101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads
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.
Note: A few times a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of FreelanceSwitch. This article by Cyan Ta’eed was first published May 3rd, 2007, yet is just as relevant and full of useful information today.
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 GrahicRiver 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 illustrations and send it around/get it publicized
- 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 GraphicRiver 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 publicized 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…
Leave a Comment
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
Great question and great answers!
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
I’ve heard many good things about BNI, however one thing has kept me from joining. I hear that the other group members are very aggressive about you promoting them.
I don’t mind promoting people, however as freelance copywriter, I’m very much a loner and have very little contact with the outside world.
Anyone have any experience with this issue, regarding BNI.
Would love for you to email me and give your suggestions.
I joined a local group like BNI. Seemed like the members preferred to be at a meeting instead of out selling. Then they spend hours telling you everything they do for you to become their salesman, which takes time away from you selling. Bad circle to get into.
And let’s not talk about product overlap between members. Who gets to offer what and for how long? The situations can get quite messy. Sometimes joining a group is more work than it is worth.
Great article. I wish you had the article in PDF format for easy download. Please offer them from now on for easy printing.
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!
what if you are using different laptop or pc , you will not get your bookmark.
try below online bookmark manager
http://webbookmark.in
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
great tips like it…
Great ideas … Must be applied
Yet another awesome article to bookmark! Thank you so much for sharing. I am definitely going to put some of these things into place.
yes its great but you know what should be limited it seems to do alot of for getting a freelance work ?
Perfectly composed. I will definitely going to try these ideas. posting is comment is also one of them
Hi this is a great article for people who need direction in the field. Its a great time to be freelancing. Here is an article on my blog that I wrote “Complete toolkit for Search Engine Optimization” Check it out and leave a comment.
Thanx again!
Great article! Great ideas! Can’t wait to try some of them out!
Print newsletter definitley better these days as more the people are reluctant to give their email address just due to spam problems.
Hi,
I own the website http://translationpayments.com/ where translators and other freelancers can comment on the payment practices and reputation of the outsourcers they have worked for. It is high on google for keywords relating to “payment reputation” and are supported by my pages on other domains (all of which are the only ones near the top of google for these keywords).
The database works in different categories than just translations and more can be added. The user can compare companies within categories or even regions. I am not aware of any online database as useful and robust as this one, and I intend to keep it a free service, so traffic should get high, as well as the PR.
I believe such an online database would be useful for your freelancers and I was wondering if you would be interested in a link exchange.
Thank you,
Karel Kosman
Definitely the best ‘how to get illustration work’ article, in that it has loads of interesting and varied ideas, not just submit your work with the masses to art directors (does this ever work!). I’ve found writing articles for blogs and websites works really well ( it did for my guitar tuition website ). When your emailing one on one to someone who doesn’t get 200 email enquiries a day, their quite likely to respond, and then you have some communication…so at least you don’t feel you’re in a sealed bubble with no change of getting anywhere.
peace
Chris
Great article and I gained so much knowledge that will help me! You see I am already using some of your ideas! Thank you!
Fantastic post. There are some seriously great ideas in here, the elevator pitch being one of the simplest, yet most forgotten!
In terms of freelancers listing their services they can also connect with like minded people at http://freelancerunplugged.com – Discussions, events and connections at the click of a button. Hope it helps.
That was a great blog post. I fully intend to harness some of these points as I am just starting out as a freelancer myself.
Thank you!!
Nicer Article and use full tips.
I’ve just discovered this website (and page…), I love it. The information I’ve come across so far is just what I needed for inspiration and direction, in starting my own freelance business. My current direction is graphic design, but I find I like to fidle with correcting and restoring photographs very much too. I’ve been asked to do compositions for several clients, and I like that too. My career expertise is in commercial printing, but I find everything to do with design is also (and still) revolving around printing in one sense or another. I’m excited!!! …and thank you for having a site like this one. I will definately come back, time and time again….
Flippy,
We definitely have some similarities but the having to put the left sock and shoe on before the right one really stuck out. I had no idea anyone else HAD to do that. basil
nice i like this site. i will keep reading new post and comments. i had a new website all about
driving traffic for your site for free im doin seo i will apply all i learned here
Its funny – i wish i would have read this post before i had to buy a book and spend 2 weeks reading what i just read at your post. thanks!
