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Web Designer Question

by cnich23
8 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I've been experiencing a dry spell with finding web design clients.
I am sometimes on craigslist and freelancer but it's not looking hopeful. Where else should I look to find clients. Also would social networks be useful for that:confused:

Chardon
chardonresume.com
#designer #question #web
  • Profile picture of the author htmlthis
    Try this Logo Design, Web Design and More. | 99designs . Dry spells are normal, it happens to all of us, just keep on posting on freelancer website (elance.com, odesk.com, freelancer.com) and advertise as normal and you should be fine.
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    Convert your PSD to HTML
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    Web Design Gallery

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  • Profile picture of the author Beatinest
    Since you are a design service your site should look great and be more user friendly.

    For example, when I look at your page my eyes go all over the place. There isn't anything that calls for my attention. If you are going to be selling design service you need to lead your potential clients by example and direct them to your points of interest. (The highlights of working with you, your prices, portfolio and a strong call to action.)

    In my opinion, your site doesn't match the quality of someone who charges up to $60k for a website. It's unorganized and visually bores me to death.

    If you are trying to get leads from Craigslist and send them to your site, I guarantee you are losing people as soon as they see the site. The problem might not be where to find the clients as much as how to impress them so they want to do business with you.

    I would lose the adsense too, not very professional for a service business.

    Note: None of this is meant to sound harsh or rude. I'm just chiming in because I think you might be losing customers due to the look of your site. Your fitness site revamp looks great, so you have the skills, just repeat that with your own site. As a designer/web developer your first impression should "wow" whoever sees your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author centrica123
    Keep trying on freelance websites to get clients. I am also a web designer. I got my initial clients from freelance websites , delivered them quality work on time and they have been outsourcing their most of the jobs to me.
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  • Profile picture of the author RK Corbes
    I've got clients everywhere. You should focus on marketing, if you are a web designer for some time it shouldn't be hard for you to create a website anymore. Sell, Sell and Sell!

    I forgot, network alot at first, if you think giving out free websites doesn't work, you are very wrong. I've got huge clients because of this techniques just two weeks ago.

    It's a numbers game and don't give free websites to those without huge network of clients. Ask them directly for referral.
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  • Profile picture of the author awddude
    Quick tip: You are using way too many different typefaces on your site. Stick to one. Serif and Sans-Serif don't always look good together. Always focus more on the clarity of your text - a lot is very thin and hard to read.

    Take a look at your business model. How much are you charging clients for sites? How does compare to someone who buys a site for $40 on Themeforest that looks amazing? I think rather than designing sites from scratch you might have a better time offering offline solutions by customizing templates.
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  • Profile picture of the author blogfreakz
    did you try odesk? I always got a client there...
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    • Profile picture of the author ThreeHammers
      You have a system in place that is not as efficient as it should be. Your problem is not about Craigslist, its about defining goals and planing ahead to reach these goals.

      You should go through your past clients and find out why they decided to do business with you. Did you get them because of your price, after convincing them on the phone or through emails. What questions were they asking ? Did you stop getting leads after a change made on your website?

      Your market is not static, people learn, competition grows and needs change. You need to adapt and you need to learn a lot about yourself to become strategic about selling your services.

      Here are the questions I think you should ask yourself:

      1- What do you want? A job? Generate content to get money through Adsence? Sell backlinks? Sell services to bloggers, local businesses, b2c businesses, b2c businesses or Fortune 500 corporations?

      You can get a lot of business without a good website as long as your website is not what you use to get leads.

      You are trying to get clients from a website that is poorly designed, cluttered with Adsense and useless elements (what is the purpose of the calendar) to prospective buyers who don't know who you are and will use your website to judge how good you are at what you do. Your website is not response or mobile ready while you are advertising these services.

      Your case story is a good start, it shows you can design a website that is good-looking. However, I think it's missing a lot of details that could help you get clients. What were the specific challenges, needs or features needed or requested by the customer? How did your expertise made it a success? How could it relate to your audience needs?

      I know a lot of people who make money by building websites. Some are making a lot of money building $300 websites and others are making a lot of money building $20,000 websites. Those with cheap website have spent a lot of money/time on optimizing their process and those selling expensive sites have spent countless hours building their authority and building their network.

      None of them would have been successful if they tried to sell to both market at the same time! Find your niche, establish your strategy and keep working at it.
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      Jason Mailley - Marketing sur internet
      Agence Marketing Montréal

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      • Profile picture of the author ClicProject
        Whatever you do, don´t show anyone who you hope to land as a client your website.
        It is, quite frankly, a disgrace for someone who claims to be a webdesigner.

        If you really want to make it in this industry, you are going to really have to up your game and do some studying on design concepts, color theory, typography, UX etc.

        Or you could just sell people wordpress installs with a nice premium theme. There is a big market for this sort of of thing, many people are quite happy to pay good money for someone to take care of that for them.

        Whatever you do, drop the BS about doing 60K projects and focus on one thing at a time.
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