How to Use The Right Words To Sell Your Freelance Services

Updated: December 27, 2014

Before I became an entrepreneur, I was a freelancer first.

In fact, one of the reasons why I had the courage to quit the corporate world was because I was able to grow my income from freelancing to match my regular job’s salary.

And I know a lot of freelancers who also did the same – they likewise resigned from their office work when they started to earn as much from their freelance projects.

Today, I’m sharing with you a guest post from Jovell, a freelance writer who will give you pointers on how to optimize your online profile to potentially get more clients.

Let’s now read what she has to say.

Making a living as a freelancer is possible. I know because I’ve been doing it for more than 4 years now.

It’s important to understand though that to thrive and survive as one involves a lot of learning and a business mindset. Because freelancing is the same as running a business, and the difference is that your product is yourself.

So like running a business, in order to get clients, you need to regularly market your freelance services – and having an online portfolio will make this easier.

If you’re new to freelancing, then it’s almost necessary to set up your own a website or a good LinkedIn profile – and having both will be better.

When doing this, it’s important to remember that your online profile should convey your skills and competency, and using the right words on your portfolio is the first step.

So how do you do this if you’re not comfortable in putting yourself out there and telling everyone that you’re “The Rockstar Freelancer” they should hire?

To help you with that, here are 3 things you should do before writing your website pages or LinkedIn summary:

Write everything about you first. Write your personal profile, your work experiences, your interests, hobbies, and even your quirks. This will serve as your reference and rough draft.

Identify your ideal client. Is he from the USA, UK, Australia, or even the Philippines? Is he a man or a woman? What does he do? Who does he help?

Identify how you want your potential clients to feel when they land on your site. Do you want them to feel excited, relaxed, motivated, or understood as they read your copy?

When you have these laid down, answer the following questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Who do you work with and why?
• What’s the biggest problem or aspiration of your target client?
• How does your service/s solve their problem or help them get their desires?
• What do you want your reader (target client) to do after reading your page?

Once you have this framework, tweak it as you see fit for the type of page you’re writing.

For example, when you’re writing your About page, keep in mind that it’s about you but with regards to how you can help your target clients. Readers of About pages want to know more about the person behind the website but unconsciously, they also want to know what they can get from giving their attention to you.

An easy approach to writing the About page is by telling a story or writing it like you’re being interviewed. But always keep in mind that your reader is asking, “What’s in it for them?”

For your Services page, you can write this by using bullet points and just describe what the service is all about. And within this description, point out the results your target client will get.

For example, here’s one of mine:

Content Writing (i.e. blog posts, email sequences, ebooks and case studies)

What you’ll get:

• Topic and headline ideas
• Original, high-quality content tailored to your target audience’s needs
• Material that’s reader and search engine friendly
• 2 rounds of revisions

Now writing the Home page is quite tricky. I know because I’ve tweaked mine for more than 100x before! Especially when you’re offering more than one type of service, writing about all of them on one page is backbreaking.

To solve this, you can opt for either of these:

1. State all of what you do in 2 or 3 sentences only. Then ask or lead readers to click on other links going to pages with detailed descriptions of your services.
2. Or showcase only one type of service, which you want to get more clients for, and stress all the benefits you bring to your target client’s lives using questions like:
• Do you want to have more time to run your business?
• Are you struggling with attracting customers online?
• Want to have a website that makes you stand out?

Whether or not you’re offering freelance writing services, writing the copy of your online portfolio is key to successfully communicating what you bring to your client’s business.

So get a cup of coffee, sit down, and through your words, let your value be heard.

Author bio:
Jovell Alingod is a freelance writer helping businesses create helpful content since 2010. Grab her free resources to help you get into your writing zone and start writing your website copy now.

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Photo credits: lobraumeister and socialeurope