Photo by powerbooktrance

Freelance Switch has an interesting article about Passive Marketing for Freelancers. My freelancing work really took off in the last couple of months, so I want to share with you my thoughts on topics such as: How do I find new work? How do I manage to convince people to come back to me again and again with new projects?

The strong portfolio

When I made the switch to full-time freelancing about a year ago, my best tool for finding new clients was my web design portfolio. I had quite a few designs to show, considering I used to work as Flash Designer and then Creative Designer for almost 5 years before making the switch.

Although this is still working for me, I feel that my portfolio and services aren’t properly marketed on my website right now. That’s why I’m working on a redesign and writing some more content, so that the website can really work as a passive marketing tool.

Here’s my advice to freelancer / bloggers: build a website, add a killer portfolio, describe services, add a bold, very visible “hire me” link, then just sit and watch your Inbox fill up with project requsts.

The happy clients

After one year of working as a freelancer, I met quite a few people, worked on quite a few projects, and I have to say the thing that works for me best is repeat clients and referrals. Don’t mean to brag or anything, but my clients are always happy. If you want to have happy, returning clients, the first thing you need to do is improve your people skills.

What do I mean by that? I mean listening to your client’s needs, being polite and most of all being patient. For most of my clients, an important aspect (next to the quality of my work) of working with me was the fact that I was patient and listened to their every problem. For me this is not a big effort to make, because this is who I am: I like to help my clients make the best of the website or blog that I create for them. But if you do have to make an effort, then by all means… do it! You’ll be surprised how that will affect your referrals ratio.

There’s one other thing that’s crucial to having return customers and even getting new referrals: when things go bad or you’re just not getting through to your client, DON’T start burning bridges!

The honesty

As a freelance, it’s a good idea to blog about how you work, about how you handle a project, even about more sensitive aspects like pricing or client relationships. Talking about all of these things in a sincere manner will help your potential clients see you for who your are. That way, they can make an informed decision about whether your’re the guy for the job.

As you can imagine, this also works the other way around, meaning you will be able to filter your potential clients, by making an upfront statement: “Hey, this is how I work, this is who I am. If you don’t like it, sorry, but it will difficult to work together”. This way you can work only with the people that are as dedicated to a certain project as you are.

In conclusion

Combine all of the above and you’ve got instant addiction. To your services, of course. ;)