• Fixed Rate Pricing.
• Hourly Rate Pricing.

This post deals with pros and cons of fixed rate pricing while the next post details about hourly rate pricing. Budding freelancers are highly confused about what kind of pricing structure they should choose to monetize their service. They simply don’t know how much to pay themselves and more importantly, what kind of pricing they should apply to themselves.
Well, this post along with the next two posts will clear all the doubt about pricing. It will make you understand the pros and cons of fixed rate pricing for each structure. Hope you could settle upon your decision and start making money with freelancing.
Let’s get started.

Fixed Rate Pricing

 As the name implies, a fixed rate  pricing project is a one where the designers fix their price beforehand as per the project requirements. This pros and cons of fixed rate pricing  is chosen before the designer gets down to work. The client and the designer mutually agree on a project cost and payment is completely independent of the time that the designer will take to complete the project. But it is highly preferable to set a deadline for yourself to showcase your professionalism and it is also appreciated from a client’s point of view. They’d not like to wait 1 month.
It’s as simple as that! You see your client’s demand, analyze it, and understand what you’ll have to do to complete your project. You now tell your client what you’ll have to do, how much time would take to complete the project and finally how much you will charge for your work. Negotiate the deadline and the pricing with the client. Once the client agrees start working.

Lets discuss the pros and cons of fixed rate pricing. 

Here are some of the pros of  fixed rate  pricing in freelance web designing.

A. Since the clients know how much they will have to give and the freelancer know what product he/she’ll have to give, there’s a minimal chance of any future complications. Both the parties are completely aware of what they’ll to give beforehand. This avoids last minute squabbles and any kind of legal issues later.

B. Designers’ with efficient time saving methods and tricks won’t be tagged with low cost, If I can complete a task within 5 hours with my tricks, I can charge him more, which is not possible in hourly rate pricing, since in that case, you’ll be paid only for your 5 hours. So your tricks won’t bring you any money with fixed web design pricing.

C. It’s easy to determine how many projects per month are needed to be completed to determine profits or to handle budgets.

D. You set the price for your hard work. With  fixed rate  pricing, you are demanding what you think you deserve. You have the power of estimation. You can determine your own time and the according price for your service. You have the maximum control over the clients in this case. But this benefit can also backfire as explained in the first point of cons.

E. This is the biggest benefit of fixed web design pricing. Let’s say you charge $1000 for installing a custom theme design. When you start off freelancing, you’d take 10 hours to do your first job. When you take up your second job, it may take you 8 hours. Gradually, as you do the same amount of work again and again, your time requirement decreases. Hence, with fixed rate pricing you slowly start saving time, which you can efficiently utilize later.

Below are some reasons why you should not charge with fixed rates.

1. As explained above, in  fixed rate  pricing, you’ll have to anticipate your deadline before getting started with the work. But be sure that you are correct. If you anticipate wrong, I bet you’re screwed. Your client may take you to court for this. Such kinds of problems take place in cases of larger projects where you need to do a lot of work.
2. Many a times, after you’ve submitted your final product, your client may ask you to perform certain changes and edits which will definitely take up your extra time and effort. Since your client has already paid you, it is very unlikely that he/she will pay you again for these changes. But, if you think that the required changes will take time, go ahead and charge your client.
3. It is much more difficult to estimate the price of a project before completing it. Hence, you may underestimate your work and may get underpaid.
4. Payment does not come at regular intervals which may not be suitable for all types of lifestyles.
5. Many a times at  fixed rate  pricing, you are paid 50% in advance and the rest 50% comes once you submit your product. But there are times when client disappears or runs off after taking your product.

Fixed rate pricing has its own pros and cons. But you cannot always use this pricing structure for all the projects. Check out the next post on Hourly rate pricing and find out its pros and cons.

If you could think of any other pros and cons of fixed rate pricing, do mention along with your suggestions via comments.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post Know The Pros And Cons Of Fixed Rate Pricing In Web Design Industry appeared first on Fedobe.

Copyright law varies in different countries. Hence, research copyright law, analyze it and use it according to your situations and clients. You may also want to consult a lawyer for this case.

This post will put a light on some areas which you can consider while creating a copyright agreement for freelancers.

A. Actual Ownership:

When you handover your product (website) to your client, be sure as to who will keep the ownership rights. Have a clause whether or not you will turn over digital files to your client or not. It is very common amongst designers to retain their artwork. These people ask their clients to credit their name as “website creator” or “website designer”. You can even charge an additional cost in exchange of originals. This will allow you to monetize your media costs, time required for file transfer, computer space etc while opting copyright agreement for freelancers.

B. Preliminary Design:

Normally, freelancers retain the ownership of all the preliminary design work. When you are creating a copyright agreement for freelancers, there should be a clause in your copyright agreement that protects your preliminary work in case a client rejects it after you have given it for approval. You can add your costs if the client fails to give your preliminary designs.
This problem takes place with most of the newbie freelancers. They have no clause regarding this. When they submit their creative designs to clients for approval, clients rejects the approval and instead uses the same design (or modifies it) later. Not only your creativity is discredited, but you also miss an opportunity to make money from it.

