How To Create A Winning Freelance Profile?

You choose to freelance as a career for a reason: to have the freedom to work for yourself and start your own business. As a freelancer, your ability to sell yourself, and to stand out from the crowd is critical for survival in the competitive gig economy.

If you don’t, you are overlooked or passed over for a second opportunity at the job, experience, and money.

Can you recall the last time your online freelance profile was the major source of winning work considering the number of methods you advertise yourself? If you’re scratching your head, it’s time to take things to the next level. 

Why? Remember that the gig economy will continue to grow in the coming years, and competition will only intensify. As a result, your freelance profile might mean the difference between winning new business and losing every pitch.

Start with incorporating the phrase “content is king” into your freelance profile. We’ve devised a straightforward, actionable seven-step method for any freelancer to help establish a profile. This will help them attract new business and make them shine.

Why Is A Good Freelance Profile Necessary?

We just have seven seconds to make a good first impression. They’re nearly impossible to undo or reverse, and they might result in you being recognized or ignored. Your freelance profile is the employer’s first – and possibly only – point of contact with you. Why not make the most of it?

Many freelancers worry about why they aren’t getting tasks although they are excellent freelancers. Your profile, believe it or not, has a significant impact on your scores. 

To create a stellar business profile as a freelancer, we have a step-by-step guide on how to set up your profile on Refrens. This guide is a must-read. It’s simple to create, requires no special skills, and is completely free. You can showcase your portfolio, display your services, and much more.

As a result, when creating a freelancing profile, you should consider the following profile guidelines.

How To Create A Freelance Profile?

Step 1: Writing A Headline

Have a headline that’s concise, clear, and effective. Your headline should be short and sweet. We recommend reducing it to one line to avoid getting stuck in jargon or unnecessary information. 

After all, you’ll have the opportunity to construct a detailed and interesting profile about yourself. 

All you have to do is include the three pieces of information below:

• Title
• Specialty 
• Year of experience 

You’ll be able to explain your basic qualifications and knowledge with these three important features, which is enough to get you past a glance at job ads.

Step 2: Make A List Of The Advantages You’ll Offer

Concentrate on the “how” rather than the “what.” How did you manage to increase your client’s sales by 110 percent? How did you turn a cubicle-style office into an ideal environment for a client?

People are more interested in your ability to solve problems and get things done than they are in the specifics of what you do.

Step 3: Write About Your Qualifications And Experience

People are curious about your background and experience in your field, in addition to the value you provide. While writing your freelance profile, create a separate section of your detailed employment history to help clients know more about you. Be open to mentioning your qualifications, technical capabilities, and amount of years in the sector in your freelance profile. 

Demonstrate to potential clients that you’re competent, capable, and eager to take on their assignments. If you pass all the requirements, you’ll be shortlisted, putting you one step closer to the job!

Include the following:

• Your job title is (e.g., senior graphic designer)
• Years of experience in the field Specializations and/or areas of competence
• Knowledge of the program and technical skills
• Expertise in the field (if applicable)
• Links to examples of previous work

Discover the 15 essential elements to include in your portfolio website to make a winning impression!

Step 4:  Show Empathy 

As a business owner, empathy is valuable. Why? You must be able to provide your clientele with what they desire, need, and value. Furthermore, it must originate from a genuine source. 

Directly displaying empathy on your freelance profile can put you miles ahead of the competition. It demonstrates that you are concerned and, more crucially, human.

Write for your target client when putting together your profile—speak their language. Identify their pain points and offer suggestions for how you might assist them in resolving them. 

Remember that a little empathy at the outset can go a long way.

Step 5: Make It Easy For People To Get In Touch With You

Make it easy for potential clients to figure out where you’re located and how to contact you. 

Many clients choose to recruit local talent for a variety of reasons, including proximity and community support. If you mention your location and complete all the qualification boxes, you may gain an advantage in local projects

Furthermore, the easier it is to contact you, the more trustworthy you will appear. After all, one of the most crucial aspects for clients when employing freelancers is reliability. 

In essence, they’re entrusting their vision to your skilled hands. 

If you’re submitting your freelance profile to a job board, the conditions may demand that you communicate only through the site.

 If this is the case, leave out any external contact information to prevent being fined or banned from the site. 

