Posted on April 19, 2008 by Ashleigh

I reckon the idea of being a Freelance Web Designer appeals to the majority of Web Designers. You choose your own hours, you choose how much you get paid and you choose the projects you take on. I’m not trying to make it sound too good to be true, but that is exactly what my life is like. I work when I want to, I get paid more than I did when I had a desk job and I decide which jobs are worth my time.

I’ve been working as a Freelance Web Designer for six months and I’ve already made the promise to myself never to go back to working behind a desk or for someone else. I don’t have to wake up early in the morning to shower, get dressed and then catch a train or drive to work. I hop out of bed whenever I wake up, check my email, have something to eat, go for a run, shower and then if I feel like it, which is usually, I design a website or two.

It isn’t always easy to get work, and I’m sure this is the most common reason freelancers decide to go back to looking for ‘a real job’. If you keep pushing yourself, increase your skill level and continue promoting yourself as a freelance web designer, even if you have an ordinary job, you will be able to make a living off your online presence alone. That’s what I do!

To mark the beginning of my new blog – “The Blog of a Freelance Web Designer” which is dedicated to my life, my career, website design, search engine optimization and the internet – I thought I’d post 5 tips to get you started as a Freelance Web Designer. From one Freelancer to another, goodluck to you.

5 Tips to Becoming a Freelance Web Designer

1. Have a passion for Web Design, Web Development, Graphic Design and/or SEO etc.
2. Build an online portfolio of your best work, with the domain yourfirstnameyourlastname.com. Having the domain as your full name ensures people know who you are and there is also little competition for rankings in Google for your name, unless your name happens to be Paris Hilton of course.
3. Update your portfolio regularly with screenshots and links and provide detailed explanations of your services that are written in your own words, giving each service you provide it’s own page.
4. Establish your niche and expertise – then optimize your pages so they show up in Google. For example, I get a lot of work for the search term ‘freelance web designer’. You might want to target ‘web designer WHEREYOULIVE’ to get quicker results.
5. Promote yourself like there’s no tomorrow. This includes submissions to search engines, posting ads in web directories, attaching a ‘designed by’ link to the bottom of clients websites that points to your portfolio, upload screenshots of your work to DeviantART and generally tell anyone who will listen to you that you are a freelance web designer for hire.