Prospective clients land on it and the quality of your copy determines whether they contact you with an inquiry. As such, it pays (literally) to spend some time optimizing your Hire Me page.
And although finding work through job boards is always an option, the dream for any freelance blogger is for clients to come to them — another reason why the quality of your Hire Me page is integral to your success.
With the above in mind, in this post I am going to take you through the Hire Me page here on Leaving Work Behind – a page that has (to date) helped me earn around $100,000 as a freelance blogger. In reading this post you will learn everything you need to know about putting together a persuasive Hire Me page for your own website. I’ll also offer some tips on how to drive prospective clients to your page.
Your Headline
For the longest time, my Hire Me page was simply entitled “Hire Me”. Given that I am fully aware of the potentially persuasive nature of headlines, it is ironic that I stuck with such a basic option for such a long time.
But thanks to Oni (see point two), I recently made a change. My Hire Me page is now entitled:
That’s right — it’s essentially like a blog post headline, which makes sense, given that I am selling blogging services. What better way to kick off a Hire Me page than to prove that you can write compelling headlines?
In a theme you will see recurring throughout this post, the focus of your headline should be on the benefit to the client. Don’t write something like, “Top Quality Article Writing Services” — instead, summarize the benefit of your services to the client. More traffic and customers is what all of my clients are in search of, and my headline immediately promises to help them with that goal.
The Introduction
A perfect Hire Me page will immediately resonate with its target client. As such, the most important thing you must do (after writing a compelling headline) is appeal to your target client in your introduction.
As with the headline, the focus must immediately be on how you can benefit the client. Here’s my opening line:
If you are in search of a reputable writer with a proven track record to produce top-quality articles for your blog that can boost traffic to your site and secure more customers, you’re in the right place. Get in touch to discuss your needs now!
I get straight down to business in the first sentence — clarifying the nature of my service and the benefits it offers. I finish off with a link straight to the contact form at the bottom of the page in case they’re already read to get in touch.
That part of the introduction is pretty set in stone — what you do with the rest is more personal to you. But regardless of your experience or reputation, make the most of what you have achieved and paint yourself in the most positive light possible. Here’s how I do it:
My work has been featured on world-famous blogs such as Mashable, Lifehacker, Smashing Magazine and SitePoint.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of the ManageWP Blog — one of the biggest WordPress blogs on the Internet.
I contribute to other well-known blogs such as FreelanceSwitch, WPExplorer, WooThemes, Bidsketch, Flippa and Wired Advisor.
I am also the founder of Leaving Work Behind and Healthy Enough.
In total, I have written over 1,000 blog posts on over 100 blogs.
You can probably spot what I have done here — listed a roll call of my achievements in the blogging world.
I start by mentioning the most well-known blogs I have written for, follow that up by naming my most impressive-sounding position (as the editor of the ManageWP blog), name some other well-known blogs, mention the two blogs that I founded, and finish off with a notable statistic about the number of blog posts I have written.
If you’re just getting started then you won’t be able to produce such a list. However, bear in mind that I started with nothing — in May 2011 I had barely even read a blog, let alone created my own or written for one. You can create a pretty impressive list starting with nothing in no time at all.
Here’s what I suggest:
- Get your own blog up and running. Any client is going to pay far more attention to you if you demonstrate that you are a capable all-round blogger.
- Guest post on some small/medium-sized blogs to make a start to your portfolio.
- Use referrals from those guest posts to land some spots on more reputable sites. You’d be surprised at who might be willing to feature your content.
The first job I landed was off the back of a pitch that had nothing but links to my posts on Leaving Work Behind as samples, but that was enough to get me the gig. You can do better than that.
Expanding Upon the Benefits You Offer the Client
Now that you have the client’s attention, you can take a little more time to explain how you can benefit them. On my Hire Me page I do this in a section broken into three sub-headers:
Now is the time to really sell yourself. again, you should focus on benefits rather than services. Although you do of course need to make the client aware of the services you offer, what you write should always be framed in the context of how those services will help them.
I start with “Quality of Service”. Why? Because I know that many clients end up highly frustrated by unreliable freelance writers. It’s one thing hiring someone who can write — to find someone who can write and deliver on time and as promised is something else altogether. That’s exactly why I promise “a level of professionalism and efficiency of service that is all too rare amongst freelance bloggers.”
After that I drill down to my first Unique Selling Proposition (USP). USPs are the parts of your service that separate you from the competition and help to persuade the prospect that you are the right person for the job. Quite simply, my first USP is that I offer unlimited revisions.
I can make this promise easily, as I know that most clients don’t want to spend any time revising articles — they want a turn-key solution from their writers. But that doesn’t stop it from sounding impressive.
