Best Website Templates for Freelance Writers
Although some website builders seem easy, once you start digging around and trying to put your site together, it quickly becomes a tech disaster. That's why this week's livestream is focusing on the top website templates and website builders for freelance writers to quickly and easily get their sites live with samples and images that attract ideal clients.
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Best Website Templates for Freelance Writers
Stop dealing with the tech gremlins. We are going over the top website builders and the top website templates for freelance writers today. So you can get rid of the tech gremlins, move on with your life and be able to update your site really easily. So this was a struggle when I started, uh, if you are a core student of mine, if you are a freelance writer, wealth lab, student of mine, you have seen my initial website.
I send it out in an email for all my students to see where I was when I started building my website and how horrible it was. So if you are a student, you saw how horrible my website was. And if you're interested in seeing what my website looks like now, you can just go to Mandy ellis.com and see what it is.
Uh, and how far we've come. Um, and if you go to my website, you can always pick up my pricing guide. So you can always go to mandyellis.com/pricingguide to get my free pricing guide as well. If you're on the site already. So let's talk about tech gremlins. Let's talk about actually getting all this stuff together.
1) Top Website Templates and Website Builders for Freelance Writers
Hey Vicki, I like your wave. I'm glad you're here. I'll wave back. So we're going to first talk about what types of templates are really good. So this is number one, and I even wrote down recommendations ahead of time. Yay. So the first thing is I always recommend Squarespace. It is really easy to drag and drop.
It's really easy to build everything. It's really easy to make customizations. It's really easy to update it. It's really easy to add samples. They always are updating their templates. They're always adding. Different versions of the site. They're always keeping it, uh, new on the backend. So unlike something like WordPress, where you have to add a lot of plugins and a lot of customizations and the templates change and the templates and WordPress don't always sync up and it messes up the site, which is why I left WordPress Squarespace does everything.
And then you just get the beautiful part on the front end. They also have updated their site right now. So like, as of right now, I'm running an old version of Squarespace because I haven't updated my template. Um, but they have this brand new version of Squarespace. That's even easier to use than what I have.
So I always recommend Squarespace to freelance writers. I think it's the easiest thing, especially when you need to have a really nice homepage, you need to have a really nice about page. You need to have good images. You need to have good copy things that look really well and like really nice together in a well-organized and you need a portfolio.
And it's really nice to have a portfolio where you're. Excuse me, where you actually have images, right. Images from the blog post you wrote or the case study or the profile. Like that's really important because if it's just like another wall of text or a wall of clickable links, I don't think that looks as snazzy as something with a bunch of images.
Right? So that's something that Squarespace allows you to do. And Hey Jennifer, welcome. Um, Jennifer is one of my, uh, freelance writer, wealth lab students, and she has seen my horrible first website. So she can vouch for like the email that goes out with like my very first horrible website and how bad it was.
Hey, Gadi. Welcome in glad you're here. So the deal is that when you're using Squarespace, it's really easy to drag and drop. It's really easy to add anything. You need a custom code, uh, videos, photos. I like Unsplash. So I use a lot of free images from Unsplash to decorate my site. So if you go to my site, right.
Chances are a whole bunch of those images are just from Unsplash. Um, besides the, the images of these two, these two are real images. So like these guys are, um, you know, they're real, they're not from Unsplash they're like falling asleep right now, which is good. Cause they'd been sassy recently. So, um, when you have Squarespace, oh, you know what, let me put those up.
Hey, Emmanuella I actually love that name. Emmanuella I think that's such a pretty name. I think that's such a cool name. Let me put these up. So Squarespace. We're glad you're here. All right. So let's talk about these because one of my coaching students, students shout out to share, uh, and you might know her lovably as chair, a pizza.
So share a pizza. Her name is Cheryl Rutberg, but Shera is one of my coaching students. And she was like, which templates do you recommend? And I was like, I'm so glad she's here, sheriffs here. So this is because I emailed Cheryl ass for this. So share a pizza shares here. Um, asked me for the templates. And I was like, I don't know, they changed, you know, I need to go look at them cause I haven't updated my template in a while.
So all of these templates, if they're still available in, um, in Squarespace, I recommend these and here's why they allow you to set it up in the way that I think is most conducive to getting clients. And it also allows you to set it up in a way that showcases your work really well. So the deal is that all of these templates, templates, uh, Lusaka, Poloma, bilardo Clarkson and de Gras, uh, give you a really nice homepage.
They allow you to have like a blog or some kind of portfolio. So if you go to my website, my portfolio pages, my portfolio, let me see if I can get the quotes portfolio. There we go. Um, my portfolio page is actually. So the way that it's set up is, um, all of those portfolio pieces just link out. So they're not, they're set up on the backend of Squarespace as a blog.
Um, but the front part is like, when someone clicks on it, it just links out to the actual clip. But because my portfolio is set up as a blog, I can tag things so I can tag the topic. I mean, the niche and the type of writing. So anyone who goes to my portfolio can find anything they want, they can find a state sustainability clip or a food clip, um, or a SAS clip or a tech clip or a case study or a white paper or whatever is in there.
Sorry. So all of these templates allow you to do that. And whether you decide to use their built-out portfolio or you add the blog part and you create your portfolio as a blog, all of these, I think really showcase nice. Have images and copy and allow you to organize your site in, in a way that helps draw in clients and makes it look fresh and new and interesting.
Uh, the other thing is like, I have videos on this channel that talk about what you need to include, what questions do you need to answer in your website? I will link to those below in the description. Um, but then you can watch those and say like, alright, I know which template I have now. How do I actually write the copy?
So I'll link to those videos below, but Squarespace by far is the best because it's just really easy to drag and drop. It's really easy to customize. They update things on the backend. You can also run a Google workspace. It used to be called G suite. Now it's called Google workspace. Uh, so you can do like your mandate, Mandy ellis.com or set up your email at your website.
So like my website is Mandy ellis.com and then I have Mandy and Mandy ellis.com for my email and, um, that. All works because Squarespace and Google and Google workspace are friends. So my Google workspace runs through Squarespace. So it's, it's like an add on. Um, and then I get my personalized email with my website and all the cool stuff.
