You heard about freelancing and said, “I’ve got skills! I can do this!” Then you started doing it and thought, “Screw me! I’ve got to sell my services? Marketing, promotion, networking? Can’t I just slap my portfolio on the web and let the clients come to me?”
Well, no. So what can you do?
You can get bold and pitch new clients. Or, if that’s too salesman-like for you, you can make friends.
I’m not talking about meetcha-for-coffee, manicure buddies. I’m talking about online pals you can banter with, bounce ideas off of, and maybe — just maybe — score a little work from. The trick to this is to choose your friends, and your social activities, wisely. There’s only so much time in the day, and eventually you’ll have to devote some of that time to doing actual work.
Understand that what seems to work for a lot of folks won’t necessarily work for you.
For example: Twittering time away wouldn’t benefit me, because my potential clients still think Digg is something dogs do. Many of my clients seem to type with their feet, and a good many still don’t know what a blog is. Sure, I could maybe get an occasional lead or two from someone I meet on Twitter, but I know myself well enough to know that with my addictive personality, I’d mostly be talking to the pen men and Brett, and typing in stuff like “just had my 15th cup of coffee before noon.” These guys are super handy, and I’m glad to know them, but I don’t see them sending me any lawyer blogging business anytime soon. If these were the only people I talked to, I’d have a belly ache from laughing, but no new clients.
For me, the networking that works to get me business is visiting lawyer blogs, leaving comments, introducing myself via email. I’ve gotten more business through referrals from one legal blog I stalk than I have through any other method. Getting to know other writers who blog for lawyers, and who create lawyer blogs, is also handy.
You’ve got to figure out what would work for you. Who would make a good pal? Where would that kind of person hang out? Blogs? Message boards? Twitter? Digg? The local bar?
What have you tried and found useful? What did you find was a waste of time?
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