OK, I've gone on to DP and taken a couple of commissions from people advertising in the WTB area. Hopefully I'll get a couple more and get a few decent iTrader references. What have other people done after this? I can see a number of alternatives - Putting a WTS thread into the Content Creation forum - Writing articles on spec and selling them on the content section - Looking through historical threads on my niche and soliciting work from big but inactive advertisers - Advertising in webmaster forums other than DP - Approaching well established writers asking to refer work they've turned down, or legacy work they want to pass on - Joining freelancer sites I'm not in a hurry, and keeping the current clients happy is the most important thing for me, so with that in mind where would people suggest that I look for. If it's important, my favourite niche is around finance, as that's what I trained in; which tends to mean articles about personal finance, investing or business services.
Here in DP, its a common pre-assumption that a person with good i-traders is considered the better than those without 'many' i-traders. I would suggest you to stay patient, participate in DP forums more since you only have 27 post count since last couple of years, go for BST section if you are interested in selling some of your services and slowly and steadily build your profile here. Get some good orders, fulfill them completely and all the best for your journey !
There are several options available to increase your iTrader'. If that's the only thing you wish to do. 1. Offer your services for free for a period of time. 2. Go and chat in the particular section over one or the other things.(Some threads are really entertaining) 3. If you have spare dollars in your paypal account, buy some services and get rated. One thing you need to remember is, explore DP until you know every nook and corner and then learn things new. But, keep your responses valid and provide apt feedback.
You can create a small website, which outlines your services. Then you could offer your services to local businesses. Doing this can help you to get work that may not have known existed.