Selling Your Services Online

Sharing tips on how to sell your services online as a home business

If you have a skill you can provide online, you could have a ready-to-go home business. Maybe you want to write for others, create graphic designs, become a virtual assistant. To start selling your service, though, you're going to need a website.

Your website is your online business card. On the internet, it's how people will find you. Even if your business is local, and you advertise with flyers and classified ads, potential clients still want to visit a website to learn more about you.

One of the biggest selling features on your website is your portfolio. Samples of work you've done or projects you've finished. If you're a writer, put some high-quality writing samples up there. If you're a graphic designer, include some previous work. And if you're a virtual assistant, some client projects that you can share would be good. .

If you're just starting out, you might be wondering where those portfolio items are supposed to come from. If you haven't had any paying clients yet, how can you put up samples of work you've done? Here you can get a little creative. Volunteer to do some work for a nonprofit organization. Help out a friend and ask to use the end product as a sample. Or just create something exclusively for your portfolio.

You'll also want to add a Rates Page to your website. Depending on your home business and what's common in your particular industry, you may not want to list all your rates here, but it is a good idea to let shoppers know what range your rates fall in.

You'll need to add some testimonials too. Stay away from testimonials that sound generic and just say how wonderful you are. We know you're wonderful, but your new clients want to know why. Post testimonials that tell what you specifically did for someone, and how you helped them. If you haven't had any real clients yet, you can take the same approach you did for your portfolio. Volunteer for a charitable organization in exchange for a testimonial you can use, or offer someone a discounted rate in exchange for a testimonial. The only thing you can't do is write your own testimonials.

When you are looking for someone to provide a service for you, one of the first things you want to know is... "Who is this person, anyway?" That's where your About page comes in. Include a picture of yourself so they can see who you are. Give a bit of your background. Be sure to include why they can trust you and your expertise.

When you've included all this information on your website, you'll be ready to start promoting it and using it to gain new customers. Just don't make the mistake some service providers do... Make your contact information easy to find so once they've decided they want to work with you, it will be easy for them to contact you. This is a great way to begin a very successful work at home business.

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Selling Your Services Online

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