Setting Up Your Freelancer Profile

Where to set up your profile

Log in and go to Zinner Dashboard → Projects → Freelancer Profile. The form is split into clear sections so you can save your progress and come back. Nothing goes live until you publish.

Why your profile matters
Every time you submit a proposal, buyers can click your name to see your full profile before deciding. Every time a buyer browses the /freelancers/ directory, your profile is what they're evaluating. Every time a buyer wants to invite someone to a project, they're inviting based on what your profile says about you.

Incomplete profiles get skipped. Complete profiles win work.

Core fields
These are required before you can publish:

• Display Name — how your name appears publicly. You can use your real name, business name, or professional alias.


• Professional Headline — one line describing what you do. Maximum 120 characters. Think of this as your elevator pitch: specific beats generic. "Senior WordPress Developer specialising in WooCommerce migrations" beats "Web Developer".


• Bio / About — the full story. Up to 3000 characters. Describe your experience, specialities, typical clients, work style, what you're best at. Write in first person. Avoid clichés ("hard-working team player"). Give concrete examples where you can.


• Skills — tags from the Zinn Hub skills list. Add up to 20 skills that genuinely describe what you do. Skills are the single biggest input to the matching system — if you don't tag it, buyers searching for it won't find you. Only tag skills you can actually deliver at a professional level.


• Primary Category — the main marketplace category you work in (for example SEO, Web Design, Content Writing). Pick the one that best represents the bulk of your work.


• Availability — choose one of three states:
  
  
  
  • Available Now — green badge, boosts your ranking in search and in matching
  
  
  • Busy — amber badge, still visible but deprioritised
  
  
  • Available From [date] — blue badge with your return date
  
  
  • Keep this accurate. If you go quiet for a month and your profile still says "Available Now", buyers will message and get no response — which hurts your reputation.
  
  
  
  

Optional but high-impact fields
These aren't required, but profiles with them fill up and win more work than profiles without:

• Additional Categories — up to 5 more. Use these if you cross over between areas. A WordPress developer might also pick Web Design and WooCommerce. Adding extra categories means you appear in more matching results and more directory filters.


• Hourly Rate — your display rate. Useful for buyers who think in hours. You don't have to offer hourly work to list a rate; it's a reference point.


• Project Rate Min / Max — the typical range for projects you take on (for example "$500 – $3,000"). This shows on your card in the directory and helps filter out buyers whose budgets don't match.


• Location — city and country, or just "Remote". Doesn't restrict who can hire you — buyers are global.


• Timezone — helps buyers work out overlap for live work.


• Social Links — LinkedIn, personal website, portfolio site, GitHub, Behance, Dribbble, etc. Add them all. External validation strengthens trust.

Portfolio
The Portfolio section is a repeater — add up to 10 entries. Each one can include:

• Title (required) — the name of the piece or client project


• Description — up to 500 characters describing what you did and the outcome


• URL — link to the live project, case study, or external portfolio


• Image — a single screenshot, mockup or cover image (up to 2MB)


• Category — from your chosen project categories, so your portfolio is organised

Click Add to start a new entry; remove any entry you don't want. Save when you're done.

Tips for strong portfolio entries:

• Mix scales: show one large flagship piece and several smaller ones so buyers see your range


• Write outcomes not just activities ("Rebuilt checkout flow, cutting abandonment by 30%" beats "Worked on WooCommerce checkout")


• Visuals help — entries with an image get clicked more than text-only entries


• If you can't show client work (NDAs), show personal projects or anonymised case studies

Featured Zinns
If you already sell Zinns on the platform, you can feature up to 6 of your own published Zinns on your Freelancer Profile. The picker is an autocomplete search that lists your own published products — type to filter, click to add.

Featured Zinns appear as a horizontal row on your profile with thumbnail, title, price and rating. It's free social proof and makes it easy for a buyer to skip the proposal round and just buy a Zinn on the spot.

If you don't sell Zinns, this section simply doesn't appear on your profile — there's no empty state and no penalty. Profile-only operation is perfectly valid.

Auto-populated stats (you can't edit these)
Some stats are calculated by the system and show on your profile automatically:

• Member since date


• Number of Zinns listed


• Average rating (from Zinn reviews and project reviews)


• Total sales shown as a range ("$1k+", "$5k+", "$10k+")


• Projects completed


• Response time

You build these up over time by doing the work. The system handles the display.

Publishing your profile
When every required field is filled, click Save and Publish. Your profile goes live at /freelancers/{your-username}/ immediately — the URL slug is your WordPress username.

You can come back and edit any time — changes go live straight away, no re-approval needed.

What your profile looks like publicly
A published profile shows:

• Header section — avatar, headline, availability badge, rate display, location and timezone, star rating, "Invite to Project" button (for buyers) and "Message" button (for all logged-in users)


• Stats bar — member since, Zinns listed, projects completed, total sales range, response time


• Skills tag cloud


• Full bio


• Portfolio grid


• Featured Zinns row (only if you have any)


• Reviews from completed projects

Why your profile also affects matching
The matching system reads your profile every time a new project is posted. Specifically, it looks at:

• Your skills list — for skill overlap with the project's required skills


• Your primary and additional categories — for category match with the project


• Your published Zinns' categories — as a bonus signal


• Your availability — Available Now ranks above Busy


• Your profile completeness — fully filled profiles rank above half-finished ones

A half-finished profile gets filtered out of invitations and notifications before a buyer even sees it. Fill it in properly once, and keep it current.