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The post How to Sell Your Services Online: 5 Steps to Getting Started appeared first on HostGator Blog . How to Sell Your Services Online So you’ve taken some time to learn a marketable skill and now you want to start selling your services online. Whether you want to go the freelance route or start building an agency, the foundation of your work online starts with a website. Your website will be the cornerstone of any kind of business. Luckily, building a website doesn’t have to be difficult by using the hidden power of a website builder . Below you’ll learn the steps you need to take to start selling your services online, including building out a website and the site elements you’ll need to start selling. 1. Consider Your Service and Market Before you even build out your website and start marketing your services you’ll need to think about how you’re going to position yourself. For example, if you’re going to be a freelance writer it can be helpful to focus on a specific niche. It can be much easier to find work as a freelance writer for the real estate market than as a general freelance writer. Think about who you want to serve and how your unique experience and expertise make you well positioned to serve this market. You need to be able to answer two questions: What specific service am I offering? Who am I offering that service to? Being able to confidently answer these two questions will help make the design and messaging of your website much more intentional and effective.   2. Build Out Your Website Equipped with the above information, it’s time to start building your site. If you’ve never built a website before, then this process can seem a little intimidating. Will you use a CMS? Will you learn to build a site from scratch? Will you hire someone to do it? Will you use a website builder? If the technical steps of building out a website intimidate you, then the easiest approach to take will be using a website builder. With a website builder your hosting, domain name, and site building tools will be all under one roof. The process of building a site with a website builder is incredibly simple as well: Choose a website builder, like the GATOR builder . Setup your account and choose a domain name. Pick and customize your theme with the drag and drop tool. Publish your site.   3. Create the Necessary Pages When you’re selling your services online there are certain pages that are must-haves. We cover what these are below, so you can build your website the right way. A home page that immediately tells your visitors what you offer and how you can help them. A portfolio page that gives potential customers an idea of the quality of your work. A testimonial pages that highlights stellar reviews from past clients (you might not have these right away). A services pages that gives a breakdown of the services you offer. A contact page that lets visitors reach out about a potential project. Building out the above pages will give your site a rock solid foundation. You’ll have everything you need to start selling your services online. Finally, you’ll need a way to take payments. You can either send invoices via PayPal, or choose a website builder that offers eCommerce templates and payment processor integration and sell your services that way. By the way, either is possible with the GATOR builder.   4. Generate Traffic and Clients To start selling your services you’re going to need traffic and clients. There are numerous approaches to building out your service-based business. Here are a few common methods for generating new clients: Guest blog on popular sites that your potential clients read and have a bio link that directs back to your site. Create a popular blog to rank for customer-centric keywords (this is a long-term approach). Create social media profiles on platforms your audience hangs out, like LinkedIn and Instagram. Scour popular job boards in your niche and pitch any jobs your services are in alignment with. Start cold pitching companies and individuals who are in need of your services. There are dozens of viable methods to generate new clients and traffic to your website. The important thing isn’t to spread yourself too thin, but instead to experiment with approaches until you find one that works and regularly execute on that every day.   5. Do the Work! Now that you’ve generated your first few clients it’s time to do the work. It’s important that you regularly go above and beyond with your deliverables, especially for your first few clients. Providing consistently excellent work can lead to testimonials you can place on your website, and potentially even referral work from your past satisfied clients. By now you’re well equipped to start selling your services online. It’s important to remember that this is a long-term game and all about consistency. Keep at it and you will see success. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →