I often get asked the question, how do you make money from web design if there isn’t an eager crowd of potential clients under your windows?
Let’s break it down.
Right now, someone really needs a website. And those people are actually a lot, it’s not just one person. It’s on the order of thousands, hundreds of thousands of potential clients. And the web designer has a project and a half that he doesn’t like, but he has to do it because there are no more clients and he has no choice.
Imagine that you have a lot of options, and you choose what to do and what not to do, who to work with and who not to work with. Would you like that? In fact, you already have those options.
I suggest you first remember what a web designer should be able to do:
- Draw a design. You can learn this by taking my Photoshop courses.
- Create websites. You’ll learn this in my website design courses.
- Find clients.
Now we’re going to talk about the top 10 ways to find orders for a web designer. Here they are:
- Freelance marketplaces
- Social networking wall post
- A status on a social networking profile
- Asking friends and acquaintances
- Business cards
- Advertise in Communities
- Write a letter to a studio or agency
- Template “Recently did a site …”
- Spamming to topic groups
- Resumes on job search sites
Of all these ways, designers tend to use only one and word of mouth.
How does a web designer find clients?
The eternal question that will always be asked. Today I’m going to talk about a few of the ways.
Familiar
Tell everyone that you are a designer, make posts on social networks. There may be people in your circle of acquaintances who need design. It is assumed that you should already have a job, this method is not for earning a portfolio. Work only for money, and if you don’t have a portfolio, make one yourself on fictional projects.
Freelance marketplaces
I do not advise to use exchangers, as the primary source of income. At first, or as a receipt of additional orders is ideal, but use this method as a springboard.
Dumping, enormous competition, you need to spend a lot of time to get the project, and 90% of customers think you’re a bridge between their idea and photoshop. After working for a certain amount of time, you’ll want to get out of there yourself.
Working remotely with studios
I think this is the best option for freelance work. You can work with one or more studios, with a salary or on a project fee. Jobs put up on job search exchanges, and you can also write to the post office studios. The advantage of this method is that you will do the job of a designer directly, you do not have to be a manager, layout designer, copywriter.
Word of mouth
A powerful tool for attracting clients, but it requires constant growth of you as a specialist and of course time. Do each job as high as possible, this will be a plus for your portfolio, and the client will recommend you to your friends, if he is satisfied. Also, people will come out to you when they see your design.
Offer customers some kind of discount or bonus on their next order if they bring someone they know to you. (This method falls away if you work with studios. Clients will go to them, not you).
Your project
Community + targeted advertising. This method is already more complicated, you need a well-designed community, content plan and advertising budget.
Important point: never sell advertising services in the head, cold traffic is poorly recouped! The best solution will be a multi-step sale. For example: get the client interested in a free offer – build trust – show expertise – make the sale. Ads a la “have time to order the best site with 90% discount only until the end of the day!” will be much less effective.
Option with contextual advertising is better to discard, you need to be very brave to go into battle with the studios for places in Direct.
The biggest mistake is to depend on one source of orders. To be sure of a steady stream of customers, use at least 2 methods.
