Want To Make Money As a Freelancer? Avoid This Mistake That Can Cost You Clients. There are some key aspects of portfolio building you need to get right if you want to get clients and make a profit. This freelancer expert shares his insights that uncomplicate the process and help you turn your website into a client converter tool.
By Jason Feifer Edited by Mark Klekas
As a freelancer, your goal is to make money and get clients. How do you do that? You'll need a good portfolio website. But what's a "good" portfolio? That's where many freelancers mess up.
Too many freelancers focus on how the site looks, how clever the language is, or how to display the work they've done. But that misses the point, says Preston Lee, founder of the freelancer resource platform Millo.co.
Instead, he says, a portfolio needs to do one thing: "You are building a portfolio focused on client conversion," he says.
So how do you do that? That's what we discuss, below.
How should freelancers think about their portfolio?
Before they even find their first client, some freelancers stress about what they're putting in their portfolio. They feel like they can't go into business until they have a portfolio set up. In some ways that might be true, but in reality, freelancers put so much pressure on their portfolio that they almost lose sight of the real goal — which is getting clients in the door.
Related: Don't Have Any Clients But Need Customer Testimonials? Follow These 3 Tricks To Boost Your Rep.
A freelancer shouldn't think, "How do I show off my work?" Instead, they should think, "How does this portfolio become a client-converting tool?"
When potential clients land on your site, they should follow a journey from being a complete stranger to learning more about you and your work — and more specifically, how you can help them. That way, they will want to fill out a form or whatever you have set up for conversions.
Everything on these pages is really a funnel. And you can continue to control that journey, always pressing forward to the moment of conversion. That's the whole idea, you are building a portfolio focused on client conversion.
So where does that client-conversion tool start? What's the entry point?
A "start here" button on your website makes perfect sense. You want to put potential clients on the right path to start the journey toward conversion. You don't want to leave it up to chance that they happen to click the right links. If you just have a list of links to things you've written — or, with designers, just a wordless visual grid of projects you've worked on — it's so uncontrolled.
If you don't have a ton of work or different offerings, then it makes more sense to have one page. It can scroll for quite a bit, but you get to control the journey as the user scrolls. They are seeing the things you want them to see.
That first section might be what you would normally put in a "start here" page. You guide them through this journey where, step by step, they begin to trust you, and they begin to understand how you add value to your clients. Whether you have multiple pages or that full scrolling thing, it really is about that journey from start to finish.
The website follows a streamlined path?
Yeah, 100%. This comes back to challenging every piece of your website.
Let's say you are not a web developer and so you're using something to build your portfolio site. It says, "What do you want in the menu?" And you're like, "Oh, I hadn't thought about that." Then you invent all this stuff to put in your menu that really doesn't help with that core journey, just because some software said that you need a menu. That happens over and over again.
Related: Communication Tips 7 Entrepreneurs and Leaders Wish They'd Known in Their Early 20s
The idea is to challenge everything that you assume a website should have, and ask, "Does this fall inside my core customer journey? Does this really help them go from stranger to client?" And if it doesn't, think twice about including that on your website.
What can people do to differentiate themselves?
You focus on the value that you're bringing to your potential clients. What the client will get. You want language like, "Our clients see a 20% increase in clicks, or they see a 20% increase in page views." Whatever is an important metric to your client, put that in the spotlight — instead of you and your talent. That will shine so much brighter to clients and is a fantastic way to stand out. Any freelancer can do this. You just have to identify the real value.
How can I pitch myself in a way where I'm not just talking about my skillset, but I'm talking about deliverables?
Many people will approach it like this: "Hi, I'm Preston. I design websites, here are some examples of what I've done. I hope we're a good match." Instead, you say something like this: "Hi, I'm Preston. I design websites. We've gotten these results. I'd love to do the same thing for you. Let's work together."
It's not putting yourself out there and crossing your fingers. It's a very concrete way of saying, "We are a good match. I can get you and your business the results that you want." That can be a bit of an awkward shift. It requires knowledge of the true value that you bring to your clients. But over time, you can get more confident in that area and that really can pay off.
Some freelancers prefer to talk with clients, and share those insights that way. Do you recommend that?
Absolutely. Talk to your clients. Then record those conversations, and then take the exact words that your clients use in the conversation, and that language will literally become the copy that you can use on your website. As soon as you do that, you are speaking the same language as your potential clients.
When someone shows up to your portfolio site and you are speaking the same language, a client will immediately feel this sense of comfort. Identifying those pain points and then regurgitating them back to other potential clients is a huge, massive way to skip over a few steps in your marketing.
How can someone who already has a website or portfolio step back and evaluate it?
The most obvious thing to look for is conversions. If you're not getting conversions, then something is broken. It can look as pretty as anything. But I've seen some really ugly portfolio sites that convert well, and so it's all about conversion. If you're not getting the conversions out of it, then you might as well start over — because that's the whole goal.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity — To hear an extended version of this conversation, listen to the Entrepreneur podcast Problem Solvers.
