Jaclyn Studor

Douglas Coots

J. Smith Associates

Three.Four.Three

Elkha

Never Without

All Wellness

Pao & Lee

Jacob Loose Mansion

Forget Computers

Distillery Studio

Windsor Assurance

Moments Day Spa

Christine Cerniglia

Josef Boutique

Stadium

Igor Saraiva

Taste of Ink Studios

Makken’s

Lori Sangiovani

Alex Doty

Santiago Anglada I Pigrau

Grosz Co Lab

Gouthier Design

B. Clark

For more business cards please see:

• Cool Business Cards
• Personal Business Cards
• Professional Business Cards
• Best Business Cards
• Business Card Templates

For many designers creating an attractive portfolio site is not the problem, getting people to see it is often much more of an issue. In order for the portfolio site to truly do it’s job it must be well-designed and it must attract the right types of visitors. In this post we’ll look at 15 things that you can do to increase the effectiveness of your portfolio site by getting more exposure for it.

1. Have a High-Quality Design for Your Portfolio Site

Not only is the quality of design of the items in your portfolio important, but the design of your portfolio site itself will also have a big impact on potential clients. Clients will expect a designer to have an attractive and usable site, otherwise they will question the work that the designer will be able to do for them.

When designing and coding your portfolio site be sure that it is getting all of the attention that it deserves. After all, it will be one of the most important aspects of your business, so it should not be rushed.

Impressive portfolio sites are great for encouraging visitors to contact you about their project, and they are also more likely to attract links and attention from other designers and bloggers.

2. Get Published in Web Design/CSS Galleries

There are hundreds, possibly even thousands, of gallery sites out there that exist for the purpose of showcasing beautiful websites. Having your site featured in a few of the more popular galleries will help it to attract attention from other galleries and design blogs, which can result in a flood of new visitors and a significant number of inbound links.

Getting your site featured in design galleries isn’t easy, but if you’ve done your best work with your portfolio site you’ll probably want to submit it to some galleries. Submitting to galleries can be rather time consuming, so you may want to consider a service like Gallery Rush that submits your site to a bunch of galleries for a relatively small fee of $17.

In addition to general design and CSS galleries, there are several that focus on showcasing the best portfolio sites, including:

• Folio Focus
• Pixel Perfect Portfolios
• Foliostars

3. Start a Blog

Possibly the best way to attract visitors to your portfolio site is to start a blog on the same domain. As you maintain the blog and publish new content your site will benefit from blog subscribers and repeat visitors, more content that can attract search engine traffic, increased ability to attract links, and a platform for showcasing your skills and expertise.

There are a number of different approaches that you can take with your blog. You may simply want to publish blog posts and content that will appeal to designers in attempt to increase your profile, build links, and establish the quality of your domain. You may want to publish case studies about your client work that will appeal to other designers who want to learn, as well as to potential clients who may be interested in knowing more about how you work. In this way you are able to use the blog to put a spotlight on your work, and hopefully the quality will lead to new clients. Or you could write posts that might answer questions that potential clients would have, or that would be optimized to be found in search results for queries of potential clients.

One of the most important benefits of blogging was mentioned briefly, and that is link building. If your portfolio site includes only a few pages of content (for example, a home page, portfolio page, about page, contact info page), it will be pretty difficult to attract any kind of significant search engine traffic. However, with a blog you will be drastically increasing the amount of content on the site, and that content will be much more likely to draw links from other blogs and from social media sites. Having a blog that attracts links will give your site/blog a chance to rank well for long tail search phrases, and in time your site should receive exponentially more search traffic than it would without the blog.

4. Pursue Freelance Blogging

In addition to publishing posts on your own blog, writing for other blogs also presents some great opportunities. Whether you are writing free guest posts or freelancing with larger design blogs that pay for contributions, you’ll usually receive an author bio at the end of the post that can include a link to your own site, and you’ll also be building up your name recognition.

