How to Build Your Reputation as a Web Developer?

One of the important aspects of making something brandable is by improving its quality. For you, your knowledge and skills are something that you can brand successfully to your audience and make it brandable.

Surely HTML and PHP would have been enough five years ago, but today, it is not enough to call yourself a web developer. Basic knowledge of a JS and other languages is a must today, and if you still lack behind on these languages, then you need to build a better knowledge base and need to learn more languages to make it work in this ruthless market.

You should never stop learning. If you feel like you need to learn more about your craft, set aside some time and give time to your learning and improvement. You can always enroll yourself in some online courses, and online classes by paying a nominal price. Or if you do not have the budget to pay for online classes, you can always go and find helpful resources on Youtube and other platforms like w3school.com.

Also, you need to understand that improving your craft is a never-ending process and no matter how good you are, you must always have the hunger to learn more and more and that way you will be able to establish yourself as a good developer.

Prepare a Portfolio

Now another important thing that most developers miss out on doing is creating a portfolio. Creating a portfolio is a must if you want to withstand today’s competition. Since you are a website developer, obviously you must be aware of how to create a website or how you can create an online portfolio but do you really need to code it from scratch? Let’s understand this first.

When you have your online portfolio, it helps your future clients to determine your work quality and to see how well you can do if they offer you the job.

So, when you are designing your own portfolio, you need to make sure you are displaying all the information your prospect client would want to know while maintaining a good and well-designed portfolio. This portfolio will definitely speak your art and what all skills as you are a web developer but most of the time people developers make the mistake of wasting a lot of their crucial time in creating their own website with too much care and detail.

“But! This is my digital presence… I must create and code it myself, right?”

Well, where is that written? A good developer is not the one who can write loads of code, but in fact, it is the one who can do the work in the most effective manner. I am sure you know this already.

So, should you not code your portfolio? Not necessarily.

Sure! If you want to create a whole new design that you have not seen anywhere ever, then, of course, you will require to code it but on the other hand, if you want to create a blazing fast and professional looking blog design, then you can do it quickly with the tools we have available with us today.

One of the most prominent tools for this task is our own tool, Portfolio designer. A simple to use tool which you can use to create your portfolio in minutes.

Since you are a web developer, you can understand how handy a tool can be which can save your hours, even days of hard work and can give you a perfect portfolio which you can use to display your work in the most spectacular manner. You can learn more about the portfolio designer here.

This is a must-have tool if you want to create a good looking portfolio without sparing lots of efforts. You can check out the types of demos which you can create with the portfolio designer here.

Now we know how we can create an impressive portfolio in minutes, but it is also necessary to learn what all a portfolio needs to have. So, let us see that as well.

Things to add in your portfolio

Here are some points that you might find useful regarding the same –

1. Introduce yourself effectively

You need to make sure that you are showing yourself as the person you are and not what you wish to be. Most importantly, you need to keep it real and simple when it comes to this. You can always introduce yourself in a storytelling format as it works like a charm, but still, you need to keep it real. Do not make this part of the portfolio sound too tacky and cheezy and on the other hand, do not try to be too much professional either. Maintain that sweet spot between being professional and friendly at the same time.

2. Tell what you do

You need to establish this clearly what all you can do and what all you usually do. When you are building your portfolio, you need to convey in a good manner what all services/products you are offering. Tell this in a clear and concise manner so that your visitor will be able to comprehend it quickly.

3. Examples of your Work

This is the portfolio of your work that you have done. You need to showcase what all projects you are proud of and the ones you have taken part in. Show off your best work and give a brief introduction of the project so that your visitors will be able to understand what all you are capable of. Adding just the links of the websites you have created is not enough. You need to give a little context of how you went about the website so that your prospective clients will be able to understand your process clearly.

4. Easy navigation format

Since you are a web developer, you understand the importance of smooth website navigation. If your users are not able to navigate properly, you might miss out on a lot of business simply because of poor navigation. Bad navigation leads to two things. One thing is that it will show how your design and UX skills are and secondly; it will only confuse your users and make them run away.

