

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

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.<p>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)<p>Cheers,
Matt
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hndjmrh
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.

~~~
MattBearman
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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orangethirty
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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lukevdp
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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johnnyg
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.