Major design blogs like Smashing Magazine, Webdesigner Depot, and Six Revisions accept articles from designers and developers, and they pay for published articles. Aside from the larger blogs that pay contributors, writing free guest posts for smaller blogs can also be an excellent way to build links and gain exposure.

5. Build it to Be Search Engine Friendly

If you’re just starting your portfolio site it is unlikely that you’ll get more than a handful of search engine visitors for a while. But if you build the site to be friendly to search engines and if you work on publishing quality content on your blog and attracting links from other sites, you will be in a good position to see that search engine traffic rise over a period of time.

Having a search engine friendly website simply means that it is built to make it easy for search engine spiders to crawl the site and to determine what it is about, and to have a chance to rank well. It involves proper coding, use of page titles and headers, proper site structure, etc. (For a more detailed look at the subject see How to Create Search Engine Friendly Websites.)

6. Participate in Social Networking

Social media and social networking sites present opportunities to attract visitors to your portfolio site or blog, as well as to connect with other designers and build your professional network.

For getting visitors to your blog there are a number of niche-specific sites that are excellent alternatives to major social news sites like Digg. If you’re looking to reach a targeted audience of designers and developers try sites like:

• Design Bump
• Design Float
• DZone
• The Web Blend
• Design Related
• FAQ Pal

Aside from news/voting sites, there are excellent opportunities available to showcase work from your portfolio at networking sites like:

• Behance
• deviantART
• Flickr
• Carbonmade

7. Be Active on Twitter

Twitter is extremely popular with designers, so if you are looking for a place to connect with others you really should be active on Twitter (find us at @VandelayDesign). In terms of getting visitors from Twitter, you can share tweets with links to your blog posts, or tweet links to recently completed projects, or even projects that are in process when you are looking for feedback. Like any other type of social networking, you must genuinely become a part of the community of users in order to have much impact for yourself. If it seems that you are only there for self promotion and not to interact, users will notice and the positive impacts will be minimal.

8. Distribute Freebies

Everyone love freebies. As a designer you can give away free templates, Photoshop brushes, PSD files, vectors, textures, icons, or just about any other type of resource that can be used for design. Giving items away can help to draw new visitors to your site, and maybe they’ll check out your portfolio while they are there. Freebies are also good for building links from other blogs and social media sites, and just as importantly, it gives you an opportunity to show your quality of work to the world. Just because you are giving it away for free doesn’t me that it can’t help to make you land clients or make money, so be sure that whatever you are giving away is up to your level of quality.

In addition to giving away freebies from your own site, you can also produce items to be given away at other sites and blogs, which may help to give some added exposure to your work. Many design blogs work with various designers to produce freebies to give to their readers. If you’re hoping to get your work noticed by a large audience, this may be a great opportunity.

9. Do Interviews

Designers are frequently asked to do interviews for blogs or for students. Although it will take some of your time to do the interview, they are great for getting exposure to new people and for allowing others to get to know more about you. Most people like to work with others that they know and like, so it can even sometimes lead to new clients. Even if it doesn’t lead to a new client, the interview is likely to include a link to your portfolio site and it may even include some screenshots of your work.

10. Join Flickr Groups for Showcasing Your Work

Flickr groups present an opportunity to showcase your work to others, and to receive feedback on your design. There are plenty of Flickr groups that focus on web and/or graphic design (this post is old but much of it is still relevant – 99 Flickr Groups for Design Inspiration). While these groups are unlikely to send a rush of traffic to your site, it is a supplementary way to showcase your work and draw a smaller number of visitors.

11. Design for a High-Profile Client

Some designers have been able to get valuable exposure by designing a site for a high-profile client. In situations where the designer is not yet established, the project will often need to be done for a discounted rate or even for free, but the resulting exposure may more than make up for it.

