Starting a freelancing career requires a lot of research and planning, be it for any industry. The start of your freelancing career demands a lot of hard work and as a freelancer; you have to spend a lot of time advertising your skills/services. One of the best ways to get noticed is by having your own website where you can portray your skills, capabilities, experiences and projects undertaken; this is why it is crucial to have a good web hosting platform that suits your budget and is highly efficient.
As a freelancer, you are the one who runs the show! and you cannot afford to take the risk of relying on a web hosting provider that is not trustworthy.
You are a freelancer and you might have this thought – why do I need a website? Because you are working right now as well and you are getting projects, then why spend on a website?
Here’s why…
Trust Issues
Imagine a scenario where you are at an event and someone really likes your work and says. ‘I am impressed with your skills and with the projects you have worked on before. I would like to offer you some work and see your detailed website’.
To which you reply, ‘Well, I work on projects but I don’t have a website’
This gives a wrong impression and the other person thinks that they are not talking to a professional but a random individual.
Reduction In Networking Efforts
You have the best skills, you are meeting the right people, but in order to get work constantly, you need to sell yourself. If you don’t have a detailed website, you have to constantly meet people and keep telling them about your work. If you offer them your business card, you have to trust them that they won’t lose it and they recall you if they want you to execute some work for them. Having a proper website eliminates the constant networking pressure. With a website, you don’t have any limits of time zones or geographical location. Anyone around the world can find you at any time and there is no need for you to constantly explain who you are and what you do because it’s all out there on your website.
You Will Feel At Home
Your website is yours and you have the complete rights and control over it. Managing a website all by yourself might be an intimidating thought in the beginning but if you use WordPress or any other content management system, you’ll do just fine. You can put up the content and images you want on your website, you can portray your experiences and projects like you want on your website and you can also market your website the way you want. You might have surely put up your information on the job boards and social media websites but you don’t have complete control over it. A website is a safe place that you can use to display your talent and projects undertaken.
Related : How To Host A Website? Beginner’s Guide
Your Website Name
If you are working as a freelancer, you can have your own name as the domain name of the website along with a preferred domain name extension like .com or .in. If you have decided some brand name or if you have been taking up work with some other name, you can choose to have that as your domain name. Getting your preferred domain name depends on the availability of the domain name so if you haven’t created your website and if you have the perfect domain name in mind, you must register it right away. When you register a domain name and get web hosting for it, you will also get professional email address that links to your domain name.
Related : What Is The Cost Of A Domain Name?
Related : Domain Name And Hosting Selection : What Do You Need To Know?
Potential Problems Faced By Freelancers
The problems faced by a freelancer when it comes to website hosting are legitimate and if not taken care of, they can be big hurdles for their career. These problems can crop up at any time and they can be destructive as the result might be a loss of page views that could have converted into jobs or live projects. Securing leads is a very important aspect for freelancers; therefore, it is crucial to have as many clients as possible.
Here are a few problems that might be encountered by freelancers:
Downtime : The thought of a downtime is devastating for any freelancer. Every time the website is not active or not available, it means that there are many potential customers that are not able to reach you. This directly translates to loss of revenue for a freelancer. This problem can be sorted by choosing a web hosting provider that ensures good uptime. While choosing a web hosting service, select the web host that provides 99.95% uptime. Along with this it is also important to check what kind of customer service is provided by the web hosting company, in case there is a downtime to your website, how is the web hosting company going to help you?
Poor Customer Support : Customer support is one of the most important factors when it comes to managing your website. With a round the clock active customer support, you can be sure that you can contact the web hosting company any time in case of any issue. If you have finalized a web hosting company, check what kind of customer support options are provided. Usually the web hosting company should provide email, phone and chat support so that you can reach them quickly through any means.
Security : Security is one of the most crucial aspects of web hosting. Most of the people are not aware that a particular freelancer doesn’t have to be targeted or attacked for being the victim of hackers. In many cases, websites are randomly attacked because of a link in the wrong places or because of hosting their website on some unsafe web hosting platform. A DDoS (Distributed Denial Of Service) attack can be absolutely destructive that might result in many hours of downtime. Therefore, you need to talk to the web hosting company about the types of security features provided. Ideally, you can opt for an SSL certificate and a web application firewall for securing your website and your work.
Related : Reasons For Choosing Managed Web Hosting For Your Website
Selecting Web Hosting
There are many web hosting companies out there and this can be a difficult decision. The experienced and efficient web hosting companies provide great features with great prices that open many options for freelancers. Prominent web hosting companies like MilesWeb provide a great combination of features and resources that enables the freelances to strike the perfect balance between price and benefit through which they can derive the maximum value.
It is preferable to opt for established web hosting companies as they tend to have the right infrastructure in place for avoiding the common hosting problems. Also, they invest in customer care so that they can provide the best solutions to their clients within a short span of time.
You can start your freelancing career by hosting your website with MilesWeb. MilesWeb provides economical web hosting packages backed by the best SSD servers. You get a great deal of benefits like a free .com domain, free SSL certificate, free malware scanning and removal, free website migration etc.
Related : Learn How To Choose The Right Web Hosting Plan For Your Website
Having your own website managed by an established web hosting company helps you in creating your own online identity and provides you with an opportunity to get established as an individual brand!