Your website is everything.
First, prioritise its existence.
Second, prioritise its improvement.
How to create a freelancing website that makes money.
Everything I've learned.
A thread.
Your website is everything.
First, prioritise its existence.
Second, prioritise its improvement.
- WordPress
- Notion
- Carrd
- Wix
It doesn't matter which you choose,
What matters is you have a website.
If you can:
- Capture leads
- Add content easily
- Have a clear design
You're good.
It's not working.
Don't rest on a website that doesn't work for you.
Improve it until it does.
- Copy
- Layout
- Trust signals
- Call to action
- Value proposition
- Conversion method
You can generate leads from a website with 1 page.
- About/story
- Testimonials
- Blog/articles
- Case studies
- Contact info
- Portfolio
- Process
- Terms
Think less about "you" and more about "them".
Use language and terms that your target audience will understand.
Target clients, not peers.
Single column layouts work well with text-heavy pages because they're easy to scan.
For example:
- A photograph/video of yourself (People buy from people)
- Past clients you've worked with (I know these companies)
- Testimonials from past clients (They can do this for me too)
- A story/social media links (This is a real person)
Think,
"What do I want a user of this page to ultimately do".
If that's "Hire me",
Then write that on your call to action buttons!
Target audience dependent, some modern extensions are confusing.
Go for [yourname].com if you can get it.
It looks better and it types in easier.
Research people's problems and create landing pages showing the solutions that you can provide.
Write about what your prospects are searching for.
Track progress with analytics,
Iterate and refine based on results.
Write content that gets links.
It'll help your domain overall,
Which means if your articles do well,
Your landing pages for selling services get a boost too.
Put a link to the page you most want people to see in your profile(s).
Ideas for positioning:
- Your home page (1-4 short snippets)
- Every page above the footer (1 full length or 1-2 short snippets)
- A dedicated testimonials page if you have 10+
Make more detail available to prospects whose interest remains stoked.
Fewer fancy features,
Greater content clarity.
Add a hidden field to your forms that tells you which page of your website a prospect has come from.
For example:
- "Freelance React developer"
- "React consultant"
- "React contractor"
Keep the best leads and sell those that don't fit.
Think,
"What's important to people searching for the solutions that I provide?"
If that's:
- Experience
- Reliability
- Expertise
- Care
Leave no confusion that that's how you operate.
Guarantee your work.
Show confidence in your ability to deliver.
Make it clear that submitting an enquiry on your website guarantees a reply:
"You'll get a reply within 24 hours!" next to the send button works.
Justify the user's effort.
Even though this page is about you,
You're still selling.
Have a clear call to action here too.
For copy, think:
"How can I tell my story in a way that resonates with my audience?"
Cut to the chase and don't make stuff up.
Results are more important.
Show what you've done before:
- Portfolio
- Write-ups
- Case studies
- Personal projects
- Past clients worked with
And if you have tangible figures, use them.
"Does this increase a buyer's trust in my ability?"
Make sure it's a confident yes.
Don't add things for the sake of it.
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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