C. Promotional Copy Ownership:

You must include a clause in your copyright agreement for freelancers where you are allowed to use preliminary copies, unprepared samples, and final product of your projects in your marketing materials (mainly in your portfolio), design competitions or anywhere else. Such materials allow you to showcase your abilities and skills, and further help you to get more and more projects.

These were just three most basic areas that you must cover while creating a copyright agreement for freelancers . There are also some other topics which needs to be covered such as warranties, confidentiality issues etc. Consult your lawyer and settle down on those issues.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post Three Basic Areas You Need To Cover While Creating A Copyright Agreement For Freelancers appeared first on Fedobe.

A contract is a mutually agreed legal document between you and your clients. When drafting a contract for freelance services, it helps you protect your business from any legal complications. A freelancer contract lists all the implications such as project details, completion time, service charge, client’s name and all such minute related details.

A drafting a contract for freelance services contract prevents you from various complications such as client suing you for project failure, in case client backs down from accepting your work or a client refuses to pay you for your hard work etc.

While drafting a contract for freelancer services, a freelancer has to keep various things in mind. Below are some of the great tips that you should consider while drafting your contract.

A. Have A Written Contract, Always:

Never agree to work for someone by simply shaking hands or replying an “Ok!” to an email. Always have a drafting a contract for freelance services ready that lists all the legal details and business terms. Even use the same contract for your family members and friends. You simply cannot agree to work for them without covering the legal aspects coz you never know who will turn their back on you at which time. Hence, never leave yourself vulnerable.
You may feel very bored while preparing your contract, but believe me; you can actually save yourself from a lot of trouble with this. The real value and the importance of any freelancer contract come to your eye only when any kind of legal complications takes place. Therefore always have a written contract than the verbal “OK”.

B. Cover The Basics:

Include the basic information about “who” and “what” of the project. Who is contracting you to do what kind of work? This is the basic standard stuff in any freelance contract which many freelancers avoid including for a reason and hence face legal complications in future. Now both the parties are well aware about “who” and “what” of the project. But still you need to put it in your contract for freelancer so that everybody is on the same leveled field about their roles and responsibilities. You would not want your client to complain in future “You did “ABD”, but I asked you to do ABC.”

C. Time Frame:

Have a timeline worked out between you and your clients in contract for freelancer. Analyze the project minutely and prepare a scheduled calendar (the time within which you’d complete a certain part of your project) and then present it to your client to ask for his concurrence.
Take your time to prepare that calendar. Create deadlines for yourself. Many freelancers don’t prefer to work within deadlines simply for the pressure within which they’d to work in. It is highly beneficial to include deadlines as it avoids any kind of squabbles between both the parties. Also it keeps you focused with your work. Give yourself enough time to prepare your deadlines, keeping the client’s time requirement in mind for drafting a contract for freelance services
Besides setting deadlines (the time that a project will take to complete), you should also include the time duration within which the contract is active. Being vague in this matter will allow your client to find room to complain.
Creating time frames does not mean that you can be extremely lenient with yourself. You’ve got be professional or else you may lose the project.

D. Project Delivery And Rights:

Explaining such points clarifies the expectations at the project completion time in your freelancer contract. Your client knows what the final product will be. All you need to do is to convey the client about how you’d deliver the product. Tell them the file types and extensions and such kind of things that you would use in product delivery. This gives you an access to client’s knowledge and how they will be able to work and integrate your product. If the client’s unaware of this, you may ask to lend your assistance for a price. If the client agrees, be sure to include this aspect in your contract also.
One of the common mistakes that many freelancers commit while drafting a contract for freelance services is that they give the rights of the product before getting paid. Hence, include this aspect in your contract too, about how and when you’d transfer the product rights to your clients.

E. Money Matters:

By far, the most important and the useful part of a drafting a contract for freelance services are the money matters. Billing by project, billing by deadlines, billing by working hours are some of the options. Include the financial matters very clearly in your contract. Both the parties must have already agreed upon this matter, but still you need to use it in your contract to keep both the parties on the same level.
Include a clause in your contract which protects you or your client, if either of them backs out. Also include a statement about the monetary conditions if the project is terminated midway. Many legal complications arise mainly because of financial matters. So take your time and consider this section very carefully in freelancer contract.

F. Make Your Contract Look Professional:

Your freelancing is a business and you’d definitely like to look professional in front of your clients. Hence, you need to make your contract for freelancer look professional. You can also use a tinge of design in your contract. You can even brand your contract just like you’ve branded your letter head. But do not make it too stylish so that it loses its professionalism. Just make it look slightly beautiful. Also, a professional and beautiful contract instills confidence in your clients and inclines them to work with you.

G. Consult A Lawyer:

You cannot  drafting a contract for freelance services on your own. You may have missed a point or so which may later cause you big problems. The client may start negotiating too much and may wish to make many changes in your contract. At such cases, it’s very viable to consult a lawyer. Although, it is not feasible financially, but sometimes you are left with no choices.

Here are some resources of the related topic:

• Step by Step Help on Creating a Freelance Contract
• Freelance contracts
• Design Contract Guide for Freelance Web Designers
• How to create a freelancing contract
• Create a Freelancing contract
• Freelancers Union Contract Creator

Cover up all the aspects and put it in your drafting a contract for freelance services. You may not know which point might save you at which time. Negotiate up to a level. The moment you feel uncomfortable with the negotiating clauses or feel like underrated, say so. Show class professionalism and never ever try to break a contract intentionally.
What important clauses did you put up in your freelancer contract? Tell us a story where you were saved by a contract point? Do share your thoughts via comments.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post 7 Considering Points While Drafting A Contract For Freelance Services appeared first on Fedobe.

