Diversify Your Income as a Squarespace Web Designer
As a Squarespace web designer, your career growth has the potential to be exponential. Every few months, it's important to reevaluate your offerings to ensure you're effectively monetizing all of your skills, talents, and experience.
Ask yourself this: Am I maximizing my income potential? If the answer is “probably not,” then it’s time to unlock new revenue opportunities and resurface the valuable skills you offer clients.
Expanding your service offering can bring immense value to both you and your clients. When you diversify your income as a freelancer, you encounter benefits such as:
More value for your clients
Increased income
Access to recurring revenue streams
Additional income security whenever the industry shifts
Recognition as a one-stop solution
The following are eight ways to diversify your income as a web designer.
1. Support with related products
When you can successfully accomplish building websites, clients are more willing to trust you with additional projects that meet their needs. Offer them support on products and integrations that go beyond the scope of building a website.
Here are a few Squarespace tools and integrations to consider selling to clients as add-ons:
Setting up Acuity Scheduling
Automating email marketing campaigns
Creating members-only spaces
Building out courses
Organizing digital content offerings
Adding extensions to their website
2. Affiliate marketing
Do you find yourself frequently promoting or recommending certain tools to your clients? Take it a step further by monetizing what you’re currently doing for free and tap into affiliate marketing. Start by looking at the tools you use often and promote. Then, see if they have affiliate programs and join ones where you can earn extra income. If a company doesn’t have information about affiliate marketing programs on its website, consider reaching out directly to inquire.
Pro tip: Circle partners can earn money for bringing clients to Squarespace with Circle referral payments. Learn more about receiving commission payments for eligible Squarespace subscriptions.
3. Specialized services
In addition to setting up integrations and tools, there are many improvements you can make to your clients’ websites that are considered additional services. The following are just some of the specialized services that clients look for:
Digital strategy
Copywriting and content creation
UX and UI design
Social media management
Pro tip: Anything that goes above and beyond a standard new website build merits additional compensation. Whether you write website copy, create a business logo, or establish their brand through colors and fonts, you’ll want to set financial expectations for these services early on during the consultation or proposal phases.
4. Offer technical help
One of the reasons clients seek professional help with website design is to tap into a designer’s technical expertise. You can leverage your skills by offering technical solutions such as:
Building plugins
Writing custom code
Providing periodic updates and tune-ups
Setting up app integrations
Setting up platform integrations
Offering training and support (more on this topic below)
Pro tip: If you plan to take care of a client's ongoing needs for updates, put a monthly retainer in place to receive payment for this ongoing work. You can include terms and details in the project proposal. Learn more about choosing a partnership model that fulfills your business goals.
5. Sell templates
Another way to earn more business is to build and sell website templates. Templates are especially great for newer business owners who don’t know where to start with their websites. They may have a general idea of how they want their website to look, feel, and function but are unable to afford a custom design project. This is where your template store comes in.
Website templates can solve many problems for you and your clients. For instance, they can help clients who need to see a list of what’s available and what’s possible before making a purchase, clients looking for premium designs with a smaller budget, and do-it-yourself (DIY) developers who want a template to use to get started building their own website.
Templates can also be effective for you as they function as guides for new projects. Additionally, they can benefit other designers who want to save time on their own professional projects.
Developing your own portfolio of templates can become a side business that’s both lucrative and fun. Learn more about the process of building and selling templates.
6. Training clients
If you’ve been running your website design business for a while, you may have noticed that many clients are starved for information, including everything from digital marketing to getting the most from the Squarespace platform.
You can feed their desire for knowledge by providing coaching, training, and other education-related services to help them manage their digital presence. The following are some offerings you can provide:
Hourly training
Charging by the hour, you can teach clients how to use Squarespace, optimize their sites for SEO, or make use of data analytics. These sessions can be offered one-on-one, in a group, or recorded for clients to watch in the future.
One-off support
Give clients the option to hire you as a website coach or trainer for a specified amount of time, such as a half or full day. During this time, you can share opportunities for SEO, consult on branding, or provide business advice.
Website audits
Coach DIYers by reviewing their sites and offering feedback on design, navigation, SEO, and more. In this instance, you can also charge by the hour or work on a half- or full-day schedule.
Pro tip: If you find that training is part of your calling, start running in-person or online classes. This is also a great way to connect with potential clients and make a name for yourself in the local business community. Learn about my journey to becoming a web design educator.
7. Teaching developers
Another potential revenue stream for your website design business is to teach aspiring developers, designers, and other creative professionals how to run their own web design businesses. Opportunities include:
Coaching new professionals who are just getting started
Teaching business and entrepreneurship classes
Offering short-form content, tutorial videos, and blogs on social platforms with tips and tricks to running a business
Selling courses and community memberships
Pro tip: When teaching fellow creatives and entrepreneurs, you can offer one-on-one coaching, or train a whole group—it’s totally up to you and your comfort instructing students, fielding questions, and managing different personalities.
8. Offer more services
Depending on your interests, experience, and skillset, you can always come up with more services to offer your clients to diversify your income as a freelancer. Some of the more popular options include:
Writing or proofreading blog content
Editing videos or short-form content
One-day site builds
Creating and running social media ads
Managing social media accounts
Running search ads
Optimizing images
Diversifying your web design services
As you expand your service offerings and grow your business, keep the following in mind:
Consider adding your services and product offerings to third-party job posting sites, especially those that cater to top-quality freelancers.
Add samples of your work to industry-specific networking platforms where you can showcase your portfolio, engage with fellow designers, and leverage your expertise.
Create packages to cluster some of your diverse income streams.
As you diversify your offerings, you may start becoming recognized for your ability to take care of specific pain points for clients. Whether they struggle to automate email campaigns, need help developing a compelling brand message, or need someone to edit their content, you can be the one who steps up and fills in the gaps for them.
This article was originally published on May 8, 2023. It has since been updated.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers and web design agencies. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