Hi my name is Josy Johnson I’m a Event Planner and I really enjoyed reading your article. It is very informative and you’re a great writer. Thank you so much.
Great Post, very useful information and lots of great ideas to explore. Good Stuff
Thanks! Love the ideas, a lot of out of the box thinking!
Thank you for putting together this long list of useful tips. Asking satisfied clients for referrals – how sensible, yet I always forget to do that. The tip about cross promoting is also good. I will bookmark this page.
Great! Thanks for the info! I will use this information to the best of my abilities!
good post
very informative & detailed post, I really liked it as one of the important and nicely written article – I am very very positive about these points and would try my best to use most of them as much as possible – thanks!
This is an amazing article. It is informative and educating.
This is a fantastic list of lead generation techniques! I’ve started implementing some of these after only a couple of days, and plan more for the future. Some things on here I’d never considered. Thanks.
Nice Article. I fully intend to harness some of these points.
Great stuff, man!
Just what I was looking for.
I’ll hopefully get some great publicity from the local paper. I’m looking to start small (local pubs) and go bigger!
That was a great blog post. I fully intend to harness some of these points as I am just starting out as a freelancer myself.
Thanks this is really useful – gave me inspiraiton to find new clients!
Great stuff! Thank you! I just added my business to yellow & white pages after reading this
Thanks again!
Great reminder of things to do!!!
Great information, I like the way you have set it out so clearly and made it easy to follow. I got some good tips from your information.
Really good tips.
gr8 motivation
Very great motiovation. many thanks Nino
Thanks alot. I really need to get some clients.
Thanks a lot for such informations, really helpful. Good work!!
This was a great website. many good tips here. Anybody with a business website or business needs to review and implement these ideas. Doing so will basically guarantee you an increase in business.
Great article, Ive learn a lot on this. Thanks for sharing..
And if anyone of the above tecniques work? What shall we do?
Great description on how to generate new clients lead… Very helpful. Thanks so much!
wow! all in one list
, I am expanding my skills with a blog, will surely try other ways , thanks for the post
great post and some really excellent tips
Great article! Great ideas!
Very nice list – Did you add make a site with a list on it with ads to make money? lol
I just stumbled upon this article and bookmarked it, then immediately shared it with several friends, it’s fantastic! Thanks for all the great ideas.
Jonathan
Great Fish Media
Thank you for the helpful advice – I need to do more advertising off the web – I’ll start on some of these ideas asap – Thank You
I sell my graphic work , business cards, vectors and graphics at graphic river : http://tinyurl.com/4byerx7 / It makes me some good money monthly.
http://www.adobeStyes.com
Wow many great ideas here!
Looking forward to implementing some of them
Great Article. I will start using some of these ideas.
If you’re a photographer, you can also list yourself for free at http://www.fotodeck.com
RE: Talk The Talk
Getting in front of a group of people in your own niche is definitely a very powerful way to build a strong relationship with potential new clients.
There is a lot of time involved in organizing your own seminar, but if you contact people who are already doing presentations to your target audience, you can often arrange to speak during a segment of their presentation. The key is to be able to provide good value to their audience. (For example, a video producer might talk about how to use YouTube to drive more leads back to your website – and then make a special offer at the end of the presentation just for the audience to do it for them)
One of the most leveraged ways of getting in front of big numbers of potential clients and keeping their attention is to run a webinar, or online seminar. There are lots of hosts – GoToWebinar, Webex, Adobe Connect Pro – and most provide a free trial period so you can get your first webinar up and running to test run before making a payment.
Again, the key is to provide value to the audience before you try and sell them anything, and build the relationship (as well as positioning yourself as an authority)
Nice list, I especially like the creative ideas for each profession that gives unique ways to market each service.
Hi iam very happy these ideas and i’ll read these and more other to get a job
thanks by Hussein kheire(somalia)
I like the cold call thing. You pressure your clients? It is so mean and yet they would surely get your attention by constant bugging.
Hi,
In reference to cold calls…with freelancers looking for work, it should be called cold survey.