Well, I assume you know the importance of search engines in business and how effective it is in bringing traffic to your site. In the previous post of this guide, I gave you some web design seo tips on creating an online portfolio for you freelance web design campaign. This post is all about promoting your portfolio and what better place to promote than the biggest source of traffic, search engines.

Here are some of the most effective on-page web design seo tips  that can help you book your place at top search engine rankings.

A. URL And Domain Name Optimization:

Keep your URL structure organized and keyword optimized (filled with related keywords). If your pages contain multimedia contents, then your URL should contain information about it. By doing this, you not only inform your visitors about what your page contains, but you also let search engine crawlers know what the page is all about. According to web design seo tips  categorize your site content within the URL structure of your page. Make it actually look like a page address. Also select a search engine friendly domain name for your site.

Domain name optimization, url optimization and related post. Give links

The SEO tips for freelance web designers includes URL and the domain name of your page is entirely in your hands, so customize it to make it search engine friendly.

B. Internally Link Your Pages:

Internal linking is one of important SEO tips for freelance web designers of search engine optimization. Devise a tactic that’ll help you to internally link all the related pages of your website. This enables search engine robots to crawl pages containing similar content, with ease.

C. Anchor Text:

Be careful of the words that you use to link other pages of your website according to SEO tips for web designers guidelines. These “linking” words or more popularly called as anchor text also contributes to search engine optimization. Use specific keywords (for which you want your linked page to get ranked) within your anchor text. This gives an idea to search engine crawlers as well as readers of what they will get on clicking on anchor text. Read a post on Anchor text optimization to get more insight views of SEO tips for freelance web designers. 

D. Meta Title And Meta Tags Optimization:

Meta titles are a good way to improve search engine rankings and click through rates. They are placed in the HTML header along with Meta tags. Generally, meta titles are short (60-70 characters), descriptive, and must contain keywords for which you want your page to get ranked. Hence, keep your meta titles unique, keyword containing and attractive to get more clicks from search engine traffic.
Meta descriptions should beautifully describe your page content. It must also contain keywords.
Learn more about meta tags from these SEO tips for freelance web designers  post.

Give links to all posts about meta titles

E. Do Not Use Flash Graphics On Your Site:

Flash graphics are a good way to impress your visitors, but these flash programs are not read effectively by search engine robots. They cannot analyze these Flash codes and hence treat them as a negative sign for ranking.
Therefore, it’s better to stick to basic HTML and CSS for coding as mentioned in web design seo tips . Also avoid using images to link to other pages.

F. Optimize Your Images:

Obviously, you’ll use images in your portfolio to convince a visitor about your skills and abilities. But, be sure that you search engine optimize your images, the most important being the use of “Alt” tag in images. This in one of the best  SEO tips for web designers to achieve good  SEO results.

G. Splash Pages:

A splash page is a page where a visitor is greeted by a fancy graphic page saying “Learn more” or “Fill this form” or something like that. This heavy graphic containing page is displayed before the visitor enters the website according to  web design seo tips . Search engine robots find it difficult to examine such graphic codes. Thus, such codes hinder your search engine reputation. Avoid using those and stick to some basic codes.
Proper on page SEO and link building can help you achieve your desired search engine place with ease.
Below are some of the posts that can help you to improve your portfolio’s search engine ranking.
What SEO tips for freelance web designers other than the above did you used to improve your site’s search engine ranking? Do give your views and thoughts via comments.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post 7 Effective SEO Tips For Freelance Web Designers To Improve Website Ranking appeared first on Fedobe.

Cutting straight to the point, let’s get started with some excellent tips to build an online portfolio.

A. Have A Clear Logo And Tagline:

First things first to build online freelance portfolio, you need to build a brand for your freelance business. So have a clear logo and a tagline in your portfolio site. Your logo is an important part of your brand and your tagline represents who you are and/or what you want to be. Create an effective logo and churn out a catchy tagline. Your logo and tagline should restrict your audience from clicking the “Back” button. It should answer to prospect’s question “Why should I stay in your site?” For this, you can also include an elevator pitch in your portfolio site. Once these elements have convinced the visitor to stay on your site, it’s up to your previous work (projects) to do the rest of the task.

B. Find Your Best Work:

Go back in your past and take a look at all the work that you’ve done. Carefully choose the right pieces for your build online freelance portfolio. Remember that it’s not important to show all the pieces of your previous work, but the best ones up front. When a hiring manager lands on your portfolio, he/she takes a maximum of 5 to 10 seconds to determine the quality of your work. These few seconds are very precious as these few seconds determine whether they will spend their time on your portfolio or not. Hence, it is important that you show your best work up front to captivate and make your client stick to your site.
The second thing is that you should showcase the type of work that you would like to do in future. Display the best and relevant pieces, the type of which you’d like to get connected in future.
Pick up at least 4 or 5 projects that are able to demonstrate your strengths and skills effectively. Also those projects should reflect the kind of work that you would like to do in future. It’s always better to have a portfolio showcasing few of your best works, than build freelance portfolio to filled with not-so-great works. Therefore, put up some of the best projects that you have done till now. Well, if you want to showcase all of your work, then put your second grade work at subsequent pages of your portfolio.