5. Your contact details

This one goes without saying. You need to add the method by which your users can contact you directly. One good way to do this by creating a Contact page. Of course, you will be doing that, but you need to do one more thing. You need to link that page very strongly on your website on different places so that your prospective clients can reach it easily. Add more CTA on the pages and see how you can make your communications more effective. You can also list your address and social media links where your visitors can reach you.

Open Source Projects

One of the most effective means of promoting your art and build a brand is by doing open source contributions. It is one of the most overlooked techniques that very few developers are using nowadays.

The reason most of the developers do not go for contributions to open source projects is that there is no direct income in this. In fact, most of the developers think that contributions for those bloggers who have made big and now they are looking for a way to give back. This is not the case at all. Ironically, the reason those bloggers have made it big is that they have been contributing to open source projects. Can’t believe me? Why don’t you give it a try yourself!

How can you benefit from your contribution?

Many good things come from contributing to open source projects. Some of the ways you can benefit from contributing are listed here –

1. Contribution sets you apart from the crowd. When you contribute, you create yourself as an example for the other users, and when your prospective clients learn about this fact, it helps them understand your authority too. When you contribute, you add that knowledge in your profile, and this can help you in getting more clients.
2. Helps you in brushing up your skills. When you contribute, you are actually learning from the contributions. Think of this as a way for you to test your knowledge. Sometimes we assume that we have all the knowledge, but when we step in the real world, reality hits hard. So when you are contributing, you are actually updated with all the new code practices and procedures that are being employed to get better and effective results. Now you can use these new skills to build your own projects.
3. Connecting with other developers and Clients. When you contribute, you meet other contributors as well which can help you in learning and building your network. All these people are like-minded and have their network as well. Connecting with these people will only help you in getting more clients and promoting your brand.
4. Gives you a sense of satisfaction – When you make a selfless contribution to something, you get a totally different feeling that cannot be replaced with anything else. That sense of proud and esteem which is boosted by the happiness that you receive from the contribution is something that elevates your mood any day and makes things more optimistic for you.

Social Media Promotion

Social Media promotion is something that you cannot replace with anything and cannot miss out on. Since you are a developer, you need to maintain your identity on digital social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. All these platforms are must to be on, and if you want to go further, you can expand your social media activities to other platforms as well.

One of the most important things you need to do first is updating your LinkedIn profile. Add all the things that you think are necessary for your prospective clients. Once you are done with that, you need to update your other platforms as well like Facebook Bio and Twitter Description.

Once you are done with updating your details, you can start by increasing the engagement on your posts by posting more and being more actively present on the platforms.

Do not forget to reply to the queries that you are getting on your social media accounts. Many people prefer reaching on social media instead of contact forms. So you need to regularly check if you have pending messages or any queries in your message inboxes.

Develop Communities

Have you ever tried becoming part of the developer communities? Well, if not, I would ask you to rethink your circles and start joining more developer groups.

There are multiple online and offline groups available which you can use to build your reputation as well. If you ever come across groups like these, join them and start networking with them.

One of the best ways to help your networks is by helping them in solving a problem. If the problem is solved, great! You know now if the same problem comes again, who the community members will go to.

Even you can find solutions to the problems that might be stopping you or becoming an obstacle. Just simply connect with the communities, and they will come to your resue.

If you wish to join these kinds of groups, you can find them loads in your locality using Meetup and Facebook.

Summing it Up!

Building a profile as a web developer is not a problem for most devs but still doing it effectively is something that is needed to be done. Now you can easily do that with the Portfolio Designer Plugin. You get loads of designs to choose from, and you can prepare your blog as per your design.

Once you have made your profile, you can go ahead and doing other changes and implementing techniques on your blog to build your reputation as a web developer.

What do you think of all the things listed here? Which point do you think you need to implement first? Which one is the most effective in your opinion, on this list?

Do let me know by commenting it down below!