Um, but I just feel like Squarespace is always kind of thinking ahead. They're always kind of adding things that are important to today's, um, today's writer and also like there's different things. So let's say that you decide, you also want to add graphic design services, or you want to add a book writing, like ghost writing services, or you want to do more literary stuff, like more fiction writing or whatever you can add that you can add all of that stuff with Squarespace.
You can just add a new website, you can add all these things. It's really super simple. So if you're going to go with Squarespace, these are the templates. These are the templates I recommend. I always like do it backwards. Hold on.
Just as like a sidebar, the reason I'm coughing is because yesterday. I recorded two videos that are about 40 minutes for my students, my freelance writer, wealth lab students. I recorded a couple of videos for them because we have these new tools that we're learning about. So I created some how to videos for both HubSpot and GMass the good part was that I recorded these 40 minutes, this 40 minute video, uh, without the screen.
So I just talked for 40 minutes without recording the screen. So then I had to rerecord the whole thing because I didn't record the screen. So now I've done like a lot of extra talking. So now I keep coughing.
So even someone who's had a website and has been doing this tech stuff for quite some time, still make mistakes all the time. So shout out to anyone who's recorded a very long video without the screen and had to do it all over again. All right. So let's talk about the next one. The next one that you can choose, um, is you can use a Wix or Weebly.
So, well, let's talk about WordPress first. So WordPress is the second favorite. I think for a lot of people is the customization that WordPress allows you to do. Um, you get to have Yoast SEO, which helps you with SEO on your site. Um, Squarespace already has a lot of built-in SEO stuff. Um, and it says like, put your Meditech here and put this, that like, they already help you with SEO a whole bunch.
Um, WordPress makes you do it all kind of on your own with a bunch of plugins. So WordPress for me, I had WordPress for several years and I just got tired of my template updating at a different time than WordPress or WordPress would update. And my template would break or like all of these things. And even though I haven't used WordPress and probably like seven, five to seven years, I still have freelance writers come to me and they're like, oh my God, WordPress is so hard.
Like, how do you do your site? I'm like square. But sometimes people really like WordPress because they can build a lot of customizations and they can change things out a lot. And they just like the way WordPress works. I just don't, I, it doesn't work with my brain. I need, like, I basically want to build my website by saying like, put this here.
Okay. Color it, this color. All right. Put this video here. Like I want it to be very simple, like drag and drop. I have like better things to do then futzing around with that. But WordPress is more, um, customize, you can do a lot more stuff with it. Um, you can add things all the time
and it allows you to build out very big, complicated websites. So if you want something that's more custom. WordPress is the thing. The next one is like a Weebly or a Wix. So I, I think we believe in Wix are okay for a second. Thing. I don't think they provide all the same functionality that we need as freelance writers.
And I know Shera is someone who was talking about Weebly or Wix. I can't remember which one, but, um, I've had other students use Weebly or Wix and that's fine. It just, I feel like Weebly and Wix are sometimes really hard to deal with. Like it's not as easy as Squarespace. And I also feel like sometimes the websites that I see from people who use Weebly and Wix look Jr.
I don't know if that's the template they chose or if it's how we believe in Wix operate. I don't feel like it looks very polished. I feel like it looks more blocky and, um, it looks more, I guess the word, I just look at it as like junior, it doesn't look pro like when I look at Squarespace and they have a template and all you have to do is type in your copy and find a few images.
It looks super pro. When I looked through the Weebly and Wix templates, I oftentimes find that they are like, if I was creating a fun website for dog treats, I could pick Weebly or Wix. Like it could be. Um, a little bit like whimsical in a way. Like it could be more, um, it's okay. That it's like blocky and ultra violet basically colorful.
Uh, but I feel like when you're running a business and you want to attract those high-end clients, those high-end clients are looking for a polished presence. They're not looking for, um, too much whimsy. I know my site has a lot of winsy, but it's like whimsy in a controlled way. I often feel like when I see Weebly and Wix sites, they're just, they look very blocky.
They look, they don't look like it has a natural flow and it doesn't look like there's like little customizations in there, like swept Squarespace makes their templates so that it looks like there's design in there. It's not just like block, block, block, block. You do organize things in Squarespace by block.
But if you look at a Weebly or a Wix template, and then you look at a Squarespace template, I think it's pretty easy to see that they look totally different. They. Squarespace ones just look a little more alive. Um, I think we be there in Wix or okay. If you're just starting out and you're like put something up, uh, but if you're looking for like investing in the long-term, I think Squarespace is better than a weekly or a Wix.
I'm also going to tell you about a builder that I'm going to move to. So eventually when I have some scheduled space, um, I will be moving from Squarespace to show it. So the reason I'm going to move to show it, sorry. S H O W I T show it. I have to put the spray in my mouth.
So when I cough a lot, I use a spray. It was recommended to me by pat Flynn. I asked him about this one time out of his live stream. It's called entertainer's secret. And when I've been talking a lot or coughing a lot. Okay. Let's talk to sheriff. Sheriff says my personal 2 cent Wix sucks as far as ease for a non-tech person and customer support.
Yeah. That's the other part that's really a big bonus about Squarespace is they have so many help pages like you. If you have a problem, Squarespace has already solved it with a help page there. I have never, I don't even think I've actually talked to a human at Squarespace because I've solved it through all their help pages.
Uh, they always keep everything up to date. They always have, like, they always just add more help pages. Sheriffs has. In fact, after hours of different useless help staff sessions yesterday have yet another call to a higher up tech person scheduled later today and all to do a simple thing. Embed a video.
Yeah. Okay. This is one of my Weebly Wix problems. Squarespace. It's like you click the plus button and it says here's 25 things you can do. And one of them is embedded. Video. One is add. Um, one is like custom something like you could add a video eight different ways with Squarespace. So yeah, if all you have to do is embed a video and you can't do that with a Wix then, or it's like complicated to do with Wix.
Like it's not intuitive. That's a problem. Uh, pat Flynn. So PatFlynn did have a live stream that he did, um, every single day for a year. So this was really cool. Um, during the pandemic, um, like the, or during like the, he did it every day for a year to like help with all that stuff. Um, and he, gosh, I can't remember what time it was at, but he did, he does a live stream for his, uh, Pokemon channel now.