C. Use Interesting Images And Share The Back Story:

You’ve decided what you want to showcase. Now you need to enhance the visual factor of your work. Analyze each project and think of the best way to represent it. Visitors would like to read the backdrop of your finished work. Think of a presentation process where you can guide your visitor on each project (right from the initial concept to finished product). Use interesting and captivating images to showcase your work to build online freelance portfolio.
A better way to do this is by imagining your each work as a blog post. Conceptualize your entire project in one paragraph with a catchy headline. Then distribute your each project into different pieces (paragraphs) (the combination of which is your product).
Use detailed shots to show the precision of your work. This division process allows you to showcase your special skills that you’ve applied at different stages to build freelance portfolio. Use paragraphs to write your project story. Do not use huge chunks of text. Let your work do the talking for you.

D. Create Quick Navigable Portfolio:

This is pure common sense, but still many freelancers do this utter nonsensical mistake. If your visitor is not able to navigate smoothly throughout your portfolio, then it really doesn’t matter how good your work is. Make sure a visitor easily finds your best work that you’ve displayed on your site. He/she should be able to come back to your home page any moment they wish to.
There are many ways you achieve this. Simplify and streamline your menu items, reduce and unify multiple pages. Categorize your work into different areas. You can even use breadcrumbs to  build online freelance portfolio your portfolio site. Keep the navigation style simple rather than being clever with it.

E. Simple Website Design:

Since you are freelance web designer, it does not mean that your build an online portfolio has to be astoundingly obnoxious from a design point of view. It does not matter what kind of work you’ve previously done, when it comes to portfolio website design.
Your website has to be straightforward with your content as a focal point with no distracting designs. You don’t want your site to be flashy, or unconventional. Just keep it simple and let your work take the center stage. Minimalize any kind of flashy interventions or user interface designs that will push your work to the bottom. You want your visitors to take a look at your work. So create a similar kind of visual environment that showcases your work most effectively.

F. Be Contact-able:

The basic aim of any freelancing campaign is to get more and more clients, right? To get better conversion of clients from visitors, you need to make yourself contact-able. The easier you make for a visitor to contact you, the better is the chance you’ll end getting his/her work. For this, you need to invite your visitors for queries, comments, questions etc. Just make them talk. Use contact forms with minimum fields to build online freelance portfolio. If you ask less, your visitors will be easily ready to make contact with you. Online form builders such as Wufoo and Jotform allow you to customize contact forms so that you can ask all the information that you want.

G. Social Proof:

Social proof is one of the common means to reduce the risk in a visitor’s mind. For this, include testimonials in your site. Ask your previous clients to say something about you. Record it a video and embed in your web design. Video testimonials are more beneficial than textual counterpart as the visitor is easily convinced when he/she actually sees someone’s talking good about you.
Another way to build online freelance portfolio is to build social proof in visitors’ mind is by including an image of yourself in your portfolio. Either you can use your image (preferably headshot) on the homepage or use it in the “About” page. Make full use of “About” page by telling your visitors about yourselves. Not your skills, but about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests and so forth. Mention any kind of awards or recognition that you received. Share the backstory on how you ended up being a freelance web designer. Ground your experience. Mention your blog, if any. Ask them to read your blog. Tell something unique about yourself and gradually move towards guiding them to display your web design work.
This personalizes your portfolio website and informs the visitors more about the person with whom they’d like to do business.

H. Include Social Media Buttons On Your Site:

Many freelancers forget to implement this crucial point. If an impressed visitor is not converted into a client (for some reason), the least that you’d like him to do is to share your portfolio site to his/her active social networking platforms. Hence, make it easy for them do so. Embed social media buttons on your build freelance portfolio website and include a call to action besides those asking the readers to share it on their preferred social platforms.

I. Keep A Fresh Portfolio:

Your work does not end simply after creating an excellent portfolio. You need to keep your portfolio regularly updated with your recent works. The best portfolios are never static and they keep on adding their latest, but best projects. This also affects your clients’ mind. When a client looks at an old portfolio, this makes him believe that the designer is not so active in this domain and is just looking for another job to pass time. Clients simply do not get the confidence to give you projects. But a new build an online portfolio  makes the clients believe that you are proactive and you are ready to face any kind of challenges. Thus, an updated portfolio owner readily gets projects.
Build online freelance portfolio to achieve your freelancing success. It is the first interactive point between you and your clients. You cannot afford to take it lightly. Also it creates the first impression in readers’ mind. Do not clutter your portfolio homepage with irrelevant information. Optimize, analyze and then finalize. So take your time and build the best online portfolio that clearly reflects your services.
Here are over 100 incredible freelance designer portfolios for some inspiration.

What are the things did you include in your portfolio to build online freelance portfolio? What all things would you like to include more in a portfolio? Give links to your portfolio sites, if any. Give your suggestions to such related questions via comments.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post 9 Strategies To Build Online Freelance Portfolio With Excellence appeared first on Fedobe.

