As one grows as a freelancer, there is a need to own a website where you can share your skills and ideas. WordPress is one of the best and most popular platform to host your website.
It’s easy to use. Moreover you can start publishing on the platform for free. All you need to do is sign up. This means that you can build your online business from scratch on WordPress.
While anyone is capable of building their website on WordPress, along the way as workload increases, they will need a helping hand. By hiring a freelance WordPress website designer, you will save time and money.
In this blogpost, I will be sharing my process of hiring a WordPress website designer as well as some of the things I look at when hiring one.
Where to Hire
Hiring a freelancer through the freelance marketplaces is what I will focus on in this blogpost. It’s the safest and most reliable way to hire a freelancer. This is owing to it’s Escrow payment protection, ability to get a variety of freelancers, affordability e.t.c.
Of-course there are other alternative ways of hiring a freelancer.
One of them is through referrals. If you know individuals who offers web design services, I urge you to contact them directly on their websites and discuss with them your project. If their quote is within your budget, go ahead and give them a contract. It’s a good deed.
With this said, lets now dive into what I look at when hiring a freelance WordPress Website designer.
It Starts With Cover Letter
If you are a freelancer, you know that cover letter is everything a client needs to make that decision of hiring you. CV’s here don’t work. Your profile and past client reviews is what someone will look at if they need further clarification on your portfolio before they hire.
That’s what I also do. I base their experience with the number of happy clients they have served.
So in this case, what do I look at when reviewing a cover letter?
Cover Letter Greetings
How do they address me? This is very important. Some addresses me personally by my name and others prefer to use ‘sir/madam.’ This tells me that the freelancer is kind and respectful.
On the other hand, someone who just writes ‘Hi or Hello‘ to me sounds a bit mean and unprofessional.
Reading further the cover letters of most of second type of freelancers confirms that truly they are unprofessional because they don’t know what they are talking about.
Most of them send generic cover letters. That is why I think every detail in the cover letter matters.
Addressing The Problem
When you Post A Job, you as the client is supposed to describe in detail what you are looking for in a WordPress web designer. Also, you need to describe the tasks you want accomplished on your WordPress website.
I expect a freelancer applying to my job post to mention something about my needs in the first paragraph.
In many occasions, I decline 40 to 60% of the applications. This is because their cover letters are generic. In this I mean they have one copy of cover letter which they reuse on all their applications.
Links To Their Portfolio
This is another most important aspect. Have they designed a WordPress website before? How do their past designs look like? Does any of them impress me? If I like some of their past designs in their portfolio, I proceed and shortlist the candidate right away.
Depending on my urgency, I can proceed and send them a message informing them that I have seen their application and I like specific website designs they have in their design portfolio.
I then remove or decline all applications without links to any past project.
This is unless I have few freelancers applying to the job post.
Cost
By the time I am looking at the applicants quoted price, I would have filtered about 80% of the applications. For the ones remaining, I will look at their costs and compare it with the value they intend to offer.
While cost does not come first, its an important aspect that I look at when evaluating a freelance WordPress designer.
Timelines
How much time do I have with me to focus on this?
While this is communicated upfront while posting the job-depending on how experienced and committed the freelancer is- I expect them to propose their own timelines for completion of the project during the interview.
If my preferred freelancer does not propose a different timeline, it means they are fine with the timeline I proposed to them. This for me is a perfect candidate for the job.
Revisions and Bug Fixes
At my early stages of hiring a freelance WordPress designer, there was a lot of bug fixes and revisions that I requested fixed each time. I suspected the errors was created by the designer so that I could give him more work and hence more money.
Today, if you are hiring a designer, you will find out that some guarantee you 30 days FREE maintenance on your site. Someone who can make such an offer knows what they are doing.
They mean business and you rarely request revisions from them.
Long Term Commitment
This for people who foresee building and making changes on their websites over time. Once you find a suitable freelancer, tell them about your plans to continue improving on your website. Having a consistent designer to your site is good. They get familiar with your website the more they work on it.
Conclusion
Communication still stands out when hiring a freelancer online. Someone who is able to communicate well via e-mail is a suitable candidate so long as they are honest. I rarely interview freelancers via video call unless its absolutely necessary.
Escrow protection on payments is a security assurance for both parties in the freelance marketplaces. You only release payment when you are satisfied with the work delivered.
So, don’t tolerate poor communication on e-mail exchanges during the interview process. It’s that important.
And that is it.
What is it that you look at when hiring a freelance WordPress website designer? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Until next time, bye bye and take care.
Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.
