My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [21]
Obviously you want a designer who comes recommended and whose work you like. If your “web designer” only has print samples, find someone else. You’ll still have to hire a web coder to finish the job. Not ideal. Also make sure you hire a designer who’s worked with freelancers who do what you do. If you’re a singer/songwriter, for example, you need a designer who can get your videos, demo tracks, and audio downloads onto your site.
A WEB PUBLISHING PLATFORM. Don’t be the gal with the site held hostage by the Web Guy who designs and runs. You want to be able to easily modify text, photos, and links on your site whenever you please. Having your site designed in a so-simple-a-monkey-could-edit-it content management system like WordPress or Movable Type makes this possible.
To Blog or Not to Blog?
That seems to be the question on every freelancer’s tongue these days. It’s definitely on mine, even though I have a blog. If I may channel my inner Tevye a moment:
Every hour I spend blogging is an hour I could have spent writing a bylined, paid article for a major media outlet, a humor essay, or a chapter of a book. On the other hand, the viral effects of a blog well done are undeniable. Each month, more and more people take a seat in your virtual living room, some of them even bearing gifts: friendship, freelance job offers, media interviews, increased sales of your product(s), news that they just told a hundred thousand of their closest online friends about your work. I certainly have my blog to thank for all of the aforementioned.
“A blog really is a great way to promote yourself, network, and get noticed,” says Ariel, who blogs professionally for Microsoft, and has kept her own blog, Electrolicious.com, since 2000. In 2007, she launched the blog OffbeatBride.com, which seems to double its web traffic every time I blink and has driven up sales of her book (Offbeat Bride) considerably. “Granted, it’s not easy work (there’s nothing sadder than an abandoned blog that hasn’t been updated for eighteen months), but the payoffs are remarkable. You’ll show up higher in search engines, get questions and comments from people you didn’t know were looking at your website, and have the opportunity to impress your prospective clients with your latest thoughts.”
Ariel works on her personal blogs about twenty hours a week; I’m lucky if I spend five or six on mine. (Naturally, she has more readers.) To keep people coming back, both of us stick to our respective themes (alt weddings, alt careers), write posts several times a week, and voice our opinions liberally.
If you decide blogging isn’t your cup of tea, you can still reap some of the same networking and search engine rewards through these simple additions to your website:
SHARE YOUR EXPERTISE. I love when freelancers include helpful resources and articles on their sites. Makes me want to visit their digital living room again and again, guacamole and chips in hand. Fiction writer Angela Fountas offers some excellent resources and advice for creative writers on her site, WriteHabit.org. Scotland-based web designer Rachel DuBois never seems to be out of small business website tips on DoGood-Design. com. Women’s money coach Mikelann Valterra has a pile of helpful articles on boosting your income on her site, WomenEarning .com. Travel journalist Amanda Castleman has a great Travel Writing 101 page on AmandaCastleman.com. And so on.
LEARN TO LOVE KEYWORDS. Search engine goddess that she is, Ariel explained keywords to me thusly: “What would you search for if you were looking to hire someone like yourself? Think outside the box of your title or business. For instance, not just ‘Chicago financial consultants’ but ‘Chicago tax advice.’ Once you’ve picked your keywords, make sure to use them on your site—especially in the names of your pages. MyWebsite.com/tax-advice.html