101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads
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?
Well at FreelanceSwitch we don’t shy away from the pressing questions. So as the kicker for a new series on how to get more freelance work, we have put together an enormous list of ideas, ranging from ones that take 10 seconds to 10 days. There’s something for everyone to try and I guarantee there will be plenty of things you never thought of.
Over the next few months we will be publishing an article on EVERY single one of these topics, so if you need more explanation or examples on any of them, don’t worry they’re coming!
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
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
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
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
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…
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Great!!
More More.
fantastic. i’ve tried a few of these things over the years, but not consistently. i’m going to print this one out! ~m
excellent post. I can’t wait to read the in-depth articles. If all else fails, you could stand on a corner with a cardboard sign and balloons…. guaranteed people will look at your sign if you have balloons..
great post. this one’s definitely getting filed in delicious.
I agree this is a great post. It would be nice is there was a print this button on the page that created a printer friendly version.
Thanks for the post.
Great list of ideas on how to promote yourself. A lot of the simpler sounding ones, such as having a elevator pitch, can be very useful, you never know when it could come in handy.
Lately, I’ve been trying to promote myself more online, on various blogs and design portals, I want people to see my work. I can’t stress how important it is to network, both online and offline. Something as simple as a friendly conversation with someone can lead to some potential work or better yet, a business relationship.
Excellent ideas for any industries on this post. I will keep coming back for good ideas like this.
I have received some traffic from leaving just this kind of comment on blogs. Now–how to convert link traffic to customers!
Great Post. I do a blog on selling for independent professionals that might be of interest. I will also offer sales coaching very soon, including the dark art of prospecting (finding customers). When you “have to sell to eat”, it helps to have a little training. I would even be happy to guest write on some of the items on your list!
That took a while to read
– great tips; looking forward to reading ALL of those articles 
Great article, I’m in the planning stages of setting up my own freelance company, and some of the ideas that you have listed above will come in very handy, Thanks!
Wow, that’s good stuff
Good ideas 
This is some of the best advice i’ve seen on how to promote yourself, and it’s mostly things that can be done in a matter of minutes!
Another thing that a lot of people overlook is a good business card. I’ve received a decent amount of freelance work just purely on my business card.
Other than that, I’ll be implementing a lot of these shortly. Thanks a lot!
Another idea i have done is pick up business cards from stores and look for the ones that have yahoo, gmail, or hotmail email addresses. This will give you a good idea they need web design/development services. Then either mail then a flyer of what you do or go visit them personally.
Oops those images had vanished for a while but they’re all fixed now!
Wow, what a thorough list! I am definitely bookmarking this page! THANKS!!
“Pitch an article to an industry publication”
We’re always on the lookout for great new writers at Digital Web magazine – like Cyan says, it’s a great way to get your name out there, position yourself as an expert in the web industry, and get some extra traffic while you’re at it:
http://www.digital-web.com/contribute/write/
Good collections of suggestions. Few things missing. One could sign up with the freelance marketplaces like getafreelancer.com, rentacoder.com.
Rajesh Shakya
http://www.rajeshshakya.com
For more info please visit: http://www.businessonmarket.com
you said : “Send out an email to everyone in your address book, announcing what you do, where you are and what you can offer” nowsday it can be considered as SPAM . And you can be until arrested. Take care .
Or, you could be part of a word-of-mouth referral club, like Business Network International. http://www.bni.com
Plenty of chapters in different countries.
I’m a gaprhic design and I joined this club and I tell you, say goodbye to cold-calling and cold-emailing. Plus you get quality and qualified leads and you can train members to find those projects that you would love to work on
This is my chapter http://www.bni-rendezvous.com
You’ll get to interact with people from industries and share ideas. It’s all good!
Vicki
Whoa! Nice ideas!
Which are the most effective though? And which apply better to certain industries? Because doing all of those won’t leave any time for doing any freelance work.
Wonderful article – so many avenues with which you can get your name out there. Exposure, exposure, exposure. Kinda like, location, location, location. Thanks!
