Now the good news. I’m starting a blog over at my main business Web site, Direct Creative. For those who are professional copywriters or designers (or those who want to be), this may end up being a better venue to learn the ropes, since I’ll be talking shop in a much more personal way.

And if you’re into direct marketing, advertising, or any type of business communication, it should prove to be an excellent place to pick up tips on getting better results from your advertising and marketing efforts.

If you need more incentive, try this: I’ll be interviewing some of the top freelancers in the direct marketing world in the coming weeks, including Bob Bly, Ivan Levison, and Alan Sharpe. They’ll reveal their secrets for success, provide tips on doing better work, and share their predictions for the future of business.

I’ll leave The Freelance Pro up for a while for what it’s worth. But I encourage you to visit the new Direct Creative Blog and sign up for the RSS feed. I’d also suggest that you sign up for my free newsletter, since I’m offering a free report to all new subscribers called 99 Easy Ways to Boost Your Direct Mail Response.

When I began my site tune-up last month, my site was way down into the two millions. Ignoring my site for several years had done a lot of damage and this low ranking was the result.

Over the last few weeks, I got to work revamping elements of my site. I didn’t think there would be any quick or radical effect, but when I checked my rank on Alexa today I was surprised to find that my site had rocketed up to the 1.3 million spot. That’s an increase of well over a million positions.

This rank isn’t exactly newsworthy, since it means there are over a million sites with more traffic or a higher rank than mine. But it is noteworthy given that this represents an increase in rank of around 50 percent in a few short weeks.

So if you have ever doubted whether optimization of your site was worthwhile, put your doubts to rest.

Oh, and now when you do a search for direct mail copywriter or direct marketing copywriter, which is the business I’m in, my site is no longer down around page six. I now show up at the top of page two. Not bad for a few weeks’ work.

Will this make any difference to my business? You betcha. Most people don’t look past the first couple of pages when they’re doing a search. I’m already getting calls from people who have never heard of me before but saw my site after doing a search.

Seven years ago, I dumped my dorky old Web site and created a new site from scratch. Since I like to do things the hard way sometimes, I did it all myself. I wanted to learn HTML and other Web stuff because I knew this would become more and more important in my line of work.

So I bought a book on HTML, sketched ideas for my site, created graphics, took photos and did a little Photoshop magic, and I cranked out a new site. It was light-years ahead of my previous site and began generating business right away. I found that it did its job so well, I no longer had to send out samples or answer a lot of questions when potential clients called me. They were pre-sold and ready to do business.

The site was successful. Too successful. Because I became complacent and ignored the site for years afterward. The result? My site took a nosedive in Google search rankings and traffic stagnated. It kept on working, for sure. I had links coming in from all over the place for several of my articles and pages, especially for an article on weird postal experiments which I reprinted with permission from another writer. So despite my lack of attention, people managed to find my site and call me with business.

But by ignoring my own site, I threw away loads of potential profits. Recently, I wised up and decided to take a hard look at my site and see what could be improved. Here are the results of my efforts.

Part 5: Tuning Up an Old Site to Make it a Better Business Generator

First, let’s take a look at my freelance Web site before my tune up. The easiest way to do that is to use the Wayback Machine.

If you clicked on the preceding link, you should have a new window open showing my Direct Creative site before the tune-up. Okay, now let’s look at my site after the tune up. If you clicked on that last link, you should have yet another new window showing my updated site. Doesn’t look much different does it?

This entire series has been about the business generating factors of a Web site, not pure design. So I wasn’t shooting for a new look. In fact, I continue to be pleased with the overall look of my site and always get positive comments about it, so I saw no reason to reinvent the site. I wanted to simply improve the site to make it get higher search rankings, make it easier to read, allow for easier editing and expansion, and add features that would increase its value as a business generator.

The first job was to recode the entire site. The old site was pure HTML. This means if I wanted to change the type style or the color of a headline, for example, I would have to make the change on every page individually. So I decided to use XHTML and CSS to make the code leaner and allow for faster editing when I need to change something. This also has the benefit of making pages faster loading and easier for search engines to crawl and index.

The second job was to learn a little about SEO, or search engine optimization, to “optimize” the site and make it friendly for both readers and search engine robots. I won’t go into all the fine details here, but this involved using proper file names and title tags as well as paying attention to key words and other best practices.

Third, and this is something you can see on the page, by using CSS to control the “look” of the pages, I was able to easily change the font and control the line height. Look at the before and after of my home page to see the difference. By applying a little best practice from typography, I was able to make the content easier on the eye.

Just doing these three things improved my site tremendously. The site would be more reader friendly as well as more search engine friendly. It would also be more webmaster friendly, making it easier for me to make changes, so there’s no excuse not to keep up with the site in the future.

But I made many more changes as well to improve the business generating qualities of the site. I started a newsletter and put the subscription form in a prominent place. This will help me generate leads and stay in contact with clients. I made the right column wider so I could post links and announcements more easily. I also added a store so people could buy books and magazines. This won’t be a huge cash generator, but it will add to the value of the site and give people a reason to return.