So like he's really into Pokemon and Pokemon cards and collector type things. Um, so he does a live stream for that, but every day for a year, he did a live stream, uh, on his PatFlynn channel. And if you guys listen to the smart, passive income podcast, which I definitely. Um, pat Flynn, you can go back and see a more 365 plus episodes that he did for a year.
He has tons of wonderful content. So I feel like he's always giving great ideas, but you can go back and look at his old livestreams that he did from that year where he live streamed every day. And you'll see me on there sometimes. Uh, it helped me a lot during the pandemic, but I don't think he does it.
I don't think he's done a live stream for that channel in a while, but he does live stream for his Pokemon channel. So if you go look up pat Flynn's YouTube channel, or look up the smart, passive income podcast or all of the other things, he does tons of helpful stuff on there. And then I think every once in a while, I think he does a live stream on his PatFlynn channel, but he's still uploads videos regularly.
Um, it's really fun when he does a live stream. It's really fun. And I that's kind of why I started live streaming because it was so fun to be on his side. Okay. Back to the topic. So based on Shera, talking to real people, inhabiting a struggle with them, just helping her embed it, bedding a video. That's a big problem.
Squarespace, and you click two buttons and you can embed a video and you can embed the video with code, or you can embed the video with a link which has dice because when I put my YouTube videos on my website, I use the code, not the link.
Um, so let's talk about show it S H O W I T. So I'm gonna move to show it because show it is like Squarespace on steroids. It's a little, um, if I remember right, it's more expensive, like it's slightly more expensive. And then I'm also going to add a template from tonic site shop. So T O N I C S I T E S H OP.
Right. Tonic Site Shop. So, um, show, it allows you to basically take like Squarespace works with Legos. So think of it this way. Squarespace is like Legos that you put bricks in order, and you can pick different colors and shapes, but they're all kind of bricks. Um, show it takes those bricks and allows you to say, I actually need a brick this big, or I want to make it smaller.
Like you can physically expand and move everything around. It's it's more like a wireframe where you get to customize it as much as you want. So it's really cool. Like it allows you to really customize things, but it's, to me, it seems more advanced because there's a lot more stuff you do with it. So I'm going to switch there because I like the tonic site shop templates, and I need to add more stuff to my site.
Uh, and right now it's just kind of like, it needs a little help. So I want to switch to these tiny tonics site shop templates. And then I also want to use show it because it allows me to do more customization and it allows me to do. Physically ch like if I have a box, you know, let's like 200 pixels by 200 pixels and I'm like, it actually needs to be 200 by 400.
I can just stretch it. I can just physically stretch it on the screen instead of having to go find the code or instead of clicking on the element and being like changes thing, I can drag things around the page is really amazing. So show it is like, if you really want a lot of customizations on a lot of things where you are, uh, gosh, like moving things around freely, uh it's there are lots of show at templates.
You can also buy templates from more than tonic site shop. I just liked their templates a lot. Um, there's a lot of different places that allow like, show it has its regular subscription. Right? It's doing all this stuff. You also have to have other things. So, um, I'm pretty sure that show it is just like the platform.
And then you also have to have like different hosting stuff if I remember. Right. Um, and then the same thing where if you move to a show it, then you have to set up your Google workspace somewhere. And so right now, my Google workspace slash you know, it used to be called G suite. Now it's called Google workspace.
That's set up through Squarespace. So I would have to UN I would have to divorce them from Squarespace basically. So show it, I think is a fun, alternative, and a fun option. If you want to play around a lot with your site and you want to make it more custom and WordPress is a pain for you, and you want something a little more, um, flexible than a Squarespace.
So those are kind of the ones that I recommend. I always think Squarespace is the best. WordPress is probably number two, show it, is it lumped? I'd probably do like if I was starting out as a freelance writer, I do Squarespace. No, like that would be my number one. If I was kind of working on making a more custom site, I would pick show it.
If I wanted to be nitty gritty about things, I would pick something like WordPress, where like, I don't mind being in my website all the time. And then if I really just wanted to throw something up. You could pick a Wix or Weebly, but you'd probably, probably just be better off with Squarespace and Squarespace.
It's super affordable. Like, I don't think Squarespace costs that much more than a Weebly or a Wix and it's a lot better. So, um, those are the ones I recommend. We're going to do quick pup date. So hold on a second and then we're going to move on to number two. So let's do number two and then we're going to pep date.
2) How to Get Your Freelance Writing Website Live Quickly and Easily
You guys have been so good today. I can't believe it. You guys have been so quiet. All right. Very ready. And there you go, buddy. All right, Charlotte, you're going to show everyone your talents. You may. High-five good job. You go, buddy. Good job everybody. You guys look great today. I like how you guys look like little Fritos.
Oh, wait. You can't do the high-five. I forgot. Right? Perfect job. Can you do the other one? Can you do the other one? Well, you just do the same one probably. Cause you're laying on your leg. You guys look great today. How are you doing today? Good job. One more. Good job. Good job guys. All right. Quick pup date.
They're doing great. Bo is a, so now that Bo is 15 and a half, just as a side note, I kind of like, I was talking to this, someone about this, where he's getting to the point where it's kind of like living with a dementia patient where he, he, we're not really sure if it's like his vision that has the problem or his hearing that has the problem.
He seems to be like cognitively, not all there, but he's, you know, he's 60, he's like 60, 70 pounds. He might be 70 he's somewhere. He's like 65 pounds. He's a giant pit bull. He's a large breed dog. And he's going to be 16 in less than six months. I think. I think he's doing pretty well. He can still jump up and down the stairs.
Like there's physically he's, he's fine. Mentally. He's like, you know, in the kind of like half the time he's swimming in his own lake, He's partying with everybody else. So it just depends. All right, let's talk about number two. So number two is like, how do we get our website live quickly and easily? So number one here with number two is pull up a Google doc or pull up a word doc and write your copy.
Don't get the website first, write the copy. So like don't start writing everything in the website, pick your template, pick your platform, write all your copy in a document. And then you can see how it flows all at once. This is a mistake. I see a lot of writers make, they want to get the template and then they want to build the copy and all the content into the template immediately.
And then they get lost because what happens is when you put the copy in a template, right, you're putting in a website, it now has design elements. It's now moving the copy around. So you can't see it as like a narrative. When you put all the stuff in a Google doc or in a Microsoft word doc, however old you are, which I like word.
