Sell Yourself in Seconds

A single-page website is a fast and effective way to sell your skills to potential clients and employers. Nik Rawlinson discovers how to create a striking page of your own

The web can be a hugely effective means of promoting a small business, or a sole trader’s services – and it’s also one of the cheapest. Unfortunately, micro organisations frequently shy away from setting up their own site, perhaps owing to a lack of time or in-house expertise.

A web site doesn’t have to be complicated. A one-page site, offering a top-down overview of what you or your business does, is quick to build, easy to maintain, and often highly effective since the visitor doesn’t need to click around to hunt down the information they’re after. Such a site also gives you more control over the reader’s “journey”: since the visitor can only move up and down, your calls to action can’t be missed.

One example of a single-page site is that of a Kickstarter campaign. Although such pages sit within the larger Kickstarter ecosystem, they’re self-contained entities, with sign-up forms, videos, customer offers and often a lengthy description of how an invention works and what it will do, complete with photos and illustrations. Their simplicity is no barrier to success: the Pebble Time Kickstarter page raised more than $20 million and helped create a new product category.

Thinking small

Building a one-page site forces you to think through, distil and refine your message. The result should be a proposition that’s focused and easy to understand – and therefore compelling. Its brevity should enhance its impact and avoid information overload, which can help your offering come across as more confident and persuasive. At the same time, you must be sure to leave no obvious questions unanswered.