You should never call and bug anyone for freelance work. That puts you in the same position as the poor guy calling people at dinnertime looking to sell newspaper subscriptions, etc.
Any freelancers whether they are copywriters, graphic designers or so on, should come up with a list of companies they want to work with. Then call and find out politely who might be in charge of hiring freelancers. When you get that person on the line, you are simply asking a question.
“Hi, I am wondering if you ever hire freelance copywriters?” Then wait for the response. Most times it will be no and you thank them and move on. If it’s yes, sometimes or God forbid, yes we need you now, then go from there.
You can do the same thing with emails, I have pretty good success, just contacting the info@suchandsuchcompany.com and getting them to forward my email to the marketing director or replying and giving me a name.
Look if you want, you can email and if you don’t get a reply, then call and tell the marketing director, you attempted contact by email and since there was no response, perhaps a phone call was a better idea.
Again, never pester any biz, your a pro with a service they need at some point in time. Finally, if you get any sort of positive response, follow up with a nice post card thanking them, you’d be surprised how many people pin up the card on the their bulletin board.
Now if you think maybe I’m full of baloney, here is a recent email i just got back using the techinque I mentioned. Its from the marketing director of a Fortune 500 company.
“Hi James, Yes we use freelancers. Can you send your CV and a few samples, so I can print them out and pass them around the office to my team.”
In spite of several serious attempts, I’ve never been able to land in a job from the freelance work. I’ve found your tips very helpful and full of information for any freelancer. The ideas are really extra ordinary. keep posting.
When you speak of ‘Freelance’ work, I’m assuming you’re speaking graphic design in some form. If you enjoy this type of work, and I’m sure you do, then go ahead and practice you craft. Design some of the things you’ve been wanting to create (or see if you can’), keeping in mind the type of clients you want to service. Once you come up with something you like (even though it may not be for someone (company/client), you’ll have something completed at least enough for presentation. Go to that potential client(s) and present the idea for a product they may be using or looking to use.
What this presents for you is this:
1. You’ve broken this ice so now you’re in a position to talk or present other projects.
2. You can get into the potential clients head about other things they might want or have been intending to get busy with.
3. Even if that particular client doesn’t want that type of work done, there may be other projects and you also have to option to re-work ths project and present to a different client.
4. You’re increasing your work project portfolio.
5. You’re still the winner: you’ve broken the ice, you’ve created a project you CAN use!, You have a work that can be reformated into something else (new) for some other client.
6. Winning’. there is just no way you won’t get some positive satisfaction from an experience like that! Give that a try.
This is a fine conception for the starters. Can you please give some more suggestions for getting freelance web graphic designer jobs
I have a niece that graduated two years ago with a journalism degree. What she did was make a number of short film strips, for effect and testing, to improve her skills with what she had learned. Although she didn’t have a particular client, she did save an impliment some of the techniques she learn. This led to her establishing two (2) new customers for local fashion shows and one television commercial. She didn’t make a lot of money, but she certainly got local and regional exposure. She has since moved to California and is working from an established studio there.
I would suggest the very same as I’d posted earlier. If for no other reason (you may not have a (client/customer) in mind, you would yet have have expanded you very own portfollio. As it grows, so does your expertise and usability of your software skills. I see that as a win-win situation. You just keep getting better and “better; your library grows; your presentation portfollio grows and expands, additionally, you always have work in progress that you can improve upon, add to and manipulate into other projects. I ask you, ‘How can you lose? I think, you’ll find more enjoyment and satisfaction there, rather than stressing over acquiring new and demanding customers; they’ll find you’
Concerning your question (‘…how/what;…, for websites’?
I have a question for you; what do you think would happen if you posted (on your website) that new customers would get the benefit of two free static pages of design work (or whatever you thought would be reasonably feasible and simple enough not to take too much of your (paid) time? Something, not too complex, but pleasing; especially to the ‘new’ client(s)? Of course, it would be up to you to determine how much static design (or whatever///?).
Definitely needed this. Thanks for the info! Freelance Works!
Great article, just what I was looking for, thank you.
Excellent post. I’ll definitely try some of the tips and suggestions you mention. Thank you for taking the time to write and post this article.
