Hey everyone,
For months, my headline was “Full‑Stack Software Engineer.” It was accurate, but it did nothing for me. I blended in with tens of thousands of similar profiles. The clients who did message me often had vague scopes and tiny budgets, because my positioning was just as vague as their requests.
One weekend, I sat down and studied the kinds of jobs I was actually excited about: web apps with a modern frontend, a solid backend, and some light DevOps or cloud work. Then I looked at how successful freelancers in that space described themselves. Almost all of them used a format like "Role | Core Tech | Outcome | Niche."
So I changed my headline to something along the lines of: "Full‑Stack Engineer | React, Node, AWS | Scalable SaaS & Internal Tools."
That small change did something important. It filtered the clients who reached out to me. Instead of "Can you build any website?" the messages became "We have a React/Node app that needs new features and better deployments" or "We’re a B2B SaaS needing help with our dashboard and API." The work fit my skills much better, and I spent far less time explaining basic concepts. It also made it easier to say no to projects that were far outside my wheelhouse.
A clear headline doesn’t just attract the right clients; it repels the wrong ones.
Appreciate you taking the time to read this. If you’re stuck with low‑quality leads, start by rewriting your headline today and see how your next week of invites changes.
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