| 110 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads Posted: 16 Feb 2011 05:30 AM PST  Credit: TheGiantVermin on Flickr Whether they’re designers, developers, copywriters, or some other creative professional, most freelancers ask themselves the very same question: How can I find more clients? We’ve updated our monster list of over a hundred ideas designed to help you do just that. Not all of these ideas will make sense of everyone, but we hope you’ll find at least a few to help you find newer and better paying freelance opportunities. Here we go … Use Word of Mouth - Enlist your family and friends to help spread the word about your services
- Send out an email to former coworkers and other contacts announcing what you do, where you are, and what you can offer
- Ask your satisfied clients for testimonials and referrals
- Offer free consultations to new referrals (consider including a time limit so they can’t pump you for too much free advice)
- Consider a referral or finders fee
Keep in Touch with Clients - Contact past and current clients when you have a new service to offer them
- Get in touch with past and current clients when you have completed an important project
- Start a newsletter
- Take advantage of every outgoing email by using your email signature as a marketing tool
- Send promotions for services with your invoices
- Ask your clients to place a credit on your work in web, video, or print
- Make a calendar featuring your work for clients to put up in their offices to serve as a constant reminder
- Make a poster for your client to hang up on their office wall
- Suggest new projects to your existing clients, such as a blog, Twitter account, or newsletter
Talk the Talk - Go to industry events – conferences, association meetings, seminars
- Go to events in your client's industry
- Sponsor a client event
- Join your local Chamber of Commerce and get involved
- Socialize and always have your business card ready
- Do some high profile pro bono work for a non-profit
- Get involved in social groups you're connected to (church, school, university)
- Join a professional association and get listed
- Contact people you used to work with and ask them to send you any run-off work they might have
- Offer to give a seminar to a local business group
- Practice an elevator speech about what you do and have it ready to go wherever you are
- Participate on online forums (using the forum signature line)
- Comment on relevant blogs to draw people back to your freelance site
- Create a blog that's relevant to prospective clients (not just other freelancers)
- Offer guest blog posts to blogs that are relevant to your clients
- Create a buzz piece and include your URL so prospective clients can find you
Promote Yourself - Have signage printed for your car (make sure your URL is big enough to be legible from far away)
- Get t-shirts made with your URL
- Advertise in a niche magazine or trade publication
- List yourself in directories like CreativeHotList or the one here on FreelanceSwitch
- Research sites your clients are visiting and buy advertising there
- Advertise in online directories
- Participate in a trade show
- Holidays are your friend! Send a clever holiday greeting to clients showing your work
- Have a gimmick that makes you stand out
- Give something away for free
- Advertise in an industry newsletter
- Offer branded pens and paper at industry events
Be an Industry Expert - Host a webinar or teleseminar that would interest prospective clients
- Create your own podcast or videocast
- Pitch an article to an industry publication
- Pitch a story to a blog or resource website
- Offer to speak at industry and networking events
- Submit tutorials or how-to's to websites
- Get on the radio
- Write an eBook or Report for your target market and promote it online
- Answer relevant questions on LinkedIn
- Enter your work into competitions and awards… and win
 Use the media - Issue a press release about a story related to your services and try and get it into a local newspaper or magazine
- Sign up as a source on HelpAReporter.com and respond to interview requests in your niche
- Run a contest which ties into your services and promote it
Job Boards - Keep an eye on online job boards
- Check out Craigs List for your city
- Post in the services section of Craigs List rather than just responding to job ads
- Keep an eye on offline job boards
- Pin up a little advert on boards in your local area or community
Brrr – It's Cold in Here! - Find out how you could improve a companies business and profits and cold call them with your pitch
- Mail promo postcards to potential clients
- Mail fun promotional items to potential clients (calendars, toys, posters etc)
Help Leads Find You - Contact your local internet service provider or printing house and offer them a commission if they refer work
- Establish contacts in larger agencies that can refer their run-off work
- Try location-based Google Adwords
- Take out an ad out in a local newspaper
- Keep in touch with freelancers that will offer clients a complementary service to yours and throw each other work
- Create a local business directory and use it to get to know other business owners who might later need your services
- Cross promote with other businesses
- Ask if you can put your business cards or brochure in local stores
- Join a coworking space shared with other businesses or freelancers
Industry Specific Ideas And here are some ideas that are tailored to certain industries… Photographers - Enter your work into a gallery or run an exhibition
- Submit some work to stock agencies to generate extra revenue
- Do a new series of work so you have a reason to show your portfolio to an old contact
- Send in your photography work to industry magazines to make a name for yourself
- Start a photo blog
- Photograph an event or series and pitch it to a newspaper or magazine
- Get an agent
Programmers & Developers - Pitch your self as a developer who understands web designers, because most of them need a developer
- Write a small web app like ta-da list or jobpile and get some recognition
- Create an app for Facebook or mobile phones
- Answer tech questions on forums and use a signature that says you offer freelance coding services
- Keep your eyes open for businesses still using @yahoo or @AOL email addresses and pitch yourself as their web developer so they can get a domain-based email
- Enter a programming contest like RailsDay
- Contribute to open source efforts and get known
Illustrators/Animators - Start a comic strip blog – e.g. QuestionableContent
- Make characters and create merchandise based on them – figurines, badges, t-shirts, etc
- Enter some competitons to get your illustrations in some famous places – snowboards, posters
- Create an awesome animation that wins you fame like Laith Bahrani
- Do stock illustrations for a site like istockphoto and have a portfolio site offering custom ones
- Write to big blogs and offer to do a cartoon strip (k10k)
- Send in your illustration work to magazines like computerarts.co.uk
- Create a promo Reel of animations or illlustrations and send it around/get it publicised
- Send your illustrations to gift card publishers
Writers, Bloggers, Journalists - Pitch yourself at ad, design and web design agencies as a copywriter
- Find some photos on iStockPhoto, add some creative headlines, and make a mailer out of it
- Submit articles to article banks for sale
- Pitch article ideas to editors, online and off
- Sell reprint rights to articles for which you own the rights (you can do this on your own or through a syndication service like FeatureWell.com)
- Reslant an article you’ve already written for a new market
- Write a book and publish it with lulu.com
Designers - Submit work to design compilation books and magazines
- Get your portfolio/profile listed on a site like Coroflot
- Design a great website and submit it to design galleries like CSSMania.com
- Build a great portfolio and submit it to design portals like DesignIsKinky.com
- Start a magazine, design portal or blog
There you have it! Have you tried any of these ideas? Which ones were most effective? Are there any ideas you’d like to add? Leave a comment and let us know! 
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