In the absence of just information, one would find the road to success very rough and bumpy as a freelancer. In the other words, a well informed guy could fish even in the troubled waters of internet. Any one who is serious about making himself a successful hunter, would find the post very helpful.
Excellent post on Freelancing work. I love your article as we can get lot of benefits from it . Thanks for sharing this post.
Thank you for the insight. I’m a relatively new Graphic Designer, at least new at moving forward with it full-time, and can use all of the pointers I can get. Looking forward to the follow-up articles.
This is a great and good site to share of information freelance work and generate new client leads. I appreciate to this site and i like very much. Good work..
Great tips for a former full-timer new to the freelance world.
do you have any ideas for start-up companies and marketing techniques for cheap?
This is an awesome article. very helpful. currently went full time with my business that i’ve had for seven years (only as a hobby) now im all in. great tips.
thanks
Love this list, so helpful. Thank you, thank you!
We really appreciate ur effort. Keep up the good work. . . .I have the luxury of time to consider using the benefits these site can offer…..
It is also a helpful website for Bangladeshi freelancer.
Innovative and creative ideas do play a crucial role in helping you nest a freelance work. I’ve found the site a very excellent source of information in this regard. Thanks a lot for sharing the information.
There is a new place called SideSkills.com that allows people to turn their existing network of friends, colleagues, and connections into leads. It uses a method that really helps people trying to start their own business. Since you’ve probably already done the work and have over 500 personal connections, take some time and create a really nice looking account on SideSkills. Update your portfolio, get connected, and be specific about your experience. I know a girl who made $2,150 the first 3 days she signed up.
Thanks for the post. I am going to check out SideSkills.com.
Nice ideas. I`ll do my very best…
Well thank you very much sir , i must admit i was a lil bit lost since i’m a freshman in the field of photography ..now that i have the tools i have no excuses but to succeed
Awesome ! Now i have answers to all my “freelance beginner” questions !
Great article! I hope to use some of the tips outlined to capture business in the local market for my company.
This list is awesome. I highly recommend it. Gotta get it!
I will be coming back to this bookmark quite often. Maybe I should even print this out. I’m thinkin…..YESSSSS!! ^_^
Yes printing this out is a good idea Heather
I will be doing the same.
Thanks for the ideas.
love it,… great article, thanks for share
Great tips. AdWords, client referrals, and cold calling work the best for us
I’ve just finished reading the comment left by the person who recently joined the BNI group(?), and other’s that have left comment on this page, concerning copying pages; although most of, if not all, of the comments are not provided for in pdf format, we’re still able to copy pages and even section of this dialogue. Each tool bar has a print page button on its list of elements, just push it and it takes you to your print dialogue menu. Additionally, the is the ‘Print Screen, located in the top most row of keys on your keyboard. When all else fails (if it does), and what I usually do anyway, just in case I find something I’d like to keep and make references to at a later time; is to open up MS Works and copy and paste the information I want to keep. I’ve amassed quite a bit of information over the years and can access at any time. I’ve needed to creat a data base to help locate specific info. but thats a topic for another day…. try it and see how it works for you.
Great tips. Freelancing is really going to become important over the next few years. Excellent.
I agree, freelancing is going to be a very important venue for many people, particularly in these economic times. Many have lost job security, of any kind. I always belleved in having some type of skill you can do with your hands, while still using you mind (from my granddad). Having any skill, especially if you love doing what it is that you do’, can be a saving grace’. So anytime you feel like venturing into a freelance position, just do it, like me, you might surprise yourself’
Great list, if only we had enough time to do all of the things!
Really awesome list & stacks of ideas when things slow down, thanks doods bookmarked!
Especially cool for a job board to list other job boards: )
This is an A class research board
i have tried and tested to generate sales and business
This is one to print…….
Wow do you have a ton of info here – Thank you – I’m going to scroll back up and reread and attack some of these things
WOW – Bookmarked! A really awesome list that every freelancer should check out!
its really really awesome to get everything summed up at one place
Wow.Its awesome big list.Thanks for sharing.
Very nice article and awesome tips.
If you keep with the list, it can lead you only to success.
