Back to freelance...

[I.M.Shane]

I'm back to working on my own doing freelance design work. It's nice to be back in charge of what I'm doing but really scary trying to find design clients. I had forgotten how hard it could be to build up your client list. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm working on my portfolio now so I may have some thing new and interesting to show people. Recently I've just been giving perspective clients links to sites I designed. Is this bad form? I'm wondering if I should scrap the idea of giving out the links and waiting til I get my portfolio back up before I start hitting up any body for work...
What sayeth the board?


Thanks,
Shane

[Panky]

A portfolio is a must. Not only can you link people to it directly, have it linked on your website, but it is place where people can come back to it and browse at their leisure. Much easier than sending a bunch of links to someone.

With a portfolio, you can also easily display a variety of your work. Again, much better than links. Even if someone doesn't see what they are looking for for a particular project, they may bookmark your site for later reference. Without a portfolio they can reference, you might lose business.

Get your name out there. Let people know you exist and are for hire.

Get listed in directories and on webmaster sites. Make sure your site is search engine friendly.

Place links on your sites to your design site. Surfers aren't the only ones who visit sites.

[I.M.Shane]

Thanks for the suggestions Panky. It's been so long since I really was working the design angle it feels like I'm starting from square one. I'm sure it will all come back to me soon enough though.

[Virgule3]

Originally Posted by I.M.Shane

I'm back to working on my own doing freelance design work.
What sayeth the board?


Thanks,
Shane

Do you only do adult web site design or do you do "regular" stuff as well? I teach English as a second language (yeah, that's my day job! lol!) and after a few years, my boss and I have found that one of the best form of advertisement is actually the yellow pages!

We have this really nice and big ad and people call us A LOT and because we are the best, they register.

Good luck!

Sophie.

[I.M.Shane]

I do mainstream as well as adult. That is a good idea about putting an ad in the yellow pages. I would imagine I would need to have 2 portfolio sites for that... One for adult work and one for mainstream advertising.
Thanks for the tip.

Shane