START SELLING: How to publish your first listing as a talent
Your listing is the front door to everything you offer on Sisu Talents. A clear, complete listing wins messages, orders and trust whilst an incomplete or vague one gets buried in search and is rejected by our moderation team. This guide walks you through the entire creation flow: the four listing types you can choose from, the kind of work each one is built for, and every single field on the form, so by the end you know exactly what to write in every box.
Before you start: what every listing needs
To publish a listing, your talent account must be set up to receive payments. That means your Stripe account is connected and your tax details are filled in on your dashboard. If either of these is missing, you can still write and save a listing, but it will not be shown on the marketplace until both are complete. The reason is simple: without Stripe and tax details, we cannot legally pay you or issue the invoice that goes with each order.
Every new listing also goes through a short admin review before it goes live. We check for clarity, accuracy, and that the listing is not duplicated or misleading. Listings that are incomplete or vague are rejected, and you will receive an email telling you what to fix.
Quick tip: Treat your listing like a small landing page. The clearer the promise, the easier it is for a client to press the order button. Vague titles, empty fields and stock photos all lower your conversion rate.
The four listing types and when to use each one
The first decision you make is the listing type. This choice is important because it changes how clients buy from you and which fields appear later in the form. You can always create one listing per type if your offer fits more than one.
1. Fixed price
You define one or more packages with a set price and a clear scope, and clients order directly with one click. This is the most common type and works best for clearly defined deliverables where you already know the work involved.
Use it for example with:
- Logo or brand identity packages
- A blog post of a specific length
- A 30-second social video edit
- A WordPress speed-optimisation audit
- An Instagram content batch of ten posts
2. Per word
You set a single price per word, and at checkout the client enters the word count and the total is calculated automatically. This is ideal for work where scope is measured in words and length varies from job to job.
Use it for
- Translation between two languages
- Proofreading or copy editing
- Copywriting for articles or web pages
- Subtitling and transcription priced per word
3. Hourly
You show your hourly rate on the listing so clients understand the price level, and they book a paid consultation to start the conversation. The full project is then scoped together. The consultation can be free if you want to offer a discovery call.
Use it for
- Coaching and mentoring sessions
- Strategic consulting
- Legal, financial or HR advice
- Project management and ongoing support
4. Portfolio
A showcase listing without a fixed price. Clients see your work and contact you for a custom quote. Use this when every project you take on is genuinely unique and a one-size price would be misleading.
Use it for
- Custom illustration or commissioned art
- Brand strategy or large UX research engagements
- Wider projects where the scope might vary
- Show the different types of websites you can build (but the price varies depending on content)
Step-by-step: every field on the listing form
Below is every field you will see, in the order it appears, with what we expect in it and how to fill it in well. Some fields only show up for certain listing types.
Listing type
Pick from fixed price, per word, hourly or portfolio. The rest of the form changes based on this choice — for example, the per-word price box only appears for per-word listings, and the packages section disappears for hourly and portfolio types.
Price per word (per-word listings only)
Enter the amount you want to charge for one word, with up to three decimals. For example, 0.08 means eight cents per word. Be honest about what is included in this price. Does it include proofreading? formatting? revisions? Explain all this in the description.
Your hourly rate (hourly listings only)
This is the rate displayed on your listing so clients understand your price level. It is not a buyable amount and clients cannot order hours directly. Set it to the rate you would quote for general project work.
Consultation price (hourly listings only)
This is the actual amount a client pays to book a consultation with you. Many talents set this to zero so the first call is a free discovery session, others charge a small fee to filter out non-serious enquiries. Both approaches work, just choose what suits your business.
Category
Pick the broad category first, then choose the most specific subcategory that matches what you offer. Categories affect search and the recommendations a client sees, so do not pick something adjacent just because it has more traffic. Pick the one that truly describes the work.
Cover image
The main image for your listing. This is the image your clients see first on the search pages, so make it count. Recommended size 1280×720px. Max 5 MB. JPG, PNG or GIF.
Gallery
Add up to 3 items: image, video, audio or PDF. Video and audio clips must be 30 seconds or shorter. Max size: image 5 MB, audio 10 MB, PDF 10 MB, video 50 MB.
Title
The title is the single most important field for search. Write it as a clear promise: what you do, for whom, or with what twist. “I will design a modern logo for your sustainable startup” beats “Logo design” every time.
Languages
Type to search and add every language you can comfortably deliver the service in. Clients use language filters when they browse, so a translator who skips this field becomes invisible in translation searches. Only add languages you can really work in as we as a platform want to match expectations, not aspirations.
