This is a guest post from Sharon Hurley Hall who last time she guest posted shared tips on how to be a writer.
The last time I posted here, I said that getting paid to write was not just about the writing. I outlined some of the aspects of building a writing business – or any freelance business – that you ought to consider. Today, I’d like to look in more detail at the hub of your business – your website. Since I’m a writer, I’ll use examples from my writing business, but really these suggestions could work for anyone.
Your Own Domain – Just Do It!
If you’re still wondering whether you should buy your own domain, stop wondering and just do it. If you’re going to set out your stall on the web, you should own – or at least rent – the land it is on.
Then start thinking about what you are going to put on it. You don’t get more than a few seconds to make a good impression, so you need to make sure that when potential clients visit your site, they know what you are all about. My site has had many incarnations over the years, but in the current design I’ve come back to a traditional corporate but fun home page, with the blog as part of the secondary pages. That’s because this design allows me to showcase my skills on one page. Even if visitors never go anywhere else, they will know what I do and how to contact me.
Doing Some Keyword Research
One of the things you need to do to decide how to describe your services is keyword research. Really, I’ve been talking about this for years, but it is so important.
- What words will people use when they are looking for your services? Those are your top keyword phrases. You need to build those into your content now by using the suggestions in How to Use Your Keyword Phrases in Your Content.
- What terms do you want to rank for? Build those in too and then use Gail’s blog linking strategy to ensure that you get search engine placement for those terms.
And don’t be afraid of some competitive analysis – if there’s a site you admire that’s getting lots of traffic, check out what they are doing and see what lessons you can take away from it.
What Can They See?
Visuals are also important. People retain more of what they see than what they hear or read, so have some pictures on your site. Include an avatar – you’re more trustworthy if people can identify you and screenshots of your work. This can be challenging for ghostwriters. I’ve got around this by doing similar work for sites where I can get the credit and showcasing those in my portfolio.
You also need to include lots of proof that you can do what you say you can do. Your portfolio is part of this, but it never hurts to have testimonials. Here’s a sure fire formula for getting a good testimonial from your clients.
To Price or Not to Price?
Many people wonder about including prices on your website. I think it depends on your business. My take is that each piece of writing is unique to the client, so I can’t quote till I know exactly what’s required. Of course, I have guide prices in my head (and on my PC) but I don’t want to make myself a hostage to fortune if a particular job is more complex or simpler than my average prices are worked out for.
So, to recap, you need a great home page, testimonials and a list of services, but there’s more. Clients want to research you so have a wonderful about page, your resume (if it’s relevant) and anything else that proves that you are the person they need. Since I blog professionally, I set up a separate page for blogging credits, which I update monthly, and I also set up a page for my ebooks. There’s no hard sell there, but clients can see that I know how to write, edit and publish a Kindle ebook.
What About The Blog?
You may be wondering why it’s taken me so long to get around to the blog. After all, I’m a confirmed blogger and believe in the power of blogging for profile raising. It’s certainly worked for me in other arenas.
But it may surprise you to know that I’ve found that the blog isn’t the most important part of my current client website. I update it a couple of times a month with testimonials and new published material – and that’s good for search engine visibility.
Because I don’t otherwise address clients on my blog (though I plan to one day), the all in one home page is a greater selling tool. I’m not ruling out putting more client centered material on the blog one day. In fact, I already have a couple of posts. Right now, though, it’s not a focus.
So how does it work? When I changed from the old design to the new one, I immediately noticed an increase in client communication. Many clients have told me that they have seen my site and liked what they saw. Before, I don’t think my business site was doing the job, and now it is.
So that’s what’s worked for me in creating a business website. What tips can you share on using a website to promote your business?
Sharon Hurley Hall
Latest posts by Sharon Hurley Hall (see all)
- Key Aspects of Your Business Website for Writers (and Small Businesses and Others) - November 1, 2011
- Getting Paid to Write – It's More Than Just Writing - July 1, 2011
I just had my website redesigned and I definitely feel it lends a greater sense of professionalism to my business.
A quick point I’d add: make your contact information very easy to find. Put it on every page in a spot that’s easy to see.
Have you ever wanted to get in touch with a company and had a hard time finding the contact information? It’s frustrating and you’re inclined to give up if it’s not easy. You don’t want to put potential clients in that position.
