I’m going to make a confession. I didn’t have my own writer website until 2012. Yes, I started freelancing in 2008 and went four years without a website. I used my LinkedIn profile and Contently portfolio in place of a website and honestly thought it worked just fine—until I got a website and my business almost doubled the next year. I realized I had been completely wrong in thinking I was fine without a website.

I personally have found every dollar that I have invested in my website to have paid over 100’s of times over. I get a lot of business from cold emails that find me from a combination of my LinkedIn profile and my website. And even people who find me other ways, almost always visit my website. I think that many writers put their website way down on their list of priorities because they don’t see a lot of business coming through it. I’m going to be writing a lot about websites in the coming weeks because I personally think that they are a crucial part of your marketing and should be a top priority.

But today, we are going to start at the beginning – why you need one. If you already have one, I apologize for preaching to the choir and hopefully you will still take a minute to share the benefits that you have seen from having a website.

3 Reasons Content Marketing Writers Need a Website

I personally think that having a website with the right information is much more important for writers who focus on content marketing than writers who are only focused on journalism. Here is why:

1. It creates a professional impression. While publications want professional writers, I think that a professional online presence is even more important when you are asking a business to hire you. Content clients really expect that any of their vendors have a website. Businesses are also much more likely to look at your website, IMHO, than the editor of a publication you pitched an idea to. A consumer pub hires you to write a story based on your ideas and writing chops while a content marketing client is typically hiring you to be a long term member of the team based on your experience, writing style and expertise.

2. Content marketing clients often go looking writers. Editors of consumer and trade pubs almost never come looking for writers. They expect you to pitch to them. And they have an inbox full of writers to choose from. But content marketing clients often have very specific needs for writers, especially in obscure niches, and they will head to Google or LinkedIn to find the right writer. I actually had five potential new clients contact me from an online search in the past two weeks. By having a website (and having great SEO, which we will talk about in an upcoming post), you increase the odds of your ideal client finding you. I think that the goal of every freelance writer should be getting to the point in their career where the majority of your work comes to you.

3. You can control the presentation of your clips. While I have seen writers use Contently’s free profile and I did it for a while, your clips are all lumped together. If you have multiple niches, you want to make it as easy as possible for potential clients to find what they need and to present yourself as an expert in the niche. The only real way to do that is with your own website.  

Where to Start If You Don’t Have a Website

So, if you don’t have a website, then I would view your LinkedIn profile as a fill-in website and be sure to include all of your niches there. Take time to really develop your profile and link to it from your email signature as well as in your LOIs. If you don’t have a Contently profile, I would set one up, make it public and share it with prospective clients as well.

This will work in the short term—the very short term. You need to make it priority to get a website. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. A basic WordPress site will work great as your first website. My first site was basic and I kept it for a few years. When my income grew and I began working for more high profile clients, I had a custom site designed to years ago by Sumy Designs (who I highly recommend). But it’s totally fine to start with something very basic.

One of the reasons it took me so long to get a website is that I know how to do website designs and was determined to do my own site to avoid paying someone. But this is the thing: based on my regular hourly rate and the length of time it would have taken me, I would have lost money. And I didn’t have a site for a year longer because I never got around to it. Unless you really have the time and skills, I recommend hiring someone for the initial site and maintaining yourself.

If you don’t have a website and think its working fine, I understand because I said the same thing. But it’s one of those things that you don’t realize the importance of until you see what a website can do for your business once you have one. Stop putting it off. Put it at the top of your to-do list. And make it happen.

What benefits have you seen from having a website? If you don’t have one, why not?