Pretty simple thread really. I was just wondering where people get most of their freelance work from. Visitors to your portfolio site? Applying for jobs through forums / online marketplaces? Word of mouth? Whatever it is.

 

I'll start :

 

Specialise in : Design / HTML & CSS

 

Most work from: Applying for jobs online through marketplaces

Is it against the site rules to say which marketplaces you use most? It would be interesting to know.

 

The majority of my work at the minute is through word of mouth which suits me for now as I'm only really interested in local work.

Visitors to my portfolio/website.

Applying for jobs through forums / online marketplaces.

Word of mouth (very frequent in last few months)

The majority of my work at the minute is through word of mouth which suits me for now as I'm only really interested in local work.

 

 

Ditto. Word of Mouth - although I have noticed that as the number of sites I've delivered increases, so does the web design/coding work.

 

taffybach

I think relying on online forums to get work is silly. There's no point in giving yourself so much competition. I advertise to my local towns online and in magazines. Focusing the advertising to a much smaller area actually increases work. I mainly do web design and PHP development. In my area the web designers are awful and the PHP developers either charge way too much or subcontract work out.

 

They say that a client will refer two other people in their lifetime. So in the beginning I did lots of super cheap work just to get lots of clients.

I think relying on online forums to get work is silly. There's no point in giving yourself so much competition. I advertise to my local towns online and in magazines. Focusing the advertising to a much smaller area actually increases work. I mainly do web design and PHP development. In my area the web designers are awful and the PHP developers either charge way too much or subcontract work out.

 

They say that a client will refer two other people in their lifetime. So in the beginning I did lots of super cheap work just to get lots of clients.

 

good advice ^

 

Currently my workload is a mix of word of mouth and networking - lots of networking both with friends/friends of friends and networking events. Always carry some cool business cards around with you!

Word of mouth, I've only been in freelancing for about a month now and already i'm working on one project with two more awaiting my services, I just hope it becomes a trend

Purely word of mouth - but I've worked hard for years to get it. In the early days, I posted a heck of a lot on forums and marketplaces.. The rest comes from search engines, twitter and other social networking mediums / portfolio views. I still post on forums advertising my services occasionally, including this one, because the ultimate downside of being freelance is that no matter how good you are you can never be too secure with work flow.

 

But the biggest, juiciest fruit comes when you create a proposal and directly contact a company with a poor website. I've found that if you do your research before hand (IE a company that has a good, successful business but a poor website rather than a terrible website from a struggling/useless business), you often land yourself some work. But the art of selling yourself and your proposal is one that takes a lot of time to perfect.

 

Word of mouth is most powerful only when you leave every single client bursting with praise for your service.

I think from talking to most members on my directory they would say 'word of mouth'. But at the same time you have to start getting those initial jobs first and forums and directories are a great place to start!

Really useful post guys, somthing I've been thinking about quite alot as I'm hopeing to get into freelance work myself.

 

Jonny

@jonnyirving

I think word of mouth and networking is the best source