Best way to find clients for Web Design/Graphic Design?

I used to get a client from "word of talk" mostly about 1 or 2 every month which was steady income. Right now I'm struggling to find clients and I have tried getting on forums like DP for example, myspace, and entering in contests but no luck.

So where do most of you guys find your clients?

My Portfolio:

http://www.sa-designs.net

 

Can you please post a link to your current portfolio / company website? Im almost always looking for quality freelance designers (please, no spam email!).

 

Most of my clients are from DP However, I started off with craigslist.. the best way to get clients is from word of mouth of happy clients

 

My portfolio site is http://www.sa-designs.net

 

That's a good portfolio.. have you tried marketing your site so you can get clients off it?

 

You have a couple of nice designs, but a few I would remove. To be honest, http://www.tooffstone.com/ is hideous and looks like something from the mid-90s. Build up your portfolio with a few "web 2.0" / "modern" designs, sell the templates on DP and SP (and get a little bit of free advertising too, then start to market your services. Best of luck buddy.

 

hahahah Yes I know its a very ugly site but the client wanted me to design it that way and I had a hard time designing it because it was so weird. I haven't updated my portfolio because I have so many works I need to get ready to publish on the site but for sure I will take that site down. Yes I think selling templates is a good idea...


Thanks for all the comments you guys

Yes I have tried marketing it with business cards and stuff and I got a few clients and calls and thats about it..

 

I mostly count on word of mouth (clients finding me more clients), it's worked for the past 6 years or so.

The biggest problem that is killing freelancers right now are those stupid websites that let anyone "desktop publish" their own stuff, live on a webpage, and then get prints made for cheap.

 

Why not start a blog about web design (trends, news, etc)?

 

Word of mouth is great but also try just passing out business cards to people you know. You should always give someone 2 cards, one for them and one for them to give to anyone they want.

 

Yah I was thinkin bout making a blog about webdesign etc.. but that also needs marketing so I'd rather just market the main website. I just tried out craigslist today and got 2 clients already...

 

Word of mouth is the best way to start. If what you design is good, clients will always mention you to others. After a while you'll have too much to do and can sub-contract the work out

Web Designers

 

Mastanarek,

You have many options if you are a skilled web design/graphic designer. One of them (and I guess it is one of the most powerful) is to create a video tutorial and show some interesting stuff in creation there. Some graphic work, let's say. Then upload the video in some of the most popular video sharing communities and enjoy the effect

Hope it helps,

Nathan

 

Try the freelancer sites like getacoder.com , getafreelancer.com and scriptlance.com those are hrad to get customers if you are new comer. I will suggest to charge them low fee with good support to build reputation. Once your rep si good, you will got more customers. I always go there to find coder for my project include designer. hope this help.

 

I would agree with drig. loose tooffstone. It is your weekest piece. Better to have fewer and stronger than more and inconsistant. Good luck.

 

Hi,

I would say, definitely try craigslist. You will find
clients there. And anyways, everything sells on craigslist

 

Try freelance sites

Then try to get your sites viewd by as many as posile intrested people ....

 

You can post online at places like elance. But then you are competing on price. Hard to compete with designers overseas.

Try advertising with PPC. Do targeted ads. Ex: Not "web designer" but "your city web designer". Usually less expensive and converts better.

Try advertising on niche directories. Most offer free and paid listings.

 

There are outsources (gotta hate it) but they often have lower quality, best to have a strong portfolio over that eh?

Local market is good

 

Your work isn't bad, you look good at programming, and even flash.
However, a lot of your pieces are out of date in the field of Graphic Design. You need to improve your skills in that field ALWAYS constantly.

I would also recommend, putting up flyers in your home town even, if at all possible. Business cards passed to friends and family and acquaintances, and also posting on forums, dealing with related topics.

Example? Try posting on a graphic design only forum, because you might have hundreds of graphic designers who dont know where to put their work, or who to buy from. Try posting at a site dealing with real estate agents if there is one, i bet they are rich and need to advertise their work.