Fiverr Freelancer to $24K Website Projects

Linda Groeneveld is the founder of Studio Soaked, a web design agency based in the Netherlands 🇳🇱

I stumbled across her story via a recent video interview…

• From Fiverr to $24k Websites…

Linda started out as a graphic designer in Amsterdam, working for various agencies. After a while, she wanted to branch out on and start her own agency (around 2008).

Linda realized that when clients would ask her to design their website, she could provide the visual designs but not actually build the site 😕

She also noticed that clients were willing to pay more to the developers who would implement her designs. So she set about gaining those technical skills herself.

She tried learning to code but realized it wasn’t her thing. But she eventually came across Webflow (around 2018-19), a no-code website builder.

To find her first Webflow client…

I just put myself out there with a profile and I got my first Webflow website client through Fiverr.

This was Linda’s first ever Webflow site, but the experience gave her confidence 💪

It went so well, good and easy. And the client was super happy.

From that initial client, Linda started getting more Webflow projects through referrals from friends and family.

I didn’t really have a niche. So it was all over the place.

As her portfolio grew, businesses noticed her work and reached out looking to hire her.

Over time, as Linda honed her skills in Webflow and developed a portfolio of high-end website projects, she began getting inquiries from bigger companies who liked her style 😍

By this time she had worked on a couple of projects for financial companies.

She explains….

I [helped] launched a [financial] website and just a couple of months later, a company from the financial district in Amsterdam called me and they were like, yeah, we want to rebrand and redo our Webflow website.

Financial companies became a niche for Linda…

I think by having a good design website, you can really establish trust and show that these people or companies are the experts within their niche.

Now Linda works almost exclusively with financial companies, law firms, and other professional services…

It’s much easier to work with premium clients. The communication goes faster.

And premium clients = premium prices 🤑

Which is how Linda can charge $24,000 for a no-code website nowadays.

To me this is another great example of how taking on small projects can lead to much bigger things.

Linda doesn’t say how much she charged for her first Webflow project on Fiverr, but I suspect it worked out to something like $2 an hour 😱

But it was that crappy project that led to $24k clients down the road.