The key to success for any business is its marketing. The same applies to every freelancer. Your success depends on how much you are known in the market. Market can be your own local market, some online community or any section of the world that can possibly provide you work. Make sure that everyday you spend some time building yourself, your brand, your services.
This is what I have been doing with, frequent changes as per requirements:
1. Twitter: I know a lot of people out there who think that twitter is a really stupid thing. Well, honestly I too thought but before realizing what it can do for me. Twitter actually lets you reach out to the world, and that too with high chances of exposure since the whole world is twittering. I don’t say that you will get work from twitter (you might; you might not) but you will get a whole lot of exposure. This helps you build your brand. In future when a potential client visits you twitter page and sees you twittering some credible, useful stuff for the world, you will be noticed. And, that might convert that potential client to a paying one. Check out 8 Ways that Twitter Can Grow Your Freelance Business and Twitter For Freelancers (A Basic Overview) for some detailed ideas.
2. Blogging: Well if you are reading this then probably you will have an idea what it has been doing for me. Not everyone will love my blog but even if I can help out 1 person out there in the world it builds my credibility. Blogging is a long term investment and it takes a lot of effort and patience. But, the results are really noticeable. There are lot of silent visitors. So, don’t be bogged down if your blog doesn’t attract too much of comments initially. As you can see my blog just has for 7 comments right now. But, my site ranking improved drastically since I have started blogging. Right from fourth page to the first page for Google search for “Anurag Sharma” & “anuragsharma” has been possible due to this blog. My next goal – yeah you guessed it – reach on top.
3. Freelancing & Business forums: Register yourself to some good freelancing and business forums. Don’t go there ask for project. Go there to expose yourself to the community, to the world of entrepreneurs out there. Help people. Ask questions. Interact with people over there. Participate in discussions. My first major project – for $3000 – was through one of the business forums. Currently, I am on Youngentrepreneur.com, Startupnation.com and Entrepreneur.com, along with regular registrations on many design forums.
At present these three are enough to eat up my time to build myself as a brand. Remember it is a long process which requires continuous effort and a lot of patience. But, slowly and steadily you will be known in the market. And once you have understood the importance of building yourself you will never look back.
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