Totally Web-ulous: The Importance of Web Presence

 

The Internet, also known as The Web, is the most powerful tool in the freelancer’s toolbox. Without it, the freelancer is left looking for work by pounding the pavement, is stuck sending in finished projects via bike messenger, and communicating with client’s and potential client’s using the old fashioned and overlooked wall mounted dialing device.

The importance of the internet is more than obvious—it slaps you in the face the moment you wake up in the morning when the urge to check your Facebook newsfeed becomes like an ache that you must scratch while sipping your other addiction, espresso. Neither you nor I can go a day without our addictions—the internet and the caffeine, for good reason.

Our world runs on cyberspace, and if you want to get your piece of the ever growing black hole you need to hop into your cyberspace ship and set a course for internet success.

All mixed metaphors aside, as a freelancer, you can’t really find success without some kind of online presence. No one will want to put their precious project into your hands if they don’t know where your hands have been. Your online presence is a huge part of your freelancer resume, if you don’t have one, you might as well tell your potential clients that your spaceship ran out of plutonium rods and you have to drop out of hyper drive (you don’t have the skills so you might as well not apply).

The online presence is so important that many employers are screening applicants by doing a Google search with the applicant’s name. If a potential client did a search for your name, what would they find? If the answer is nothing or ‘my Facebook page’, you are in deep space sludge!

If you want to add a boost to your chances of landing that dream client or project you need to create an online presence immediately.

First things first, you need to purchase a domain name and create a website. Visiting www.GoDaddy.com will get that step completed in an hour. My website, www.DanicaSorber.com,  was provided by Website Tonight, and is hosted by GoDaddy.com. The service is cheap, the design process is painless, and the results are…well, see for yourself.

Second, you’ll want to register yourself with various online freelancing sites like www.Elance.com, or www.oDesk.com. Both of these sites have TONS of freelance jobs available, and once you build your profiles, you’re given a permalink that you can insert into your website contact information, or add to your sales letters and resumes.

You can see my oDesk.com profile here.

Third, you should start a blog, which, as you can see, can be a great way to create an online presence. Though, I don’t have many followers yet, I do hope to gain a few more with my work, my networking, and my awesomeness.

Fourth, you should start creating online content of your own. If you’re a freelance writer like me, you’ll want to apply to be a contributing writer for other blogs, online magazines, specialty sites, or discussion groups.

I am a proud and excited contributor for www.iGotMomPower.com, a website dedicated to the sharing of experience, advice, stories, heartaches, and triumphs amongst moms (and sometimes dads). You can see my contributor’s profile here.

The fifth but not last thing you should do to create an online presence is to create social networking profiles that are strictly for professional purposes. Sure, social networking sites are meant for personal use, but more and more people are seeing the usefulness of creating professional profiles and connecting with other professionals around the world. One of the most popular professional networking sites is www.LinkedIn.com. Registration is free, and you can connect to professionals in your own industry, or cross industry lines and rub elbows with potential clients in other areas.

You can see my LinkedIn profile here.

If you want to be a successful freelancer you need to make use of the most powerful tool ever invented—the internet.

Get online.

Get connected.

Get noticed.