It’s not rare for clients to ask for a free website in exchange for the “exposure” that you’ll get from it, and in 99% of cases it’s not worth it. However, there may be situations, such as designing a custom theme for a very popular blog, where real exposure could justify a discounted or free service. If you agree to this be sure that you know specifically what type of exposure you will be getting. Are they simply giving you a link in the footer or are they publishing a review of your design services on the blog?

12. Run a Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaign

PPC ads are a great option because they can work with just about any budget, they can be highly targeted, and they can be turned on and off at will. When you’re looking for some new projects you can set up a PPC campaign, and you can even target only local clients if you’d like. You set the maximum amount that you are willing to spend on a daily or monthly basis, and you’ll start reaching some potential clients that are looking for what you have to offer. When things pick up and you are not looking for work you can easily pause the campaign and then restart it when you need more work.

13. Have a Memorable Business Card

Although most of the methods that we have covered in this post involve online marketing or promotional efforts, it is still possible to draw visitors to your site from offline methods. Most designers have business cards that they give out to people that they meet here and there, and hopefully they lead to some business. Having a memorable and attractive business card will help you to stand out and give you a better chance of being the designer that is contacted by the potential client.

If you’re looking for some inspiration or business card resources please see:

• Letterpress Business Cards
• Die Cut Business Cards
• Cool Business Cards
• Personal Business Cards
• 33 Excellent Business Card Templates for Your Own Use
• 11 Tutorials for Business Card Design

14. Sell Templates/Themes

More and more designers are generating income by selling premium WordPress themes or HTML/CSS templates. Selling themes or templates doesn’t have to be your only source of income, they are also great for picking up work from customers who want to get some customizations done to the theme or template. Adding some quality themes or templates for sale from your portfolio site can help to generate interest in your services, in addition to making some money from the sales.

15. Leave Comments on Other Blogs

Another way to attract visitors to your site is by leaving comments on other blogs. Instead of leaving links to your site in the body of your comment, which can lead to your comment being marked as spam or deleted, leave a thoughtful, intelligent comment and provide your URL in the proper field when entering the comment (almost all blogs allow you to leave a URL). No one comment is likely to generate a huge amount of traffic to your site, but if you are leaving a lot of comments that provide useful information and are relevant to the posts/blogs where you are commenting, it can result in a decent number of targeted prospects entering your site.

What’s Your Experience?

If you have a portfolio site, what have you found to be especially effective for gaining exposure, visitors, and new clients?

Model Republic

Thomas Atterdal

Chapolito Web Design

Felix Auer

Lisa Welge

Light + Love

Creative Juice

Babo Therapie

Zabe Mortgage Group

Oak Heights

Fox and Roach Real Estate

Rockpillow Studios

Mark Dormand

Gist

Story Boutique

Scott Lawrence Photography

GMB Photography

Brave Whale

Sketchbot

Jacob Cass

Seth Hay

Reshad Hurree

For more on business card design please see:

• 33 Excellent Business Card Templates for Your Own Use
• Showcase of Die Cut Business Cards
• 33 Letterpress Business Cards for Inspiration
• Cool Business Cards
• Personal Business Cards
• Professional Business Cards

Free Business Card Templates:

5 Business Card Templates Pack (Photoshop)

Colorful Business Card Template (Vector)

Colorful Business Card Templates (Photoshop)

Dark Light (Photoshop)

Technix Business Card (Photoshop and Illustrator)

Business Card Template Pack (Photoshop)

Exclusive Business Card (Photoshop)

Personal Business Card (Photoshop)

Professional, Elegant Business Card Template (Photoshop)

DryIcons Template (Vector)

350dpi Blank Business Card Template (Photoshop)

Premium Business Card Templates:

