Getting Freelance Work: The Hacker Technique
If you’ve tried cold-calling to get clients, you know it’s the most painful, soul-sucking way to advertise yourself. But it doesn’t have to be.
How a Freelancer Sold Me in 5 Minutes
I once hired a freelancer based on a cold-call, but this was unlike any cold-call I’d ever gotten. You might be able to use a similar technique to make those calls far more effective.
Here’s how the phone call went:
Caller: Hi, my name is George and I just found a security hole in your server. To prove it, I just sent an email to you… impersonating you.
Me: Uhh… wha? Who are you again?
Caller: It’s OK, I’m a good guy. I’ll wait while you check your mail.
Me: Ok… Alright I got the email. Wow, that’s not good.
Caller: Yeah, don’t worry, I can fix it — I’m a security expert. Lucky for you I’m on your side; a hacker would have just p0n3d your server. You’d be a spam gateway by now, probably blacklisted too.
Me: Yikes, OK. Well I guess I should say “thanks” but this feels a little like blackmail.
Caller: Oh no, I’ll fix this one for free. In fact, I’ve just emailed you a link to an article on my own blog where I talk about how to fix it. No worries.
Me: OK, that’s cool.. I guess. Thanks?
Caller: Of course, I am a freelance consultant. I’m sure you have more security holes. I could find and fix them for you. Maybe start with 10 hours and take it from there?
Me: Sounds like I have no choice… OK.
Sale complete!
How to Apply This to Other Kinds of Freelance Work
That’s fine for ex-hackers, but what about you? Does this apply to, say, copywriting?
Yes! It applies to all kinds of freelance work.
Let’s take the example of a freelance marketing/messaging strategist.
First troll around websites of local companies looking for companies that clearly stink at messaging. (You know that won’t be hard.)
Find a website that’s full of crap like “The leading provider of…” and “Our software enables you to get back to working on what’s important” and other trash phrases that companies shouldn’t be using. Bleach! You can do so much better.
So do it! Rewrite it. Maybe even scrape their HTML/CSS/images and edit it in-place so it’s punchy, powerful, compelling, and communicates exactly how the product solves pain.
Then proactively send it over. The outline of your pitch is:
“This is what I’m capable of after just one hour of work and knowing nothing about your business. Imagine how I could transform your marketing material with 50 hours and an in-depth understanding of your customers, your software, and how you make money.”
More Ways to Apply This Strategy
- I do a little small-business consulting work myself, and this is exactly how I get work. I just provide 15-20 quick pieces of advice I brainstorm just by perusing their website and say “If this sounds useful to you, I can do more.”
- Web designers: Refresh their colors, layout, and art without changing their text. Pick their home page, a subordinate page, a brochure, an advertisement, a data sheet, or even something simple like “About Us.” Provide two different samples so they see the possibilities. This is a lot of work, so create two or three standard templates you use for all your cold-calls, possibly based on existing portfolio work.
- Marketers: Come up with three, better one-line titles and subtitles for their home page. Revise their “features and bullets” so it’s more pain-centric. Move them from features to benefits or vice versa. Change their language to be more or less formal.
- Copyeditors: Rewrite a web page or a blog post. Rewrite a single page from a whitepaper or case study.
- Web Traffic Analysts: Create a sample report for their AdWords or SEO information and send it in. Show how they rank for various keywords and where you think you could get them. Show where their competitors rank so they see what they need to beat.
- Social Media Experts: Propose 10 subjects of blog posts they ought to write. Propose 10 topics for guest posts they should push on other blogs. Propose a one-page Twitter strategy (from a template of your own, not yet tailored to that company).
- PR: Propose 10 types of press releases you could send or types of articles you could write for them. Propose a one-page PR strategy (from a template) explaining how getting a few articles published in a few places makes all the difference. Tell them a story about a client of yours who got one article published and make 20 sales.
- Web Programmers: Give them a list of 10 things you could do to make their site more interactive like live chat, scrolling news boxes, better analytics, and A/B testing of web content and landing pages.
The Downside
There are several downsides to this strategy:
- This takes real time and real work, and you have to spend that time before this potential client even knows who you are, much less signs a contract.
- They might not have the money for a consultant.
- They might take offense at your unsolicited advice.
But really, the people you’ll piss off would never be your customer anyway, so that really doesn’t matter. The main thing is your time.
So if you’re already covered up with work, there’s no need to use this time-intensive technique, but then why are you reading an article about cold-calling? :-)
Especially if you’re just starting out and have a lot of bench time, this technique is certainly worthwhile.
