I love leads!! Image from iStockPhoto

Since FreelanceSwitch started, there is one question that I get asked more often than any other. How can a freelancer find more work and generate new client leads?

And now without further ado, here they are, your 101 ideas:

Word of mouth is the go

• Enlist your family and friends to spread the word about your services
• Send out an email to everyone in your address book, announcing what you do, where you are and what you can offer
• Ask your satisfied clients for referrals
• Offer free consultations to new referrals
• Consider a referral or finders fee

Love those clients

• Get in touch with 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 a flagship 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

Image from iStockPhoto

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 card ready
• Do some pro-bono work for a charitable organization with industry links
• Get involved in social groups you’re connected to (church, school, university)
• Join an industry organization 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 blogs to draw people back to your freelance site

Image from iStockPhoto

Promote Yourself

• Get car signage
• Get t-shirts made with your URL
• Try location based Google Adwords
• Advertise in a niche magazine or trade publication e.g. a magazine just for cafes
• List yourself in business directories or the Yellow Pages
• Research sites your clients are visiting and buy advertising there
• Advertise in online directories
• Take out an ad out in a local newspaper
• Participate in a trade show
• Holidays are your friend! Send a clever holiday greeting to clients showing your work
• Promote a free first consulation service
• Have a gimmick that makes you stand out
• Give something away for free
• Place an advert in an industry newsletter
• Offer branded pens and paper at industry events

Image from iStockPhoto

Be an industry expert

• Pitch an article to an industry publication
• Pitch a story to a blog or resource website
• Offer to speak at industry and networking events
• Start a blog and publicize it
• 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
• 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
• Pull a publicity friendly stunt (think Richard Branson)
• Run a contest which ties into your services

Job Boards

• Keep an eye on online job boards
• Check out Craigs List for your city
• Keep an eye on offline job boards
• Pin up a little advert on boards in your local area or community

Image from iStockPhoto

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

• Search-optimize your website and get 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
• 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
• Rent officespace 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 attract attention
• 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 an online photojournal
• 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
• Answer tech questions on forums and use a signature that says you offer freelance coding services
• Enter a programming contest like RailsDay
• Contribute to open source efforts and get known

Illustrators/Animators

• Start a comic strip blog - e.g. gapingvoid.com
• Make characters and create merchandise based on them - figurines, badges, tshirts 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 and write some great ad headlines for each and make a mailer out of it
• Submit articles to article banks for sale
• Write opinionated, witty pieces and get them publicised on Digg with a blurb at the bottom about your services
• Pitch article ideas to editors, online and off
• 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

So there you have it, lots of ideas! Do you know of any more? Add them in the comments and we’ll add them to the list…