Step 6: Add A Professional Photograph

When your next job is on the line, avoid taking selfies. A professional photograph is essential for generating a good first impression. 

Invest in professional headshots if you have the means. If it isn’t possible,  select a suitable location and have a buddy take a few pictures of you with a good camera. 

Remember that you are not required to smile in your passport photo. You’re attempting to win over customers, so dress warmly and wear a clean shirt.

Step 7: Make A Routine Maintenance

Your freelance profile isn’t a one-time investment. It does need routine maintenance. 

You should update your online freelance profile as you gain more experience or get a new certificate. 

So go back to your freelance profile once in a while to update the copy or add any new credentials.

How to Make Your Freelance Profile Stand Out?

It’s critical to properly promote your freelance skills and offerings as a freelance expert. You can not only expand your client base but also establish yourself as an industry authority by doing so.

The methods listed below might help you demonstrate your expertise in a particular freelancing niche and skills without being overbearing. Though these are effective strategies to brand and advertise yourself, if you need work immediately, freelance websites are a wonderful option.

• Join online communities 
• Start a blog.
• Make a strategic social media post that is beneficial
• Video tutorials creation
• Contributing to popular blogs 
• Sharing relevant case studies
• Taking part in podcasts
• Participating in online events and 
• Genuinely assisting others

How Will You Know Your Freelance Profile Is Weak And What To Improve?

If you’ve applied for a few jobs that you know fit your skills and expertise but haven’t been successful, it’s a good clue or a red light that your freelance profile needs improvement.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. If you are not sure about your ability to develop an engaging freelance profile, get help from a writer or marketing professional. If you know your spelling and punctuation aren’t up to par, hire a proofreader.

You could do the following:

• Seek help from people who are knowledgeable in these areas.
• Swap freelancing skills with another freelancer so that you both gain.
• To create, proofread, or otherwise boost your freelance profile, hire a freelance writer, marketer, or editor.
• Use resume editing service.

If you use a freelancer for this project, you will have the unique opportunity to learn about the client side of freelancing. 

You’ll have a better understanding of the hiring process and be able to identify which freelance profiles were most helpful in your freelancer hunt.

Tips & Tricks To Boost Your Freelance Profile

• Client Reviews

Freelancing platforms make it simple to ask clients for feedback after completing a project. Include these testimonials in your freelance profile to help you establish a reputation as a dependable and efficient worker. 

• Make The Most Of Your Freelance Profile To Highlight Your Skills

Skills make it easier for clients to locate you.  Only claim and mention skills that you can back up with evidence from your work or employment experience, portfolio, school, or certifications in one of your other profile parts.

• In The Summary Sections, Highlight Your Expertise

A summary is a highly visible aspect of your marketing because it’s at the top of your freelance profile. It’s a good place to start introducing yourself and pitching your services. 

• Highlight Your Best Work

Your portfolio is certain to catch a potential client’s eye: it’s your chance to show, not just tell, how good your work is and how valuable your knowledge is.

Choose items that reflect your niche and demonstrate your expertise. If you don’t have a lot of visual talents, come up with inventive ways to describe the difficulty behind each example and how your work impacted it.

• Make A Fantastic Introductory Video

Many freelancers overlook this optional component, an intro video might help you shine and stand out. Making a video might indeed be frightening, but it doesn’t have to be. Begin by writing a compelling script that describes who you are, the types of projects you wish to work on, and your areas of experience. 

Still, feeling underconfident? Get expert advice on how to make a great intro video.

• Include Your Work Experience

Adding details about your job history, both on and off, can assist clients in understanding your background.

Start by including a brief explanation of your prior jobs’ responsibilities and accomplishments; pay special attention to projects that are relevant to the types of projects you are seeking now.

Consider adding fresh listings for a handful of your most outstanding jobs as your freelance business expands to reaffirm your trustworthiness.

If you don’t have a traditional work history, list your freelance business as a single line item with a brief description of what you do. Use bullet points to highlight accomplishments and demonstrate your expertise.

• Make A List Of Your Qualifications

Listing your qualifications might assist you in showing your unique knowledge or talents, especially if they relate to systems or software that your clients may be looking for

• Consider Giving A Full Description Of Each Important Educational Item 

In the “Other Experiences” area, you can also include informal education and hobbies. This could involve things like research projects, competitions, or other hobbies that can help you show your worth.