In the Learning Center, I have begun to add a variety of content. The long-term goal here is to provide a virtual library of how-to information, again to give people a reason to return. The mantra of good site construction is “build it and they will come.” Which means, provide a lot of high-quality content and people will flock to your site.

The changes I’ve made are mostly under the hood and around the edges, but they’ve already made a big difference. I’ve moved up in Google rankings to one of the top spots. My newsletter is taking off rapidly with new subscribers signing up every day. And I’ve found that working on the site is no longer a pain; it’s far easier with the new code. And my overall site ranking has risen dramatically, though I still have a long way to go.

From a business standpoint, my make-over has been a huge success.

Want to see what my site looked like years ago? You can use the Wayback Machine to travel back in time and see virtually any site from 1996 forward. You can see my site back in 1999 and how primitive it looked at that time. If the Archive went back further, you could look at a site I had with Compuserve that wasn’t even officially on the “net.” Many sites back then were offline and you had to access them by logging into private databanks to see them.

I hope this series has been instructive. If there’s one thing I want you to remember, it’s that your site is a business tool. Its purpose is to expose you to potential clients, generate leads, and pre-sell your expertise so that you can land more work and make more money.

Solo Success: 100 Tips for Becoming a $100,000-a-Year Freelancer by David Perlstein is one of the better freelancing books. It’s written by a guy who’s gone from job to freelance and learned the business through experience. It’s out of print, unfortunately, though you can
pick up copies cheap on Amazon or at used book dealers. I found a copy by accident at the library.

Why do I like this book? Mostly because Perlstein comes off as an honest guy who genuinely wants to help other freelancers. He didn’t write the book to brag about how much money he makes or simply to create a trophy piece to wave in front of potential clients. He shares loads of practical know-how about the day-to-day issues you’ll face when you set up shop as a freelancer.

He covers all the basics, such as creating business cards, setting up files, and finding the right office space. And he moves through essential subjects such as setting your rates, getting clients, client management, and billing and collections. There’s little fluff or braggadoccio, which is typical for these types of books.

Another thing I like is that Perlstein, who came from an ad agency background in San Francisco, recognizes that freelancers have a bad reputation in some circles. He says, “To some, freelancing suggests being between jobs or not being good enough. Know that as an independent businessperson, you are worthy of respect.” This is an image that many freelancers don’t understand and often perpetuate. The lure of freelancing for many is freedom from the workplace. But that doesn’t mean freedom from work or from structure, professionalism, initiative, or responsibility.

Published in 1998, Solo Success is a decade out of date for fees and office technology. And it seems the author’s rates were relatively low anyway, though that may simply reflect the freelancing environment of the area he worked in at that time. But otherwise, this book holds up well and delivers solid business advice for most freelancers. Its going out of print could be a result of poor cover design or simply a glut in the topic area of home-based business.

Frankly, some of the best books to read if you’re going freelance are not freelance books at all. They’re books on being a consultant, such as Getting Started in Consulting. Successful freelance writers or designers are really consultants anyway, they just happen to provide services that use writing or design skills. As I’m always telling would-be freelancers, think like a writer or designer and you’ll fail. Think like a consultant and you’ll succeed.

Do you have a favorite book that has been helpful in your own freelance career?

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.

There’s a lot of hype about this, of course. And unfortunately, the hype has caused many would-be freelancers to be cynical about their earning potential.

Some years ago, while speaking to a roomful of writers at a local conference, I encountered one young man who kept rolling his eyes during my presentation. When I asked if he had a question or comment, he told me that he just didn’t believe that you could earn lots of money from writing. He said it all sounded like a scam.

I can’t blame him for thinking that. I see all those “get rich quick” ads on the Internet too, and they make me roll my eyes. Freelancing is not a quick way to riches. You have to have skill. You have to be willing to work at it and stick with it, often for several years before you start earning big money.

But you can make a lot of money at it. I used to earn little more than five dollars an hour. And now I earn more like $500 an hour. That’s no scam. It’s just the truth.

But it begs the question: Why is it that most people never seem to earn much money from writing or design? Or to ask it another way, what’s the difference between high earners and low earners?

• High earners approach their work as a business, while low earners approach their work more like a hobby.

• High earners go after lucrative writing and design work for businesses where there is little competition, while low earners compete with millions of other writers and designers trying to get articles published or dreaming about becoming the next Van Gogh.

• High earners act like professionals, which low earners act like employees.

• High earners are wiling to take a little risk working for themselves, while low earners want the security of a full-time employer calling the shots.

• High earners are willing to put their skills to the test and compete for business, while low earners generally just want to punch a time clock and cash a check.

I’m not trying to be insulting here. I’m just telling it like it is.

