Are you planning on building a killer freelancer portfolio from scratch that stands out from the rest? Well, you are in for a treat!
Your longing to become a freelancer is for a reason. You call it the luxury of working for yourself and building a market or an establishment from ground zero. With the new gig economy on the rise, there are a lot of budding freelancers poaching clients.
To hold the stance, showcase your work and survive the competition, you need to rely on your ability to market yourself. With having an excellent freelancer portfolio website, you get to stand out amongst all and become a fierce competitor while generating more business at your end.
As per projected results, it shows by 2020, 40% of the workforce of the world will become a part of the gig economy. When freelancers do not sell themselves, they tend to get overlooked. To help yourself, you need to have a portfolio that speaks volumes about your work.
Benefits of having a unique Freelancer Portfolio
Having a unique portfolio enhances your reputation in a significant way. Every top-notch freelancer has their work shown through their portfolio. The benefits of it are as follows:
1) It gives you one single directory to showcase all your previous exemplary works.
2) The client gets an idea of how much value you are going to bring them by providing ample pieces of your work. It allows the client to have trust in your work.
3) You showcase your skills and talent through the freelancer portfolio and represent a legitimate business.
4) It helps the prospective clients to decide whether or not to give the work to you without much talking on emails.
5) An online freelancer portfolio enhances the visibility of your work and helps in generating more traffic.
6) It acts as a promoter of your business and lets you put your best work to enhance your gig economy career.
7) It prevents a lot of rejection while poaching clients on the internet.
Now that you have all the necessary details let’s look into the 8 tips for building a killer freelancer portfolio from scratch.
8 Tips For Building A Killer Freelancer Portfolio
Although it does matter what skills you have, you still need to market yourself to the clients. You might be a web developer, UI/UX designer, a content marketer or a photographer; all you require is the tips below for finding success from scratch with your freelancer portfolio.
1) Make a proper freelance portfolio website
Every freelancer should have their freelancer portfolio ready before they approach a client. The essentials of a portfolio include a professional domain which has your business name or your name. You need to have a logo that instantly captures the mind and makes the client recognise your website and freelance brand.
A tagline is also necessary as it helps in promoting your portfolio. It attracts clients attention and gives them an opinion about your work. If you are into writing, a short and descriptive tagline does wonders. Having a description of how you can help your potential clients in getting their requirement fulfilled gives an edge to your freelancer portfolio.
Provide the niche you’re into and a list of services you offer to help your clients understand you better. Having an ‘about me’ section with a photo of yours gives a personal touch and lets your client feel attached to you through the world wide web. It also provides authenticity to the freelancer portfolio website.
Testimonials give a great push and allow you to fetch more clients. Testimonials help in creating a trustworthy atmosphere for potential clients to offer you the work. Do not forget to have a call to action (CTA) and a contact form. It allows you to have more leads and in future more clients.
Quality images are a touch to the imagination of the client. Images attract a lot of visitors and clients to your portfolio website. Nothing better than a photo that speaks a thousand words about your work!
Articles you may like:
- A complete guide on how to get freelancing projects in India
- Stay safe by including these 9 things in your freelance contract
- An exhaustive guide on tax for freelancers in India
2) Speak about the type of work and clients you like to associate yourself
Although it is necessary to say yes to each project, having some ground rules is essential. These help in getting your desired clients. Explain what you love doing and what kind of work in your niche are you comfortable to do. For instance, if you are a travel blogger, then mentioning it helps you in avoiding technical writing gigs.
Mentioning about the specific type of companies and employers that you like to work with, helps you in the further selection of clients.
3) Create a ‘Hire Me’ page in your freelancer portfolio
Don’t just bore your clients with the traditional showcase of your prior works. Making a creative and dedicated ‘Hire Me’ page helps in giving a custom look to the clients while providing all the reasons for hiring you.
If you wish to get more clients out of the visitors on your portfolio website, make sure to have this page. Nothing better than a little more creative and personalised touch!
4) Provide free resources to your visitors
Providing free resources to your clients is an excellent source of marketing your skillset. When you giveaway bits of your work, you tend to lure the clients into giving the job to you.
For instance, if you are a web designer, give some tips and tricks to build a one-page website. It helps in winning more clients. Everyone loves to get some value from the time they give. Visitors that come to have a look at your portfolio tend to become clients with this simple approach.
In fact, if you’re an illustrator, giving a pack of hand drawn icons does the work and if you’re a writer, give them some samples that they would love to read and utilise.
In addition, it helps in showing goodwill to the clients and gives them an idea that you can provide them with a lot more than the free giveaway.
Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest updates on freelancing and remote working delivered right in your inbox!
[mc4wp_form id=”102″]
5) Encompass other important details
Your portfolio shouldn’t just be a collection of your work and completed projects. But it should appeal to your clients and the ones that are looking to outsource their work. To make your portfolio interesting for the people out there, you need to keep it impressive by adding all the details about you and your past work, aspects of the field you are freelancing in, explanations to your work, pricing strategies, working style and your niche.
Be specific about what you can do, your approach to it, how you can help the clients and provide statistical data to support your explanation. Make it simple for the visitors to get in touch with you. Tell them about your experiences in the field and how you are like when you work for a client. Tell your visitors the way you complete your work and your approach to finish the job with quality and quantity.
Above all, giving your potential clients the complete details as to why they should hire you is a great marketing effort, and it helps in getting many clients from the market.
6) Tell stories that clients like to hear
Clients hardly know the work you do, unless you tell them. It is essential for you to determine the stories of your previous work. In other words, it shows your dedication and results in providing capacity. Clients hardly know about the area of expertise you have. When you tell them the same, they turn out to appreciate your work further.
Things like “what you did for your clients, and how did they benefit from your work and what results did you provide” are some points to start writing on your freelancer portfolio. Provide them with how you wielded results for your previous clients, and it helps your clients to learn a great deal about you.
7) Affix practice projects you have done
It is not necessary to only showcase your paid works or samples; you can also portray your practice work and tell visitors the idea behind it. Mini projects that you did and if you have any uncompleted project ideas, list them too. They increase your chances of being hired by the clients.
Clients don’t just look into the prior works but also look at your way of approach. Giving them a taste of your unfinished projects, mini projects, practice work, consequently, helps them understand what you’re capable of doing for them
8) Use screenshots to show results, creative and confidential actions
While it might be that your clients only want to see the skills, providing them screenshots of the results of prior works and screenshots of the creative and intimate work does wonder for freelancers. Blackout the sensitive information and put it up in your portfolio.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter if it is social media posts, spreadsheets, research documents or copywriting and web designing work, take the screenshots, hide the sensitive parts and put it up on your freelancer portfolio website.
The best tip to have a killer portfolio that stands out is to continue developing your skills and adding them. It undoubtedly improves your chances of getting success in the gig economy.
Got any more tips that you’d like to share regarding building a killer freelancer portfolio? Drop a comment below.
7 Step Guide To Write The Perfect Freelance Proposal
10 Online Tools To Create Your Next Professional Freelance Invoice
Upwork vs Freelancer: The Platform To Go For In 2020