Because one thing’s for sure: I hired that hacker.
Leave a Comment
As a computer security engineer, I sincerely hope that the dialogue and scenario you use to illustrate your point are fake, because “impersonating” you in an email is not a vulnerability in your system at all and could still be done with little to no knowledge. It’s an inherent vulnerability in how email works. There is little to no actual verification of a person’s FROM email address when they send an email. Consequently, I could send an email that looks like it came from the President of the United States by only changing one setting in my mail client.
Can this technically be prevented from reaching your network? Yes. But to say it’s a vulnerability that can be fixed is not really true.
The point is, if this is actually the problem and the conversation you had, then, I hate to say it, you were duped and you hired someone who is, at the very least, ethically-challenged and is not someone I would want on my staff under any circumstances. If you’re that concerned about these vulnerabilities, hire a third-party whose credentials are solid and who didn’t try to scare you into hiring him. Please don’t reward this type of behavior.
On top of that, as someone who has received inquiries like this from “hackers” and script kiddies as part of my job, I can assure you that this is highly unethical and is, in fact, blackmail. This technique implies that, if you don’t hire me I may continue to exploit your systems or inform others how to exploit your systems, thus costing you time, money, and peace of mind.
I get your point in that you should give potential clients a sample of your work for free but, surely, there are better examples than someone exhibiting borderline illegal, and most definitely unethical, behavior.
This is a very cool technique! I’m just starting myself so I might look into this at home later today haha!
You’ve been fooled
To send an email impersonating anyone is easy, a few lines of code, and require no security hole on your servers… so it’s the “lying” method you’re describing.
man, i’ve been contemplating doing this sort of thing anyway. this is just the affirmation i needed for that planned course of action. yes, it’s time consumming. but really, 1 hours work to land a client that books you for 10/20/50 hours work? just seems like good sense to me.
dammit! always forget the check box. this comment serves purely as a means to check the followup comments check box.
I’m sorry, this is a terrible idea.
Actually, not quite true… the ideas you provided for other ways to be proactive are great, but as for the original “hacker” technique? No.
“Don’t worry, I’m one of the good guys,” doesn’t really cut it. You don’t need o worry about the potential clients who will be offended, you need to worry about the potenial clients that will PRESS CHARGES.
It doesn’t matter if your actions are technically not illegal. Laws can be tested quite easily to get you huge fines or put behind bars, because, let’s be honest, your potential client can afford a better lawyer than you can. Even if you don’t end up in jail, the legal fees could be crippling.
My husband is a security expert. He does the kind of “hacking” you talk about, called penetration testing, for a living. Many of the things he does would be illegal if done with out permission.
You said that you worked with the freelancer who cold called you, but this best outcome was not the most likely. By all means, be proactive, but do not be so irresponsible as to encourage your readers to do things that could land them in jail. Freelancers have enough problems.
Hi Meagan,
I don’t think any of my suggestions in the bullet list are illegal.
Yes, full-blown penetration testing is too much, especially if you’re testing something like a DoS attack where, if you’re successful, you could actually bring down a computer.
But identifying something like an open email relay can be done without any harm.
It’s true I used the word “hacker,” but that was for effect of course….
I think this is good advice in the freelance world. I’ve always wanted to try that but sometimes I worry about coming off by saying “Hey I made your site better, so hire me.” It would be better to somehow show a way how you not only make good sites (or good copy) but how you are a great customer support as well. I think that is the big selling point these days because so many have poor customer support. I think you could apply this though in some ways to gain some business.
However, your example kind of worries me, if he can hack or was an ex-hacker…how do you know he didn’t just hack your server, set it up that way then give you the “hey i’ll make it free once” deal to gain your business? That would worry me in that situation
Luckily it seemed to work out good for you!
This is pretty disturbing. Basically you’re talking about speculative work, which seems to be becoming more and more popular. Wouldn’t my time be better spent working for free? Perhaps volunteering my time to design/write/code/whatever for a local non-profit is a better use of time. That way I get to produce something that is portfolio-enhancing and it also may give me more exposure if I get credit for the work?
Very interesting approach… taking your knowledge/expertise directly to the customer, giving them something for free, and seeing if they are interested in hiring you for more… thanks for the thought!
Good advice about creating some templates. Only downside is that it could also be a huge waste of time. Most the small businesses don’t have money for a freelancer.
Also, it’s pwned not p0n3d.