Cause that's what I grew up on. And I use Google docs for editing. So I can't write in Google docs. It like my brain is like, no. Um, so however you do it, put your copy for your site, all of it in one document, then you can see how it flows, how it makes sense. How are you leading someone to the next thing?
Are you leading them to experience? Are you leading them to logos? Are you leading them on to click a button to reach out to you? Is your homepage copy stronger than your about page copy or is your about page copy too similar to your homepage? Copy. Um, there's a lot of different things that are just copy based and as writers, I think we kind of need to see that narrative all at once.
So write your, write your copy in a document first, then put it in the. So, this is how we move through. Getting our website live much quicker is like, if you start putting it in the template, you're like, well, now I have to click over to this page to read this other part. And I can't remember what this part said and where's this, that like there's too many elements.
Fix the copy first, then put in the site, pick the template, write the copy, fix the copy, put it in the template, then go find images, then go find, Unsplash go take some pictures. You can literally like, um, you know, phones. Like my phone is a few years old now. Like my, my phone is a few years old now and I still use it all the time for like reels and other things I make.
And it, the camera is insane. So even if you have to just take your phone and take a couple self selfies, or like take a picture of yourself in your office or whatever with your phone, do it, just take a few photos, put them on there. You don't need fancy equipment. Um, go to Unsplash get some like brand image photos, like pick some things that make sense for your niche.
Pick some things that aren't. Um, relevant to your industry that get the, get, get the idea across, like, you don't want a website that's full of like people writing, you know, you can have a few desk photos, a few computer photos of few, you know, you working photos. But I think the idea is that you want people to get the visual impact of your niche, right?
Like what, who do you work for? What is the experience of working with you? What types of things do you create in your niches? That stuff is way more powerful than like here's the 85th picture of the desk. Yay. So when you're doing this, getting your website up quickly, pick something that's easy to use, which is why like Squarespace, it's like, get your Squarespace thing, get your Squarespace template, set up your doc, write your copy.
Then you can do all the flowery stuff, pasted in the template. Then you can do all of the images. It's a lot easier that way. The other thing to remember about getting your website up quickly is that your website is a living. You have to feed the beast every once in a while your website lives like it, it breathes, it does stuff, right?
So you're the website you put up now is not the website you're going to have in a year or six months or five years. So like I said, like, Jennifer has seen my original website and how horrible it was, that thing hasn't existed for years. And I've had many hundreds and hundreds of iterations of my website, whether that's, I changed a couple words in the copy or I did a full template redo, or I added stuff like probably thousands.
I don't know. But the deal is that you have to remember that your website is a living being, you're going to come back and update it. You're going to change it. What you have to do to get it live is get rid of perfection. Put your copy up there and move on with your life when you have work, like when you're going off, wait six months.
And now that you've worked with more clients, go back and edit your site. That's what I keep doing is like my website and my LinkedIn need a refresh right now. And if you're watching this sometime in the future, or maybe I've refreshed it by now, but my website and LinkedIn need a refresh because I've learned more about what my client's pain points are.
I've learned more about how I can help them. I've learned more about the questions they regularly ask me. So that means that I need to update my site copy. So this little beast, our little website, beast that lives for a while, that thing you just feed it every once in a while you feed it updates, you feed it, new images, you feed it, new clips.
The way that you want to think about it is. There's less pressure because you're constantly learning and updating it. It's not that you put a website up and it's perfect and you live your life and you're like, I've done it website complete. No. Now, even if you never changed your copy, you need to update your site by putting your quote or your new clips in all the time.
Like, this is one of the things that I've been. This is one of the things people talk about with my site. They're like, man, if I Google these few keywords, your site comes up first. Yeah. Cause I update my site. Not because I'm sitting there like trying to figure out Google analytics and like picking a thousands SEO keywords.
I do pick certain ones, but a lot of my site juice comes because I'm constantly updating my website constantly adding clips, like before I had my live stream, every time I got a clip, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They're in there. So that really helps a lot. So just remember that your website, no matter how quickly, um, and dangerously you get it, put up, you're going to update it.
You're going to change it. Hey, Bez. You're going to have this little beast that follows you around where you're like every once in while you feed it, some updates, you give it some update to give it some tree dose. And now I'm going to have to give them some treats. Cause now I said the word treat us. So you go, can you go back to your habit hole?
Should I go back to your house? The whole go back to your, have a whole, Nope. You can't be there. Go back to your, have a hole over there. Why do you guys want to sit on each other? I don't understand it because normally when you to sit on each other, one of you has a meltdown. Usually when one of you sits on the other one, one of you has a big giant Bork Fest or some kind of meltdown over this situation.
But I guess since we're on camera, this is fine. Everybody's okay. Okay. All right. I guess you guys just do your own weird camera things. Here you go, buddy. All right. So just remember that your website is a little beast. Get rid of perfection. Um, let your, um, let your template and your copy kind of just live for a while, let it marinate.
And then when you get back to it, you will see a lot of things. You can change, pick something that's quick and easy to get set up with. I like Squarespace. I'm going to say it a thousand times in this video. Um, but it's something where it's like, I can, I can pick a template that I know works. I can get all my copy ready.
I can find my clips and get all my clips, all the links to my clips, all the images to my clips. Ready. I can go to Unsplash or you can go to like Pixabay or gosh, there's so many sites with free images. Now, I just like Unsplash because I feel like there's really adds a lot more images more frequently. Um, and then you just kind of put your site together and then you're like, cool.
Let it marinate for six months, come back, refresh it. Um, Shera says, did you have, did you or a tech person optimize the backend on your site? Whatever that means that with SEO. No, that's the magic of Squarespace, like Squarespace already has, like, it says that it has built in SEO stuff, which I believe it because my site does really well.
Uh, but like I said, like I, um, my person that I worked with for my website asked me for a few key words, I think, and then, and it's not many, it was like three or five. Um, and then I went through my copy and I added some keywords, but if you read my copy on my site, like my current site right now, you won't be able to tell what those keywords are or what, like, it's all very natural and I don't have a ton.
That's the thing about SEO is that there are a lot of things you can do to optimize SEO, but it's kind of the same thing as like, if everybody's swimming in the pool pools really full everybody's S doing SEO, everybody. So it's kind of like.
