Anyone here do freelance web work ?

[AFB]

How do you advertise ?


TIA

 

[AFB]

BUMP

 

[AFB]

Ok, last bump for the night err yeah.

 

[Colt45]

NO

 

[vshah]

i don't do anything myself, but from looking at sights, Ads on the right side in a vertical format are the least intrusive.

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: vshah
i don't do anything myself, but from looking at sights, Ads on the right side in a vertical format are the least intrusive.

No, I mean how to find people. My target audience is some what technophobic but are getting ripped off by local companies that use templates and charge $300. I am willing to do this for much less and provide better service.

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: vshah
i don't do anything myself, but from looking at sights, Ads on the right side in a vertical format are the least intrusive.

No, I mean how to find people. My target audience is some what technophobic but are getting ripped off by local companies that use templates and charge $300. I am willing to do this for much less and provide better service.

I do some freelance web design work on the side myself. No e-commerce or stuff like that, just static (but nice-looking) websites for small businesses in our area who want a web presence. My wife has done a bit of marketing to attract business and we've been moderately successful considering we've only been doing this for less than a year. We're in a good area since there are hardly any small web design businesses around, and the big guys charge an arm and a leg compared to us.

The things we've done:

1. Print up a crapload of mailers. We did a 500 mailing to businesses my wife found in the phone book and got 3 responses, which is pretty decent for a mailing of that size. 1 guy was just looking and the other 2 guys we signed on as clients.

2. Advertised in a local free magazine. Two serious leads who we've designed sites for and 1 guy who apparently was just looking

3. Gotten listed in the Yellow Pages

4. Advertised our services on Craig's List

5. Word of mouth. Our first client was so pleased with the work I did on his site that he referred two of his friends to us that wanted websites done. We also hooked up with a lady from a marketing company who will be referring business to us in the future.

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: Encryptic

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: vshah
i don't do anything myself, but from looking at sights, Ads on the right side in a vertical format are the least intrusive.

No, I mean how to find people. My target audience is some what technophobic but are getting ripped off by local companies that use templates and charge $300. I am willing to do this for much less and provide better service.

I do some freelance web design work on the side myself. No e-commerce or stuff like that, just static (but nice-looking) websites for small businesses in our area who want a web presence. My wife has done a bit of marketing to attract business and we've been moderately successful considering we've only been doing this for less than a year. We're in a good area since there are hardly any small web design businesses around, and the big guys charge an arm and a leg compared to us.

The things we've done:

1. Print up a crapload of mailers. We did a 500 mailing to businesses my wife found in the phone book and got 3 responses, which is pretty decent for a mailing of that size. 1 guy was just looking and the other 2 guys we signed on as clients.

2. Advertised in a local free magazine. Two serious leads who we've designed sites for and 1 guy who apparently was just looking

3. Gotten listed in the Yellow Pages

4. Advertised our services on Craig's List

5. Word of mouth. Our first client was so pleased with the work I did on his site that he referred two of his friends to us that wanted websites done. We also hooked up with a lady from a marketing company who will be referring business to us in the future.

Thank you 🙂

 

[gigapet]

sitepoint.com has some good articles on marketing on a shoe string budge

 

[episodic]

AMD, I did this a few years ago for local businesses. Yellow Pages is the biggest thing you can do locally. Also local papers usually charge 50$ or so a month to place an add. Get a reseller account and host em too 🙂

 

[AFB]

THX gigapet & episodic :beer:

 

[episodic]

O yea, unless your mailers are 'targeted' - unsolicited mailers usually have a less that .01 % return 😛 - that means for every 1000 mailers, you 'may' get 1 customer. . . (and risk peeving off the other 999 ppl). . .

Be on the outlook for 'trouble customers' - don't do business with them. . . trouble customers are cheap, demanding, pains in the you know where, etc.

Remember if you get a new client - don't hesitate to offer him a discount (10% or so) to leave a few business cards at his establishment, and get him to put a good word in for you - many will do this. Make sure you have done a good job.

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: Encryptic

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: vshah
i don't do anything myself, but from looking at sights, Ads on the right side in a vertical format are the least intrusive.

No, I mean how to find people. My target audience is some what technophobic but are getting ripped off by local companies that use templates and charge $300. I am willing to do this for much less and provide better service.

I do some freelance web design work on the side myself. No e-commerce or stuff like that, just static (but nice-looking) websites for small businesses in our area who want a web presence. My wife has done a bit of marketing to attract business and we've been moderately successful considering we've only been doing this for less than a year. We're in a good area since there are hardly any small web design businesses around, and the big guys charge an arm and a leg compared to us.

The things we've done:

1. Print up a crapload of mailers. We did a 500 mailing to businesses my wife found in the phone book and got 3 responses, which is pretty decent for a mailing of that size. 1 guy was just looking and the other 2 guys we signed on as clients.

2. Advertised in a local free magazine. Two serious leads who we've designed sites for and 1 guy who apparently was just looking

3. Gotten listed in the Yellow Pages

4. Advertised our services on Craig's List

5. Word of mouth. Our first client was so pleased with the work I did on his site that he referred two of his friends to us that wanted websites done. We also hooked up with a lady from a marketing company who will be referring business to us in the future.

^ What he said; they sound like good ideas. ^

I do some freelance work but it's all word of mouth - people I know. I've never advertised to do web work.