Just wondering what the best technique is to actually get projects. As i'm still a student its hard to find clients.

Only thing so far ive done is advertising my site, but still only word of mouth as my budget is real low at the moment (i kinda blew my student loan on crap )

I think from a marketing view your best bet is your site, although it's well coded and you know what you're doing, the SEO is minimal. People need to type in google 'freelance designer'+'chesterfield' and you need to be on one of the first pages at least. Speak to Toon he's got a great insite into SEO. Also Google will tell you all you need to know to improve your rankings.

I'm sure there's plently of people here that will help you. Best of Luck.

One of the major problems starting out is that to get a strong portfolio you need to work, but you can't get work without a strong portfolio. If you're young and still living at home it's a great oppatunity to do alot of free work to build your portfolio. Do it now before you get too many responsbilities.

Kelly is 100% right, a portfolio is a must, obviously people are going to want to see what you are capable of, plus they will want to know the type of cliental you have worked with and weather or not you are steady enough to work with them.

As far as finding work . . . . I found that cold calling is a good way to go.
just grab hold to a telephone book and have at it. As long as you have good people skills and a product to offer, most folks will entertain what you have to sell.
gp

ya how i started was doing contests and just any work at all at forums...i was a member of at least 15 major forums at one point. put these together in a portfolio, so you can have something to show. i look at craigslist quite a bit...

You could get 1000's of phone books and look up the most popular designer in the country, then get all your mates round and tipex their number out and replace it with yours. Then scatter the phone books everywhere then when someone wants a designer they'll ring the popular guys number not noticing the tipex and yay they've got you on the end of phone. Hey presto design away.

(I don't know how I come up with em)

I love your ideas you should write a book

I think the best way is to start local, and start small.

Get a couple of hundred flyers done and deliver them to your local small businesses; i.e shops, pubs, garages, hairdresses, florist, taxi firms, take-aways etc

offer a cheap price for a few pages (I'd say £90) to help build up your portfolio.

Include a landline and if possible a phone number on your flyer.

Then let you feet do the talking and get out there on a sat morning delivering them.

That's what I intend to do, then as it's local I can have face-to-face meetings.

Yep, you have to have the portfolio to get the jobs. Since you are just starting out, you may have to offer your services for free. Target companies that may not have a big budget, but could use your services, they may be more likely to "hire" you, even though you may have little experience. Small retailers and restaurants are great targets.

Approach them by telling them you are a student trying to build your portfolio and that you would be willing to do their design work/build the web site for the chance to gain experience.

Good luck.

First thing you need yes is to get a good portfolio ...approach companies that you would like to design for and offer them free design and explain why so they won't be suspicious. Sell it as a great opportunity without sounding like a spammer/salesperson.

Once you have a good portfolio, present it well in a professional and easy to navigate website.

Ensure a good amount of information about your service is available, and also some articles to show off your expertise in your area.

Ensure you have full contact information on your site including tel numbers and address. Lack of these can make potential clients suspicious.


Then your marketing begins.

- Search engine optimisation. Worth the time and effort, and easy albiet time consuming to carry out - instructions at www.trulyace.com/searchenginetoptimisation.html (I am not an seo firm flogging my services by the way). After a few months people will start to find you in droves and they will be good targeted traffic as they will find you after keying in specific keywords related to your service.

- Business networking, online and offline. A good source of customers is www.ecademy.com. Be prepared to 'network' and build relationships rather than sell, and then the clients will naturally come from that. They also offer offline networking at a wide range of free events and meetings.

- Repeat business. When you get a customer treat them exceptionally well - I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough - and not only will they come back, they will recommend you to their business friends.

- GoogleAdwords. This does work as long as you bid on very specific keywords relating to your service so that your cost per click isn't too high, and have a decent portfolio and professional and easy to navigate/understand website.

- Make sure your calls are answered, even if you have to pay for a call answering service or a VA (VA will prob be cheaper).

- Endeavour to answer your emails within 24 hours...all of them. Endeavour to get quotes to enquirers inside of 24 hours and faster if poss. Whilst you don't send them your quote, someone else is and they could be signing up elsewhere. It also indicates to them that your customer service will be good through the project.


You can start locally, but it isn't essential. I've been working regularly full time for over 4 years now, and from the day one I've always traded online and have no local clients and never have.

Most my clients are in London (I'm in Birmingham) and others are in the USA and Europe...I've barely ever spoken on the phone my clients let alone seen them. Most contact is via email only.

Using the above methods, you will get a steady flow of clients soon enough, and the stream will continue as long as you don't neglect your marketing. Marketing is an ongoing commitment that must be done every single week/day. Especially the networking bit.


Best of luck

Amanda

Very thorough and detailed Amanda, advice like that would help anyone.

Great Amanda

Hey gazneale
AMAZING and helpful posts by many, hope it helped.
One thing I would mention, while I was at University the course leader would recieve contact from companies lookinf from some designers to help them with their work load.
It may be worth getting in contact with members of the University/College you attend and see if anything similar happens.

P.s - I didn't see anyone post this but I'm tired, drinking alot of coffee, sorry if I stole some thunder

A good emailing sales techinique works.