Experience level
Pick how many years you have worked in this specific area. The options are less than a year, 1–3 years, 4–6 years, 7–9 years, 10–14 years, or over 15 years. This is the experience for the skill in this listing, not your overall career.
Revisions included
How many revision rounds are included in the base price. Two or three is a healthy default for most creative work. Be explicit in the description about what counts as a revision (small tweaks) versus a redesign (a new round of work).
Working hours
Set the days and hours during which you are available to take on new work and communicate with clients. You can either turn on the 24/7 availability toggle, or add specific rows per weekday with a from-time and a to-time. This information feeds into the delivery timer, which only counts working hours, so being accurate here also protects you from unrealistic deadlines. This is one of those things that makes Sisu Talents different compared to the other platforms: you don’t have to be available 27/4, and you can choose the hours you work with. So if you only are able to deliver Saturday and Sunday, then you should only add these 2 days to your working hours so all your orders will have the delivery time set correctly.
Tags
Add a handful of keywords that help the clients find you. Type a tag, then a comma and a space, and the tag is added. Use words clients actually type, not internal jargon. For a translator, good tags are “english finnish”, “marketing translation”, or “subtitles”, not “wordsmithery”.
Pick-and-choose packages (fixed-price listings only)
Packages are the individual items a client can put in their cart. Add at least one, and add more if you offer variants: for example a logo listing could have a “Basic logo”, a “Logo with social-media kit”, and a “Full brand pack”. Each package has:
- Title — a short name the client sees (“Basic logo”).
- Price — the price for this package in euros.
- Description — one line describing what is included.
Use the add-item button to add another package and the small cross to remove one.
Extras
Extras are add-ons clients can select at checkout, on top of the package they pick. Think of them as the upsells that increase order value without you needing to publish a separate listing. Each extra has a title, a price, and an optional required checkbox — tick it if the customer must include this extra (useful for things like a mandatory commercial-use licence).
Good examples are “Express delivery in 24 hours”, “Source files included”, or “Two additional revision rounds”.
Requirements
Requirements are the questions the client must answer at checkout so you can start the work without back-and-forth. Each requirement has:
- Question / requirement — what you are asking (“What is the brand name?”).
- Type — choose short text, long text, or file upload.
- Placeholder — an optional hint shown inside the field (“Brand name only, no slogan”).
Add the four or five things you really need before starting. Long lists of questions hurt conversion, but well-chosen ones save you hours of clarification.
Description
This is the body of your listing and what the client actually reads before deciding to order. Describe exactly what they get, how the process works, and what they will need to provide. Aim for a few short paragraphs rather than one long block of text. The description should reflect the real end price for the work, so do not hide costs in the small print.
A useful structure is: one paragraph about what the client receives, one about how you work, one about what you need from them, and one short FAQ-style note about delivery and revisions.
Delivery time
How many days from the moment of order until the work is completely finished. Be realistic, and rather add a buffer than cut it tight — the delivery timer only counts your working hours, but late deliveries still affect your reputation. If a package needs longer than another, mention this in the package description as well.
Purchase note
A short note that appears to the customer immediately after they purchase. This is a great place for next-step instructions (“Please reply to the order with your logo files”), useful links, or a friendly thank-you message. It is shown on the order confirmation page and in the order details.
What happens after you submit
Pressing the submit button sends your listing to our admin review queue. There are four possible outcomes from there, and you will receive an email for each one:
- Approved — your listing is live on the marketplace and clients can find it.
- Approved with tax incomplete — the listing passed moderation, but your tax details are not finished yet, so it will only become visible after you complete them.
- Rejected — something needs fixing. The email explains what, and you can edit and resubmit straight away.
- Delisted — used later if a previously approved listing needs to be hidden, for example because a policy violation was reported. The email tells you why and how to address it.
You can always edit a published listing from the My listings page in your dashboard. Major edits may go back through review.
Quick checklist before you press submit
- Listing type matches the way you actually want to be paid.
- At least three strong images are uploaded, with your best work first.
- Title is specific.
- Category and subcategory both reflect the real work.
- Description is several paragraphs, with no hidden costs.
- Languages, experience level and working hours are accurate.
- For fixed-price: at least one package with a clear title and price.
- For hourly: hourly rate is shown, consultation price is set (or 0).
- Extras and requirements are short, useful and easy to answer.
- Terms and conditions box is ticked.
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