Kristen Hicks would love you to read ..12 Things Every Non-Expert NEEDS to Know About SEO
I have chosen not to indicate prices on the web site, but to send personalized letters instead – anyway the requests are always unique, so prices // services always need to be adapted 🙂
>>If you’re still wondering whether you should buy your own domain
LOL…its funny to me how many people still think its a big deal in some way to get your own doman.. I personally own a dozen at least! And the more you register, the cheaper it is to register them. Its *really* quite affordable these days. If I had a dime for every time I’ve had this conversation with someone about how cheap and easy grabbing your own personal domain is….
Greg would love you to read ..Tips for Win/Win Negotiations
Hi Greg,
You’re absolutely correct that it is cheap and easy go register a domain – but there are many people who have never done it and don’t know how. I encourage them to ask those they trust to assist them because it is the most important thing they can do if they want to have an online presence to make sure they don’t lose all their hard work.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing: Where to Start
Of all the factors above, the “What Can They See?” will decide everything. The viewers will be attracted the most by the design of a blog. No matter how well you write, a bad designed blog will possibly make them click back immediately.
“You don’t get more than a few seconds to make a good impression”. I think this is the most difficult part when start writing. I usually spend much more time than expected when come to a new idea. And the problem is I don;t know how and where to start.
Frank would love you to read ..Futures Press Launches an Education Enrichment Initiative… June 21st, 2011
Having your own domain is the way to go. Good design and content will certainly help in promoting your business. The cost of web design is costly but worth it.
Yeah, you really have a great point, especially when you talk about keyword research. It’s important to search for what words people actually use for to search about the content they need. In your part, you have to write a content based from what people are actually looking for. This way, you get to rank and expose your business website more.
I think you have a point about frequency. From our own experience, I can say that blogging on average 5 times per week for the last 6 or so weeks is not only difficult to sustain as we have a niche business but you also question does anyone care? In our instance we have to keep thumping away at it as the positives outweigh the negatives. I’m also becoming more and more convinced that the search engines like you more (I know that’s an obvious statement), if you blog on a regular basis. It also gives you more opportunity to syndicate content if you have…more content. Ultimately it is all dark majik and alchemy!!
Paul Thomas would love you to read ..The IT CV – the knot weed of the CV world
I think my thoughts stem from the need to blog as much as possible to create a body of work that can be referenced by the search engines but absolutely agree that if you have nothing to say the best thing to write is nothing.
Paul Thomas would love you to read ..The IT CV – the knot weed of the CV world
The visual element of branding is the most important. I ‘m soon going to be paying somebody to design my website for me and its going to take me a while to find somebody with the right touch.
Hi Sharon, do you reckon there is a greater need for regular blog posting or occasional (quality) blog posting? You say yourself you don’t update yours too frequently – some businesses make the mistake of publishing content for the sake of publishing something, which I don’t see as worthwhile.
Hi Sharon,
I know you have written this post more about business websites and so but recently I have been thinking of adding a Services page to my blog. I have picked up a lot of tips from this post of yours which will help me make a better service page. But I am still stuck at one point, the pricing info, I am still quite in deliberation as to If I should add some pricing info or if I should not.
Regards,
Shiva
Nice tutorial.You have given great tips and thanks for sharing site links.
Pete Goumas would love you to read ..Wacky Planet Coupons – Review
Hello,
So true, blogging is very important to get organic traffic. Google these days only like organic traffic because that is genuine and a thought process id gone behind it.
Earlier I never used to buy domain only work with the free stuff. Then a friend of mine suggested me to buy one and it has really helped. My sales have become much more.
Thanks for sharing
Femina Athur
God Bless
Hi
I have made a mini site PC Speed Doctor keeping in mind the points you have mentioned.
Hope it works well
Thanks
Chad
Hi Sharon,
The pricing issue is one I have not yet concluded myself. Very few competitors have published their prices so I don’t publish mine. Not sure if that’s a good idea or not. What I do is very valuable to my clients because it enables them to progress their career or find one.
Nik
Nik would love you to read ..Do I really need a career coach?
Hi Sharon,
Just after I wrote that post someone enquired about pricing, most people book a free consultation and we take it from there. Do you have any experience on stating pricing like “Starting From: $…” Whats your view on that and will you not run the risk that everyone wants that bottom price?
Nik
Nik would love you to read ..How To Become a Management Consultant
You have written about everything we discuss with clients. I see so many small to medium sized businesses that are not using their websites to their full potential. I help to educate my clients as much as possible because once they understand the benefits of their online presence they are eager to get started! You summed all of it very nicely! Great post.