• Freebies

If you’re just getting started, consider providing free consultations or product samples. 

For example, a graphic artist could provide five free logos in exchange for good feedback and to expand her portfolio.

• Write A Blog

 A blog is a terrific method to reach out to potential clients, whether you write on your own professional website or guest blog on other sites. 

Whatever your industry’s specialty, you may discover an angle that will appeal to potential clients and increase your authority in the field.

• Examine And Evaluate Your Freelance Profile

You might get ideas from other freelance profiles but don’t forget to make yours original and unique.

Consider the following suggestions:

• Maintain consistency with your best skills and use all profile parts to support your abilities (title, skills, overview, work history).
• Complete all sections to help build trust and confidence.
• Be direct in your communication.
• Make sure to proofread each part and keep your profile up to date.
• If your profile has been set to “private” due to inactivity, change its visibility.
• Maintain a flawless responsiveness score by responding to invites and messages promptly.
• When you’re available, change your profile to “available” so you can receive invites. 
• Set your profile to “not available” when you’re not available to avoid the hassle of answering and to prevent losing your responsiveness score.

• Connect Your Social Media Accounts

Connect your freelance profile to your social media accounts and portfolios. It helps the platform better understand you and provides more relevant opportunities in the “Find Work” area.

Refrens allows you to link your freelance profile to your social media accounts and portfolios.

4 Ways to Boost Your Freelancing Profile Traffic

• Share On Social Media

In the coming years, it will be impossible to avoid using social media for freelancers to promote themselves.

Every freelancer should link their profile on at least two social media platforms where they may share their experience, knowledge, and expertise about the services they do. 

This will not only attract new clients to your profile but will also persuade your existing clients that you are a professional who can provide them with the best possible service.

Furthermore, you can tag your clients in stories or posts so that people are aware that you have such big clients, and when clients re-post, more people will notice your profile, increasing traffic.

• Become An Expert In Your Field

For this let’s take an example of a content Writer :

Nothing gives a potential client greater confidence than seeing an article you just published online. 

It may be on LinkedIn, Medium, ThriveGlobal, or even here at B2C. 

Taking the time to create, research, edit, and publish an article helps allay any concerns that potential leads may have. 

Even better, once published, the piece will be seen by a whole new group of people who may be interested in hiring you as a freelancer. Make it a weekly habit to publish one article.

As a freelancer, you can improve your business by cultivating your online presence.

Moreover, you don’t have to become this all-singing, all-dancing public figure overnight. Building an online presence may appear to be an uphill battle but keeping patience would help you create one.

Furthermore, your internet presence can help you in a variety of ways, including attracting more clients you truly want to work with, establishing yourself as an industry authority, and eventually branching out and scaling up your firm.

• Leveraging Clients Network

You can take advantage of your client base. For instance, a client may have worked with you and praised your job. You can ask them to forward your profile link to someone who you believe will benefit from it or to make recommendations regarding your work. As a result, you will be able to reach more individuals and your profile will receive more traffic.

• Collaboration With Other Freelancers

Collaborating with other freelancers will boost your credibility since people will assume that because you’ve worked with such large freelancers, you’ve got amazing talents. To further grasp this, let’s look at an example. On someone’s website, a graphic designer needs a content writer for the content. As a result, you and your friends can collaborate, and your participation will be visible in his profile.

As a result, more people will view your profile, and your profile traffic will improve.

Conclusion 

Your digital profile is your resume as a freelancer. If you want to get paid, you’ll need a freelance profile to back up your claim. It’s what gives you a strong first impression, gets you an interview, and helps you stand out from the crowd.

Having a professional freelance profile can be crucial to your success. It’s your first impression of possible clients, and it’s a crucial opportunity to stand out from the crowd — not just in terms of proposals, but also for potential clients who come across your profile. 

Many clients look for freelancers who have the talents they require and encourage them to look at their job postings; it’s a proactive approach that can help businesses satisfy project demands more swiftly and effectively.

You can use Refrens to create your freelance profile in minutes. Our customer service team will help you create one. So, what are you waiting for? Join our network today!