As a freelancer you’re on your own in the world. You don’t have big companies behind you with endless resources, time and money. You need to make an impression quickly and efficiently so you can showcase your talents. So how do you do that in a web full of hosts, website themes and products? You certainly don’t have time to spend hours writing code.

You need a product that can deliver an easy interface to allow you to stamp your brand on the world. In order to stand out from the crowd your online presence has to grab attention immediately. You need to say “pick me!” in the most creative and individual way in order to stay ahead of the competition.

So how does a freelancer go about creating a super-duper online presence? What’s the best way for you to showcase your own style and personality on the web? What kind of features and elements should a web builder have, to let your own voice be heard without the pain normally associated with website building?

Easy Does It

It’s great if you have a background in website building and can design and write code. Go ahead and build away! But you don’t have to be a developer to create an amazing version of “you” online.  There are products out there that allow you to have a hassle free experience in order to get your vision online and deliver it to your intended audience.

Ideally, you need a website builder that can do all the hard work for you so you can focus on showcasing your particular talents. It should allow you to concentrate on the UX/UI of your website while it does all the coding and technical “stuff” in the background.

An absolute must is an easy to use dashboard, preferably designed with the end user in mind. So many web builders have dashboards that are not intuitive or user friendly. You don’t want to be scratching your head just trying to figure out how to use the dashboard, so it’s really important to find a web builder that can make the process of building your site as easy as possible.

What you need is a web builder with cutting edge design at the forefront of web developing standards. The perfect web builder should provide an innovative, streamlined and responsive user experience.

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Customization Is the Name of the Game

You want to be able to present your brand online but many themes sacrifice user interface over customization. You’re left with clunky plug-ins that don’t quite integrate with your site and generally cause you more trouble than they’re worth. You don’t want to waste precious time trying to understand how to make your site run smoothly and look good too.

What you need is a web builder with cutting edge design at the forefront of web developing standards. The perfect web builder should provide an innovative, streamlined and responsive user experience. It should have many elements and features already built in so you can customize to your heart’s content without affecting the core elements of your site, and cut down on the amount of third party plug-ins required to make it run the way you want.

It would also be awesome if you had a choice of different templates which have been created for specific niche markets, so you know which template suits you best if you’re a designer, a hairdresser, a photographer, or an illustrator. Also consider if the web builder has a large amount of pre made templates to let you start your website on them.

An ideal website builder should have a very easy and intuitive way to import/install templates. If you face any solution that asks you for any more than a single click simply disregard it. You don’t want to go through the hassle of potentially losing some of your content or layout, or wading through a protracted set of instructions to allow you to install a new template.

Responsive Design

In order to keep up with the Joneses your online brand needs to look good on every device, from smartphones, to tablets, to watches and everything else still to come (can you imagine the day we all have chips embedded in our skin like in the movies?) It really pays to find a web builder which will keep abreast of new technologies and adapt quickly to delivering your content across a variety of platforms. Ideally the web builder should allow you to tailor your site to each device. You want to be in control of your output no matter which device is used, so it’s imperative that you have the option of customizing your site accordingly.

Present Your Creativity the Way It Deserves

You want to have lots of yummy features that you can get your paws on to help you explore your creativity to the max. The best present a web builder can give you is a drag and drop feature so you can simply click on your content and move it around easily. That way you can see how your site looks as you create. So much easier than keying codes in and hoping for the best! To showcase your work the best, look for a web builder which offers you a choice of portfolio styles. You need flexibility so that your vision for your work is created on the page.

Be Immersive

People these days seem to have short attention spans (like goldfish swimming in a small bowl). There’s so much out there for us to focus on and we constantly look for the next thing to take our attention. So you want to grab the attention of your users and keep it. A great way of doing that is to find a web builder that features parallax backgrounds. You can create an illusion of depth to allow your site to come alive. If you can fully immerse your users in the work you are showcasing, you can keep them engaged. You want to hook that fish and keep it on the line!

Which Web Builder to Choose?