Yes it could be a waste of time, hence the repeated point that most of it should be pre-canned when you go into it. Also you’ll want to be choosy about which companies you target.
Yes “pwned” is also a spelling, but just follow the link on that word in the text and you’ll see the other spelling is used too, especially by l33t h4x0r5.
Hm, I’m conflicted about your example. I would probably hire that hacker, too. But, I’d still be pretty miffed. But, at the same time he would have just saved me from having an unsecured site. Ahh!
Anyway, great article & old-school advice. Was given the same sort of advice before I graduated. It works.
I’m a big believer in cold calling. Matter of fact, I’ve found my most lucrative web design clients that way.
But I don’t spend time creating templates or mockups for prospects. I only do that for clients. After the contract is signed and money has changed hands.
When I cold call, I also like to send an e-mail showing a link to a recent project. For which I was paid.
I’d sure like to hear about how you specifically get clients to hire you when cold calling without putting in the time/effort of creating templates and stuff. What’s your secret?
Great article, I especially like all the reference you have made they all link to really good reads! and then they link to really good reads!
In regards to the hacker technique, I myself have tried this exact same thing, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. Now I tend to just send off an email explaining the security hole and inform them about the fix and other possible work that could be made. I will forward this article onto a fellow freelancer who is a copyrighter, great work.
I use a very similar approach, except I usually call first and say, “Hey, I write email newsletters for businesses like yours. Mind if I send you a sample?” No one has said no to that….yet. Then I use their website to put together a newsletter for them. It works pretty well, but is work intensive.
Spoofing emails is actually quite easy to do if you have your own SMTP server (which any Linux distribution has). It can be done without having to penetrate a private network at all. It is very possible that he found no security hole in your server at all, and simply sent a spoofed email from outside your network.
I think it is a bad idea to hire anyone who attempt to earn your business by claiming to have hacked your system. Such individuals may simply be technological magicians, performing modern-day magic tricks from a terminal instead of on-stage. They simply create the illusion that they have hacked your system when in fact they have not.
I do agree that performing a kind act and providing a free service as a demonstration of your capabilities is a good way to earn new business. Pretending to have hacked someone’s server and telling them you actually hacked it is not a kind act.
I like this idea for the most part. I’ve thought about doing this for churches that I solicit my services to, but right now I’m too busy with project that I don’t need to do this. But I’m sure there will be a slow cycle sooner and later, and I’ll probably try this out enough to see how it works for me. Thanks for the article.
Illegal or not I feel like the tactic is unethical. I would be pretty upset if someone did that to my company (even though I own/operate a Web development company).
I think a much better approach would be to email the potential client with the security flaw directly, informing them you came across this flaw and link them to a blog article on your site talking about the fix. Then sell them in that email with the fact that you do this type of work for a living and if they would like assistance with the fix then to contact you.
But to prove the exploit so forcefully to even bring up the idea of blackmail, I think is the wrong way to handle it.
Really enjoyed this article and the use of the word “yikes.” I agree that maybe the hacking thing is on shaky ethical footing – but I do think your idea of “look how I can make it better” is a great idea. I have had someone pitch me that way before, though, and was unimpressed since I could tell it was canned (they had actually written a script that pulled my URL and re-arranged it in real time when I clicked through). I really dug the A Smart Bear articles you linked, too (subscribed, in fact) and I think there is definitely some low hanging fruit out there if approached correctly.
That being said, as a freelance copywriter seeking work, I’ve had many situations where I’ve shown a potential client what I can do only to have them say “no thanks” and then, lo and behold, some very familiar looking copy ends up on their website… But that’s life.
I second the comment that this could be considered speculative work, and therefore is also likely to offend those who support the position of the No-Spec campaign (http://www.no-spec.com/)
However, I think you can defend your position. What I think some folks are reacting to is that not so much about whether or not this is a legitimate way to pursue certain prospects, but rather that it has long been considered one of the less respectable ways to do so. So considering such tactics should be weighed very carefully in terms of how it might effect the long term perception of your reputation.
All in all, you should take it as a good sign that you have some pretty established freelancers commenting on your blog – since they may be past the point of having to adopt this line of aggressive business development.
Kudos to Rick Kippert for sharing the idea about doing no-profit work, I was thinking the same thing. Non-profits can be well connected to possible paid client leads.
I wouldn’t be too worried about offending the No-Spec crowd — it’s a personal decision at the end of the day. And the thing is that while spec is almost always bad, there are instances where it will get you ahead. Those who see the world in black and white with no shades of grey are generally not the brightest.