What you want to focus on are the things that other people can't do so everyone can optimize their site with SEO. Everyone can run Uber suggest and figure out similar keywords or, uh, use keywords everywhere and find different phrases. Or like they, everybody can do that, but not everyone can update their site with new clips.
Like you have, like, that's why we get more clients, more clips. Um, not everyone can pick the same images and use the same alt text. So not everyone can update their site copy as much as you are, or there's a lot of little things that we do that really help with, with like being found on the internet that aren't necessarily SEO.
Right? Updating your site is part of SEO. That's been my strongest thing. And like I said, for my design, like when I had my site designed, I think we did a little bit of stuff, but it wasn't like I never ran a report. I picked random, I picked random stuff. Cause at the time I was doing it, I didn't do a ton of stuff.
But like, yeah, I think the most important thing. Is always updating your site bar, none, update your copy, update your images, update your alt texts on your images, which I need to do that. If they're not there. Um, I need to like update your clips up. Like if you were featured somewhere or you have like a video put that on there, um, that's really important stuff.
I think that's more important. So no, even my, like, even if you, I think my site is like real, like it ranks first for like Austin freelance writer, real estate writer, uh, used to be first for food writer. Like when you, when you do like Google, um, like you do like Google incognito, right? You do like a secret window or whatever, and you Google yourself.
Um, there was a bunch of things that my site came up like on the first page and that's because I update my stuff. I pay attention to what's going on and, um, I think that's the strongest piece, more so than worrying about SEO, because I just feel my personal feeling is that everybody's doing SEO. Yes. You need to pay attention.
Yes. You need to have things that will help people find you. Yes, it's important, but it's not the end all be all. And there's a lot of other things that we can do to make our site shine and make our site easy to find, uh, beyond just worried about keywords or phrases or long tail keywords or all this other stuff.
Um, oh, before I get to the next question, if you feel like this has been helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you want to learn more about designing your website as a freelance writer or building a hiring freelance writing business. So scribe Jennifer, at least you had one, at least you had one, you have to start somewhere way ahead of me.
Jennifer, you have a great LinkedIn profile though. We all, we know that. So this is part of the. The line that we walk, right? So when we have our website, we also have our LinkedIn profile. And this is one of the reasons why, when I teach about the stuff is that I'm like LinkedIn first LinkedIn is a lot easier to get working because you eliminate all the design, you need one photo of your face, and then you get to write all this copy on LinkedIn, that you can then pour over to your website.
If you want to. Like, I bet if you look at my website and my LinkedIn, you will find copies similarities. Like you can use that as your way to get started, and it's okay to not have a website for awhile. That's all right. Start with LinkedIn. Build that up, work on the website later. So, um, let me make sure I said everything I wanted to say.
Oh, um, so last thing I'm going to say for number two here is that we just want to make sure that we're getting our site live and you know, when it like, as quickly. Possible. Uh, don't worry so much about all these things. You're going to come back and fix it later. You're going to have to feed the beast, um, and kind of let go of that perfectionism.
It's just going to be a little live thing that your web presence should change and evolve as you change and evolve over time. So don't get stuck in perfectionism of like, this has to be perfect. I had many, many websites that were terrible and I had great clients before I built a site I have now, which like people are like, oh my gosh, your site's so great.
It's like, yeah, because I failed a thousand times. I had garbage websites for years before I have the site I have. Now it's the, you're looking at the level of iteration that I have gotten to. So the level of iteration I am at now is what my site looks like now. But if you had seen my site, when I started out, you'd be like, oh my gosh, that poor girl.
3) How to Put Up Your Samples, Fined Free Images to Attract Niche Clients, and Complete Site Updates When You’re Busy With Work
Um, so that's kind of like, just, just know that you kind of have to let go of perfection and iterate over time. All right. Number three, here. We're going to talk about. Um, we already talked about samples and images. So just make sure with your samples, that you're uploading your samples. As soon as you can make sure you have images and make sure they link out and that you check every once in a while to see if those links are still working.
And if they're not make sure every time you get a clip that you take, um, it's a full page screen capture or whatever it's called. It used to be called go full page, but it's a Google Chrome extension that will take a screenshot of a whole page. Every time you get a clip, do that. So you always have a clip in case the website goes down or they delete your stuff or whatever.
Um, and then make sure that when you pick images for your site, they are niche based. They are not writing based because those don't nobody cares about the writing. They care that you are for their business. Do you write about food, travel real estate insurance, whatever it is, make sure those images are not cheesy, but they speak to the experience.
Right? So like my images. Sometimes it's like people sitting at a table, right. Which is evoking restaurant, or like let's gather around and like, talk about this food. Then I have a picture of a house which has real estate. Then I have a picture of someone traveling in the woods, which the experience of exploring.
Um, and then I have picture of like blueberries before they turn blue, because it's like, it fit with the colors. And like, I like the round background, but pick things that evoke the experience of working with you and that evoke the niches that you work in without being cheesy. The next thing we want to say is that, um, when you're busy with work, I see you.
Do you want me to pick you up? Do you want me to share you with the world? You want to bring your little pork jowls up here? She's like, no, just give me something. Um, so when you're completing your site updates, I think you should schedule them. This is something. This is something that I have not been great at.
Um, I was really, really good at it for a long time, but the more I build out my business, like the more I build out my live streams or, um, my course or my students or my coaching stuff or whatever, I have not been as good at, at good, at as good at this area. Uh, but I used to check my site. I think it was every three to four months or six months.
And I did it all the time. I went back and I scheduled it like, Hey, you need to look at your site during this period of time. And then I would see in my calendar, like I need to do that. So if it turned out that I had deadlines on that week, I moved it around or I just, I knew I had to get it done. So when you're busy with work, you still have to schedule these things in to get it done.
I know this is a pain sometimes, and I know it's a problem, but honestly that is some of the best stuff you can do for your site. Everybody else can pick all the keywords, try to rank for them, whatever, like everybody can do that. Not everybody can go in and change your copy. Once you learn that instead of pain point a your clients actually have pain point B.
And the more you emphasize that on your site, the better clients who get in the more clients you get, not everybody can do that. Add more samples, change out your images, fix up the, pick a new template. If you feel like your template is dated or it doesn't look fresh, uh, take new images of yourself. Like if you're feeling really good about yourself and you're like, Hey, you know what?
