Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project's website a bad idea?

Posted by MattBearman on Thursday August 09, 2012 @05:57PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Since launching BugMuncher I've actually got a little bit of freelance work from people who have seen it and wanted to hire me because BugMuncher impressed them. BugMuncher is already profitable and makes me a modest income, but I still need to supplement that income with freelance work.

I recently had the idea of putting a 'Hire Me' link on BugMuncher as a way of getting more freelance leads, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking this could have an adverse affect on sign ups. I'm already A/B testing having the 'hire me' link, but I'd love to know what you all think. (you can see the hire me link by going to http://bugmuncher.com#whm)

Cheers, Matt

( 6 comments | 7 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project... by hndjmrh on Thursday August 09, 2012 @06:20PM (#4363601)

Considering that your Hire me banner covers one of the Sign up links then yes, this will have an adverse affect on signups.

I would suggest putting it as a small text link in your footer instead, maybe "Want to hire me? Email..." under the copyright note.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project... by MattBearman on Thursday August 09, 2012 @06:26PM (#4363636)

Ah crap, I only just hacked it together, and didn't consider smaller screen sizes. I really should have learned the dangers of late night hacking by now - fail. Cheers for the heads up, I've put a quick fix in for now, I'll re-evaluate it properly tomorrow.

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Re:Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project... by sprobertson on Thursday August 09, 2012 @09:30PM (#4364345)

Yes, plus that's where someone would look if they were interested (and that strong positive indicator will help you down the line). I didn't see the diagonal banner right away, and I was looking for it.

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Re:Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project... by orangethirty on Saturday August 11, 2012 @07:28PM (#4371296)

Include a form that is specifically for getting work leads. Then put it somewhere on the page under the following title:

"You can hire the engineer behind BugMuncher to work on your own project. Just write your email below and click on send. I will get back to you through email, so we can discuss how I can make your ideas a reality."

    -------
    |     |  <- a text input
    -------

    ------
    |send |   <- a button
    ------

Thats it.

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Re:Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project... by lukevdp on Thursday August 09, 2012 @06:52PM (#4363756)

I don't think it will have an adverse affect on signups. I don't think the banner you put up will have a positive effect on getting more freelance work either though. Like hndjmrh posted here, I think a link in the footer is more effective.

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Re:Ask HN: Is promoting myself as a freelancer on my project... by johnnyg on Thursday August 16, 2012 @12:51PM (#4392261)

Your website says "I get stuff done, and well".

A Hire Me on such an app is a big plus.

I've sent an email offer to you.

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