I then move onto my second USP: social media promotion. Although my service is strictly a writing service rather than a marketing service, I put a cherry on the cake by way of promotion through my social media networks and email subscribers (when relevant). It’s just another reason to hire me over someone else.
If you’re concerned that your service lacks any USPs, now is the time to create some. You do not necessarily need to be experienced or established to offer them — after all, anyone can promise unlimited revisions. Other examples of USPs are quick email turnaround and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Samples
To be frank, this is the point at which all your good work can quickly become undone.
All the promises in the world count for nothing against proof. That is why the writing samples you offer must be high quality and varied.
In an ideal world you will focus your samples on a limited number of topics. Too broad a focus will not be attractive to prospective clients. That’s why all of the topics I focus on are within the same broad category of online business and content marketing.
I offer a three of my best articles (or articles that are published on the most reputable blogs) for each category that I write about. There’s no need to offer a huge number of samples — prospects are hardly going to start reading through your life’s work.
It’s good to offer a mix of blogs within your samples, to demonstrate that you are published on multiple platforms across the web. It’s absolutely fine to refer to posts from your own blog within your samples, but don’t do so exclusively. You need to demonstrate that independent parties have seen fit to feature your content on their site.
The best way to get more samples quickly is to guest post. It’s that simple. There is no excuse not to have a varied selection of samples on your Hire Me page.
Testimonials
Once you’ve established the benefits of your service and proven your abilities through your samples, you should offer social proof of the quality of your service. You do this with testimonials.
I have a total of six testimonials on my Hire Me page, which is (in my opinion) plenty. All prospects want to see is that other people think highly of you. Even better if you can get well-known bloggers and businesses to think highly of you.
Getting your hands on testimonials is probably easier than you think. Start with your existing connections — even friends and colleagues. If you include a testimonial from a colleague who has something good to say about your professional nature, that sounds like a good testimonial to me.
Beyond that, you should seek out testimonials from those blogs that you have guest posted for. If you did a good job then the blogger will only be too happy to offer some kind words.
The beautiful part is this: most people are willing to give you a glowing testimonial. Few people will be willing to risk hurting your feelings or looking like an asshole — they’d much rather just tell the world how brilliant you are, regardless of how brilliant you may have been.
I advise that you include head shots with each testimonial. It makes it far easier to connect each testimonial with a real human being, and as such, make it that much more powerful.
The Contact Form
The final thing on your Hire Me page should be a contact form. This form should contain five fields:
The reason I include a budget field is that it encourages the prospect to reveal what they might be willing to pay you. That gives you the upper hand before negotiations have even begun. I wouldn’t recommend making this field mandatory, but it should definitely be there.
I recommend that you offer alternative means of contact for those who are not fans of web forms. I provide a link to my Contact page which contains more information.
If you’re looking for a good contact form solution for your WordPress site then I recommend Jetpack (packed with loads of other features) or Contact Form 7 (standalone plugin).
Getting Traffic to Your Hire Me Page
Of course, creating a compelling Hire Me page is only worth anything if you can drive prospective clients to it. While this post isn’t intended to be a guide to driving traffic to your blog, I do feel that a little should be said on the topic.
The two most effective ways to drive relevant traffic to your Hire Me page are as follows:
1. Your Bylines
If you’re serious about getting more freelance work then your bylines should be written for prospective clients, not just for people who might simply be interested in your blog.
Consider something along these lines:
Tom Ewer is the founder of Leaving Work Behind and a freelance blogger for hire who works with web startups and bloggers.
If someone in search of a freelance writer likes a post you’ve written and consequently sees a byline like that at the end, they’re going to click straight through to your Hire Me page (which will now of course compel them to contact you!).
2. Your Blog
It goes without saying that you should include a link to your Hire Me page prominently on your blog — ideally within as part of the main navigation.
But that’s not all — you should take the opportunity to link to your Hire Me page whenever possible. Some obvious places are a prominent button within your sidebar, at the bottom of every post, and within the posts themselves (when relevant).
Not everyone will spot that little Hire Me link in your navigation bar, so don’t be afraid to link to it liberally.
Any Questions?
In this post I have provided a detailed breakdown of my Hire Me page and the reasoning behind each of its distinct elements. This should give you the information you need in order to produce your own persuasive Hire Me page.
However, if you have any questions regarding your page — what should go in it, how you should phrase a certain USP, and so on — please do not hesitate to get in touch via the comments section below! Even better, get involved on our freelancing forum and ask your questions there — the entire community is happy to help 🙂
Alternatively, if you are a freelancer and have your own suggestions that I have not covered here, or have some feedback specific to my Hire Me page, please feel free to make your opinion known!