Many freelance writers inform me they’ve by no means gotten a nibble off their author websites.
If that is you—or you may have but to place up an internet site—let me highlight a few of the greatest issues proper now.
See, there are some fundamental approaches, and a few key phrases, that you simply actually need to keep away from in your freelance author web site.
These blunders make you appear, variously:
- Determined
- Pushy
- Snobby
- Self-involved
- Bored with doing shopper work
Listed below are the cringe-worthy strikes to keep away from for author websites
Need to skip all that and put collectively a author website that presents you as a powerful candidate for freelance jobs? Maintain studying.
7 phrases to delete out of your author website
Right here’s a set of well-liked phrases I see on author web sites—and so they truthfully make me cringe each time.
1. I might love to jot down for you
File this underneath “stating the plain.” It sounds such as you’re frantically pushing to get a shopper, any shopper. You wouldn’t have a author website should you weren’t in search of shoppers, proper? We all know you’d looove to jot down for prospects. The query is, how are you making them really feel they’d love to rent you? This phrase doesn’t do it.
2. Let me allow you to
I do know, you’re attempting to appear accessible. Nevertheless it simply sounds determined. There’s kind of an unstated “please, I urge of you” in right here.
3. I can write something
This most likely looks as if an interesting method. However the reality is, few writers can actually write each kind of task. Most good writers concentrate on some specific varieties of writing—they do content material advertising, or write brochures, or journal articles. Making an attempt to be all issues to all shoppers doesn’t win on author web sites, as most prospects are in search of somebody with expertise with their specific trade, or the kind of writing they need finished.
4. I additionally write poetry/novels
You would possibly assume displaying your creativity will impress. However should you’re taking pictures for enterprise shoppers, all it means to them is, “Woo-woo artsy one that desires to observe their muse—and who received’t actually care about my deadlines.”
5. I’m a brand new freelance author/simply beginning out/simply graduated from school
This isn’t prospects’ enterprise, and never a plus. Observe the tried-and-true rule of emphasizing your strengths in your website copy, not your weak factors. You’ll be able to write a powerful website that helps get you employed, at the same time as a beginner.
6. Do you want a contract author?
No, no, no. You don’t need prospects to rent A freelance author. You’re not placing up a author website since you’d like to teach the general public that hiring freelancers is nice. Sure? As a substitute, you need them to rent you. Maintain the main focus in your particular benefits, your distinctive promoting proposition (USP).
7. I’ve X and Y superior levels
You’re mentioning these possible in hopes of impressing prospects. However in a decade serving to writers, I’ve but to listen to from any who record their M.A., MBA, J.D., Ph.D. or what-all subsequent to their title on their author web sites—and get good shoppers. It appears to telegraph: “Hello, I’m costly and pretentious, too.” Let’s face it, educational writing model is stiff and formal in comparison with most enterprise writing at present. So it could fear entrepreneurs that your writing will learn like a enterprise letter from 1960.
These could seem to be little issues: a title said right here, a bit phrase dropped in there. However add them up, and also you’ve obtained author web sites that don’t come off skilled. And that ship shoppers away.
3 massive copy issues to keep away from in your author website
The copy in your author web site must be sharp. Attempt to keep in mind that your author website is a writing audition. You’ll be able to write sharp author web sites with no portfolio and nonetheless get web site copy gigs off it! Your website is a writing pattern in itself.
However most writers fall down on this process. I do know, it’s exhausting to jot down about your self.
Attempt to keep away from these fundamental gaffes. Seen these method too many occasions:
Ineffective headlines
Most author websites have a homepage headline that claims both, “Welcome to my web site!” or simply: “Hi there!” That’s not a headline that magnetizes a purchaser.
Headlines ought to rapidly flash to prospects that you simply perceive them. So that you’re in search of one thing extra like “Copy That Converts for In the present day’s Time-Pressed Expertise Purchaser.” Make sense?
Homepage copy that’s all about you
You’ve obtained an About Web page for telling your story. The homepage is all in regards to the shopper—their issues, the varieties of assist they want. After which, you relate the way you resolve them. Your homepage isn’t a spot to recite your resume, record all of the varieties of writing you can do, or any of that boring blather. What converts is tapping into the fears and high pains of your buyer, displaying you perceive them…after which, briefly saying why you ought to be their selection.
Quotes from well-known authors
These merely don’t belong on author web sites. Keep in mind, we’re attempting to get you employed right here, not Jane Austen or Mark Twain. Impressing shoppers that you simply’re well-read doesn’t result in a rent.
Simply correcting these three fundamental points can create a giant improve in how skilled author websites seem—so should you’ve obtained any of the above happening, time to make a number of tweaks.
How you can move the three-second rule
Researchers say that new guests to an internet site give it three seconds. This time has shrunk regular over the previous decade. Guests rapidly look round, and if what they see doesn’t orient them, they transfer on.
What issues do prospects want to have the ability to see, instantly, with out scrolling down, once they land on a author website?
Listed below are the basics you have to present instantly:
- An image of you. Keep in mind, there are loads of scams on the Web, and loads of bizarre, nameless author companies on the market, that become primarily based in far-off lands. Present an image and allow them to know you’re an actual individual
- How you can contact you. Don’t disguise it underneath a tab! Or heaven forbid, power guests to fill out a type. Stick your e mail (and ideally, telephone) within the header, proper the place folks can see. Really write out your e mail deal with—should you simply have a graphic of e mail and code it along with your deal with, many individuals received’t be capable to see it. They’ve set their browser to dam pop-ups, so it received’t load. Don’t make it exhausting for prospects to get in contact!
- What industries you recognize. In my expertise, the highest factor prospects seek for is alongside the traces of, “I would like a author who is aware of about ____ (manufacturing, marina administration, healthcare IT, and so forth.).” However most writers both disguise this info deep of their websites, or by no means point out it in any respect, in hopes of ‘not turning anybody away.’ Information flash: that’s a method that sends most everybody away
- Orienting tagline. A great deal of writers prefer to get inventive with their tagline—attempting to indicate that writing ability! However this isn’t the place for that, as a result of taglines are a key place to place key phrases for Google to assist ship you prospects. So select “Atlanta healthcare author” right here, versus “Wordsmith Extraordinaire”
Bonus factors: To maintain extra guests, you can additionally inform folks the place you’re positioned. Some people nonetheless prefer to take an in-person assembly earlier than they rent a freelancer, so should you’re in or close to a good mid-sized metropolis, say so.
Further bonus factors: Get the meta-data of your homepage to make use of key phrases for the kind of author you might be. As a substitute of claiming “Joe Smith” when somebody mouses over the browser tab, it may say, “Finance author Joe Smith.” Google will discover, and also you’ll drive many extra prospects within the door to see your website. When you’re not a techy kind, make pals with somebody who can present you how you can make that occur in your specific web site platform (trace: WordPress is the dominant platform, and the one I like to recommend).
How you can make your author website rock
What do you do after you’ve written a draft of your website, eliminating these fundamental issues and including the essential three-second orientation gadgets?
Add character. Make it one thing solely you can have written.
Then, get a assessment from an skilled professional to ensure it’s optimized and able to win shoppers over.
Lastly, don’t neglect to maintain updating your website, as you get new clips! Author websites aren’t static paperwork, so don’t let yours get outdated. Google likes websites that hold altering.
