If anyone could help me out here i would be most grateful. For the last couple of years i have been doing seo and affiiate marketing which is prooved pretty good, however i want to move into the field more of SEO Consultancy working with local companies, expanding the field as the business grows. The problem i have is that although (without sounding big headed) i know im pretty good at seo all the sites i have done it on thus far have been sites of my own and so if a future client wants to check out my work done then i can only show him my sites and opens up a grey area. Im therefore looking to help some people with seo work for free in exchange for me being able to use them as 'previous clients' on a link on my site and maybe have a short evulation of the service. I am looking to go into the freelance type work early in Janurary so am looking to work with some websites asap to build up a client base. Please drop me a pm if you are interested or want to chat. * * * apologies if posted in the wrong area on the forums, please move it if you feel should be posted elsewhere. Thanks
I hate to burst your bubble, but it's practically November 2007, and if you're looking for results by January 2008 you're going to be in for a disappointment. January 2009 (or if you really want to be bold, July 2008) would be more realistic. As for clients wanting to see prior work, just show them your portfolio. Even if it's devoid of prior client work, inform your prospective clients that you have the skills that you're advertising (which they're obviously interested in using, otherwise they wouldn't be wasting their time talking to you in the first place), but that your experience has primarily come from non-consulting work. Stress your experience with affiliate marketing and marketing in general, and construct your sales pitch around your experience with that field, and how combining the two into a single package (read: YOU) can improve your clients' bottom line. Afterall, half of consulting is sales anyway (landing the account) - the rest is just business as usual (read: work).
carl go to getafreelancer.com and you can bid on loads of projects ... this could give you some good feedback if you are good
Freelancer sites in general just aren't worth it, especially if if you're trying to establish a consulting practice. When you're consulting you're selling your NAME, REPUTATION, as well as your SERVICES. Which means you need to find a niche or target market and maximize it - you can't do that on freelancer sites since you're just a part of the background noise then, no matter how good you get/are.
FreeTraffic, were you even paying attention to what I said? Freelance sites will not work for this - he needs to get his name out there and develop his own network of clients who will be referring more work to him than he can handle. Freelance sites can do some things very well, but developing a consulting practice is not one of them.
You need to establish a brand. Sure, you might find a few paying clients via these Freelancing sites but will they help you in the long term? Look at the bigger picture. You need to work on getting recognition from the SEO community. A good start would be to perhaps start a SEO blog. Getting yourself noticed though will be no easy feat. - Matt
I wouldn't start with an SEO blog right away, actually. I'd do that after I've gotten some recognition by other people in the industry before doing that - because then I'll already have a potential reader base that I can use to start off with, especially if the content I produce is enough to get some viral marketing (read: word of mouth marketing) among SEO bloggers going. That's just my take though and may not work for everyone.