Clever FAQ

I actually noticed this ages ago, but looking at it again it's still a very clever way of filtering potential clients without simply listing criteria your clients have to meet before you'll consider them (and therefore probably scare of/irritate clients you could have worked with). What am I on about? I'm on about Bearskinrug's contact page, where freelance illustrator Kevin Cornell lists some info about himself, a contact form and then a list of 'helpful tips' for people interested in hiring him. The tips start with reasons for hiring an illustrator in general and then move on to general Q&As on accepted practice for contracts with illustrators. By doing this as a general 'industry' overview, Kevin avoids making it too obvious a list of dos and don'ts for working with him personally and therefore lessens the chance of the list seeming confrontational before client and producer even meet. Further to the generalisation, words and phrases like "it's proper to...", "usually" and "it's not uncommon for..." help to both guide the prospective client as well as suggest there's room for leeway on certain points if absolutely required. All in all, it helps to increase the chances that the people who get in touch will already have a good idea of how the process should go. Of course, plenty of people will miss or just ignore the FAQ, but the popularity of Bearskinrug and the humorous style of the site encourages people to readmuch more than on the average site.