I also don’t like the idea of blackballing a potential client…it is unethical. I know plenty of clients who would have either gotten freaked out and hung up on me if I tried that (and they never knew me) or would try to sue me. It’s also a partially a$$hole way of gaining business and rude. I think it would be better to check if they had security holes, and if they did, send them a nice email letting them know, versus actually hacking in (or telling them you hacked in)
I think you might shoot yourself in the foot if you say something only took one hour worth of work. For 40 hours they would be expecting a new website designed and programmed, a brochure, logo the list goes on.
I never like to give out work for free. It’s one thing if you’re young or just getting into the field and you want someone to give you a chance to build your experience but it’s another when you are a seasoned pro.
A noble effort in the article though.
Telemarketing works really well if done properly. I use it and its working well for me. Iv made up a brochure and some examples I email over to people.
Dont do speculative work it just wastes your time your better off makeing the calls I know there not fun and we would all prefer to be designing but think of it this way if you have worked up 20 speculative designs and all off them say no then you have spent a min of 20 hours work for nothing if you make 20 calls and all 20 say no then you have spent a min of 1 hour i no wih i would prefer to wast.
Also the hacking example i see the idea behind it but if some one phoned me and said that i would get there details and ring the police that in my opinion is a direct threat that is sugar coated.
Hmm not too sure what my thoughts are about this one.
Lets see.. He pressured you, used your emotions against you or confused you with technical terms. Sounds like something a used car salesman would pull.
It’s an interesting idea for sure, though I’m not sure if it is applicable to all fields. I’m in the time management coaching business myself, I can’t really imagine how I could tell if someone needed that service just by looking at their website.
Any suggestions, Jason?
Still looks like a “soul and also time-sucking way to advertise yourself” to me =/
I really like this article. It is very creative, but I worry that it will not work for everyone.
Say for example a personal assistant, or an online instructor.
If you have any ideas please help me out.
Thanks
Aisha
Interesting article.. I also applied a similar thing when I started out. But instead of contacting clients I made then contact me by putting a message that I would love to code their first PSD for free. This way obviously I didn’t start getting tons of offers at once but slowly people did message me asking about this service and I totally obliged to them. After they were impressed with my work, they would always come back to me only.. So it was kind of like gaining the trust by providing free services..
No spec work.
That is certainly a risky stratagy. I can see why with some companies this approach would work, but I can see it being one that would be quite hard to apply to a lot of other industries.
One of the main problems is that with something like grahic design or copy writing once the work is done, it is done. It cannot be resused elsewhere if the unsolicited pitch fails. You don’t have an NDA so a savy potential client can steal your ideas without fear of much legal comeback – and the downside mentioned – that this requires real unapid work – is quite a major one.
I think an approach inbetween this and a standard pitch would be more appropriate. Get in touch with the potential client and ask them if they would like their, for this example, website, redesigned. They may say that they are happy with their current site. Offer to come in and pitch for the work, say that you will do the design then come into their offices and pitch it to them. Say that if they like the work then they can hire you, otherwise they just have to sign an NDA saying they wont use the work without paying you (reassure them why this protects both sides) & that you will admit defeat.
Assume they accept.
Create a new homepage and content page design with explanatory notes and put together boards or a slideshow, whichever you prefer. Head to their offices and pitch the design. Leave businesscards and email them the presentation (with watermarks over graphics and your contact details and info) and see what happens.
This seems like a safer way to proceed, and one that is more likely to return results as it gets your foot in the door for when they do realise their website is out of date or they need any other design work.
Importantly, the hacker adressed FEAR of losing something important.
People respond much stronger to FEAR-cues than to HOPE-cues.
So, instead of telling about the wonderful results working with you will bring, it’s you could turn the perspective to telling about the terrible losses that someone will run into when not working with you. Good luck and don’t overdo it.
this honestly sounds bad, if your new the example hacking sounds cool but sounds like it’s from a movie, and in real life sounds like a good way to piss people off.
also, no spec work
don’t do work then cold call that’s a huge waste of time!!! At least where i am in the U.S. it doesn’t look professional to show them there site redone with a template and new colors.
waste of time imo
also I don’t worry about fears via hope cues so much, yes some of this is true you an be award of people emotion its call marketing to be sure, but just show people how they will make more money, connect with more customers and sell more… show work you have done your past like a well seasoned pro. Doing free work in hopes of getting work seems desprate.
if your new plese DONT follow this. unless your working with family or friends and your brand spanking new.
work your network, learn to target clients and build a relationship, do good work, do good work, dependable act with integrity, be positive, and have fun.
sorry for the long post i know different people do things differently, but i just strongly disagree with with tactic.