A. Identify Your Goals:

The first thing that you need to do is to identify your freelancing goals which will indirectly help you in your freelance marketing strategy approach. Different freelancers have different purposes. If you are able to identify your goals, then you can market yourself properly to stand at a better position to achieve your identified goals. If you have no goal, you are simply a wanderer. There’s no target and no objective. Such freelancers always fail, either quickly or may face hard difficulties in long race. Here are some of the possible few goals that you may have.

Freelancing For Employment:

1. Many people take up freelancing to land a job at their desired web design agency or at a reputed web design company. Such people treat freelance marketing strategy as a bridge from where they are to where they want to be. Freelancing allows them to showcase their potential, work samples, client and work experience, developing quotes, managing and handling projects and most importantly running a profitable business. You are able to sell yourself, your work, your ability and your qualifications to your desired employer. If this is your goal, then personal branding is important. Take a look at our post on Personal Branding:How To Optimize Your Online Portfolio Website.

2. Freelancing For Work Experience And Skills:

   Every person who wants to land on a good job understands the importance of work experience. While there are some who have already developed their skills and are sharpening it for job competition (as in the first case), there are also people who want to gain critical experience over a period of time to build their skills. Such people start from scratch to build their work experience and skills and then go out to compete for their desired job. freelance marketing strategy provides great platform to do so. As you build your freelancing career, you’ll face more and more challenging projects and ultimately your skills and experience will also rocket exponentially.

3. Self-Employment:

   This is actually what freelancing means. Some may see freelancing as a temporary stage (springboard) that will help them achieve their desired job, while some web designers prefer to pursue it as a long term career. By long term, I mean expanding their business by hiring other designers and other developers and starting a web design agency. In this case, your freelance marketing focus should be on long term stability, rather than emphasizing on short term success.

4. Not Sure:

   There are many freelancers who exactly know what they want with their freelancing career (job or self-employment), while there are a majority of people who start freelancing without any goal. They are not able to settle upon any target unless they have a little experience under their belt. In such cases, freelancing begins as a full time work to earn an income, but it can take several paths on future depending on their freelance marketing experience. If they are able to get more clients and good money, they prefer to stick with it. If they are able to get some work and experience, they prefer to use it for employment.

B. Portfolio:

Needless to say, but your portfolio is one of the most significant components of your freelance marketing strategy and demands a lot of attention. There are some basic components of a portfolio site that is applicable to all types of goals, but your approach towards your portfolio site may change depending on your goals.
If you are trying to use your freelancing campaign as a springboard to land on a full time employment, your portfolio should emphasize on your skills, qualifications. You can also communicate your work experience and specific skills to expand your portfolio site to act as an online resume. In this case personal branding is very important as you would want to leave a memorable impression of yourself on the mind of your portfolio viewer. With this, you will always remain in the forefront of viewers’ mind when they take a hiring decision.

List All The Personal Branding Posts

If you are trying to gain experience through freelancing, you should emphasize on inviting queries and questions from potential clients and trying to be problem solver for them.
More tips on portfolio building are given at a later part on this guide.

C. Branding:

More have been emphasized on the branding term in this post. Well, the amount of importance that you need to give to branding depends on your goals. Branding is extremely important for those who are using freelancing to market themselves. While for those freelancers, who are looking to expand in future to build a web design agency, branding may not be as important. If you are good at marketing yourself, but are not “extremely” talented in web designing and land up on having good clients, you may prefer to hire someone to do the design work. You take the credit of the work and pay accordingly to the actual designer. Such cases also happen when you are unable to handle more projects. This strategy will definitely fail when you are looking at a future employment, but works great if are able to  do freelance marketing yourself effectively.

D. Master Social Media Platforms:

You need to capitalize on the social media boom. Social networks are the fastest way to get recognized. With the ability to connect with anyone from any corner of the world, you can spread your freelancing business easily. Social network platforms can also be a good source of clients, provided social media freelance marketing strategy is done properly. Read our social media marketing guide to get help in this case. Below is a compilation of social networks that you may consider working upon.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Tumblr
• Behance
• Artician
• Instagr.am
• DesignBump
• Stack Exchange
• Design Snack
• Pixel Groovy

Blogging is also one of the most popular social media platforms. Post related articles, create communities, build your expertise, engage in discussions etc. If you are not using social networks to expand your business, you are really missing out on a great opportunity.

E. Plan Your Prospect List:

Choose the number of prospective clients that you are going to contact on any given day. Select a number that is easily manageable to reach out on any day. Repeat this every day. If you are able to make more contacts than you actually thought, go for it. The idea is to expand your client list and wait for a prospect to call back or reply.

F. Call Back Your Clients:

There’s a simple rule in freelance marketing business that you should know – the job may not go to the most talented freelancer, but it will definitely go to the most responsive one. Clients often give their projects to freelancers who take their time to understand client’s problems. People don’t call back and if they do, realize that they are taking their sweet and important time out of their busy schedule to contact you. As soon as a client contacts, respond them quickly.
Clients hire freelancers to get their problem solved. Failing to respond to a client makes the client think that you’ll not be able to solve their problems, rather you’ll overburden them. It also makes him realize about your unprofessionalism and irresponsive behavior. Most freelancers are notoriously unprofessional and they call back in their own time frame. This creates a negative impact in clients’ mind which will lose you your project.
Be super-responsive in your freelance marketing strategy  to stand out from the competition, understand clients’ problem, respond them quickly with a good reply, and most importantly, make them believe that you are not any other freelancer, you are a professional.

