While it is possible to make money over the Internet without having a website, it is very difficult, and if you're a freelancer offering your services over the web without a site, you will be at a severe disadvantage when compared to freelancers who do. Websites are important for a number of reasons. First, they allow you to showcase your work to anyone who may be interested. While your portfolio is defined as the samples of work you've done, showcasing your skills and style to others, the website is best thought of as the “canvas” where your work is displayed. This is true regardless of whether you're a programmer, graphic artist, musician, writer, lawyer or inventor. Without a website, you have no way to show the world what you're capable of. Just as an artist would not go to a gallery and display his or her work without a frame, you will not want to offer your services over the web without a website.
A second reason why a website is so important is because you can actually increase the number of people who visit it. For example, by writing useful content, exchanging links with related sites, and submitting your site to the search engines, not only can you get more people to your site, but you can get more people to your site who are actually interested in the services you're offering. As you can see, this will dramatically increase the number of clients and sales you make.
One umbrella term which is used to describe the marketing of a website over the Internet is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. While SEO is beyond the scope of this book, it is a collection of methods and techniques which are used to make your site rank well in the search engines. By using the expression “rank well,” I mean that you will want your website to come up in the top ten search results for keywords which are related to the services you offer. For instance, if you're a freelance programmer who lives in Seattle, Washington, and you build a website so people can reach you, when people go to Google, Yahoo, or MSN, and type in keywords like “freelance programmers in Seattle,” you will want your website to come up in the top ten.
If your website comes up in the top ten, you will have a tremendous edge over every other programmer in the area, unless they happen to have a site in the top ten as well, which is unlikely. The key thing that you must understand is that Internet Marketing and SEO should form an important part of your marketing strategy. By using this form of marketing, you are playing by the rules of the Information Age, and you will benefit handsomely as a result. There are many books out there on Internet Marketing and SEO, and while this book is not exclusively devoted to this topic, we will give you some more methods which will allow you to destroy the competition and quickly build a client network.