Does your plumber EVER offer to fix your toilet for free so he/she can “win” the chance to fix your sink? (If so, give me his/her number!!!)
Does a painter paint your living room to “show you what he can do” hoping you’ll hire him to paint the rest of the house?
Why do we value our own time/skills lower than other technicians? Your work makes that business money…you deserve to be paid for your time.
Copywriters – please, please don’t do work for free unless you have zero experience. I’m in this biz 20 years and have tried this tactic so many times…. and I regretted it almost every time I did it: quick samples, “before and after” example proposals, etc, thinking that if prospects see how much better their marketing can be, they’ll surely want to work with you on other things.
9 out of 10 times, if you give free work, they lose respect for your value or will waste more of your time with phone calls and meetings to pick your brain – or take all your ideas/work, only to never return your calls or emails when you try to convert to a legitimate paying job.
Worse, this now lowers the bar for every other writer trying to earn a living. I see so many more companies now expecting writers to “audition” with free customized samples before hiring them for even a small job…even when those writers have tons of existing samples.
I can’t speak for design, security or other fields, but respect for copywriting is dwindling every day. For those of you under 30, this used to be a “white collar”profession, similar to accountants, marketing research managers, etc. It would earn you a good living – whether you went the corporate route or freelance. You could easily support a family. Freebies and online bidding sites have reduced the value of professional copywriting down to pennies on the dollar- you can often make more per hour as a fast food counter person than what most online jobs are paying. I see talented, experienced writers giving away a lot of strategic marketing work for pocket change.
Now more than ever, we can’t afford to give away our work….the only tools we have to earn a living is our knowledge and skills.
Hi Jason,
What you outlined, in terms of advising how to approach getting new clients, is not only a good idea but it is also a very effective method, which can be applied to various industries. I haven’t tried this technique as yet in order to get new web design clients but I have used this technique successfully to get business in the area of technical support and systems administration.
Occasionally, I have visited someone’s office and observed either problems they were experiencing or things they were doing that I could help them do better and I either made a suggestion or downright fixed it for them on the spot, free of charge, after explaining to them that I’m an expert in the area and I basically “do that everyday for my clients” or “I could do it with my eyes closed because it’s a very simple procedure”. Then, I’d fixed the problem in a matter of minutes, wowing the “future client”. By the time I left, I would have already found out whether they had current IT support and they would have my card or contact details and the intention to hire me the next time they have computer issues.
For web designers, this technique can work beautifully if you especially target web sites for people with small businesses since (i) the site would typically be smaller and less complex, thereby resulting in a project that is easier and faster to complete so you can move on to the next client, which allows you to concentrate on volume and expanding your portfolio [and client base], (ii) there is a higher probability of the site redesign being “within budget” since most small business don’t have complex sites, (iii) most small business websites have very poor visibility anyway so this would be a good time to make a pitch for how you can help them get better visibility with the site, and (iv) there are many pathetic-looking websites out there that I am sure, in this current recession, many site owners would like to have the look of the site improved so it could help significantly with them getting more business.
Btw Jason, over the last week I have
The key with using this technique basically is being smart when you choose who to make the “free” pitch to.
I dont know…strikes me as sort of bottom of the barrell and desperate … I mean theres a nobel aspect to it, I guess, but on the receiving end of the call, I’d just see it as a bit tacky…. I’d be more inclined to hold that caller in high(er) esteem (i.e. possibly hire or reccommend to someone) if they DIDNT make that offer to do more paid work in light of them having saved the day for me.
Ending the call with an offer to always be “available if you have any questions about how to maximize your companies use of technology/web or want to make sure the folks managing your existing site are doing their job and giving you the best possible work, feel free to give me a call”.
This way, you can bi-annually check in w/ him/her to let them know what you think about any updates/changes they’ve made to their site (i.e. “Great new changes to your site, take a look at this other (competitor) site and see how they used this technique…” blah blah blah
You dont lower yourself and get all “Ambulance Chaser” on them and are left with some dignity. And the caller doesnt have to feel cornered into taking you up on your offer.
I think Tamaker has a very nice solution to the dilemma’s. When I first reacted “don’t overdo it” I was meaning something like that, and Tamaker hits the nail.