G. Price Accordingly:

People have spent years trying to understand the psychology of freelance pricing. Some price too high while some price too low, but there’s always a reason for it. Various considerations have to be taken place while pricing your services in freelance marketing strategy.
If you price too low, the clients may think that there’s something wrong or may think that you’d be unprofessional and would not complete the project in required time. Low prices make the client think about your deficiencies. “There’s got to be something wrong with this freelancer. Why is the price so cheap? ” This is what your prospective client may think.
Even if you get clients with this low cost strategy, you’ll end up with those who’ll suck the life out of you to get the best for your low price. It’s because you have given them the opportunity to do this by displaying low price for your good work.
Nobody likes to pay more for a service. If you price too high, prospective clients may get repelled with that. But there’s also a brighter side to it. People automatically assume that if something (your service) is expensive, there must be a reason for it.
Having said all that, always remember that your portfolio will always be there for them to verify your price. Your portfolio will reflect your quality and this will make people decide whether you have suitably priced your freelance marketing service or not.

H. Follow Up:

Your freelance marketing efforts are useless unless you follow up with them. Make contacts with clients with whom you’ve contacted a month ago. Say hello, repeat your offer, send an article, offer discounts, ask them to post their project etc. and tell them how you can help them with your service. Follow up your previous marketing efforts as frequently as you can and you’ll see the effects of it.

I. Network With Your Peers:

One of the best ways to get yourself recognized is to connect with other people in your industry. Make contacts with other web designers and industry professionals all across the world.
There are a number of ways with which you can utilize as freelance marketing strategy. The social networks listed above are one of the viable solutions. You can also find similar people in forums, discussion sites, question answer sites and bulletin boards. You can also make use of Dribble  and Github  to showcase and get comments on your design works.
It’s not enough to simply lay out your freelance marketing plan, you need to emphasize and work upon it. Sometimes you will have to give more importance to certain sectors. Proper marketing strategy can really boost and smoothen your freelancing campaign.
What strategies did you think of, while preparing your freelance marketing strategy? Give your suggestions via comments.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post Lay Out An Excellent Freelance Marketing Strategy To Reap Maximum Benefits appeared first on Fedobe.

A. Showcase Your Expertise:

The first and the obvious benefit of any portfolio is that you are able to showcase your expertise professionally. Instead of explaining each and every minute piece of your work over the phone or email, you can let your portfolio do the talking for you. Your portfolio is the best way to convince a prospective client about your authority in that domain. A good online portfolio as a freelancer easily conveys your message and explains the clients what you have done and what you can do for them.

B. Excellent First Impression:

The first impression that a client holds is very important in any freelancing business, irrespective of any domain (web designing, content writing, logo designing etc.) When a prospect sees the amount of hard work and dedication that you’ve put in to build your portfolio, he/she will be overwhelmed and this will create an excellent first impression in their mind. If someone discusses the problems (the solutions of which you provide in your service) with the same prospect, your name will definitely be recommended. Also prospects will remember you for all the commitment that you’ve put in your online portfolio as a freelancer.

C. Increase Your Online Visibility:

One of the better benefits to  create freelance portfolio website is that you are able to increase your online visibility. When somebody Google your name, your portfolio will be one of the first search results that pops up. This means that you are able to increase your online authority and presence. By doing this, you stand at a better place to get more clients and jobs.

D. Social Proof:

You can include social proof in your online portfolio as a freelancer which indirectly convinces your portfolio viewers about your work. People will definitely believe their peers more than they will believe you. Third party appraisal is always effective to make more and more deals.

E. Flexibility:

With an online diary, you change the content with a simple click of a button. You can edit copies, videos, pictures etc. on your portfolio with just your mouse. You can even add new content in your portfolio to showcase your learning graph.

F. Brand Building:

 Your online portfolio as a freelancer definitely helps in building brand. This brand can be from a personal or a professional point of view. Since you are into business, you’d like to build a professional brand which can be easily built by online portfolio. A good, effective portfolio enhances your level of professionalism. Check out our post on Personal Branding:How To Optimize Your Online Portfolio Website.

G. Bring In Clients:

The most obvious benefit of having an online portfolio as a freelancer is that it helps in bringing more and more clients. Well, not directly, but it is able to captivate potential clients strongly enough that so that they stick to the site to make contact with designer. Hence, it increases the rate of conversion (visitors to clients).
Always remember that a designer’s portfolio has to be their best work. You just cannot afford to make any mistakes. Keeping such things in mind, keep on reading on to create an online portfolio for your freelance web design career.
With what reason did you create freelance portfolio? What are the other importance of online portfolio? Do give in your opinions and thoughts in the comments section.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post 7 Ways To Create An Online Portfolio As A Freelancer To Boost Your Job Opportunities appeared first on Fedobe.

• Logo
• Business Name
• Contact Information including telephone number, website address, mailing address and e-mail address.

Here are some letterhead & business card design tips for freelancing:

A. Keep it Simple :

You’ve got to keep it simple for a viewer to understand what your business is all about. Too many special effects overshadow the message of your professionalism. These complex effects call attention and distract your audiences’ mind from your company’s name.

B. Logo :

Your logo should be unique and memorable. I’ve previously written a post on logo design for freelancing business.

