There are tons of things that I’ve learned from being a freelance designer/developer and it’s amazing how quickly you can move from one “season” into another.
But I’ve had more and more people ask me how I got started and I’ve started regurgitating some of the same information so I thought I’d drop a post about one particular strategy that really helped when I first started many years ago.
It starts with Craigslist…
Before you crucify me with “OMG, NOOOOOOOO!” I’ll be honest and say that for a beginner this might just be the best place to start.
A few things that I did and that you might want to take note of:
- It’s a numbers game. For serious. You may send out 100 answers to and get 10 responses back with 1 of them actually being a good and solid lead. That’s 1% folks. But, that 1 out 100 can be a killer.
- Posting resumes on Craigslist has worked too. Creating compelling and dead-obvious copy related to your field is very important.
- Creating a systematic approach to handling requests and quoting will do wonders for you. Formatted emails, canned responses, all of them.
- Pricing is foundational and you need to “own” it 100%. Stay firm and don’t bend.
- Subscribe via RSS to your cities that you’re interested in staying on top of. Review daily (hourly?).
Rinse and repeat. I hope that helps. I’ve since moved on from Craigslist but that’s definitely how I got my start. How about you?
Kyle says
This is exactly how I’m doing currently.