every question, but by taking the time to answer a variety of specific questions, I show that I’m willing to be open with details on my services. This is far more important than the specific answers.

If my site had nothing but what you’ve already seen, I’d have a pretty good site. But there’s still an underlying question that most people will have: Do you know what you’re doing? That’s why I include a “bio” section, which includes details about my experience. Prospects can see what sort of clients I have, where I’ve been published, organizations I have belonged to, etc.

But all of these details go only so far. People expect me to say great things about myself, so to prove that I really do know what I’m doing, I need to show other people saying great things about me too. Which brings us to the section with testimonials, which I call “kudos.” Here I list comments from clients and fans of my articles. These work for me the same way they work for a product. When you go to Amazon.com, for example, you probably check the comments other people make before you buy a book or a CD, right? That’s because you want some objective assurance that what you’re buying is a quality product.

Next, I post a few samples of my work in the “samples” section. There’s a lot more I could do with this area, but few people ask me for more, so it must be enough. I show small pictures of a few marketing pieces I’ve created and provide a brief comment on each. This is reassuring for potential clients, because you can tell a lot about a writer or designer by just looking at their work.

Naturally, there’s a “contact” page, which is an absolute must. I give a phone number at the top of every page, but the contact area provides more options. To cut down on spam, I’ve “munged” my e-mail address. Munging is a way to show your e-mail to people viewing your site, but hide it from computers that search the Web to harvest addresses for spammers. Every little bit helps.

Not all prospects will visit your site and instantly hire you, of course. Many will need further information or more time to get to know you a little better. That’s why I’ve included a variety of ways to allow people to interact with me, including offering a free consultation and providing a newsletter. In addition, I have an area of my site dedicated to articles and resources that are valuable for people in my industry. These not only help to prove my expertise, they also give my current clients tools to make working with me easier and more efficient.

My Web site is a huge asset for me. It’s my face to the world, my “store front.” It functions as a brochure and as a sample kit. It educates potential clients and convinces people to hire me. When people call me, they invariably say that they first looked at my site. That’s how I know it works.

In part 5, which is the final installment in this series, we’ll take a look at how my Web site has evolved over the years (ugh, this is like looking at unflattering high school pictures). And I’ll share a few tricks I’ve learned to make my site more user-friendly and more search-engine friendly. This can help you improve your Web site if you suspect it’s not pulling its weight.