Poll: In your opinion, which is the main benefit of having a professional website? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In your opinion, which is the main benefit of having a professional website?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 05:51
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Having a website is one of those things I consider doing when things would start to get really slow (meaning that I would have some time on my hands to finally get it done). I took the first baby steps for it during a very slow month in the beginning of the COVID crisis, but then work started pouring in again and it basically never stopped since then.
I guess it would be handy to have a place with all your information on it, which would be easy for reference purposes. But at the sam... See more Having a website is one of those things I consider doing when things would start to get really slow (meaning that I would have some time on my hands to finally get it done). I took the first baby steps for it during a very slow month in the beginning of the COVID crisis, but then work started pouring in again and it basically never stopped since then.
I guess it would be handy to have a place with all your information on it, which would be easy for reference purposes. But at the same time I don't think having a website as a freelancer would be a real game changer. After all these years I remain convinced that the best way to find work as a freelancer is contacting agencies or companies directly (or even better: maintaining your loyal customer base and let new customers contact you, a situation I'm still in until this very day).
Websites also often give the impression to be more than a single freelancer, which could be interesting if you want to play that game. But that wouldn't be something for me. Too much stress on too many levels and avoiding stress is high on my priority list. I prefer being fully responsible myself for every aspect of this job. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Other (some of the above) | Feb 9 |
My own website (www.bpt.com.pt) has been worthwhile: it's another way of being visible, another marketing tool, a place where interested direct clients and agencies can go to get more detailed information about my portfolio with examples of my translations and testimonials from previous clients. It has brought in some very good clients…
| | | | Kevin Fulton 
United States
Local time: 23:51
German to English
| Limited tangible benefit | Feb 9 |
Many decades ago my mentor suggested that I create a web site as a marketing tool. At that time Adobe offered a software, the name of which I've forgotten, which provided a simple interface to create pages in HTML with text, tables and images, as well utilize SEO. I created two domains and web sites, one satirical, the other oriented toward the translation business, describing my experience and capabilities, as well as providing "useful" links. I gave up on keeping the links up to date, as this ... See more Many decades ago my mentor suggested that I create a web site as a marketing tool. At that time Adobe offered a software, the name of which I've forgotten, which provided a simple interface to create pages in HTML with text, tables and images, as well utilize SEO. I created two domains and web sites, one satirical, the other oriented toward the translation business, describing my experience and capabilities, as well as providing "useful" links. I gave up on keeping the links up to date, as this took too much effort. When my translation business grew, I had little time for satire and abandoned that site*. Eventually I stopped updating the translation pages, but kept the domain active until a few years ago, since it cost only $40.00/year.
Did the time and effort pay off big time? I can say in all honesty that it was a wash – over the 20+ years I maintained the site, it brought in as much income as the net cost, which was minimal since I could deduct the expense as advertising. The vast majority of inquiries were typically from budding novelists, individuals who thought they had interesting life stories which if translated would "make a lot of money for both of us", or people who wanted their grandparents' diaries translated. However, I still believe that having a web presence strengthened my résumé, providing more detail about my experience and resources than was apparent from a mere listing of recent jobs. It was an opportunity to demonstrate that I was a serious professional.
*I briefly considered going back to satire since I have more time on my hands, but the news nowadays is much more ridiculous than anything I might come up with on my own. ▲ Collapse
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| | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 07:51
Member
English to Turkish
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In your opinion, which is the main benefit of having a professional website?
None. Period.
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