I feel like, today's the day, take a picture of yourself, put it on your site. Um, there's a lot of things that I think it's like time consuming to do this stuff, but if you let it go in chunks, hi, I know you just look by pants. If you do it in chunks, then you can actually get it done. So like, let's say every three months you start every quarter, you do a website update.
You spend one day. I don't care. If it's a weekend day, I don't care. Whatever, whatever you get done in that one day is what you got done. Move on with. So, whether it's like, okay, cool. I need to update a bunch of clips. I need to update images. I need to update, copy. Whatever you can get done in one day is great.
Three months later, whatever you get done in one day, move along. Now, sometimes you have to do a big update, right? You're switching platforms. Like you have a WIC site and you're moving to Squarespace. So you have to move over all your clips. That can be a big pain in the butt. When you have hundreds of clips or even dozens of clips.
Like I remember when I was switching templates, um, myself and I had to move like 50 clips. And I was like, oh God, no. And it took forever. Um, so just make time for that and schedule it in. And when you're doing longer stuff, give yourself time to do that. Like, if you are going to switch platforms, if you are going to switch templates, give yourself a week or something like, or, um, do it every, you know, spend an hour every day after you're done with all your work, getting like adding all your stuff in or spend a weekend doing it.
This is how I updated my site over the years. I knew it had to get done because that's the way that, um, Google, spiders love new stuff, especially when you mix like, um, legacy stuff and new stuff. So like if you have an older site and then you keep updating it, it likes that a lot. Um, and like I said, well, I've said this before, but I'll say it now, the Google stuff always changes the SEO, the trying to beat the algorithm, that stuff is constantly changing.
And I feel like there are lots of techniques and tricks that we can use to help with that. But the, the thing people can't replace an update is you, you writing the copy, you updating the site, you working hard to make sure you're answering your client's pain points and you become a known entity. Um, this was something else.
Oops, sorry. I popped her in the cheek. Uh, this was something else I focused on in my site and I'm not sure if I ever talked about. But, um, one of the things that I kept in the back of my mind when I was updating my website was how do I become a known entity? Like what types of things can I do to become a known entity in my niches?
Well, is that, that people don't know my face, so maybe I should include more than one photo of my face on my website. Um, is it that people don't know my personality? Maybe I should include my dogs. Uh, maybe it's that they don't know what niches I'm in, because all the images I have zero images on my site, except for the one image of my face.
Uh, is there think of the different ways you can become a known entity where like you're updating your site. So it's easier to get found or when someone comes to your site, they're like, this is the coolest I need to, uh, I need to share it with Getty. I need to go send this to Getty to share it with him.
Right. And then you become a more known entity cause people like your site and you actually answer their questions and they're like, wow, what a good fit for us? All of these things, um, All of these things are really important. Like the becoming a known entity, isn't like becoming an influencer or like a famous person.
It's becoming like someone whose name lives in those circles. Right? Like your clients share your name because of XYZ and even people before they become your clients. They're like, oh yeah, I love working with Mandy. She's so fun. And she turns her work in on time. And her work is excellent. Plus she has a great website with her cute dogs.
You should check it out. Right. There's all of these things that I think are really important to think about when becoming a known entity. So put that in your noodle. Um, that was something that I kept in the back of my head is like, how do I become a known entity? How do I put personality? How do I put touches into my website?
That when someone visits it, they have like, I need to share this with someone or, oh my God, I love those dogs. I got to share it with my friend. You know, Jennifer, because she also has pets and blah, blah, blah. Like something that triggers something else where then it just becomes like, Uh, connection point, they get connected to the fact that you have X on your website and then they do Y action.
And then hopefully you get work in clients, which would be the Z part. This is all really important to updating your site, to have your site feel like the experience of working with you to having personality, to updating it, to keeping it something that is interesting. And like I said, that's like do it every quarter, pick one day, um, and just do something, do something.
And, and this is in amongst adding clips. Now adding clips should take five to 10 minutes. Every time you get a new clip, go to the clip, go to the link, do full-page screen capture or go full page, whatever it's called the Google Chrome extension. It'll take a full picture of the whole webpage. Save that, then go into Squarespace.
Oh, well save the image on the page. If you can, if you can't take a screenshot and edit it into a canvas size, you know, go to camp. Edit the image, um, to make it so that you can upload it. Um, but so take that and then go to Squarespace or go to your website thing, put in the link, put in the photo, move on with your life.
Do this all the time. The bonus part to update in your clips is when you spend that one day, oops, sorry. You okay. When you spend that one day per quarter, updating your site or a week or whatever, I'm not going to say that it's easy. It's not, and sometimes it can be really frustrating. It can be a pain, but I can tell you that all of the weekends and all of the time and all of the effort I have ever put into my website have paid off.
I can't tell you how many people come back to me and say, so-and-so saw your site with your dog. So-and-so saw that you do this thing. So like, there are so many different points at which my website. Does a lot. Right. And even my students, right? Like you and my freelance writer, wealth lab students, or my coaching students are like, your website is so advanced.
Yeah. Because I did these updates regularly. Like I shoveled the shit, you got to shovel the shit sometimes to get to the gold nuggets. Right. And I did boom every, every little while I'm updating my site. I'm changing things. I'm thinking about my client's pain points. I'm thinking about how I want to address them.
Like right now. That's why I, when we talk about these things, I openly tell you, like my site needs help. My site needs a refresh. And I tell you that my LinkedIn profile needs a refresh because I've learned so much and I'm off my train. Right. I'm off my train of updating my site regularly. And that's really important to me.
That's a really important thing that helps me get more work. It helps me get more clients. It helps me become a, more of a known entity in my niches. Um, it helps me just immensely. And I, um, I think that's something that freelance writers think it just like lives forever. Like they put up a website. It lives.
It, it doesn't, it doesn't, it's a beast feed it. So here's the deal when you're kind of doing stuff. Just remember, like the way that I think that's helpful to think about it is that your website is the tunnel to your future. When someone lands on your website and they see your presence, the website you have now is the tunnel to like where you want to go.
It's okay to be aspirational and say, I want to do this type of work. That's okay. Offer that type of work before you do that, work, learn how to do it, you know, maybe write your own thing and figure it out. Um, but it's okay to put stuff on your, on your site that you haven't done yet. You learn how to do it, then you can do it.
