Creating Your Online Home for Freelancers: Here’s What You Need to Know

Table of Contents

You’ve taken the step to be a freelancer

You need an online home to showcase your super cool skill and super hot talent

Work History

About You

Photos

Recommendations

Sample Completed Projects

Consider Color

You've taken the step to be a freelancer

You’ve filed the paperwork.You may have even landed a few clients. Good work. You’ve finally found Freework —the perfect place that centralizes all your needs as a freelancer. No more scattered invoices or waiting to have to send out an invoice through your PC. But now, you want to be found by more clients.

You need an online home to showcase your super-cool skill and super hot talent.

Though 25 percent of adults use LinkedIn, your own home page can go above an beyond the capabilities of the professional platform. Your online home is a way to show clients that you’re the one they want to work with — an attitude that goes beyond possessing the necessary hard skills of a project. It’s a space you can develop to showcase your personality, your past accomplishments, and personal passions. But as a freelancer, what do you need exactly on your professional home page?

Work History

You can approach this creatively. Again, a homepage is not a LinkedIn profile or a resume. While you can add a feature that allows prospective clients to view your official resume, you can think in terms of companies or brands. Upload photos of company logos. Write a list of companies you’ve worked with. Mention how long you’ve worked in a certain industry or how much time you spent honing a skill (like Java Script or SEO).

About You

What distinguishes a personal home page from a professional platform is how you-centric it is. The section that summarizes this best is the “About Me” tab. Along with your photo, this is the place where you show clients your best professional self. Give them a few sentences about your professional career, about your past qualifications and how that led to what you’re doing now—the exciting challenge of being a freelancer. Add quirky bits, like how you enjoy kite surfing or how you were Hawaii’s reigning Hot Dog Eating Champion in 2013. Or if philanthropy is a huge part of your life, include how volunteer in your spare time. Add a photo of the dog you’re fostering. Think of the small, warm details that would feel a bit odd on a professional platform, but spotlight who you are as a person.

Photos

Humans are visual creatures—post at least one photo of you. Take a cue from big brands like Nike. They showcase the human element behind their story. Clients want to see and learn about the human behind the work. It can be a professional headshot or an iPhone snapshot. Photos must be clear and high-quality. Fuzzy and poorly-lit photos don’t communicate snazzy professional to clients. Depending on your industry, you can be more creative in what you wear or how you pose. Show yourself to be personable and knowledgeable. On your “About Me” section, be sure to include a photo.

Recommendations

Your web page is your place to brag! Solicit quotations from former employers or clients. Go through your emails and find sentences where clients have told you how happy they are with your services. Put these quotes throughout your site, giving priority to the most glorifying, most succinct one for your landing page. Feel free to add a tab that says, “What Clients Say”, or something similar. 90 percent of consumers read a review before purchasing a product. Prospective clients will want to know what others have said about your service. Show them that you’re an amiable and reliable freelancer.

Sample Completed Projects

If you’re a developer, you use GitHub as a way to show off your coding chops. But you may want to create a list of projects you’ve completed. For content creators, you may have external links to you’re copy writing, but create a space on your site that gives a quick snapshot of your writing. How to organize the of projects you’ve completed?List the client’s initial problem (depending on client confidentiality, name the company if you can).

Answer these questions when writing down a summary of projects:

What was the client’s problem?

Why did they approach you?

What was your solution?

How did your solution help them?

If you’re a videographer or a visual artist, upload sample videos or graphics. Be sure to use the formula above to reveal a prospective how you can succinctly create a solution for clients.

Consider Color

The right color could mean a higher degree of business success. Forbes surveyed logos from 100 of the most successful companies. Blue, black, and red were the heavy weight favorites. Does this mean your home page should be decked in this color trio? Not necessarily. A study done by the Color Marketing Group shows that color plays a huge role in brand awareness, increasing it by 80 percent. Think about the industry you’re in. If you’re a freelance financial analyst, you’re in a more conservative field. Shades of blue and gray may be as colorful as one would get. If you’re a blogger, you can afford to be more creative with bright yellows or cool-toned greens.

When considering colors and graphics, consider these questions: What is the mood I want to set?What are the three words that client can say about my website?

If you can, work with a designer to further personalize your website. If you’re on a budget, read the links below to learn more about color theory when building a professional web page. Using Color Theory to Create a Better Color Palette How to Choose a Color Palette for Your Web Page