This should be the first thing we should see when we wake up
THE ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED ON 09/09/2011 As on 09/11/11, I CAN SEE COMMENTS POSTED FROM JANUARY, FEB, JUNE, JULY.
SOMETHING WRONG ?
Awesome article and tips. I’m going to try some of these with my Administrative Services business.
Thanks.
Great list. I’ve got a lot of work to do!
very informative and thorough ways to generate new leads for us! that is a pretty massive lead generation list… must close browser window now.
Hi Cyan,
Wow, wonderful ideas you got here. Makes me more excited to get mine (my lead generation program) get done. Thanks for putting together this long list of very engaging and powerful tips. Good job!
Hoping to get more helpful ideas from you,
Nadine
Have just started with freelancing projects………but projects were hardly sm……..was wondering as how to make clients and good clientele list.thanks.i exactly got what i wanted…….very nice and clean and easy to understand article
Hi,
Can some tell me that i am doing a freelance for a consultancy . doing a tie up with a co. But i dont have any idea of how much should a take a amount from a consultancy for a co. tie up . Please help me out
I am a tennis coach looking to get more lessons and I believe this advice should be for all business trying to get leads. Thank you for sharing!
I will follow these tricks let’s see guys…
Take the “logo on your t-shirt” idea one step further and have golf shirts embroidered with your logo. You won’t believe the recognition and conversations about your company this gets.
Please give me some idea for freelance online jobs .like how to join and how to get project and payment etc some basic knowledge … thanks.
This is a fantastic site!! People can learn a lot about freelancing………..Thanks
i like “Word of Mouth is The Go” . in my national language we have a senetnce which expresses the same
Most of these are considered “common sense” by a lot of freelancers but are still completely overlooked! I kind of said “well duh…” to myself and then realized some of the most obvious ideas were ones I wasn’t doing.
Thanks for the list. Definitely a few novel ideas in there as well.
Being a freelancer is very different from being employed. There are more risks, but there are also a great many advantages. You are a freelancer if you work for somebody else for a fixed period under a fixed contract to help them complete a project. You will effectively be selling your skills and time, and will usually be paid by the hour – although contracts with a fixed price to complete a fixed project are also possible depending on your field of expertise.
I definitely agree that it’s harder to get work, especially consistently, as a freelancer, and it’s very important to leverage as many tools as possible to get your work out there and seen by people who might be potential clients.
The thing that is fatiguing about all these profile sites like LinkedIn, Dribbble, Behance, etc, is that it’s “yet another site” where you have to set up and fill out profile information.
One thing I’m trying to work on is a way to incorporate very personalized video that can be embedded onto freelancers’ personal websites, shared on Facebook / Twitter, e-mailed to friends and potential clients, etc – a way to promote a freelancer’s portfolio and personal brand.
Being a freelancer is not difficult from being employed. You can take your freelance project during your holidays and earn more money. But there should be an expertise level knowledge in that project.
Compliments! I wish I had such a list when I started out with my company, would have been very useful.
I Must agree with an early comment, I think This may be the best article on the subject I have ever Read.
Very little if anything in my Humble, is Under or Overstated… Brilliant!
Great Ideas! I will start implementing at least 30% of this list. We are leaving in hard times, any ideas are welcome. I do Website design, computer repair, SEO and almost about everything, just trying to survive.
Thanks
Best.Blog.Post.Ever.
I come back to this post weekly to browse for new ideas for any freelance projects. I place a hat on my head and tip it to you Sir!
Many Many Thanks.
Some great ideas here. I know it’s an old post, but it’s a mine of great information nonetheless! I’m about to start sending some promotional postcards out. Fingers crossed!
Well these are the golden rules but most importantly you have to follow-up all things then it will work as how you want to work
These are awesome tips!! i started freelancing again and found many clients in http://www.peopleperhour.com!! Waiting to see the euros coming!!!
the best place to start looking for clients is in your own neighborhood. Start first with your family. Do you have any uncles, aunts, nephews, cousins twice removed that are running a business that needs leads? Do THEY know of anyone that has a business that needs leads? A perfect opener is: “My cousin, Joe, said you might be interested in leads for your business!”
