Get your freelancer site setup for FREE
Technical and scary... what the hell is HTML?!
Time-consuming, when you're already so busy
Something you're putting off that you really should do...
You want to look professional and attract high-end clients who are willing to pay the best rates.
You need somewhere to send new contacts so they can learn more about you and your services to build up trust and get them ready to buy.
You want to grow your business in the smartest way possible. A website lets you put everything you need to onboard new clients in one place – services, portfolio, case studies, testimonials, pricing and a way to get in touch.
And… Squarespace have made it possible for me to help you for free.
Sign up for with my affiliate link and pay for your subscription for Squarespace to host your website.
And they will pay me to set it up for you.
So I won’t charge you a penny.
And you can just focus on building a business you'll love to work in.
- This free service includes:
- Customisation of a template, set up of the fonts and colours of your choice, add your logo if you have one and creation of a favicon using your initials
- Set up of the 5 pages you need: Homepage, Contact, Services, Case Studies/Portfolio, About
- Freelancer-friendly layouts applied to each page, ready for you to drop in your text, client logos, photos, testimonials, and work examples
- Client-ready contact form set up with your existing or new email address
- Moving the site to your own domain if you've purchased a new domain through Squarespace
- Set up of your professional email address on your own domain in Gmail if you've purchased a new domain and email through Squarespace. Your email address will use your first name before the @
- Enabling the cookie banner, crucial to be legally compliant for UK and EU visitors
- Publishing your site, don't worry no one knows it's there till you start promoting it so you've time to add your own copy and images before people come
- This is a one-off setup of your site to the specs you've given in your request form on this page. And you have to have signed up to Squarespace from a link on this page or in my ebook.
- You'll need to:
- Set up a Squarespace account using the instructions below via my link, subscribe to a paid plan, purchasing a domain and email if you want them set up too
- Write and add your own copy... if you don't know what to write, pick up my Be Your Own Boss ebook for £9 and get a full guide for each page. And add swipe files that include examples of top freelancer's website copy for a discounted £28 at checkout (link opens in new tab)
- That means sales copy on each page, filling in your About page with your story and credentials, describing your services and adding any further contact details you have
- Change the images to suit your business, and add photos of yourself so clients know who you are
- Add your client logos if you've got any to show off if not, you can delete this section
- Confirm or verify your accounts via any domain set up or email account setup emails you receive
- Manage any further development or customisation, and any ongoing changes you want to make - it's really easy in Squarespace
So why am I doing this for free for you?
Well, like I said, Squarespace pay me an affiliate commission when you join and I use that to cover costs when I build your site. But that commission is tiny – nowhere near what I’d charge for this service if I was billing you at my hourly rate (which would be more like £1000).
I’m doing this because I genuinely want to help you get started with a successful freelance career.
By setting up your website for you, I’m helping you take action and I’m taking away a big roadblock in the way of building your freelance business.
Is Squarespace a good deal?
- Set up and customisation: Free if you do it yourself or from around £200 for something very basic and largely uncustomised.
- Domain and hosting: on the cheap end (for a slower site), around £80/year
- Plugins for functionality, speed and security: around £100/year
- Lost earnings from time spent managing, updating and fixing your site, or the cost of paying someone to do it for you (WordPress breaks easily with the required security updates and is full of technical headaches - I would know): 5 days a year at £250/day: £1250/year
Total cost in first year: £1630
- Set up and customisation: Free with me.
- EITHER pay up front for 1 year of the Business plan and your domain and email free for 1 year (this is the cheapest way to pay if you want a domain and email): £180/year
- OR pay monthly for the Personal plan at £13/month, a domain at £16 up front, and £6/month for professional email on your domain: £244/year
- The Squarespace platform gives you a fast, hosted, secure and always up-to-date site with all the functionality you need, all in one place.
Total cost in first year: £180-£244
Sign up for a new Squarespace account using my link 
.
Use the Get Started button on that page.
Answer the questions to display the templates most relevant to you.
You might like to say your site is about ‘Personal & CV’, your goal is to ‘Market myself or my business’ and you’re ‘Turning a project of hobby into a business’.
Or click on I’m Just Browsing in the top right to skip the questionnaire and see all templates.
Choose a template.
Spend only a few minutes doing this. Choose something you like. But they’re all going to look professional and do a great job for you, so you don’t have to worry too much. I’ll be able to set up the correct pages and layouts in any of them.
If you’re not sure, Noll, DeGraw and Lakshi work well for freelancers.
Create your account: Continue with email.
It’s best if you Continue with email then you’ll set up a password that you can share with me without having to go about working out how to add one later.
5
Name your site.
Use your full name (unless you have a business name you want to use).
Finish the wizard to learn how to create and edit your site (good to know for once you take it over after set up).
6
Subscribe to a paid plan.
Use the button at the bottom of the screen.
7
Choose your plan and checkout.
If you want a custom domain (e.g. katherinemugan.com) and professional email (e.g. katherine@katherinemugan.com) – and you do, see Step 9 – the cheapest way to get this is to pay for an annual Business plan because you get a free domain and email for 1 year. Then at the end of the year, downgrade to the Personal plan.
If you prefer to pay monthly, choose the Personal plan and pay for the domain and email separately when you set them up in a later step. In this case, I can move your site to your domain, but I can’t set up email for you as it will still need to be paid for at the point of set up. You can set it up yourself following these instructions from Squarespace.
8
Don’t forget your discounts.
Enter any discount codes in the Review stage – the one after you’ve entered your payment details.
9
Get your domain.
If you use the default domain that Squarespace gives you on signup, your website URL will be something like this https://bat-coral-l4cj.squarespace.com/. Not that pro. In fact, it looks weird and dodgy. Instead, you need a personalised domain.
From the main menu (Home), open Settings, then Domains and Get a Domain.
Find a domain based on your name.
Choose .com or .co.uk if you can – they’re the most widely recognised and trusted. Check your email and click to verify your domain so I can set up your site to use it.
10
Fill in the form on this page.
Look at the lists of colours and fonts below and pick the ones you want, and then you’ve got all the answers I’ll need to go ahead.
Fill in the form on this page and let me know all your details.
Over to me.
The ball’s now in my court. I’ll get onto your setup as soon as I can. Please bear in mind that I’m offering this as a free service, but I’ll still do what I can to get your setup done just as quickly as possible. There might be a queue if a few people have made a request just before you. Typically, without a long queue, you can allow around a week, and I’ll keep you updated if anything changes. There can sometimes be a delay (of up to 3 days) in waiting for your domain to become active, and that’s beyond anyone’s control, so make sure you click on the verification links in all emails you receive as quickly as you can and that will get things moving with your domain as early as possible.
I’ll get everything set up just as you’ve requested in the form above and then let you know by email when it’s done. The site will then be ready for you to take over. I suggest you change your password at this point to one that only you know.
And there you have it, a new website, ready to showcase your best content, and wow potential clients.
Colour combination options
Font combination options
Here are some fully-fledged Squarespace sites run by freelancers to give you an idea of what’s possible. The look you achieve will depend on the template you choose and your design choices.
And after the initial set up, each of these sites has been loved and nurtured by its owner with plenty of content and imagery.