I have found that Craiglist is the best source of Freelance work. I point my RSS reader to the section about computer gigs in my area and I have a never ending stream of jobs to go after. Sometimes you deal with cheapskates but that is everywhere isn’t it.
Great stuff!
Ryan Haden: I agree. Craig’s list computer gigs section is nice.
Not only an email newsletter, but a print newsletter. Even today, not all decision makers give out their email address or spend much time reading email. I know, SACRILEGE:) Still, it’s true.
A print newsletter will get you noticed. It’s not as difficult or expensive as you’d think. 5 reasons to have one are on my blog at http://www.rescuemarketing.com/blog/2007/05/17/5-reasons-why-your-business-needs-a-newsletter-part-1/
Also, write a column for local publications. The editors of your local newspaper, business journal etc are always looking for content. If yours is good, they’ll use it. Instant credibility – after all, if it was in the paper, it must have been true
There’s some awesome ideas in here – I appreciate your hard work putting this together for us “freelancers”.
This is my new favorite website! Keep up the good work!
Cheers
/cm
i am a software developer
Sites such as:
http://www.guru.com
https://www.it-globalized.com
http://www.rentacoder.com
would also be specific ideas for how to get more freelance work, but from what I could see this was also linked to in a related article.
I’m glad I found this site! Great advice.
Cool…
Yes… the point of view in this post is….
Always creative and do something new and different
Great article.Lots to learn from this article.
— GDzine Studio Kolkata, India
“Advertise in online directories”
There aren’t many good directories of freelance consultants, but a few that are worthwhile are http://www.FreelanceLocalTech.com (for most technical consulting, including web/app dev, tech writing, and graphic artists) and FreelanceDesigners (primarily graphics and creative folks).
I love your article…^^…I didn’t really realized before how varied the avenues that I can use to get more freelance work…Thanks Cyan…^^
Some good tips. FYI; I have recently picked up several “gigs” by posting a free ad on backpage.com. Thanks to the magic of copy and paste it took me less than an hour to post ads to several dozen cities.
Good and useful read!
I’m Bookmarking this and hoping the future in-depth articles on each topic/idea will be added to this page as links. (*hint hint*
Did you mention the use of places like MySpace and YouTube?
If so, I’m sorry if I missed it. I have already used some of the ideas suggested here. Excellent!
Atlast I found a spam free info source on freelance business ideas. Thanks for the great efforts.
Very good article pack with useful advise
great stuff, already bookmarked!
Nice ideas and great article
Very very good article I love reading it. wow cool
Great article, Ive learn a lot on this. Thanks for sharing.
Nice job putting all of this information together!
Super effort.
Remember the number one way to get work is through people referring you.
It’s usually a sure job. They key is how do you get it. Answer— doing great work
and time in the market.
Wow, that is certainly a great list of promotional ideas. I just wrote an article with 120 self promotional ideas for graphic designers and freelancers and I thought that your users might find it useful – http://allgraphicdesign.com/graphicsblog/2007/11/28/120-self-promotion-ideas-for-graphic-designers-freelancers-free-or-almost-free/
Thanks again for the great article.
Rachel
Excellent article, great collection
hey, the “Start a Newsletter” link in the body of the article (points to http://freelanceswitch.com/marketing/harnessing-mailouts-a-complete-how-to-guide-to-email-marketing-for-freelancers/ ) returns page not found….
Otherwise excellent advice there; great article!
Great article !
Done some of the above myself but i never knew there are so many other options
Thanks some great ideas here. Basically I’m just now learning how to network locally and you gave me some new ideas.
Great post…. I was just compiling a similar list for personal use and this would be very handy!
I enjoy writing insights from life – do take a look at my blog at:
http://www.letstalkinsights.blogspot.com
Perfect. We learn new things every day. We will definitely use some tips and tricks in our company.
http://www.syntacticsugar.com
Sarka (Czech republic)
Cyan,
I enjoyed reading your article and linked my readers to your site in my post today about freelance work. Keep up your good work.
