[flashwiz]

One of the most important parts of your advertising arsenal is your own website!!

Your website is the place where you display your skill set and products to potential clients and customers. Our product at the end of the day is design and interactive media, and its important that potential customers can view a wide range of your projects. Often we as designers post only what we feel is our best work on our sites. Whilst this is a good idea in general, i have also learned that it is better to have a wide range of styles and types of projects online. Even if some of the work is not what you consider to be your best!

For instance i have work in my showroom from when i helped TheAA design and build their Car Portal in 2002. The design itself looks old and outdated, but the brand name recognition as helped so much to build my credibility with new clients.

As designers we are often very critical about our own work, yet i have been pleasantly suprised by how much a new client for example likes a past project of mine that i myself consider old and inferior to my more recent work.

When you design your freelance site you need to think about the target audience. We all have our own styles and you therefore need to decide if you want to work for any or all of the following: B2B, B2C, non-profit and small shops. Try to learn about what your target audience looks for when they select a freelance designer such as yourself and give them what they want.

Give them a reason why they should use you and not look elsewhere.