I think blogging is very important for such smaller sites. Because the main things won’t change that much on the page, you need other changing content on your site to keep it alive and interesting. Just with up-to-date content you give users a motivation to revisit your site.
Wowwww,
Great series for make money through online marketing with lot of ideas and in this post i like that point which you mentioned like that “”Doing Some Keyword Research”” which will help lot for get good PR in search engines.
sam would love you to read ..Goa Carnival 2012
I think to gain client’s trust you need to showcase your works and skill in one place. To do this a personal website is the best option that provide you all the facilities of arranging your portfolio as you desire. Good point Sharon.
pricing is a real double edged sword isn’t it. We sell paper pom poms, for which obviously we give prices, but we also offer a service to produce the poms and bring them and decorate your space / venue. This obviously is very variable, we have plumped for showing some example venues and giving ball park figures. We found that some people would not call in the first instance assuming they couldn’t afford such a bespoke service, but we also know of instances where people have seen prices quoted on websites at less than they would expect to pay and decided that the service must be poor or in some way inferior to more expensive sites.
Most of the small companies are still blissfully ignorant of business website influence on customer choice of products/services. This should help them know that you can no longer ignore
It’s a great plus to have the potential in writing. Thank you very much for sharing this extraordinary article. The tips can certainly help.
Keyword research is the key, and the starting point for anyone who is creating a website, or looking to get found on the search engines for their chosen keywords. Without this research, and knowing how many people are searching for certain terms, your SEO efforts will be in vain. Find the right keywords with a healthy monthly search volume, and as little competition as possible, and develop your link building and on-page content around it.
this is a really great post Sharon, a good balance of detail. I think if people are thinking of designing their own sites it’s worth doing some research into why some designs work and some don’t. Look at other successful sites and try to see how layout of navigation, images and information is important. If users have to look around for the info they need they will leave very quickly. It’s good to notice that there is more to a good design than nice colors, it has to be useable too, information should flow and things should be where users expect them to be.
absolutely, that’s great advice, get the layout right and then add color to enhance, and stop adding colour / flashing gizmos / bells / whistles long before you drown the page, probably before you even think you have enough.
check out the webby awards for some cool design ideas, design for web is a little different from design for print though, the way we read online is quite different from the way we read print, especially the way we scan a page or article for specific information, online for instance we look primarily for images or link text for directions to the info we’re looking for.
Adding a price on your website will be a hit or miss in terms of opportunity, small businesses will run away if you price to high or you’ll be forced to work for a big and never ending project. Still it’s you choice 🙂
Sanjay would love you to read ..How to Create Plastic Buttons in Photoshop
Another great guest post to showcase your great writing skill!
I always find the “put the price on the site” question a bit difficult. You don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot and give people the wrong price indication if their particular project would be more difficult or cost more time than normal projects. But I believe that many people just assume the worst if you don’t show them how affordable the service is. Even if you write that it is cheap and affordable and they can just send you a message to get a better indication.
thank you, this article is very helpful for a smooth my online business.
Excellent coverage of the basics, Sharon! Funny – another blog I commented on this morning was about this “reiterating the basics” vs. “constantly posting new, more advanced stuff” and the consensus we all seemed to come to was “BASICS, yo.” ‘Cause the audience is ever-refreshing itself, and besides which, some of us “old pros” can use a little refresher course …
Annie Sisk (Pajama Productivity) would love you to read ..Setting Your Business Goals: The Art of Reverse Engineering, Part 1
I like that concept of an ever-refreshing audience, Annie. I don’t know about you, but I still get questions about stuff like this, which proves that it’s still useful to someone, right?
We had a similar conversation regarding a clients site recently and came down on the side of balance, some new advanced some reiterating the basics. Yes you definitely want new readers and to keep bringing in a new fresh audience, but at the same time you don’t want to lose your existing audience, you need to be feeding them something too, you want to build your audience not simply keep it at the same size by losing existing readers at the same rate as your gaining new ones.
Nice work, Sharon. You’ve got a great starter kit for anyone who needs to put up a website!
Tea Silvestre would love you to read ..The Shy Business Owner’s Guide to In-Person Networking
Thanks, Tea. You’re right; this is a starting point – everyone can customize to make it right for their particular business.
Thank you for the advice and the great links! Not sure how you have the time to make so many great articles
I can see from this article that you’re an experinced blogger. Thanks for the tips about keyword research and keyword phrases