C. Readable:

A letter head design tips for freelancing showcases your company’s name. Hence, it’s important to use font size, font, color, texture at its very best. Your letter head should be visually readable and understandable. A viewer should not spend more than 2 seconds in identifying the name of your company.

D. Add Color, Graphics Only When Necessary:

Using a colorful or textured background is one the best means of differentiating your letter head from the rest of the pack, but is should not empower the body of your letter. Yes, you need to be stylish in your efforts but not stylish enough to waste the communicable message of your letter. Hence, be careful with the colors, graphics and texture that you use in the background for creating letterhead & business card design tips for freelancing.

E. Delete Redundant Details:

Leave out extra information from your letterhead. This will make your  business card design tips for freelancing look more clean and readable. And make sure that the information on your letter head is correct. You would not want your prospects to land on someone else’ site.

F. Placement:

Previously, letter head design tips for freelancing details were printed on the top of the letter page (letter head). But now-a-days, there are some companies who are using it at the side of their letter. To figure out the best place for the contact details, run an A/B testing on your letterhead pages. In one batch place your details at the top of the page, and on the other place it at the side. Check which batch had the better response and settle on it for future. You can also use multivariate testing to check better utilization of letterhead & business card design tips for freelancing in  various places of your page.

G. Minimize Your Costs :

Every budding business owner finds an opportunity to cut down his/her cost. One way to cut down your costs is to get the optimum amount of cards printed. Your  business card design tips for freelancing details such as your address, phone number etc. may change by the time your previous cards complete. Save yourself from throwing away bunch of cards. The next way to save your money is to avoid the extra printing cost. Avoid taking those design decisions that will end up costing you extra in the actual printing process.
Once you’ve finalized your design, ask the printing head if there are any ways to cut down the cost. If he/she suggests some ways, then look out for best alternatives or go with the suggestion.

H. Get a Press Proof :

When you work with the print shop, ask the printing head to give you a press proof of your letterhead before he/she starts printing thousands of sheets. This is your last chance to check for any mistakes, typos or errors. Double check your press proof card and then give the green signal to print thousands of them.
Here are some posts on how to create letter head design tips for freelancing on your own.

• Making a letterhead with Adobe Illustrator with CS5.
• How to design a Print Ready letter head
• How to design a letterhead in MS word

Here are some of the best corporate letterhead templates . Also take a look at some of the letter head designs for inspirations to create best letterhead & business card design tips for freelancing

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post Cool Letterhead & Business Card Design Tips For Freelancing appeared first on Fedobe.

Many marketing heads assume that with good elevator pitch ideas for freelancing business you can increase your client list dramatically. Well, this is not the case; you cannot increase your client list, at least directly. But it definitely aids in some other areas.

• It forces the visitor to stick to your website and can convince him to view your portfolio.
• A good elevator pitch saves you countless hours in coming up with a smart introduction over and over again.
• It helps you create a professional atmosphere, wherever you use it.
• Good elevator pitch ideas for freelancing business makes sure that you don’t miss any vital information about your freelance services, while communicating with a client.

This post will demonstrate you to create and use elevator pitch effectively. It will emphasize on different vital parts of a solid elevator pitch ideas for freelancing that you can easily optimize to grab more and more clients.

A. Explain About Your Services:

The first and foremost thing that you should include in your elevator pitch is your services. Your first task is to quickly and effectively explain about your services and what you do. Explain it in one sentence. Be clear and avoid any jargon language. You would not want to restrict your web design services to a particular segment of audience who understands a specific kind of language.
Before you explain your services, you may start your conversation with a formal introduction such as “Hi” or “Hello”. Then you can prefix your name at the start of your services.
For example: “Hi, my name’s Gary Sanet. I’m a web designer who specializes in sites…………..”

B. Make an Impression:

This is where you need to give the most importance. After your brief intro, say something unique about yourself that your client will remember even after he/she is off the lift. Try to say something that will stand you apart from the competition. Pitch in your unique selling proposition (USP) . Again this has to be to be included in a maximum of 2 sentences. Such kind of sentences makes your name pop up in clients’ mind when clients need your kind of services.

For example: “There are many designers who charge you for maintenance, but I would do that for free, especially for you.”

C. Credentials:

Effective elevator pitch ideas for freelancing business gives a good glimpse of your credentials. You can do this beautifully. Not only you can show with whom you’ve worked with but you can also say how you managed to solve their problems with your services. For example, “My work with XYZ company helped them………” or “When I worked with ABC company…….”. But do remember one thing; this has to be quick, very quick. A maximum of 1 sentence can be given for this.

D. Call to Action:

Now that you’ve told your clients about you and your services, it’s time you invite them to do something. It is very unlikely that they would do something after a conversation unless you tell them to do so. A good call to action belongs to elevator pitch ideas for freelancing  and it can be to invite them to discuss about their projects such as “Post your project”, or you can ask them to click on your portfolio such as “Click here to view my portfolio” or you can simply invite them to hire you such as “Hire me”. Such kinds of action words make them think and they ultimately land up on doing what you’ve told them to do.