Regards,
Randy Place
Awesome article and tips. I’m going to try some of these with my Administrative Services business.
Thanks.
http://www.RnTProadmin.com
Excellence! These are good comments.
I also suggest the website so that freelancer, software developer..can find ideas work.
http://www.getoffshorexperts.com
The 2 “Start a newsletter” links are dead.
Something to keep in mind when trying out any of these ideas is that repetition and a long-term perspective are key. For instance, an e-newsletter is a great marketing tool, but only if you keep it up and produce interesting content consistently for your readers. It may be many months before you see results from your efforts, which can be frustrating. My experience, so far, in running a small design shop, has been that you should pick a few marketing channels and then work them systematically and relentlessly. I wish I had the time to effectively execute ten percent of the marketing ideas on this list.
Network with other clients and freelancers – whizolve.com
I think it’s great word-of-mouth for a photographer to have a blog too.
I’ve tried many things on this list.
Now I’m gonna go with “Get t-shirts made with your URL” and “Write an eBook or Report for your target market and promote it online”, although I’m not much of a writter =)
Sites like Craigs List and oDesk.com help a lot to freelance begginers. Also GetAFreelancer.com, although I didn’t try this one.
Excellent list guys, great job.
Well, we all gotta start somewhere, here I am reading this great post and leaving a footprint by spreading the word of my freelance switch. Check out my website for graphics photos, magazine and blog, I”m sure someone will find interesting. Spread the word too if you like or subscribe to newsletter.
Thanks for the tips Chad and you got me as a rss feeder.
krossmedia.net
Good tips. Thank you.
bookmarked for sure. an excellent article about how to promote your business. i always forget to bring business cards with me. you gotta have them to pass them out.
thanks
Finally – a super comprehensive list. I have a couple friends just about ready to cut the corporate chord and they’re good, highly skilled professionals. They are just worried about keeping the business flowing so that they can keep feeding the family. I’ll share this post – it’s good.
This is a super helpful list – something I have been looking for since I recently started freelancing.
Word of mouth seems to be the best, and your list helps to consider some of the “not-so-obvious” ways in which you can generate more word of mouth.
Thank you for putting this together : )
I love this article. Thanks for all the great ideas! I actually have implemented a lot of these and so far, they have worked tremendously for my business! Thanks Freelance Switch…!
That is a great article indeed. Thanks!
Awesome article. Every freelancer needs to read it.
Great post and great ideas to follow!
Isaac
http://www.jasfy.com
sure you must get paid for your orignal state of the art words.. here you are thump up… thanks , Amirlay
Dostrum Harbidende İyiymiş Yaaa
Yes! Exactly the advice I was looking for; thank you for your consistently great content!
I’m going to forward this to every freelancer I know. Thanks!
If you live in a major metro area (San Francisco, LA, Seattle, NY, Chicago, etc.) check out The Creative Group. They area staffing company that finds project work for you and they work with Designers and Writers for everything from 1 day projects to 6 month contracts.
I’m only repeating what everyone has already said, but these are some terrific tips. Thanks for these!!
Thanx Cyan for the tips and inspiration! I need to read these every couple of months
to get the momentum [ foward ] again!
Mark Jaquette @
BAMmGRAPHICS.com &
illustrationISM.net !
Any advice for independent Film/HD production company? Awesome advice nonetheless, i can implement this to my business already.
This is an excellent list. Saving …
Hi this is krishna your ideas are great …… thank you very much
Passion for games and C and C++ are in my blood from childhood, I have pursued it all my life. Starting as a C and C++ graphics programmer with a goal to make games, I have over 4years of C and C++ game development experience as a free lancer. I have freelancer C and C++ game development efforts spread across platform like PC, with various clients across the Engineering colleges and student projects. I have worked on various games like sports, action-adventure,and card games. Though I started my carrier as a Freelancer programmer to develop mini games , I have successfully worked up in the roles of Game Programmer, I had worked with student projects in C and C++ and game projects like card games and sports.Hands on experience in Software development using C and C++ Technologies.Ability to understand requirements and transfer them into design and code effectively.Proven ability to work efficiently in independent and teamwork environments.Excellent interpersonal, analytical and leadership skills. And i can able to develop any kind of projects like java, .net,VC++,PHP,oracle,etc any platform i can able to develop projects.