If you prefer to work in a job situation, that’s fine. But you’ll probably never earn as much as the high-end freelancers. And if you do freelance, you must get rid of your employee mindset or you’ll always earn low fees and experience a lot of frustration.

I’ve seen this from both sides of the fence. I used to be a full-time employee and didn’t want to do anything like freelancing. I didn’t even like the idea of being in business. In fact, I was shocked when I realized that I was in business when I did some freelance work early on. But I made the transition and have seen how an shift in point of view was essential to my success.

Yes, you can earn six figures a year. The only thing holding you back is the way you think about your work.

There are quite a few books there now, but over time there will be even more as I find more titles to add.

You’ll find books with general freelancing tips, plus books specifically about freelance writing and design, as well as a few related freelance areas, such as editing or photography. I will also add books on consulting and small business, which offer skills and know-how you will need.

This should be your first stop when you’re looking for books about how to start and run a professional freelance business. Check it out.

One will produce a huge site crammed with information, such as articles and checklists. Another will include lots of interactivity, such as polls or a blog. Another will want a lean, spartan site that is tightly focused on describing services or showing samples.

The diversity is good. You should always make your site fit your own specialty, personality, and the expectations of your prospective clients.

But the common thread running through all freelance sites is that they are (or should be) geared for generating work for your professional freelance practice. However, thinking “business” is usually the hardest part of freelancing for most people.

Without exception, the bottom line for any freelance Web site is business. Does it attract business? Does it produce paying projects? Is it a true business asset?

Part 3: Key Elements for Your Freelance Web Site

So far in this series, we have reviewed the benefits of a business Web site for freelancers and the most common mistakes freelancers make when they create a Web site. Now it’s time to get down to brass tacks and talk about what you should include in your Web site to make it a business generator.

Here are the basics:

• Clear, descriptive home page. It should be an informative doorway to your site. You should avoid an annoying “spash” page that most people will skip anyway. Your home page should tell people at a glance who you are and what you offer. It should also reveal the overall organization of your site from a quick look at the main navigational links. You want to give a professional first impression. And you want to use copy and links to entice people to delve deeper into your site. Also, your home page should go easy on big graphics — it should load fast.

• Details about your services. It’s not enough to say you’re a copywriter or designer. Provide a specific menu of services. List the sort of jobs you handle. If you offer something unique, highlight it and describe it. One thing to keep in mind here is that specialists always earn more than generalists. Your menu of services should reflect your specialty focus. For example, since I’m a copywriter who specializes in direct mail and direct marketing, my menu includes services directly related to this specialty. I sometimes handle non-direct marketing projects, but I downplay these in my menu to avoid diluting the specialty focus I want to convey on my site.

• Answers to questions. Don’t assume people will know how you work or the details of your business. Doubt about these matters is one big hurdle that will keep a lot of people from calling you. Try to anticipate what questions prospects may have and provide clear, concise answers. How much time does it take? How much advance notice do you need? How much does it cost? What experience do you have? Do you require a contract or retainer? Do you charge for meetings? Is there a guarantee for your work? Etc.

• Proof of your expertise. It’s one thing for you to say you are an expert. It’s another to provide evidence that proves it. One obvious way to provide proof is to include testimonials from satisfied clients. Another is to provide case histories or success stories about projects that have turned out well. Posting articles you’ve written on your area of expertise is also a great way to provide proof.

• Samples of your work. Samples are a form of proof as well, and one that is a requirement for most freelancers. Prospects will almost always want to see the work you’ve done for others, though I think few will look at your samples closely. Most people simply want to get a sense of your “style” or see what sort of clients you do work for. Providing samples says that you are proud of your work, you have experience, other people trust you, and that you have nothing to hide.

• Contact information. If you want phone calls, put your phone number in a prominent location. If you want e-mail contact, do the same (though you might want to munge your address to help you avoid spam.) It’s common to have a link called “contact” that leads to a page with various ways to reach you, including phone, mail, and e-mail. If you offer free consultation or information, mention this as a call to action along with your contact information. For example: “Get a free estimate and my special report, 7 Simple Copywriting Techniques that Build Winning Brands. Call me today at 555-555-1234.”

• Means of generating inquiries. Ideally, you want your site to be more than an online brochure. You want it to actively generate sales leads for you. To do that you have to give people an incentive to contact you. I’ve given you one example to use on your contact page. Other techniques include publishing an e-newsletter so people have to provide their contact information to receive it, offering free consultation or analysis, offering samples, or even just offering a free estimate.

• Resources for your clients. In addition to elements to get new clients, you may want to include element that serve existing clients. This might include a section of your site to view projects, checklists to make projects easier, information on how to use the work you provide, links to related services, tutorials, industry news, etc. Your site is your virtual office space, so while clients probably won’t be visiting every day, it’s nice to give them an incentive to drop by occasionally.

In the next installment, we’ll take a look at my own Web site and see how I implement these ideas to promote my freelance copywriting and design business.

