Hey everybody. I recently launched a WordPress coding site, which is my first venture outside of finding jobs though forums. I was curious how you guys would go about building a customer base. I know after a while my main source of clients will probably be from word of mouth, but I still have to get those initial customers which is tough. So far I've just been advertising on the usually boards, but I'm looking for more ways/places. Any help is appreciated, thanks.
You are right word of mouth will most likely become your main source of business, you can also begin to start an SEO / Link building campaign in reference to the services you offer and can provide to prospective customers. This is your online marketing customer stream which is the type of customers you want, you want to target and appeal to people who are looking for 'Wordpress coding & customization' for example. If the link in your signature is your business website which I assume it is then PSD to Wordpress coding is the service which you will be mostly looking to target in the search engines and with link building campaigns.
You can talk to other website owners...Meaning you can have an affiliate program letting the owner of the website know, if they refer someone to you they can get a percentage. You can also promote your serivices on the classified ad sites like backpage,craiglist, kijiji. Another thing you can do is make keyword targeted videos....this will allow the search engines to pick up the video and rank it. Forums are good too. The warrior forum is a good place to sell your services...there many people like software experts, writers, coders etc. That sell there services on the warriors forum.
I'd like to support famous2313 in saying that forums are a great place to build a customer base. You might even (Depending on your specialty) try offering you services in tandem with someone who sells flips Wordpress websites to create unique plugins, for example. To do this you could check out Flippa and contact sellers. You might even try answering requests for coders and say, "Hey if you ever need anything else, check out my website.." or develop some free plugins for something like Wordpress. (I know I use Wordpress as an example a lot, I just know that's one of the big things people request coders for around Digital Point.)
Can you start with contacts you know? Offer them free service if its within your budget. Get their feedback. After, ask if they could refer some clients to you. Now, when you approach this stranger client, you will already have people that have tried your service and have gotten feedback from them.