Having your own freelance website is one of the best ways to market or start your freelance business because it establishes you in the search engines and starts the process of getting your name out into the client community. The easiest way for new freelancers to create this online space is with a blog.

However, having a blog does not mean that you will instantly start receiving requests for freelance opportunities or that you’ll ever make money from your blog. Your blog could simply be a marketing piece - an online list of your abilities with samples of your work.

Starting a blog for the purpose of freelancing is an activity that will take time to build up to a profit level where clients seek you out for assignments. It’s good to start and maintain your blog while you are working on other freelancer opportunities and let it build to a well-visited, visable resource for others in your industry. With time and attention, your blog could grow into a business in its own right!

When blogging as a professional freelancer, you’ll want to pay close attention to how you present yourself in your blog. There are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, and there may be several hundred blogs that are related to your topic. If your readers can’t understand your content and make sense of it, they’ll just move on to the next website. The following tips can make your freelance website more user-friendly and help you gain consistent readers and clients.

First, pay close attention to the format. Readers want to understand how your freelancing website works right from their initial visit. Most blogging platforms have similar formats, with links and tags on the left or right margin, and the most recent post on top. Make sure to use the links wisely. Only put links up for information that is truly related to your primary topic to avoid confusion. The point is to give your readers additional information about you and your services. Keep the list short and sweet.

Next, consider readability when choosing your freelance website’s background and font color. Although there are a lot of color choices available, its best to stick with a light background and dark text. Studies have shown that the human brain can process this type of format better than light text on a dark background. Think about this before you commit to a black background and white text. It might look striking, but readers might not want to stay there for long - too hard on the eyes. Also, solid or faded backgrounds are better than a distracting pattern or design.

Proofread every entry before you post them to your freelance website. There is nothing that reduces your authority in the eyes of your readers’ more than bad spelling and grammar - especially so if you are seeking freelance writing assignments. The online world is a world of text, so take some time to learn commonly misspelled words and avoid grammatical errors at all costs.

Keep your freelance blog content fresh and interesting by posting at 2-4 times per week. With so much information available on the Internet, your readers may go elsewhere if you aren’t supplying regularly updated content. If you aren’t sure what to write about, try posting a poll, a link to another blog, comment on a related news story or post a list of helpful tips. Not every post has to be long and complicated, but you do need to post often.

These tips will help keep your freelancing website readable and interesting to your visitors. The more visitors you get, the more your blog will grow in profitability and importance. Just make sure to present yourself in a professional way and keep your readers coming back for more new content every week. In no time, you’ll have a profitable blog and then you can branch out to create more.

Last Modified: February 1st, 2009 Filed under: How to Get Freelance Jobs TAG(s): freelance, freelance websites, freelance writing, websites Navigate: Previous post / Next post

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