As a follow up, AWAI editor Sandy Franks will interview me live this Thursday, September 27, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. EST.

If you’re a copywriting freelancer, or want to be, here’s your chance to hear me talk about my behind-the-scenes creative methods that I use to drive my successful freelance practice. Even if you’re another type of freelancer, this could be an interesting hour with lots of tips for how to work with clients in the big leagues.

Here’s part of AWAI’s invitation letter sent to members:

Self-Taught Copywriting Pro Dean Rieck Shares
His Master-Level Techniques for Writing
Control After Control After Control …

Dean Rieck, who is a 20-year veteran copywriter, started out writing video scripts for shows like The Dukes of Hazard.

But Dean wasn’t content. He wanted more from his life. He tried teaching, but that didn’t work out. In a moment of desperation, he contacted his old employer … hoping to get hired back on to write scripts.

He didn’t. But the employer did offer him a position writing commercials.

Dean fell in love with the direct-response marketing aspect of advertising. He worked for a while in a full-time position, but knew he wanted to strike out on his own.

To prepare, Dean studied everything he could get his hands on. He read every book on direct-response marketing and direct-mail copywriting that he could find. He saved every direct-mail package he got in the mail for further study. And he practiced.

Now Dean’s a top-level copywriter with a reputation for beating controls. Even better, he wants to share the secrets he’s learned with you.

During the course of this exclusive, one-hour event, Dean will reveal:

• The seven-point process he uses to beat one control after another
• One surefire way you can multiply the response of every package
• What you should do more of than anything else… and it isn’t writing
• How to write teasers that will capture your target audience and have them salivating for more
• An unbeatable method for developing a winning Big Idea for every package you write
• How to master a skill quietly practiced by top-notch copywriters but overlooked by all but the most insightful novices
• A copywriting technique that all but the masters fear to use… and why you should immediately make it part of your arsenal

Click here to sign up now.

I don’t recommend that you put yourself into a position like this. But things happen, and you may find yourself needing to kick start your business. So here are a few ideas to consider.

• Work your referrals. It’s great to have people send business your way, but this takes time to work. To speed things up, simply ask people you know for names of potential clients. Contact these people and ask for more names. You keep working this chain of referrals until you find someone who needs your expertise. This won’t be to everyone’s taste. But if you’re persistent, it can work.

• Contact your “wish list.” Come up with a list of businesses you would like to work with and start making phone calls. You will probably need to talk to a few people within an organization before you find the right contact. Be pleasant and brief. Most people are willing to help direct your call if they know what you want. Don’t try to sell yourself to everyone, just ask for the person who hires freelancers. Once you reach the right person, confirm that they hire freelancers, very briefly introduce yourself, and offer to send information about your services. Later you can follow up to answer questions, set up a meeting, or schedule future contacts.

• Set up “power meetings.” This is a technique that works when you’re looking for a job, but it can also work for your freelance business early on. Find a few people who are big shots in your industry and set up a personal meeting or a phone meeting. Your goal is not to ask for work, but to ask for advice about where you can find work. A little flattery here goes a long way, so express your admiration and gratitude. Briefly explain that you’re starting your freelance business and you are seeking expert guidance. You’ll probably get good advice and a few good referrals.

• Write letters. So many people rely on e-mail these days, it’s easy to forget about sending a simple letter. Your letter can be a brief introduction to who you are and the services you provide. Or better, it can be an offer for free information, such as samples, a brochure, an article you’ve written, etc. If you’re targeting specific businesses, go ahead and send the information then follow up with a call. If you’re mass mailing, encourage people to request your information so you can tell who is most interested. Mass mailings are the surest way to find business fast, but you’ll have to spend a little money on postage and maybe an evening folding letters and stuffing envelopes.

• Mass mail postcards. Postcards are not as effective as letters, but they’re faster and cheaper, so you can contact more people. I’m not talking about vacation type postcards, but a special postcard that you write and design specifically to mail to promote your services. Like any good advertisement, it should have a strong headline and benefits. It should also provide a clear “call to action” by offering additional information and an easy means of reaching you, preferably a phone number. Don’t just send people to your Web site because that gives you no way to know who responds to your card.

• Do spec work. I don’t like spec work. But if you’re looking for a fast way to land a client, this could work. People have two major hurdles when they’re considering hiring you: they don’t know you and they don’t want to risk paying you. Offering to work on “spec,” short for speculative and which means working for free, helps potential clients leap these hurdles. However, you should make it clear that this is a special arrangement because you want to prove your skill and find paying clients.

• Do something dramatic. If you’re looking for work locally, and if you’re the dramatic type, you might pull a stunt to get attention. I read about a writer who set up a desk and a typewriter near a busy intersection and offered to write things, such as cover letters or resumes, for business people passing by. He notified the local media and received so much press coverage, his phone was ringing off the hook for weeks.

Do you have another way to get clients fast? Let me know.

