Hi,everyone. I'm a web designer from China. In part- time,I take some job by the freelancer website. Now I spend 3-4 hours per day and I can earn about 200-300 dollars. But I hope I could earn more, so I decide begin my online business. I have some skills but I'm not familar with the foreign market for me. So I need your help, any advice will be appreciated. the list of my skill: good web design.(html,dhtml,css,flash,dreamweaver and etc) common web programmer(javascript,php/mysql) good SEO, common online marketing. Not fluent english writting, as above.
Are you saying you earn 200-300 per day or per month? If per month, then consider simply taking more work (explained below) or raise your prices a bit. If per day, then you are doing pretty well already Well, simply get yourself a portfolio website (tell what you can do, and what you've done) and start looking for more work from these forums. There's also places like rentacoder.com etc. where you can get jobs. After your website is up, make sure to put it to your signature (and promote it). If you are not fluent in English writing, then ask somebody to proofread the website for you (that shouldn't cost too much, besides some people could probably do it for free (or to get Green Reputation from you))
Are you saying you earn 200-300 per day or per month? Sorry 200-300 a month. There's also places like rentacoder.com etc. where you can get jobs. Yes I have got jobs from these websites. But I only can do these jobs in part - time. ( I have a full-time job, so I have no more time). Thanks.
I don't know whether I could post my portfolio here. But you can easy find it by my username in google, adding site:www.rentacoder.com.
You can be making 200-300 per design, or probably slightly more, depending. Post a thread on DP, and make a public portfolio. As for time constraints, thats a problem, but if you really want this, you should find some time, in between. Wake up an hour earlier, or sleep an hour later. The paychecks will alleviate the pain.
I think you should also look into improving your English. I have seen many project posters on freelancer sites to demand good English and good communication skills. And a general thing... even though you don't know perfect English, you still can go by general writing conventions (space after commas and full stops; no space before them; good paragraph structure etc.) I have come to judge poor writing as a sign of carelessness or being amateur. But maybe that is just me. Then again, I see a lot of people who can't put two words together be successful in their businesses... About starting a business, you can start by craeting a website of your own. Your design there will be representative of your skills. Other freelancing sites I know are scriptlance.com and getafreelancer.com Good luck!
Forum marketing is good for what you want to do. Create a sales page and then put links to samples of your work. Start a testamonial page as well. Then come up with a hyperlinked keyword and short ad and put it in your sig file. Start joining several forums and making posts. People will go to your page and you will begin to get busy. How do I know this. I started an website and blog article writing business for my college son who is majoring in journalism. He is earning $500-$1000 a month part time now writing articles and we have a full time business for the rest of us doing the same thing. We have never paid for any advertising. Just did it with forum marketing and referrals and so can you. Good Luck!