E. Different Versions:

You must be ready with different versions of elevator pitch ideas for freelancing business, in case one fails. You can also try out different versions of elevator pitches and stick to the one that brings in more clients.
You need to stay simple here. Try nothing over the top. Always be unique in your elevator pitch. An elevator pitch can really boost up your freelance career. Take time to research, analyze and churn out some good elevator pitches.
What is you elevator pitch? What things did you kept in mind while creating your elevator pitch ideas for freelancing business? We’d love to hear what you have to say on this topic. Use comments section to pitch in your thoughts.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post How To Create Effective Elevator Pitch Ideas For Freelancing Business appeared first on Fedobe.

Here is a post on how you can create logo design for freelance web design from scratch.

• How to design a logo type from conception to completion
• How to design a logo from Adobe Photoshop
• How to create a logo from Photoshop (Video)

Here are some excellent web design logos from professional freelancers.

Below are some out of the box tips that you should keep in your mind while creating  logo design for freelance business.

A. Client Satisfaction:

Create a logo not for yourself; create it for your clients. If you follow the rules of logo making, you’ll end up with a simple logo that resembles every other logo in your domain. Your logo must be vibrant. It should stand out you and your business from the rest of the competition. For this, you need to look and adapt the logo making rules from your own perspective. Think something new, something unique that you can implement in your logo. A client searching on the web, looking for a certain type of design should get attracted to your logo and must visit your site. This is what you need with your logo design for freelance web design.

B. Flexible:

Since you’d be using your logo on offline advertisements and business cards, it is required that you make your logo flexible. By flexible, I mean it should ideally work on a golf ball to on a printed poster. You cannot use two different logos on two different places. A single logo should reflect your business everywhere, from social media sites to business cards. This is what we say as making a logo scalable. Also yourlogo design for freelance web design should be compatible in all the web browsers. It’d be highly beneficial if your logo would remain the same even after you’ve expanded your freelancing business to a web designing firm.

C. Explainable:

A logo  represents a company, a brand, a business. So, it’s important to have a background story to your logo. Logos are not designed with random selection of fonts, colors and designs. Proper care should be taken as to what your logo design for freelancing  conveys to its viewers, and also the quality of your work. For example, since you are a freelance web designer, your logo should reflect the web design part. Any viewer looking at your logo must conclude that this logo belongs to an excellent web designer. For this, take care of your fonts, designs, gradients, texture etc.

D. Memorable:

Needless to say that every business wants their logo to be remembered by everyone. We all remember the Nike logo, isn’t it? This is what you should aim for while creating a logo design for  freelance business campaign. The best way to make your logo memorable is to make it unique, yet keeping it simple and stylish by selecting the basic colors, basic fonts and trying out their variations.

E. Never Underestimate The Power of Fonts:

Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with a unique style, shape or symbol to add in your logo. In that case, fonts come in very handy. You can achieve a lot with fonts. Just select a font and try customizing it a bit to add that tinge of uniqueness in your logo. Take up a color and customize your font to get your logo design for freelance web design. Take the case of Facebook. Just a simple blue background and a bold font. That’s it. Look at your very own Google. What’s so extraordinary about its logo? Nothing. Just colored fonts.

F. Tagline in Logo:

One can also think of using a tagline in his/her logo, just like Nokia or Macdonald. But you should also design a version of your logo without tagline. It is because your taglines will not be visible in social media sites and will be difficult to read. Moreover, it will eat up the valuable space in your social media profile. Thus, be ready with a logo without a tagline which you can use in social networking sites. Using a tagline is just an option in logo design for freelancing .

G. Get an Opinion From a Third Party:

Rounding off all the points, your logo must be good, really good. Therefore, take an opinion from a third party and see his/her reviews. Ask your friends who’d give an honest answer to you. Many a times, in freelancing cases, even though your logo is not up to the mark, friends often misguide by saying that “this is the best logo that they had ever seen”. Hence, I’d recommend you to take the reviews of third party and ask what they like and dislike about your logo design for freelance web design.

H. Learn From Pros:

If you look at some of the successful freelance web designers’ logo, you’ll find that although their logo is simple, yet they say so much. Take a look at some of the pros in freelance web designing and learn from their logos. I’m sure you’ll come across certain points and techniques that you can use in your logo design for freelance business.

I. Answer These Questions:

Once you’ve prepared a rough sketch of your logo, answer these questions to see if you’ve achieved the target or not.

1. Does this logo represent my freelance web designing career?
2. Will the logo look good everywhere, right from business cards to advertisement hoardings?
3. Does the logo looks well in different social media thumbnails?
4. Will a stranger, who has just seen the logo for 5 seconds, remember it after 2 minutes?
5. Do you really think your logo is good and appropriate for your freelance campaign?

If the answer to all these questions is yes, I think that you are able to create a nice logo for yourself.
A logo is the face of your brand. You cannot simply underestimate the power of it. There are a bunch of freelancers out there. Make sure you get yourself recognized by creating a unique and a memorable logo design for freelancing.
What factors did you keep in mind while creating logo design for freelance web design? What tips would you like to give to budding freelance web designers who will be creating a logo for their website? Give your reviews and thoughts via comments.

If you are looking for a step by step process to start your own freelance web design, you can visit our  Complete guide to become freelance web designer to reach near targeted visitors. Please feel free to leave any comment you have in your mind.

The post Understand The Importance Of Logo Design For Freelance Web Design Business appeared first on Fedobe.