In the hourly camp are those who claim that charging for the time you actually work is the only way to be sure you are fairly compensated. It’s also familiar to most freelancers who have worked this way in full-time employment situations. You quote your hourly rate, track your time, and multiply at the end of the project. Simple.

But hourly fees have a downside. Neither you nor your client know what a project will cost. This can lead to some nasty surprises and uncomfortable conversations when it’s time to invoice. Also, the better you are and the faster you work, the less you get paid, which is inherently unfair. The most important negative is that hourly fees mean you are selling your time instead of selling your expertise. This can prevent you from attaining the higher professional image you want.

Those on the other side of the issue say project fees solve these problems. You and your client both know the price tag before the work begins. The more efficiently you work, the more earning potential you have. And set fees help you to sell your expertise rather than your time. In other words, a client pays for the value of the work rather than for a chunk of your day.

But with project fees there are drawbacks as well. Without a lot of experience, you may not know what to charge, so you risk setting the fee too low, which means you will lose money on the project. You also may encounter clients who balk at the true cost of a project when they see that big number upfront. There are even clients who may inquire about your hourly rate because, regardless of the final cost, they simply want to know what you’re earning, which can cause some friction.

The answer? Apply the “Delimit Test” to choose hourly or per project.

I’ll tell you how I charge in a moment. But let me give you the skinny on choosing your fee strategy. I call it the Delimit Test.

The question to ask is whether the project has well-defined boundaries or whether it’s more open-ended. If you’re not sure about the limits or boundaries of the project, use an hourly rate. If you’re reasonably sure about the limits, use a per project rate.

When I say you’re not sure about the limits of a project, I mean you don’t know how long it will take you to complete a project. You anticipate that the client could make significant changes. The objectives are unclear. You’re dealing with a project that is inherently vague, such as generating “concepts” for an advertising campaign. Or the project will stretch over a long period of time, beyond your ability to fairly estimate the work involved, such as writing a lengthy technical manual for a new product or designing a large corporate Web site from scratch.

In situations like these, an hourly fee is the way to go. You can’t “delimit” the project, so all you can do is do the work and charge for your time.

However, when you can delimit the project, a project fee is always better for both you and your client. This would be for a situation where you know about how much time you will put in, you won’t have unexpected changes, the objectives are clear, you’re working on a well-defined type of project, or the project deadline is near and clear.

Which type of fee do I use?

When I started out, I charged hourly because that was easy. But it made me feel like an employee. Clients were buying my time, not my expertise. Also, as I became more skilled, I realized that I would have to either make less money or quote larger and larger hourly fees.

So I started using project fees for different types of projects. Did I know what to charge? No. I just took my best guess. Did I guess low sometimes? Yes. But after the project, I simply adjusted the rate. Rather than worry about the one project, my strategy was to keep adjusting until I figured out where the fees should be.

Today, I have a two-page rate card for every imaginable type of project. When a client asks my fee, I just quote from the card. Do I lose some work when the rate is too high? Yes. But my strategy on that is that I don’t care. If my fees are too high for a client, it means the client isn’t right for me.

One more thing, I also use hourly fees occasionally because some projects require it, such as consultation or on-going projects.

Add to this the interconnectivity and search abilities provided by the Internet, and the possibilities for generating business for your freelance practice are staggering.

In a desk drawer, I have what remains of a box of floppy disks I purchased over ten years ago. I have no use for them now, but they were vital back then. As a freelance copywriter, it was the only way for me to send digital files to clients. I would save a file to the disk, put the disk in an envelope, and mail it. Two or three days later, the client would receive the disk.

My fax machine and phone were a lot more important then too. I would have to fax documents on a daily basis during a project. And communicating with a client meant calling them at their office (this was before cell phones were nearly universal) and usually leaving a message on a “machine” if the line wasn’t busy (this was also before voice mail).

Today everything is different. And the most different thing is how freelancers promote their business. Back then you’d have to print brochures and mail out samples. Today everything can be done on a Web site with a few lines of code.

But here’s the hitch: While it has gotten easier to promote services to a larger audience, and while Web sites have huge potential to bring in business, most freelancers don’t take full advantage of the power of their Web site. In fact, most freelancers make one or more of seven mistakes that reduce the profit producing possibilities of their site.

Part 2: The 7 Key Web Site Mistakes Freelancers Make

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed The Benefits of a Freelance Web Site and listed nine ways that a Web site can benefit your freelance practice. Now I want to share with you some observations I’ve made over the years about where freelancers go wrong with their site.

I’d love to show you examples, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone. I’m sure you’ve probably seen plenty of examples already. Or perhaps you are committing one of these errors. I’m guilty of at least one myself.

• Including too little business information. A Web site provides a virtually unlimited space for information, but to look at some freelance sites you’d think they were paying by the pixel. If you’re not comfortable with creating your own site, you’ll have to hire someone, which can get expensive. So it’s understandable that you may be hesitant to include too much since every page is costing you. But remember that a Web site is a sales tool. In general, the more detail you provide, the more your site will sell prospects on the idea of hiring you.

