This is Day 16 of 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (or Make Yours a Better One). If you want to catch up, click here to read Day 1.
Yesterday, you installed the must-have plugins in your WordPress site. Today, you’re going to start writing content in your site!
If you will only have seven pages on your freelancing website, then I suggest those pages should be:
1. Home Page
This is the entry page, or the first thing visitors will see when they type in your domain name (remember? www.yourdomain.com?). The home page should have a title or headline that will compel your target clients to read the rest of the page. This is where your USP comes in. If you did the assignment on Day 9, you’ll have something to put on your home page.
The home page should be brief, but give a summary of your services. It should also have clear links to the other pages on your site, such as your list of services.
You may also want to add a nice, informal, personable photograph of you on your home page. It helps your prospective clients to bond with you instantly. (Tip: Make sure you’re looking into the camera.)
For a sample, take a look at the home page of my professional website.
2. About Page
Now, pull out that story you wrote about yourself on Day 5. You may want to revise it a little to fit better on your About page.
Should you use the first person or third person? Either way works, except that some people aren’t comfortable talking about themselves the whole time! If that’s the case with you – or you want your story to sound more objective – then write the About Page in the third person, like I do here.
If you didn’t put a photograph on your home page, you should definitely put one in your About Page. Come on, let your prospects get to know you better!
3. Services
This is the page where you publish your menu of services, which you completed on Day 7. Make the page easy to read, so your prospects don’t get confused or lost. It’s easy to lose clients this way.
If you decide to publish your rates as well (which I highly recommend), use the assignment from Day 8. Make sure to read the comments on that post for an excellent suggestion about how to express your rates.
4. Contact
It’s essential that prospective clients be able to reach you from your website! Some people recommend having a telephone number on your contacts page, or even a customer support live chat. Whether you do so or not depends on your personal style and the needs of your target clients.
Personally, I don’t like to talk to my clients (prospect or otherwise). That’s because I’m a stay at home Mom with a preschool-age child. It’s nearly impossible for me to engage in a telephone conversation without being interrupted. In fact, I have to schedule phone calls (when absolutely necessary) during the times when hubby is home to keep the munchkins at bay, or after they’re asleep.
On the other hand, I know that some clients like to talk to a person first before deciding to hire them. So by making this choice, I am probably turning off some prospective clients. Oh well. We’re not the perfect fit for each other at this time. That’s ok.
At the very least, your prospective client should be able to Email you from your site. This is where the WordPress plugin cformsII comes in handy, and why I recommended it yesterday. With cformsII, you can create a contact form on your site without displaying your Email address online. You don’t want to publish your Email address because that makes you vulnerable to spam bots that harvest Email addresses on websites. Here’s the contact form I made with cformsII.
That’s it for today. We’ll talk about the next 3 essential pages you should have on your freelancing website tomorrow.
In the meantime, how’s your website going? Let me know by posting a comment below.
Lexi
PS: I should point out that you ought to write all this content by creating Pages in WordPress, rather than posts. Pages are for static content on your site. Use Posts if you want your site to have a blog, which is dynamic content.
PPS: If you’re not comfortable with writing, refer to Copyblogger.com and Contentrix.com for easy-to-follow tips on writing web content.
PPPS: If you want more detailed guidance on building your freelancing website, take a look at “The Savvy Freelancer’s Website Secrets: How to Create a Client Magnet Online.”
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