Just like everyone else, I found this post to be extremely useful! I took the post and created a simple checklist for all of the ideas. You can download the pdf here: http://cl.ly/3a0j2V161J3q3M1Q1J2q
Thanks for the post!
Thanks for taking the time to create that checklist Brent, will come in handy!
Very useful tips. Its competitive out their especially when you go to university and live right next to London where you have to go up against the dramatic increase in applicants per job because of how packed the city is of people.
Always good to come back and have a look at these great lists, regardless of experience level.
Thanks
Hi,
This is a fantastic site!! People can learn a lot about freelancing………..Thanks
really nice job ,I come back to this post weekly to browse for new ideas for any freelance projects. I place a hat on my head and tip it to you Sir!
These are all great points. In the end you have to work hard to get new clients. They will not just come to you. If you want to make it big you really need to push for it.
At PSD Center we use multiple ways to generate leads an follow up on our clients. It might cost more money to get the client at the beginning but if he uses us a second time the profits go big.
Keep working on it and good things will come.
Great Tips! Publishing tutorials and advices on one’s blog is the best way. Be an industry expert.
Thanks, great article. I’ll make sure to print it and use some of your techniques, which are indeed obvious but it’s useful to have a reminder on hand. Happy freelancing everyone!
Thabks for sharing this! I learned a lot and gained so much insight from this! Hope to be able to use a lot of this in the near future now
Awesome brother. As a freelancer I always want to learn something new,
your article is very helpful to me. The tips you share with us is wonderful,
thanks for sharing, have a nice day.
http://www.freelancercare.com-
its extremely nice ides..it really helped me out when i was sitting with empty mind..my whole hearted thanks to this site……
Great list – would this make me quit my job though?
This is awesome! I learn a lot of things and it gives me idea to get more client.
This is really useful as I just quit my job to do freelance website design and development in London, and my only worry is generating new leads. The first ideas about getting people to spread the word is so true! I have just launched a new website I am quite proud of, it is very personalized, and you can download free psds! Click on my name to check it out.
Hello,
I would like to start a freelancing site, now i need some suggestion about: How can i get more Buyers on my site and what would be more effective ways to attract them to my site.
Great ideas!! I guess I’m gonna save it and use from time to time. Thank you!
thank you for your great post
Hi my friend. I found a good way to make money. yes if you have some skills in programming or designing or any other digital skills you can make money as a online freelancer.
Thanks . This can be a blue print for my work plan. Great ideas. Thanks a lot
Great post with some very useful tips. I love the idea of Postcards sent to clients.
Yes,I like the cold call thing. You pressure your clients? It is so mean and yet they would surely get your attention by constant bugging.
As a freelance graphic designer, I’m always looking for ways to get new leads for clients. Thanks for the tips.
How do we get clients for web hosting
These were great ideas for continuing to get your name out. We’ve been in business for 4 or 5 years and stay busy but it’s always good to get some more ideas and think of ways to grow your business even more. Thanks for the article… you’re the man!
I have personally used lots of these tips and can say that most, if not all, were a complete success!
Help me giving me ideas for work as i want to work and enjoy lifeand look after my future
Great stuff. Everything is already listed
I just want to say to new freelancers that they must not lose hope. Its really very hard to get your 1st client through job boards. You know everyone start with 0 and every establish freelancer has gone through this phase. Never lose hope and keep on trying. When i started my career in php freelancing, i use to ask my prospective clients (who didn’t selected me on their project) what are the flaws in my bid/messages. Sometime they respond me sometime they ignore the message. You can also ask your client to give you reviews on forums and review sites.
I’ve had great success with a service called Lead Ticker. Essentially it aggregates the Gig sections of multiple classified sites- Of which are chock-full of service requests for my areas of expertise: SEO and web/graphic design. Their address is http://www.leadticker.com
Might I just say that after finding 101 Ideas to Get More Freelance
Work and Generate New Client Leads on SilverStripe, what a relief to uncover somebody who really knows what they’re talking about on the web. You truly realize how to bring a problem to light and make it significant. A lot more people have got to have a look at this and see this perspective. I can’t believe you’re not more well-known, because you most certainly possess the gift.