Please rip apart my new portfolio! (Updated, thanks for the help!)

Clean design, that's nice.

About your font size - make it bigger and I think that's it.

-Shaun

I'm a very big fan of simple designs, so I like what you've done. If it was me, though, I'd turn up the marketing knob a little.

Big headline at the top saying what benefit someone who hires you will get, and I'd definitely have a prominent opt-in form on that home page to get subscribers.

Offer them something valuable in return, like a guide to how they should choose a good freelance writier, or tips on how to get things wirrten cheaply. Then start following up with them.

All right, I'm planning to put in an opt-in form with a download of a free report on where and how to hire an article writer. I also want to start writing short reports to help other article writers get started, so I think I'll create a separate Downloads page for all my reports and start to work on them ASAP.

Any more suggestions? Thank you!

Yeah, I would go with 14px but reduce the line spacing. Looks good...

Lambert

I would add some colour, maybe just even one other colour to help it stand out. Right now to me, I think that it all blends in too much, and your message may get lost in that. Keep up the good work!

It has a very cold feel to me. No header graphic and no color to be found anywhere. Even your links have no color. Brrr...it makes me feel unwelcome.

The font size is too small for me to read without difficulty, so I won't. You folks with perfect vision seem to think everyone can see as well as you can. I'd bet good money at least 25% of the people that see that tiny text will leave within 5 seconds. I'll never understand the point of ruling out older people whose vision has deteriorated over time, like me, or ruling out those born with poor vision, from viewing your site. That's what the tiny text does, it eliminates potential customers/visitors from viewing your content.

With those two things working against you, I'm gone nearly as fast as I arrive.

I hope that helps, because I don't like being critical without at least adding something positive to offset the criticism (even if it is constructive criticism) but I can't read your message so I can't find anything positive to say since all I see is a black and white blur. Sorry.

Zebrina The site would benefit from a picture (black & white would look fantastic) or something and the blue thin lines caused me to look harder at the blog which was off putting. Your contact page isn't configured properly.

Your rates are great and samples are good but addressing the above would be good from my perspective. Hope this helps

I think the site looks great, and it really shows you have put a lot of work in to it. However, may I offer some suggestions, and I mean this with the best intentions, because you have done a good job. Here are some things off the top of my head:

1. Maybe install a wordpress blog, (If you haven't already, if you have then just make a category or some where you can post content to), this way you can get more traffic writing about your service, tips on writing and submitting.

2. Maybe set up a dedicated testimonial page and a place were your customers can submit there testimonials. There is a wordpress plug-in for that.

3. Post your policy, were people can see them. It will help in there purchasing decisions. Some suggestions are:
- Privacy
- Legal or Terms of Use
- Refund
- Quality Guidelines

4. You should be building a list, how you could position it as a waiting list. This way, it will give you social proof, becuase if you have a waiting list for your writing service, then you must be a damn good writer.

5. Maybe expanding your service, will bring is more stream of income. Maybe a submitting service using Unique Article Wizard, writing press release service, link building and e-book or report's.

6. If you aren't already offering bulk discounts, then you should.

Anyways, those are just some ideas off the top of my head. I hope that helps. Site looks good. The key thing to remember is this, the site should help the customer, not you. Have a good day.

I really like the clean design. It's a nice break from most of the clutter loaded sites.

Show different offers...Maybe a discount for purchasing a certain amount of content.

Cheers

I think that the page is good, to the point and just what is needed. What I believe you need to now do is use twitter, flicker, hub pages and, other similar ways to get your services visible to others on the net. I think that will be what will make it visible to the marketplace.
Having a web site/blog that is highly tweaked is great but you can only do so much, and here's a website that will give a lot of tips on how to optimize your website: websitegrader dot com and their review shows that you do not have a form on your site, or a blog, and also no twitter, flicker, digg, or any other of those immediate things to help you be visible.
Another thing that may help will be to post as many articles as you can (400 to 600 words), to the article sites. That will also help bring some visibility to your site.

Good luck with your efforts.

Agreed with Alex Taylor, show some content! That is, give us an example of your work to prove how good it is.

Other thoughts: I see a lot of sentences starting with "I". I know it's about you, but I think that I would prefer to see less I's and more Me's...

It's tough to write about yourself while not using I to start the sentence, but remember, in all honesty, most folks looking to hire you care about what you can do for THEM, not about you (no offense, you're part of the WF family of course)... hopefully that makes sense...

Maybe from your about page (rough) - As a freelance writer who enjoys writing about all kinds of niches, including technology, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and dozens of other topics, I have helped my clients develop high-traffic web sites drawing search engine spiders and human visitors in droves.

Something that puts the I further down the line and puts the emphasis on the BENEFIT you provide to your customers.

This is just my antennae perking up, but consider this please... when you SAY "I have never scammed anyone" that makes me wonder if you have. I am NOT accusing you of it in any way, it just makes me think, hmmm...

Perhaps something like describing how your clients keep coming back for order after order, or you've had an x percentage of client retention, or you have clients with you today that you've had for x years. That *shows* me you don't scam vs. stating you don't and raising the frightened little rabbits fur on the back of her neck.

Would like a bit more color and as others have suggested a warm classy graphic may just do the trick. Hope it helps in some way.

What about placing a picture of yourself somewhere on that home page? come on! I know you like what you see on the mirror

Just noticed, it may be my eyes or am I correct . It is a subtle annoyance for me anyway, the top page links and the lines seem to be slightly pinker then the header on your page where it says "zabrinas way......". In my opinion there shouldn't be a very subtle difference between the two because it looks like you got the colour wrong.

Hey Zabrina, I like the simple format. I also agree with the free report and I see you put a picture on your about me page, but I would also put that on your home page.

Also, an idea on the free report. Personally, I would offer it on how to write a great article. The reason is that is why the people are on your site, and you know that most people that are looking for someone to write content for them, myself included, are either too lazy or just don't like to write.

I think you will get people signing up, and you already know they are not going to be writing their own articles anyways, but they all want to know how.


Another idea, I'm not sure how you accept payments, but if you put a paypal button on your buy page rather than the form you have now, then you have an instant sale, rather than letting them keep shopping and waiting for the first person to call them back.

If they send $$$, in their eyes, the sale is complete and they can quit looking.

If they just send an email, they may keep looking for other companies and when you call them back, they may already have paid someone else.

Zabrina, The paypal button should be pretty easy. I think you can go to paypal and "set up a button" It will give you the html and you just cut/paste.

No changes. This is rather perfect. An emphasis on clean typography subconsciously reinforces your work as a writer. This should work wonders for your business. Good job.