• Including too much personal information. I’m not sure what some freelancers are thinking when they put up a page for their freelance services that includes pictures of their tabby cat, a list of favorite romance novels, or a recipe for mint tea punch. There’s nothing wrong with being friendly and personal on your site, even sharing a few choice personal details. But there’s a line you have to draw between your personal life and your business life. Including highly personal information makes you look unprofessional and will cost you business. Think about it. If you were researching brain surgeons for an operation you needed, would you hire a guy whose site was filled with information about his comic book collection or his obsession with Brady Bunch lunch boxes?

• Never making content updates. Guilty as charged. I nearly abandoned my site for a few years. And it’s cost me. My ranking in the search engines has slipped dramatically, which means when people do a Google search, my site is many pages down instead of on the first page where it used to be. Updating your site isn’t just about search ranking, though. Your site IS your business in the virtual world. Prospects and clients need to see that you are active and involved, which must be reflected on your Web site. You should always be adding details about your work, new services, extra samples, articles you’ve written, awards you’ve won, or anything else to keep it current.

• Adding distracting bells and whistles. You know what I’m talking about — pop up windows all over the place, flashing text, rotating graphics, music that you can’t shut off, flash videos that prevent you from getting to the site, and all the other eye and ear candy. This mistake is generally committed by people who are new to the Web, think this stuff is cool, and don’t know that it’s actually old hat and annoying for most people. Yes, you have to look good. And yes, you want to be impressive. But your effort should go into the information you provide, not into frills that distract people from reading. Remember, the more people read, the more likely you are to get a client.

• Forgetting the principles of “lead generation.” Like it or not, as a professional freelancer, you are in business. That means you have to be your own sales staff and identify good leads which you can convert into clients. To get leads, you need a way to get people to identify themselves as such. One technique is to offer a “special report” on a subject that is interesting to the sort of people who are likely to hire you. You send it to people in exchange for their contact information. There are countless other techniques, but the key thing to remember is that your Web site should be more than an online brochure. It should be an active business generation machine, always working to bring you new contacts and more work.

• Not promoting the site. If you owned a store, you would advertise it. If you ran a restaurant, you would mail out dinner coupons to bring people to it. And when you maintain a Web site, you need to promote it. Doing simple things like adding your Web address to your e-mail footer or printing your address on your business cards are simple and smart. You can even get really busy and do mailings to bring prospects to your site. A postcard is a super economical way to drive traffic your way.

• Being ignorant about the Web. There’s no getting around it. The more you know about Web stuff, the more control you’ll have over the success of your site. This means learning a little HTML and XHTML, being familiar with CSS, and maybe setting up your site on a publishing platform, such as WordPress. You’ll also benefit from knowing how to use an FTP program to transport files to your Web host, knowing how to use Photoshop to create photos and graphics, and knowing a little bit about good Web site writing and design practices to make sure you are communicating in a powerful way.

Next, we’ll take a look at what you should include in your site to give yourself a business edge. This is where it gets really interesting. Stay tuned.

You’re having a great day and then BLAM! Your client ambushes you at a meeting or starts yelling at you over the phone. Something is terribly wrong and you are in the hot seat.

What do you do?

Don’t panic! You’re human and there’s no way to be totally calm when a client is angry. But you need to keep your head clear. How? By remembering one word: ANGER.

It’s easy to recall, given the situation. Each letter gives you a step for dealing with the problem: Acknowledge — Nod — Guide — Execute — Retreat. I’ll explain each step. Then I’ll tell you how this word can help you turn your angry client into a loyal client for years to come.

Acknowledge. It doesn’t matter if your client is right or wrong. And it doesn’t matter if you think the situation is being blown out of proportion. The anger is there and it’s real, so you have to acknowledge it openly and deal with it.

The worst thing you can do is get defensive or start to debate the matter. That just turns you into the bad guy in your client’s eyes. Don’t make light of the situation or ignore it either. That’s like throwing gasoline on a fire.

Say, “I know you’re angry.” Then say, “This is important so explain the problem to me.” These simple sentences will demonstrate that you understand the emotion and that you take the situation seriously. That’s half of what your clients wants at this point.

Nod. When people are angry, they need time to vent. Don’t talk. Don’t interrupt. Don’t throw out a solution right away. Just shut up and nod as your client let’s it all out. You can’t rush them into getting over it even if you know there’s an easy fix. You have to deal with the anger before you deal with the problem.

In many cases, your client will wind down in a few minutes. It’s possible they will even start to feel a little embarrassed for becoming so emotional and could be willing to accept any solution you suggest. If they do start to act embarrassed, help them save face by saying that you understand completely, their reaction is reasonable, and you might react the same way if you were in their shoes.

Guide. Once the tirade has run its course, it’s time for you to start playing problem-solver. You want to guide your client from emotional venting to rational thinking.

