Get the yes before days of building
Find who needs a site, show them theirs, and do the careful work once they agree.
Busy months, then nothing
Freelancers call it feast and famine. With three clients on the go, you have no time to look for a fourth. Then those projects finish in the same month, the inbox goes quiet, and you start looking for work with nothing lined up.
A quiet month has its own routine. You search a map for businesses with bad websites, email a portfolio link to people who never asked for it, and maybe build a spec site for the one you like most. That's days of unpaid work for one pitch, and you can't afford many of those before rent is due.
The trouble is the order of things. The building comes first and the yes comes last. Shingle moves the yes forward. A demo is one page and builds while you do other work, so a business can see its own site before you've spent a day on it.
A slow week, step by step
One trade and one town, around the client work you already have.
Monday: pick a trade and a town
Radar shows who has no website or a weak one, with the reasons. Save the ones worth a call.
Tuesday: build their demos
Press Build demo on each saved business. It costs 10 credits and builds while you do other work.
Wednesday: send your pitches
Shingle writes the message and a price to ask. You send the link from your own phone or email.
Thursday: call while they look
An alert tells you when a business opens its demo. They can also answer you right on the page.
Show them their own site
A portfolio link asks a busy owner to imagine their own site. A demo shows it, with their name, their town and their phone number on it, open on the phone in their hand.
When they open it, you get an alert and the deal moves on your board by itself. Call then, while it's still on their screen. If they stay quiet, Shingle offers a follow-up after three days and a last nudge after seven, and you choose whether to send them.
A demo is built from what open map data knows about the business, and it's built not to invent the rest. Read it before you send it, and add what you learn on the phone.
- A call script and the likely objections
- A price to ask, with its sources linked
- An opt-out on every demo page, which every team respects
The part you get paid for
A yes still needs your eye. These keep the finishing work in one place.
Change it by asking
Say what to change in plain words, or edit on the page. Every version is kept, so you can go back.
Comments on the page
A review link lets a client click a part of the page and comment, with no account to make.
Their own domain
Connect a domain they own, with HTTPS set up for you. It stays theirs if they ever leave.
Client access
Invite a client to edit one site. They never see your other clients or your plan.
Workflows for follow-ups
Chase quiet quotes and ask for reviews. Each email can wait for your OK.
The code, if you need it
Download any site as an ordinary Next.js project. Forms and visit counts need Shingle's hosting.
What a freelancer pays
One plan, $49 a month, and $7 a month for each more live site.
The plan, $49 a month
- 1 live site, for your first yes
- 200 credits a month, or 20 demos
- Twice that in your first month, or 40 demos
- A month's credits last 2 months
- Pitch links, review links, client access and Workflows
- $39 a month when you pay yearly
As clients say yes
- $7 a month for each more live site, with no cap
- 5 live sites are $77 a month, and 10 are $112
- Top-ups from $20 for 200 credits, which never expire
- Demos take no place, since only live sites count
What stays with you
- Billing your clients, since Shingle doesn't do it
- Buying domains, which clients do elsewhere
- Any online selling, since there's no store or checkout
Your name on every pitch
Shingle never contacts a business for you. Every pitch goes from your own phone or email.
Common questions
Can't find your answer? Read Shingle Help or email [email protected].
Most builders start once you already have a client. Shingle starts earlier. Radar finds local businesses with no website or a weak one, Build demo makes each a demo from its own record, and you get an alert when they open your link. Building is only part of what it does.
One plan, at $49 a month or $39 paid yearly, with 1 live site, 200 credits a month and every feature. That's 20 demos a month, and 40 in your first. Each client who goes live past the first adds $7 a month, so 5 live sites are $77 and 10 are $112.
Not inside Shingle. You change a site by asking, or by hand on the page, where words, photos, fonts and section order are free to edit. On the plan you can download the code as an ordinary Next.js project and work on it elsewhere, but it doesn't come back in.
Their published site never names Shingle, though one on a shinglesites.site address has a small Report this site link at its foot. Review links, the editor and client emails show Shingle's name until you set your brand, which swaps in your name and logo. What you tell clients about your tools is up to you.
No. Client billing isn't built, so you set your own price and invoice clients with whatever you use now. Shingle charges you for your plan and has no part in what a client pays you. Client sites have no store or checkout either.
Your plan runs to the end of the period you paid for. After that, your clients' live sites stay up for 30 days while we warn you, then go offline. They come back when you resubscribe, and there's no hosting-only price. Cancel from Plan and billing at any time.
Read next
- Find businessesA map of who has no website, or a weak one.
- Demo sites and pitch linksA site to show them, and a link you send yourself.
- Get web design clientsThe channels that work, and a week to run them.
- How much to charge for a websiteYour floor, the client's ceiling and common ranges.
- Web design pricing calculatorThe least to charge, from your hours and costs.
- Pricing7 days for $1, then one plan at $49 a month.
Build your first site
Start from a Google listing or a few notes. Demos usually take 5–15 minutes.
7 days for $1, then $49 a month. Cancel any time.