web consulting, design & hosting
Web Design Articles: Help for Wannabe Pro Web Designers
How do I get jobs?
The short answer? “However you can.” Friends, family, and local small businesses and nonprofits are a good place to start. Once you have a few jobs under your belt and show you do good work, you will begin to get referrals. They'll be slow at first, but in time they add up. (At this point, about 90% of my business comes from existing clients and referrals.)
You can also investigate online project boards (like Elance, etc.) for some ideas about prices and possibilities, but don't expect to pay the bills with cyberwork. It takes a lot of dedication and patience to get freelance web work online, and the competition on these boards is unbelievably fierce, ranging from seasoned professionals with awesome skills to colorblind newbies who seem to have started last week (and don't charge enough to pay for chewing gum). I'm not saying you can't do it, but it's important to have realistic expectations.
Keep your business cards with you at all times. Give them out to friends and colleagues who would be most likely to recommend you for work and make sure you thank them every time they do share your name, regardless of the outcome. Put one in the fishbowl for free lunches.
Promote
your business both online and offline. While registering your design
site with the search engines is important, don't fool yourself into believing
if you put up a site, they will come. An online search for a web designer
will yield thousands of options.
For online promotion, add your web address to your email signature, list and relist with search engines, register with any and all directories of web designers you can find and most importantly, list your web address at every opportunity. Sometimes I find hits from unlikely places, and they add up. Most listings require a one-time investment of a few minutes. It's worth it!
Also, you may decide to get a small ad in the phone book or local publications. Although this is an investment, you need to make your business easy to find. If you decide to experiment with direct mail, be aware that a 2% response rate is standard. Unless you can mail your promotional materials very inexpensively or have a killer prospect list, you won't find this a worthwhile use of your advertising budget.