The best way is to ask questions to be sure you understand the problem and find out specifically what your client expects. Suggest ideas. But also ask your client for ideas. You want to work as a team at this stage to arrive at a solution you are both happy with.

Of course, if the solution is obvious, you don’t need to ask a lot of questions. Your client will probably just tell you want needs done. In which case, you can move smoothly onto the next step.

Execute. This is where you become the hero. Fixing the problem will show that you are reliable and responsible. Take the solution you’ve agreed to and execute it immediately.

Most reasonable people don’t expect perfection, but they do expect professionalism. That means accepting responsibility for problems even if you don’t necessarily accept fault.

Retreat. Once you’ve solved the problem, you may want to apologize and verbally mend fences, but that’s a mistake. It will take a while for your client to get over the angry feelings, so retreat for a while and give your client some space.

If you’ve handled the problem professionally and promptly, that’s all you can do. Only time will mend the wounds. If you can identify why the problem happened and have an idea to prevent it in the future, mention it. But try not to bring up the situation repeatedly. It happened. You handled it. Now move on.

Ironically, going through a situation like this can actually cement the bonds between you and your client. Once you prove you can save the day when things go wrong, you will enjoy a lot more confidence from your client. And likely, if there’s another problem, it won’t create such an emotional response.

Everyone would prefer that things always go right. But the relationships that have been tested and have survived are the ones that tend to be the longest lasting.

You don’t think you have creative abilities? Nonsense. Everyone is creative to some degree. The only difference between those we call “creative” and everyone else is that creative people use and develop their creative skills. Often this is not a conscious effort, but a natural result of their personality and upbringing.

So it’s not a matter of “becoming” creative. It’s simply a matter of “energizing” the creative powers you already have. To a great extent, it’s a matter of replacing the bad habits that are holding you back with good habits that make you a more creative and productive thinker. Here are some suggestions:

• Learn your craft. You can’t be truly creative in any field until you have mastered the tools of the trade. Robert Irwin, an artist and MacArthur Fellow, spent two years, working up to 15 hours a day, painting the same picture over and over again in order to understand his work better. You don’t have to go to such an extreme, but you should certainly read the books, attend the seminars, and get as much experience in your field as possible. Talk shop with your clients and fellow freelancers. Surf the Internet. Keep your skill sets sharp and up-to-date. This knowledge will be the fuel for your creative fire.

• Get off auto pilot. Don’t allow yourself to settle into a rigid pattern. It’s easy to get comfortable with your tried-and-true formulas. Question your own expertise and the advice of the experts. Stop looking for just one right answer. Don’t settle for the first idea. Set aside the ordinary way of working now and then. Borrow good ideas from others, but try out your own, too.

• Loosen up. Sometimes the best ideas don’t immediately square with what you “know” works best. And many good ideas seem outright crazy at first glance. To maximize your creative output, come up with lots of ideas first, then figure out which are best and how to make them work later. Creating and evaluating simultaneously is like driving with your foot on the brake.

• Stop avoiding failure. Long ago, while I was still in high school, I took a summer driver’s education class with a friend who was nervous about driving. With a death grip on the wheel, he sat bolt upright, swerved back and forth on the road, slamming the brake at every intersection. He was so fixated on not making a mistake, he couldn’t concentrate on driving. Likewise, if your work process is built around the idea of avoiding failure, you will be unable to concentrate on doing the work. You will certainly not realize your full potential. Instead of avoiding failure, strive for success and accept the occasional failure as part of the learning process.

• Focus on important problems. You probably know people who focus so hard on the little stuff, they can’t get anything done — freelance writers who obsesses about the type of notebook paper they use or graphic designers who spend hours fiddling with an almost invisible detail in a Photoshop file. When you focus on trivia, you will generally get trivial results. And this will only discourage future creative thinking. There’s nothing wrong with being a detail person, just don’t lose sight of the big picture. Tackle the big issues first. That’s where the real results come from.

• Find new uses for old ideas. Some say that there are no new ideas, just new uses for old ideas. There’s a lot of truth in that. We all collect certain techniques for doing our work. And usually, we’ll use the techniques over and over in the same way. If you do a little photography for your design clients, you might use one camera lens for product shots and another for portrait shots. But you could experiment by switching to see what happens. By allowing a little cross pollination of what you know, you can discover great new ways of doing things.

• Learn about the creative process. If you’re a salesperson, you learn how to sell. If you’re a boxer, you learn how to throw a punch. If you’re a surgeon, you learn anatomy and surgical techniques. So if you’re in a creative position, shouldn’t you should learn how to create? Read books on creativity and problem-solving. Scan newspapers and magazines for stories on how businesses solve problems in creative ways. Ask people about how they solved problems. Your mind is your most important tool. Learn how to use it.

