Many freelance writers inform me they’ve by no means gotten a nibble off their author websites.
If that is you—or you’ve gotten but to place up a web site—let me highlight a number of the largest issues proper now.
See, there are some primary approaches, and a few key phrases, that you just actually wish 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
Wish to skip all that and put collectively a author web site that presents you as a powerful candidate for freelance jobs? Preserve studying.
7 phrases to delete out of your author web site
Right here’s a set of fashionable phrases I see on author web sites—they usually actually make me cringe each time.
1. I’d love to put in writing for you
File this beneath “stating the apparent.” It sounds such as you’re frantically pushing to get a shopper, any shopper. You wouldn’t have a author web site if you happen to weren’t searching for shoppers, proper? We all know you’d looove to put in writing 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 enable you
I do know, you’re attempting to appear accessible. However it simply sounds determined. There’s kind of an unstated “please, I encourage of you” in right here.
3. I can write something
This most likely looks like an interesting method. However the truth is, few writers can actually write each kind of task. Most good writers specialise in some specific varieties of writing—they do content material advertising, or write brochures, or journal articles. Attempting to be all issues to all shoppers doesn’t win on author web sites, as most prospects are searching for somebody with expertise with their specific trade, or the kind of writing they need achieved.
4. I additionally write poetry/novels
You would possibly suppose displaying your creativity will impress. However if you happen to’re capturing for enterprise shoppers, all it means to them is, “Woo-woo artsy one who needs to comply with 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 web site copy, not your weak factors. You possibly can write a powerful web site that helps get you employed, whilst 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 web site since you’d like to teach the general public that hiring freelancers is sweet. Sure? As an alternative, you need them to rent you. Preserve the main focus in your particular benefits, your distinctive promoting proposition (USP).
7. I’ve X and Y superior levels
You’re mentioning these doubtless in hopes of impressing prospects. However in a decade serving to writers, I’ve but to listen to from any who checklist their M.A., MBA, J.D., Ph.D. or what-all subsequent to their identify on their author web sites—and get good shoppers. It appears to telegraph: “Hello, I’m costly and pretentious, too.” Let’s face it, tutorial writing type is stiff and formal in comparison with most enterprise writing right this moment. So it might fear entrepreneurs that your writing will learn like a enterprise letter from 1960.
These could appear to be little issues: a title said right here, a bit of 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 web site
The copy in your author web site must be sharp. Attempt to keep in mind that your author web site is a writing audition. You possibly can write sharp author web sites with no portfolio and nonetheless get web site copy gigs off it! Your web site is a writing pattern in itself.
However most writers fall down on this job. I do know, it’s arduous to put in writing about your self.
Attempt to keep away from these primary gaffes. Seen these approach 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 just perceive them. So that you’re searching for one thing extra like “Copy That Converts for Right this moment’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 concerning the shopper—their issues, the varieties of assist they want. After which, you relate the way you clear up them. Your homepage isn’t a spot to recite your resume, checklist all of the varieties of writing you would 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 have to be their alternative.
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 just’re well-read doesn’t result in a rent.
Simply correcting these three primary points can create a giant improve in how skilled author websites seem—so if you happen to’ve obtained any of the above occurring, time to make a number of tweaks.
The best way to go the three-second rule
Researchers say that new guests to a web 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 web site?
Listed below are the basics that you must present immediately:
- An image of you. Keep in mind, there are a number of scams on the Web, and a number of bizarre, nameless author businesses on the market, that become based mostly in far-off lands. Present an image and allow them to know you’re an actual particular person
- The best way to contact you. Don’t cover it beneath a tab! Or heaven forbid, pressure guests to fill out a type. Stick your e mail (and ideally, cellphone) within the header, proper the place folks can see. Really write out your e mail deal with—if you happen to 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 arduous for prospects to get in contact!
- What industries . In my expertise, the highest factor prospects seek for is alongside the strains of, “I want a author who is aware of about ____ (manufacturing, marina administration, healthcare IT, and so on.).” However most writers both cover this data 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 technique that sends most everybody away
- Orienting tagline. A great deal of writers wish to get artistic with their tagline—attempting to point out 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 would additionally inform folks the place you’re positioned. Some of us nonetheless wish to take an in-person assembly earlier than they rent a freelancer, so if you happen to’re in or close to a good mid-sized metropolis, say so.
Additional bonus factors: Get the meta-data of your homepage to make use of key phrases for the kind of author you might be. As an alternative 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 web site. When you’re not a techy kind, make pals with somebody who can present you tips on how to make that occur in your specific web site platform (trace: WordPress is the dominant platform, and the one I like to recommend).
The best way to make your author web site rock
What do you do after you’ve written a draft of your web site, eliminating these primary issues and including the essential three-second orientation objects?
Add persona. Make it one thing solely you would have written.
Then, get a assessment from an skilled professional to verify it’s optimized and able to win shoppers over.
Lastly, don’t neglect to maintain updating your web site, as you get new clips! Author websites aren’t static paperwork, so don’t let yours get outdated. Google likes websites that preserve altering.
