Using Spec Work
“Hi Puno! I designed a spec site and I want to add it to my portfolio and possibly pitch it to the brand. What’s the best way to go about this?”
Great question Náyade! I think it’s totally fine to put spec work on your website, just make sure it’s REALLY obvious that it’s spec and give photo credit with links for any assets you use.
Reaching out is a great way to start the convo! Let them know that you took a course and you used their website as the project because you love [insert what you love] and [insert another thing you love] about them (vs. saying their website was booty 🙈).
Then, say something like:
“I wanted to send this along because (1) who does that? And like I said, I’m a big fan of your [insert what you like] and (2) maybe you were thinking about a redesign but haven’t gotten a chance to do it?
Let me know if this is something you would like to discuss even if you might not end up wanting to go through with a redesign.
Happy to jump on a call about what’s possible with Squarespace and bounce off ideas with ya. Seriously, no hard sell on my part, just a fan!”
If you get on a call, awesome! Make sure you know how much you want to charge. Since you already did the work, they are going to put that into consideration so be considerate of that. This isn’t about getting paid because you did it without thinking of that in the first place.
If they ask you how much, you can give them a range:
“Typically projects like this are $1500 to $3000, but it really depends on how much more I would need to design. Did you have a budget in mind? Happy to work with you on this!”
Also, let them know that you would love to create a few videos on how to update their own site because you want to empower them to make changes whenever they feel like it!
You could even charge them hourly, create the video tutorials for them, and have a max budget so that it’s more DIY for them. Let them know if at any point they get busy and want you to finish it up, you’re down.
The goal is for them to know you’re happy to find a solution that works for them!
“Hi ya’ll! Super fresh freelancer here.
I was wondering if ya’ll had tips for the best way to share trial websites on your portfolio? The sites I want to show are mock sites so none of them are actually live. Would love some examples of yours too if you’re open to sharing!
Also how do you do that cool thing where you can screen grab the whole site’s pages?”
Great question Raf! Here is what your TA Erin said:
I use this chrome extension to grab the whole site's page.
To showcase spec sites this is what I do:
Anytime I have a link for it on my website to go out to the spec site I put the url with this on the end
/?password=demojust change "demo" to what your password is. It then skips the locked page.I also decorate the locked page (make it look nice) and put the password on the locked page. In case a user comes across it and I didn't use the password trick above or they get locked out for some reason then they will know how to get in.
Some of my examples, the first two with the password trick and the last one so you can see what I mean about the lock screen.
https://the-fashion-edit.squarespace.com/?password=portfolio