• Keep your head clear. You need information to light your creative fire, but too much will dowse it. Knowing too much is just as dangerous as not knowing enough. Trivial issues take on more importance. Indecision sets in when you have too many alternatives. Gather information at the beginning of every project, but then set it aside before you get hot and heavy into the creative process. A fresh mind produces fresh ideas.

• Break down false barriers. When someone asks you for ideas, do you find yourself always saying the same thing? Your ideas may be good, but who says these are the only ideas or the best ideas? Back up. Think things through from the beginning. What are you doing? What is the goal? Why do you do things the way you do? You may find you simply do things out of habit, not for a logical reason. False barriers are barriers you can’t see but that are blinding you to alternate ideas. Ask yourself how you would normally do something. Then look for other ways.

• Set the conditions you need to create. For most people, this means comfortable lighting, pleasing sounds and colors, plenty of space to spread out and work, information and equipment handy, and no distractions like endless phone calls or people dropping by. But the right conditions vary from person to person. Beethoven poured ice water over his head. Kant wrote in bed. Balzac drank cup after cup of coffee. Hemingway merely got up at dawn and sharpened 20 pencils. Find what works best for you.

Are you starting to feel more creative? Can you feel those creative juices starting to flow? Good. You’re on your way to becoming a creative mover and shaker.

Here’s a little assignment to help this good feeling continue: Every day do something different. It doesn’t matter what it is. Move your desk to the other side of your office. Wake up an hour earlier. Read a book on welding or candle making or stamp collecting or anything you know nothing about. Over my desk, I have a little sign that reads, “Do one thing different.” Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

Try these ideas and you’ll find yourself seeing things differently. Thinking different thoughts. Coming up with new ideas. Many a career has been built on a single great idea.

Of course, it was a complete waste of time too, since just a handful of potential clients were accessing the Web back then. It was cool to have a site, but not particularly useful. I don’t remember a single client who called me because of it.

Today, that’s all changed. Just about everyone has a Web site. Saying you don’t have a site is like saying you don’t have a phone or indoor plumbing.

But just because nearly every freelancer has a site doesn’t mean that every freelancer’s site is successful. Many have one for no other reason than everyone else has one. It’s often more a matter of not wanting to explain why they don’t have a site rather than finding ways to use the site to build their business.

This is the first of a series of articles on Web sites for freelancers. I want to discuss the benefits of having a site from a business perspective, what freelancers often do wrong when creating their site, and what elements you should include to make your site a business generator.

I’ll also show you the Web site for my own freelance business, Direct Creative, and give you an inside look at what I do that works, the different versions of the site over the years, and a peak at some important tweaking I’m doing to improve my site.

Part 1: The Benefits of a Freelance Web Site

You may think you already know all the reasons why you have or should have a Web site. But do you? After looking at a lot of freelancer sites, it’s obvious to me that many people don’t grasp the full potential of a well-written and well-designed site.

So let’s start with some of the benefits of having a good Web site. Your freelance site lets you:

• Promote your services to the entire planet 24 hours a day. Like a billboard along the highway, it’s visible to anyone who comes by. But it can be far more than a billboard, it can be like having a full-time sales force, getting clients and generating work for your business day after day.

• Eliminate the need for printed literature. There was a time when I spent hours printing and mailing information packets to prospects. Now I just send them to my Web site.

• Reduce the need for letterhead and business cards. Your site becomes your calling card and your branding tool. Since I don’t do any business locally and I bill by e-mail, I haven’t used printed letterhead or business cards in years. But even if you do use these items, a Web site means they’re not as vital as they once were.

• Provide samples of your work to anyone, anywhere, instantly. I used to spend a lot of time making copies of my work and mailing it to people. Now I never do. My site does the work and even reduces requests for samples because of the next benefit in this list.

• Sell prospects on your expertise before they even call you. My site provides so much specific information, few people even ask me for samples. Why should they? After visiting my site, they’re already convinced I can do the job. This is one of the most powerful benefits of a good site.

• Establish a virtual space for your business in the minds of clients. One of the downsides to freelancing is that people often think of you as someone working at home in your underwear. But with a good Web site, you can give people a different and more professional image for their mind’s eye.

• Answer questions about your services. By telling potential clients how you work, you can reduce the amount of explaining when you talk to them on the phone or in person. It helps you get down to business faster so you can talk about the work rather than about yourself.

• Offer documents and resources as an aid to clients. As a professional, there are many ways you should be assisting your clients to make working with you easier and more productive. On my site, for example, I provide a Q&A document that helps me gather the information I need for projects.

• Create opportunities for additional revenue. This one is big now as people are beginning to realize how to “monetize” by selling ads and products in order to take advantage of the traffic to their sites. This is an area where I must admit that I’ve been slow on the uptake.

The bottom line is this: If you don’t have a Web site, you should. If you do have one, you should take a look at it to see if it’s doing all it can do to bring in business. Are you fully utilizing the benefits listed here?

Next in this series, a look at some of the common mistakes freelancers make with their business Web sites.