Profile Building

In order to attract clients, a good presentation of your skills is necessary. Hence, it is necessary to build a strong and precise profile and make use of appropriate platforms to put your skills for public display. Here is a beginner friendly list of steps that will guide you to build make an impressionable profile:

• BE PROFESSIONALLY ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

  Start by building accounts and displaying your work on platforms such as linked, GitHub, Instagram, YouTube, FaceBook,etc. Make sure to choose an appropriate platform according to your skills. For example, if you are a programmer or a web developer, you can give link to your repositories and projects on github, if you are a video editor or a photographer, you can choose platforms such as Instagram or YouTube. Clients usually need a demo of your work before paying you or signing a deal with you. So, make sure you display the best of your skills on these platforms and maintain similar or even better quality of work while you are working your clients.

• WRITE A TITLE THAT BEST DESCRIBES YOU:

  Titles or Professional Headings are one liners that tell what you are professionally. Make sure they are inclusive and exact about your work.

• IMPROVE YOUR WRITING SKILLS:

  Most of the freelancing websites require an overview or short description about you that describes your work. Be as specific and precise as you can, make sure not to be too verbose and not to mention too many skills at once. Many times you may have knowledge about more than one skills that are verygs diverse such as you may be a video editor and a good marketer too or may have some graphic design skills too. In this case you may feel tempted mention everything no matter how diverse they are, you may think that more generic skills, more the clients will be attracted. But in reality, the opposite is true, most employers are looking to employ people who specialise in a specfic skills, one who can guarantee the quality of work they want. Hence, it is important to mention and describe the skills you are confident and excellent in. Also, your description should be free from any gramatic errors, spelling mistakes and is always written in first person.

• MENTION YOUR EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE:

  Be transparent with people about your background, it will highlight you as a trustworthy individual. Here is a list of checkpoints that you can add:\
  • Educational qualifications and degrees
  • Employment History/Years of Experience
  • Areas of expertise and/or your specialty
  • Technical skills

• UPLOAD A PROFESSSIONAL LOOKING PHOTO:

  Do not upload a selfie, a photo with unprofessional expressions or one having a noticable background. Always choose a photo with simple expressions and plain background through which you can be easily recognised. Do not accesorise yourself too much such as wearing goggles or applying too much make-up.

• BE EASILY APPROACHABLE:

  Provide valid contact information and don't make your clients go through hoops in order to contact you. It is preferable to make use of chatting platforms or providing a valid email address where the cleint can drop an email. You can also mention specific amount of waiting time i.e. minimum time the client has to wait after contacting you or dropping you an email for an appropriate reply. Discrepancy in communication reduces reliability among clients for you. It is advised to maintain a separate e-mail and phone number for professional work.

• IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGLISH:

  English is most preferable language accross the globe. In order to attract more international clients it is important to have a good hold over it. Work on your weaknesses(if any) such as stamerring, vocabulary, grammar, lack of confidence, etc. It is really important for the client to believe in you and have confidence in you. In many cases, the only possibility for conectivity would only be through calls or video calls, hence it is really important to converse what you want to express.