If you want to start freelancing and you don’t already have your own Web site, I recommend you make building one your top priority! You’re going to be conducting a lot — if not all — of your business over the Internet, so building your Web presence is essential. Your own Web site makes it easy to apply for jobs — one click is all it takes for potential clients to access your writing samples, personal information, and resume.

I thought about looking for freelance work for a long time, but I always got stalled because I knew I needed a Web site to be taken seriously as a freelance writer. And even though I knew HTML and a little bit about Web development from my full-time job, I had no idea how to start a Web site of my own. Finally I decided to just start a blog, even though I had no idea what I was going to post on it. Shortly afterward, I started a separate site for my professional portfolio. Creating a Web site is easy to do once you know where to start, and I’ve even discovered the creative process can be a lot of fun.

There are a couple of different ways you can approach your Web site. Blogs are pretty much ubiquitous in the world of freelance writing. If you don’t know what to post in your blog, just write about your writing and your other interests! Once you start writing and posting to your blog — and reading other writers’ blogs — my bet is ideas will start coming to you.

You can also create a static Web site if you want a separate place to display your portfolio.  As opposed to blogs, which are updated every time you post new content, a static site has a home page that remains constant.

Look at the Web sites of some other freelancers and see what sort of layout and navigation structure appeals to you. You can always have more than one Web site for different purposes, and you can always change your site if it isn’t working for you (but don’t make a habit of changing it too often, or you will risk confusing your visitors).

I’ve found the best way to learn how to do something new on the Web is to just dive in and start experimenting.  So don’t be intimidated if you don’t know what you’re doing at first — just get out there and start something, and see what you can discover!