Um, it's okay to make your site more aspiration of where you want to go. So here's a good example. Before I ever did content strategy. I put it on my website. I was like, I do content strategy now because I learned how to do it. I learned what I was supposed to do. I knew how to do it. And by the time I got my first client, everything, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, everything kind of moved along.
Cause I already knew how to do it. Right. But I had advertised it on my site before I did it because it's aspirational and I wanted to become a known entity in that thing starting before I actually, you know, like that's how you get clients is you say I do this thing. And then they're like, great, let's talk about it.
But because you know how to do it. Maybe you don't have samples yet, but you know how to do it, then you can get work. Right. It's really important. To pay attention to those things. The website is the tunnel to the future. Okay. So every type of work that you want to do in the future, put it on your website, every niche that you eventually want to work in, every type of writing, everything that you want to do, put it on your website.
Don't do the work until you learn how to do it. So if someone comes to you and says, I want you to do a case study and you're like, oh shit, I don't know how to do that, but I do want to do it right. Learn how to do it before you actually do that work, you need to learn stuff. So like go find someone who's an expert in case studies like Casey Hibbard, read her book, um, take her course, read other case, study examples, ask your client for examples.
But the key is like, there's lots of times where we've taken writing assignments, where we didn't know how to do that thing. Right. Your very first reported article, your very first blog, post, whatever. You're just like, you know, trying to figure it out. And that's okay. The point is that you need to understand the format and the, like the.
How you put things together for that type of content before you actually write it, advertising it on your website and saying, I want to do this for you. That's how you should think about it. Not like, oh shit, I'm not qualified. I shouldn't put it on my website till I'm qualified. No, what you want to say is this is the work I want to do these things.
I will learn how to do these other parts that I don't know how to do yet. And then I will apply them to helping you. That's the whole point, because here's a fun note. There are a lot of clients and a lot of writers that I know, including myself who have gotten, um, had a great relationship with a client and they're like, Hey, do you write case studies?
And you're like, I do write case studies. And they're like, do you have a clip? And you're like, no, I don't, but I'm, but I'm trying to work myself. You know, I'm trying to move into more case studies. They're like, oh great. We love working with you. Why don't you write this case? State no samples, no, nothing.
There are a lots of times where your clients trust you enough and like you enough to give you new types of writing. If you didn't have it on your website, or if you didn't say you offered them. Now, now you don't get extra work and now you don't get the clip, right? So there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with putting it on your site as something you want to do.
Right? And you want to do this type of work. You want to do this type of content. You want to help a client in this type of niche. There's nothing wrong with that. It's um, it's the planting, the seed before the harvest comes, because by the time you plant the seed, right, you say, I want to do content strategy.
You go off and learn all the stuff. By the time you learn all this stuff, you may have a client knocking on your door saying, can you do this right? That's the cool thing. All right. Um, Vicky says, sounds like you did a lot of growing your business, even when your website was bad. That's true. I find that a lot of people who nitpick my website were never going to hire me airway anyways.
And we're being. We're just being jerks. That's true. There's um, have you ever heard the concept of like, you know, like from Bernay brown and like other people have talked about this? There's a couple concepts. One is like, if you're not in the arena and you're sitting in the stands watching the arena, like, I don't care what you think.
Right. If you're not fighting the battle in the arena, if you're not in the Coliseum, fighting the lions and you're up in the stands, you know, making critiques, like no one cares what you think. So that's kind of, that is like, they're coming to your website being like, why didn't you do this? And you screwed this up and this is garbage.
You're not fighting the battle buddy. By the second thing is like, there's often this quote that people talk about where they don't make statues of critics. Right. They make statues of people who actually do stuff. A lot of times, people love to critique other people who are taking action. Other people who are becoming visible, other people who are actually trying to do something like they're, they're trying.
Right. And they're making mistakes and they're, uh, You know, doing all this stuff and they look goofy, right? Like when I make my reels, like, it makes me really uncomfortable, but like, oh, well I'm trying something new. And if someone comes in and was like, you're real stupid, it's like, okay, what have you done lately?
Like what, what are you doing? Right. It's kind of like this thing where they're looking for reasons to like, not hire you or they're looking for reasons to nitpick or they're looking for things that they can critique, you know? And a lot of times, um, there's this other concept where they, where people, what people say has more to do with them than it has to do with you.
Right? So that's there. Those I think are really important concepts. The most, um, critical thing I think is that you are taking action in your business. You are working hard to take action in your business, right. Regardless of what other people say, but whether those people, sorry, there's like carefully around, regardless of what those people say, right?
Like they're not trying, they're not taking action. Um, moving forward, despite all of this other stuff, they're just, they're making blind critiques. Um, if I have, like, what I take seriously, just as an example is like, when my friends were like, Hey, your website is broken or, Hey, this thing is sucks. Or like, Hey, why did you write this?
Or you have a typo or what that stuff I take seriously. Cause they're in the arena, they're taking action. They're fighting the battles. They're doing the same stuff I am. And they're looking for the same stuff that I am. And if a client came to me and was like, Hey, I just want to let you know, your website right here is messed up.
I'd be like, oh shit. And I go fix it. Right. Cause they're coming, like we're fighting the content battle together. But when randos come in there and they're like, let me tell you all the things that are wrong. You're like, what battle are you fighting today? Like what's going on? Um, I think that the.
Perception to have your website being bad is your own perception. So I'm saying my website was bad, but it could be that my clients saw it and they were like, sounds good. You know, I don't know. Um, but the perception that you get from whether your website is good or bad, I think you should follow your own stuff.
Right? Whether someone's coming in and saying your website sucks, like, okay, I'm working on it. Like, I think that the fact that you're willing to be open and you're willing to like fix it, and you're willing to take the critiques that matter from the people who matter to you and make the changes. That's what matters.
Um, and you still have to grow a business regardless of your online presence. Like, do you want to, this is something actually Shera. If you're still here, this was something I was going to email you today and I'll just tell everybody, um, it's okay. It's okay to have your. Web presence be like in process.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to put in as much effort as possible into your dreams. Do you want to be a writer? You want to have a writing business? Will you got to do this? Like you gotta do this stuff. Like how much do you want it? This is something that I always think about is like, how much do you want it?
Are you willing to deal with a shitty website to get clients while you fix your website while you get to be a better writer while you learn the business? All right, you're going to be fine. Like the people who aren't willing to learn and aren't willing to deal with being bad for awhile. That's when it starts being a problem.
Right? You have to be bad. Like every version of the thing that you've done is bad. Like my first live stream, if you go back to my first live stream, it's terrible. It's terrible. Compared to like the stuff I do now. Right? Um, I'm uncomfortable. I probably talk too fast. It's probably too loud. I have a new mic now, so I don't sound so weird.
Um, there's all of these things where like you have to suffer through all the bad stuff to learn how to do the good. Um, I think that there's nothing wrong with investing time and energy into your dreams, and there's nothing wrong with growing your business and moving forward, despite the fact that everything isn't perfect.
I think that's fine. Like the, the thing that I keep that I always came back to, like, when I was really struggling is like, how bad do you want this? Like, how bad do you want to be a freelance writer? How bad do you want to make enough money that, um, you can, that this is your full-time job? How bad do you want to be a six figure freelance writer, how bad you want to do?
Like, are you willing to deal with this shitty stuff? Are you willing to have a shitty website? Are you really willing to have a bad LinkedIn? Are you willing to make a mistake and send the LOI to the wrong person or say weird things? Like, thanks for basically like a, it's been pleasuring to know you, which I've said like all of these awkward, weird things, that's kind of just part of it.
Jello. Great. Ans so I think the deal here is. Um, your website is a reflection of how bad you want it, right. It's okay to have something bad and still take action. You're working on it. This is part of the face. Like anybody that you look up to like this is like, right. Everybody loves to share those memes of like, um, like, um, what's his name?
You know, Jeff Bezos was flipping burgers at McDonald's at 25 and Oprah got fired from this TV show. And bill gates didn't make a bunch of money until this point. And so-and-so, um, could tell you fried chicken. Didn't start till, uh, the dude was 65 and Michael Jordan missed 300 final buzzer shots, uh, when he was supposed to help his team win or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Everybody loves to share that stuff, but they miss all the parts where they failed to get to that. Like they got to that point, like they became a billionaire or became one of the most well-known basketball players or became what, you know, built a business empire because they failed and made a lot of mistakes.
Right. And it's took however long it took some people it's 25, some people at 65, that's part of the journey. Right? How bad do you want it? Do you want to look like, oh, you want to like make mistakes? Hi buddy. And, and still try, like, do you want to be a freelance writer? All right. This is part of it.
Sometimes you're going to make mistakes. Sometimes you're going to do weird things. Sometimes you're going to do silly things. Sometimes you're gonna make a giant blow up error. That's part of the learning experience. And I think that's more important, like learning your website stuff, learning how to make your website better learning.
What helps your clients getting in the arena, making the changes. That's what matters more. That always matters more. Okay, thank you for letting me stand on my long winded response to Vicky's comment. All right. Uh, I think that's pretty much it. I don't see any questions. Uh, I didn't oh, you know what we haven't done, um, is my, my wheel thing.
That's what I was going to do today. That's right. Okay. So, um, you know what, it's actually kind of late. I'm going to do that next week. Okay. People. If you emailed me to win free coaching. So if you were someone who there's a bunch of you who emailed me to win free coaching after, um, the course launch, next week, we will open with doing the wheel spin in order to see who wins the free coaching.
So I was going to do that today, but I got stuck on the gremlins. Um, so next week we're going to do the wheel spin to see who wins free coaching. So tune in if you're one of those people tune in, um, I'm going to let you know anyways, obviously, but, um, it's fun. We get to do the wheel. So, uh, if you feel like this video about websites has been helpful, give it a thumbs up.
If you feel like you want to build a better website as a freelance writer, or you want to build a high earning freelance writing business subscribe. Yay. Sherra sheriff says, thank you so much. You're welcome. Shera, Shera. I have an email, another thing to send you later, so don't, don't do worry. All right, let's do one more update and then we're going to hop out.
All right. Can you back up? I don't even, I don't know if you can, can you back up or can you go. Can you go get both careful. You go to your have a whole good job. Good job. All right. I know the only one. Good job. All right. Very, can you catch it? Ready? 1, 2, 3 dogs. Oh, oh my gosh. How did you do that? You're like basically blind 1, 2, 3 dogs.
Oh, you didn't get that one here. It is. Yeah, I know. Because like, all right. Any other one other one other one. Good job. Yeah. We're basically a circus animal. Now. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you to the, uh, circus people. Laura, you are welcome. I'm glad that was helpful. Vicky says, hold on a second.
Biggie. We're going to pop this up here. Who do you recommend for hosting your website? I like blue. Squarespace does everything. So I don't need to have a host, like Squarespace hosts it and does all the stuff. So all I have is Squarespace. Uh, but I like blue host blue Bluehost, um, is where I had my WordPress website.
They're really great at, um, uh, I hear that good things about customer service and, um, blue host lets you connect a whole bunch of stuff. So if you do WordPress or you do, um, you need some kind of hosting service blue host and then, um, I think so if you need URLs, I used to use, I have Tiara net, um, to like my Mandy ls.com I bought through Tiara net, but there's also Namecheap um, and a few other ones that you can use to get your URL.
So then you basically like set it like Mandy ellis.com is set up through right net and then it forwards to Squarespace. It does this whole thing, but yeah, blue host, tierranet, Namecheap all right. Peeps. Um, okay. We're done with our puppy. You want one more? Okay. One more. You guys have eaten there's so many today.
Like I'm a little worried you back up, you back up. I know, I know you got to back up more. I got, I got, you know how to back up. Come on now. I got no, back up. There you go. Okay. Other one, other one other one, the job. You're the best. All right. But one more. And then you're done. Okay. People, here you go. All right.
We're here. Every Friday. We do live streams every Friday, different topics, different cool stuff. Um, and if you ever have a question that or a topic that you want me to answer, we've done a bunch of. Topics from other freelance writers who have written in, you can go to Mandy alyce.com/question, and put a question in there.
I get answer questions on the live stream. I also do topics so noise, pop them in there. I hope this was helpful and I will see you next Friday. Hope you have a good weekend. Bye.
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