Warm Regards
Krishna Maddikara
Great, great, really great article. I’ve included a link to it in my freelancing newsletter and you’ll be on my blog roll. Fanstastic stuff! Thank you.
It’s a great list, if only I had time to do all of them and still get any actual work done! Something that really stuck out for me was contributing a column to a local newspaper or publication, I’m definitely going to try this, maybe tie into some of the less jargon-heavy stuff I might write on my blog.
In my experience random flyering/cold-calling of local businesses doesn’t get you too far, but maybe that’s just a lack of persistence; I think being persistent with any promotional effort is very important. They might hear/see your name once and forget it, but people retain it in memory if it’s put in front of them on a regular basis, especially if you have strong branding. My 2 cents anyhoo.
Cheers!
One of the best pieces of the internet. I frequent this post regularly.
I have two ways to go at the moment, and I have been rather down recently.
I am highly skilled in IT, but have database skills, not web skills for freelance work.
As a result I have taken on writing work (which I hate) to get money.
I am re-training for the web stuff and I can now do some basics.
However, I was considering giving it all up and just going back permanent in the work I enjoy (IT work). Only problem is, the economy and the job situation probably won’t let me. I had even considered becoming unemployed and just training till the situation picks up so I can get another job.
So… I have decided to use your ideas and promote my freelance work up the hilt, and hopefully
get some basic web site work until I become more skilled.
THANKS FOR GIVING ME A LIFT ….
ANDY
This website is as good as I would expect good website to be
which is very good.
Keep on rocking!
great , Thanks for all the great ideas
Good article, but STRONGLY disagree with a statement in the illustration section about doing work for stock image sites. These sites are devaluing illustration and directing work away from the freelance illustrator. Freelance illustrators should avoid contributing to these sites for the sake of the future of their and everybody elses freelance careers.
Yes! Exactly the advice I was looking for; thank you for your consistently great content!
Yes! this is it i want from
I have signup as a freelancer with amazon.reply,how i can get data entry jobs frequently via member area.thank you!!!
Nice roundup list and thanks for all the tips you share in here
Great list! I really like the ’start a magazine’ bit. Any recommendations on how to start a group or pull folks together to contribute?!
I’ve tried craigslist, but didn’t have much luck.
Thanks, I needed thease.
Nice job! It is great to find a site that is informative and supportive for freelance designers.
Are you looking for cheap web hosting proveder? Just go with Shinewebs Technologies. They are offering one free domain name and 500MB web space at just $29 for one year.
Thanks for the great list. I need to keep this around to refer back to when I get stuck.
Great post! Since I consult almost exclusively for design agencies, not all of these really apply, but still some great ideas here!
Thanks!
i have to try every one of them, i had have some promblems with cold calling but yeah, sales sales
Great post, thanks!
Can’t wait to try these out!
Hey, this is a great little idea for a blog. As a struggling freelancer, it is very hard to find new work all the time while doing a great job for all your existing clients. It is a bitter enemy of mine. I have to spend most of my time trying to get clients when I should be focusing on search engine optimization. Thanks for the tips…I have a plan to use some of them.
Great tips and advice. I have spoken to many people, and we often overlook this simple input: speak at events – conferences, lectures, meet-ups. A Service Provider of-
http://morefreelance.com/
Great tips
Great list. I am on my way to becoming freelance full-time and some of these will help. Getting on the radio is the next step and isn’t as hard as it may sound.
Great Site I was searching the same thing from a long time. Really it gives me a lot of knowledge.
Thanks, will help me on my freelancing journey. =]
Nice work dude, your ideas worth a lot, hopefully a lot of readers will get success in getting more clients.
Great tips
. Thanks
wow what a great list, defo be bookmarking this site. thanks