Now I think the freelancer could get a lot closer to any deal, when he/she not only offers to “always be available”, but will suggest to sit together with the prospective client and have a coffee and investigate his/her needs. The person-to-person situation is necessary to grow mutual trust, I’d say. In case of a “no, thanks” to that offer, the freelancer calling again half a year later would not be offensive.
yeah, cofee is a great idea… but only (in my thinking) for those clients who you really hit it off with or where the $ potential is HUGE… there are some clients that, though I have worked with successfully for years, its just a really less ‘chatty’ type of relationship and its more about the already established needs/desires… where they are not really open to pushing the envelope and trying new, exciting things.
if all that makes any sense.
This sounds like it could work! I’m just starting out in freelancing, and I don’t really know of a way to get myself out there besides walking in to places or cold- calling. If anyone has more advice on how to get things rolling, please post! =)
try the popular social networks! I help people out on technical and creative questions over twitter and facebook tons of times every day. I also use a little thing called tweetdeck and filter out all but tweets related to my line of work. I probably get one job out of every 50-60 potential clients I successfully tweet and email, which I first sift out of a soup of hundreds every day.
I’m a video editor in denver, maybe I’m just not seeing it but how might this be applied to my line of business? Sure I could recreate homepage videos or insert clean AE title effects to wow them a little but in the end that’s nearly a full fledged video I have to build for the possibility of getting one person’s attention. Compared to my usual comment or email that’s a ton of work and it’s not exactly going to pay out 100% of the time. have any of you seen a huge increase in hits vs. misses using this method? A short video can take hours and even several full days (especially with my limited ram) which I’m guessing is very different from logo or web design.
Interesting, am currently branching off into video production / video editing after having done web strategy design and development (with a focus on web application / backend building) for the past 12 years. Right off the bat I realized I would have to a) be prepared to loose money as I worked on projects that would give me real-world experience and b) have the appropriate tools that would allow me to really take it seriously and not be a barrier to really getting good (i.e. Ram is soooo cheap right now that letting something like that stand in your way, to me, is a cop out. if its a system you need (as opposed to ram) you just have to make your first goal getting a quad-core i7 or something (which is what I went with so I can have photoshop / dreamweaver open while still rendering video with process-hungry effects, etc.)
I guess its a comfort level thing. once you have what you need (tools/software) to be an asset to a prospective client/customer, the rest is largely confidence-based. for instance where you say “Sure I could recreate homepage videos or insert clean AE title effects to wow them a little” — for me, I am currently saying “wow, this is the 15th horrible commercial I’ve seen on local channels for small businesses/organizations trying to market something and drive traffic to their website… Im going to start keeping a list of folks whose commercials look horrible and then pick 2 or 3 each month to reach out to and pitch the idea of working together to give them a better ad spot and to build my portfolio. and where you say “A short video can take hours and even several full days” — you’ve gotta be willing to invest the time and not all the return will be in the form of payment you receive for hours invested. having a client thats happy with the final deliverable, having a great looking original video under your belt an in your portfolio and using the project to help build/boost your confidence in yourself will often times (in addition to the $ obviously) make taking on a project ‘worthwhile’. lastly (sorry to drag on)… nothing pays out “100% of the time”. its a matter of technique, your own style and way of operating and confidence. (Im still blown away to this day by the things I’ve worked on and clients I’ve worked with all thanks to my ability to get close to people who have big budgets, hone in on their issues / needs and make them ultimately look like geniuses in their organizations.
Just wanted to leave a comment…. scrolling and scrolling and scrolling…. many comments have been added already, so what more can I say….
Great advice for everyone starting up a bussiness!
“this honestly sounds bad, if your new the example hacking sounds cool but sounds like it’s from a movie, and in real life sounds like a good way to piss people off.”
As an IT security professional, I agree with this statement 100%. Not only is it a good way to piss people off, if you piss off the wrong person pulling a stunt like that could land you in jail.
I find techniques like this completely unethical, it’s too much like blackmail and honestly, he didn’t exploit anything – but your wallet.
Guess that’s why I don’t get much work – I don’t use threat tactics lol.
Mocking up a website for a non-client, hoping they will hire you; or writing a campaign in hopes of getting hired for a copywriting gig…these tactics are straight up spec work. You can call it hacking a client, but most of the time, you aren’t going to get anything out of it. Freelancers already have to worry about regular clients paying them what they’re worth and on time, advice like this really damages the progress that the freelance community has made.