There are many themes out there that can handle some of these tasks but there are only a few which can handle them all and can handle them perfectly. So as a freelancer you should be very picky when choosing the solution for your website solution as it will host your valuable work and also implicitly reflects your understanding of design and so on. Christopher Muñoz, a Texas based designer has gone through this journey and found Jupiter WP theme to be what he was looking for. We sat down to talk with him and asked him to share his findings with our readers as it will solve similar problems for many fellow freelancers.

Hey Chris, can you tell us a little about you and your freelance career?

My name is Christopher Muñoz, I’m a graphic and web designer from the Sun City of El Paso, Texas. Other than design, which is my life, I’m a basketball enthusiast, pizza addict, and music lover. I’m currently a graphic designer for a local advertising & creative agency. My passion is the visual arts and problem solving using imagery and typography. I take pride in being an overall professional designer and focusing on any medium from print, environmental, digital, to web design. I believe in hard work and I am very lucky to wake up to do what I love everyday.

Awesome, so tell us a bit more. What’s the mission of your website? What do you expect it to deliver for you?

I originally started my website to build my own portfolio as a designer. I understood having my work online is a lot more convenient than a hard copy portfolio. As an student and intern, it has landed me plenty of job opportunities. Now, that I’ve grown as a web designer, my focus is on showcasing my work in a professional manner and building my own web presence. I expect to keep building my own brand with my website which helps me quickly connect online through social media with others of the same field. Overall, my mission is to keep progressing as a designer showcasing my work and building my web presence.

How does the Jupiter WP theme help your site meet your expectations?

Jupiter helps meet these expectations by setting a framework for me to showcase my design skills. I am not a developer, so I am able to focus on more of UI/UX design of my website. Jupiter allows me to set the layout and functionality of my website in a fast and efficient manner. Also, I can focus on the details of responsive design which is tremendously helpful to showcase my work across all devices. With Jupiter I am still able to customize any css without affecting any core elements. Its a very in-depth builder with many elements and features that customizations are practically endless. I appreciate I am able to place my style and personality on the web with the help of Jupiter.

It is really tough to choose one single feature that is the best, but overall functionality of the modified Visual Composer is amazing. I can focus on all the details I want to as a designer. It helps showcase my work to my liking and how I want the viewer to see it.

Why did you choose Jupiter over other themes? And what do you think is the best feature of Jupiter for freelancers / designers?

I was just a beginning intern learning web design when I first noticed Jupiter. I love the features of parallax backgrounds and different features of full-width or boxed layouts. Also, having a fluid grid for responsiveness which is very important to me as a designer. As I began to learn and use Jupiter I realized how robust it is as a theme while still being easy to build on.

In-depth theme options and drag and drop functionality helps me layout my portfolio exactly how I want, in a fast and easy manner. It is really tough to choose one single feature that is the best, but overall functionality of the modified Visual Composer is amazing. I can focus on all the details I want to as a designer.

It helps showcase my work to my liking and how I want the viewer to see it. Not only on desktops but I am able to focus on elements for responsiveness. I can set images and typography one way for viewers on a computer from–laptops to full screen–then set the details for my images and typography to respond to any mobile device. I love that aspect.

How do you think your Jupiter based website will influence your profession in the future?

I think because of Jupiter being so robust and user-friendly I am continually influenced on a daily basis. I am constantly trying to become better as an overall designer and Jupiter helps me portray my progression. It has allowed me to build a web presence which is important to have for your own brand. Not only for myself but I am able to showcase what I can do for the Agency I work for. With this comes more opportunities.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Do you have any other words to share with your fellow designers?

I think it is important to follow your passion. When you have a passion and you love what you do, it will show in the hard work you do. This is the case with Artbees and how they handle their customers and products. In my experience, they give solid support and are easy to get in contact with. They make it easy for me to continue my passion in design.

Visit Chris Muñoz’ website crmfresh.com and also the WP theme by which he built his site that serves its goals efficiently. You will discover it’s packed with information you can use to explore the many ways in which Jupiter can improve your web design productivity and enhance the quality of your products. Jupiter’s basic strength lies in its clean, streamlined code. That’s why many freelancers and creative professionals choose Jupiter as their website solution. We will let you know about more people from the creative community using Jupiter and their experience in this blog.  We would also like to know about your ideas about this theme. Have you used this theme as a freelancer? What do you think about it? What do you think needs to be added to it? Let us know in the comments.