An Interest In:
Web News this Week
- April 17, 2024
- April 16, 2024
- April 15, 2024
- April 14, 2024
- April 13, 2024
- April 12, 2024
- April 11, 2024
110 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads
Whether they’re designers, developers, copywriters, or some other creative professional, most freelancers ask themselves the very same question: How can I find more clients?
We’ve updated our monster list of over a hundred ideas designed to help you do just that. Not all of these ideas will make sense to everyone, but we hope you’ll find at least a few to help you find newer and better paying freelance opportunities. Here we go …
Use Word of Mouth
- Enlist your family and friends to help spread the word about your services
- Send out an email to former coworkers and other contacts announcing what you do, where you are, and what you can offer
- Ask your satisfied clients for testimonials andreferrals
- Offer free consultations to new referrals (consider including a time limit so they can’t pump you for too much free advice)
- Consider a referral or finders fee
Keep in Touch with Clients
- Contact past and current clients when you have a new service to offer them
- Get in touch with past and current clients when you have completed an important project
- Start a newsletter
- Take advantage of every outgoing email by using your email signature as a marketing tool
- Send promotions for services with your invoices
- Ask your clients to place a credit on your work in web, video, or print
- Make a calendar featuring your work for clients to put up in their offices to serve as a constant reminder
- Make a poster for your client to hang up on their office wall
- Suggest new projects to your existing clients, such as a blog, Twitter account, or newsletter
Talk the Talk
- Go to industry events "" conferences, association meetings, seminars
- Go to events in your client's industry
- Sponsor a client event
- Join your local Chamber of Commerce and get involved
- Socialize and always have your business card ready
- Do some high profile pro bono work for a non-profit
- Get involved in social groups you're connected to (church, school, university)
- Join a professional association and get listed
- Contact people you used to work with and ask them to send you any run-off work they might have
- Offer to give a seminar to a local business group
- Practice an elevator speech about what you do and have it ready to go wherever you are
- Participate on online forums (using the forum signature line)
- Comment on relevant blogs to draw people back to your freelance site
- Create a blog that's relevant to prospective clients (not just other freelancers)
- Offer guest blog posts to blogs that are relevant to your clients
- Create a buzz piece and include your URL so prospective clients can find you
Promote Yourself
- Have signage printed for your car (make sure your URL is big enough to be legible from far away)
- Get t-shirts made with your URL
- Advertise in a niche magazine or trade publication
- List yourself in directories like CreativeHotList or the one here on FreelanceSwitch
- Research sites your clients are visiting and buy advertising there
- Advertise in online directories
- Participate in a trade show
- Holidays are your friend! Send a clever holiday greeting to clients showing your work
- Have a gimmick that makes you stand out
- Give something away for free
- Advertise in an industry newsletter
- Offer branded pens and paper at industry events
Be an Industry Expert
- Host a webinar or teleseminar that would interest prospective clients
- Create your own podcast or videocast
- Pitch an article to an industry publication
- Pitch a story to a blog or resource website
- Offer to speak at industry and networking events
- Submit tutorials or how-to's to websites
- Get on the radio
- Write an eBook or Report for your target market and promote it online
- Answer relevant questions on LinkedIn
- Enter your work into competitions and awards" and win
Use the media
- Issue a press release about a story related to your services and try and get it into a local newspaper or magazine
- Sign up as a source on HelpAReporter.com and respond to interview requests in your niche
- Run a contest which ties into your services and promote it
Job Boards
- Keep an eye on online job boards
- Check out Craigs List for your city
- Post in the services section of Craigs List rather than just responding to job ads
- Keep an eye on offline job boards
- Pin up a little advert on boards in your local area or community
Brrr "" It's Cold in Here!
- Find out how you could improve a companies business and profits and cold call them with your pitch
- Mail promo postcards to potential clients
- Mail fun promotional items to potential clients (calendars, toys, posters etc)
Help Leads Find You
- Apply SEO techniques to your website to boost Google traffic
- Have a follow up conversation with all potential leads
- Make sure you're listed in the Yellow Pages and White Pages business section
Get in Bed with Local Business
- Contact your local internet service provider or printing house and offer them a commission if they refer work
- Establish contacts in larger agencies that can refer their run-off work
- Try location-based Google Adwords
- Take out an ad out in a local newspaper
- Keep in touch with freelancers that will offer clients a complementary service to yours and throw each other work
- Create a local business directory and use it to get to know other business owners who might later need your services
- Cross promote with other businesses
- Ask if you can put your business cards or brochure in local stores
- Join a coworking space shared with other businesses or freelancers
Industry Specific Ideas
And here are some ideas that are tailored to certain industries"
Photographers
- Enter your work into a gallery or run an exhibition
- Submit some work to stock agencies to generate extra revenue
- Do a new series of work so you have a reason to show your portfolio to an old contact
- Send in your photography work to industry magazines to make a name for yourself
- Start a photo blog
- Photograph an event or series and pitch it to a newspaper or magazine
- Get an agent
Programmers & Developers
- Pitch your self as a developer who understands web designers, because most of them need a developer
- Write a small web app like ta-da list or jobpile and get some recognition
- Create an app for Facebook or mobile phones
- Answer tech questions on forums and use a signature that says you offer freelance coding services
- Keep your eyes open for businesses still using @yahoo or @AOL email addresses and pitch yourself as their web developer so they can get a domain-based email
- Enter a programming contest like RailsDay
- Contribute to open source efforts and get known
Illustrators/Animators
- Start a comic strip blog "" e.g. QuestionableContent
- Make characters and create merchandise based on them "" figurines, badges, t-shirts, etc
- Enter some competitons to get your illustrations in some famous places "" snowboards, posters
- Create an awesome animation that wins you fame like Laith Bahrani
- Do stock illustrations for a site like istockphoto and have a portfolio site offering custom ones
- Write to big blogs and offer to do a cartoon strip (k10k)
- Send in your illustration work to magazines like computerarts.co.uk
- Create a promo Reel of animations or illlustrations and send it around/get it publicised
- Send your illustrations to gift card publishers
Writers, Bloggers, Journalists
- Pitch yourself at ad, design and web design agencies as a copywriter
- Find some photos on iStockPhoto, add some creative headlines, and make a mailer out of it
- Submit articles to article banks for sale
- Pitch article ideas to editors, online and off
- Sell reprint rights to articles for which you own the rights (you can do this on your own or through a syndication service like FeatureWell.com)
- Reslant an article you’ve already written for a new market
- Write a book and publish it with lulu.com
Designers
- Submit work to design compilation books and magazines
- Get your portfolio/profile listed on a site like Coroflot
- Design a great website and submit it to design galleries like CSSMania.com
- Build a great portfolio and submit it to design portals like DesignIsKinky.com
- Start a magazine, design portal or blog
There you have it! Have you tried any of these ideas? Which ones were most effective? Are there any ideas you’d like to add? Leave a comment and let us know!
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreelanceSwitch/~3/Le5Tw4-nCJs/
Freelance Switch
FreelanceSwitch is a community of expert freelancers from around the world.More About this Source Visit Freelance Switch