I’m looking forward to talking about websites for freelancers at “Gateway to Success,” this year’s Be a Better Freelancer conference, coming up October 11–13, 2019, in St. Louis. This topic is always fun to discuss because there’s always something new in the world of creating and managing websites and because it lends itself so well to graphics and illustrations. It’s also kind of fun to share what doesn’t work in a website, alongside what does make an effective site to promote your freelance business.
It’s become common knowledge that freelancers in any skill set need websites to build and support our business efforts. Sure, you can promote your business at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, but a website is important because:
- It’s all yours; no one else controls or limits how it looks and what it presents.
- It helps you be found—it comes up when someone searches for the skills and services you provide. That’s especially important for anyone starting out, because unknown freelancers won’t be found by their names.
- It gives you a permanent email address.
- It’s flexible—you can choose what to post, what and when to update it, the amount of information you provide, etc.
- It speaks for you with clients who aren’t local and you aren’t likely to meet them in person to show your work samples. It’s your portfolio in an era when you probably will work with more clients who aren’t in your geographic area than ones who are.
Even if you already have a website for your freelance services, you’ll probably find the insights discussed at this session beneficial. You might gain new resources for making it look or read better and to attract business and educate prospective clients about who you are and how you work.
Think of your website as the base and office of your freelance business. It’s your showroom. It’s your path to being a better freelancer!
To benefit from this session—and many other ones—you will need to register for the conference.
This is the 14th offering of the conference, and the first-ever partnership between Communication Central and NAIWE. We hope to see you there!
Ruth Thaler-Carter has been a full-time freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and desktop publisher for more than 30 years. She has been published locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally in, and does writing, editing and proofreading for, publications, associations, nonprofits, websites, service firms, and businesses. She sold her first freelance articles when she was still in high school. Renowned as a skilled networker, Ruth is active in about a dozen professional associations, serving as a newsletter editor, webmaster, publication author, speaker/presenter, blogger, program host or planner, and chapter leader. In 2006, Ruth launched the Communication Central “Be a Better Freelancer”® annual conference to help aspiring and established freelancers find greater success and connections with colleagues. Ruth is the owner and editor-in-chief of the An American Editor blog and received the Philip M. Stern Award of Washington (DC) Independent Writers for service to freelancers; the Writers and Books Big Pencil Award for teaching adults and contributions to the literary community; EFfie awards for writing, editing, and newsletters; and the APEX award for feature writing. She was also an IABC/DC Communicator of the Year.
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