Looking to boost your freelance design business this summer? You are in luck, because freelance design is one of those industries that seems to increase along with the temperature. The following freelance design tips will help you leverage that trend to put even more dollars in your bank account. If you have the skills, potential clients are buying. Let them know your services are available just like this.
Website & Email Marketing
These freelance design tips do not require you to have a website, but it helps. Having your own freelance design website will allow you to control the information being disseminated about your business and you can retain solid leads if you put forth the effort.
One way to capture leads is with an email subscriber list. Those who land on your site but don’t buy right away can be enticed to leave their email address in exchange for…something. You could offer them a discount on their first order, a pack of website themes or something similar that you think your primary audience will enjoy. Once you have an email list, you can market to that list anytime you have something to say; and that’s a great way to drum up even more new freelance design business anytime you feel like you’re hitting a dry spell.
Go Social
If you don’t use social media to find freelance design customers, you might want to start. Potential clients might be searching on Facebook, Twitter and even Pinterest to find a freelance professional to complete their projects. By being social, you’ll ensure that you’re always there when potential clients need you.
Odesk & Elance
If you don’t have a website, not to worry. Simply create an account on Odesk and/or Elance (if you haven’t already) and start bidding on jobs. You can have the money wired into your account or you can get paid via PayPal (just like you could if you had your own site drumming up business), but these platforms take your security seriously. The money is held in escrow until the job is complete, which protects both you and the client. Once the job is done, the money is released and you get paid. These sites take the guesswork out of the freelance business.
Fiverr & Tenrr
These microjob sites represent one of those freelance design tips that seems ludicrous at first. You might be thinking, “I’m supposed to sell my premium services for $5 or $10?” Yet if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that most of the premium sellers on these platforms are making much more than a mere fiver or tenner a job. The freelance design professionals who are killing it on these sites have multiple upgrades in place.
For example, they might sell a professional logo for $5, but they are selling the original Photoshop file for $20. They might charge more for expedited service, or they may bundle in another graphic design service for even more money.
The point is, get on these sites if you haven’t already. You just might connect with someone who helps take your business to the next level.
The Warrior Forum, Site Point and Black Hat
These are just three popular forums that you can visit to find potential clients. These are the forums people visit when they want to boost their online businesses. You might be surprised to see Black Hat forum listed on here. While some of discussed tactics are questionable, it’s a massive marketplace that always needs the help of graphic designers.
Before you put these freelance design tips into action, you should begin to familiarize yourself with some of the projects you might be asked to create.
Book and Ebook Covers
Books and eBooks are incredibly popular right now and you may get more than a few requests for engaging cover designs. Check out the a few best sellers to get an idea of what people are buying when it comes to covers. They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but people do. Make sure your covers are of sound quality if you are going to follow this freelance avenue.
T-Shirts and Branded Clothing
Whenever the temperatures rise, people rush out to the malls or they shop online to find the latest fashions. Put your freelance design skills to the test by brushing up on your T-shirt and branded clothing designs. You can work for someone else to put an entire line together, or you can branch out on your own. Either way, clothes that people want to wear are always a good choice for these freelance design tips.
Websites & Landing Pages
You can work for a client to craft websites and landing page designs, or you can do your own thing just as you could with clothes. You might team up with a web developer to create WordPress themes that you then sell on Theme Forest. Or you might want to hire a web developer on one of the above freelance sites, or you could learn the developing aspect all on your own.
With the whole world gone digital, websites and landing pages are always in high demand.
You now have several freelance design tips to grow your business this summer. How many freelance design clients will you add to your current roster? Get started on the advice above to find out.
Image Source: Jeremy Keith on Flickr
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