Translucent Plastic Business Cards (Vector) – $5

Design Studio Business Card (Photoshop) – $5

Blackish Business Card (Photoshop) – $5

Business Card Set (Vector) – $5

Modern Business Card Template (Photoshop) – $5

Hello World (Photoshop) – $5

Initials Business Card (Photoshop) – $5

Modern Business Card (Photoshop) – $5

Retro Card (Photoshop) – $5

7 Vibrant Business Card Templates (Photoshop) $5

JS Business Cards (Photoshop) $5

Motion Business Cards (Photoshop) $5

Colorful Business Card (Photoshop) $5

Modern Business Cards (Photoshop) $5

Generic Business Card (Photoshop) $5

Classical Business Card (Photoshop) $5

Brown Paper Card (Photoshop) $5

Travel Agency Business Card (Photoshop) $5

Professional Business Card (Photoshop) – $1

Business Card No. 3 (Photoshop) – $5

YU Quirky Business Card (Photoshop) – $5

Bokeh Abstract Business Cards (PSD) – $5

For business card design inspiration please see:

• 33 Letterpress Business Cards for Inspiration
• Showcase of Die Cut Business Cards
• Personal Business Cards
• Professional Business Cards
• Cool Business Cards

In attempt to simplify pricing for both the designer and the client, some designers and agencies use package-based pricing with prices listed on their website. While offering proposals or quotes for each project is more common, package-based pricing is used frequently enought that it warrants consideration from the designer or agency.

In this post we’ll take a detailed look at both the pros and cons of listing your prices publicly. It may be worth noting that Vandelay Design does not use package-based pricing, although this has not always been the case. A few years ago packages were listed on the site before deciding to price projects on a case-by-case basis.

Pros of Package-Based Pricing:

1. Gives Visitors a Clear Picture of What to Expect

Many visitors and potential clients really have no idea what to expect in terms of how much they will need to spend for web design and development services. In some cases this is a result of a lack of experience in dealing with the subject, but another contributing factor is that prices can vary so drastically. If a client is looking simply for a low-cost provider, regardless of the type of project there will always be someone who is willing to take on the work (not necesarilly qualified) for a fraction of what most of the competition would charge. This variance in pricing can make it difficult for clients to know what is included at that price, what quality of work and customer service they will receive, and how this compares to their other options.

Clients like to know what to expect, and package-based pricing can give them the general information before they even contact the designer. If the pricing is out of their budget they can move on to another designer, or they can re-consider what they are willing to spend. Clients can make comparisons much easier with package-based pricing, assuming the details and any potential add-ons are clearly provided.

2. Inquiries Will be “Pre-Qualified”

If your website lists the prices of your packages, chances are those clients who cannot afford your services will not take the time to contact you. In this situation, most of the inquiries you receive from potential clients will be of a higher quality because they know about your prices and they are interested (“higher quality” is used here to mean that leads should convert to sales at a higher rate). Of course, you will still get some emails from people who want to see if there are any lower-priced options available or even from people who did not notice the prices on your site, but in general it can help to reduce the amount of time that you spend responding to people who are never going to pay for your services.

3. Saves Time Compared to Pricing Each Project

Developing a quote or an estimate can be a time consuming process. You can’t make an accurate guess without knowing basic information about the client and the details of what they are looking for in the project. You’ll also have to estimate how long it will take you to do each aspect of the project and any costs that you may incur along the way. All of this data will be used to make the estimate.

Creating proposals or estimates takes up a lot of time that you could be using to do other things, and offering package-based pricing can eliminate a lot of that. Clients can evaluate the packages that you have to offer and they can decide if it’s a good fit for their needs. It’s possible that you can get started with a client without spending much time at all on priliminary things before the work is secured.

4. Allows You to Define Exactly What is Involved and Included

Most designers and companies that list package-based pricing on their websites will include a list of everything that is included with each package. This can be helpful for clarification purposes, from the perspective of both the designer and the client. It’s not uncommon for designers to run into issues with clients where there is some confusion about what is included in the service and what will need to be charged an additional amount. Package-based pricing can help with this situation by clarifying up front. It can protect the designer from scope creep and it also gives the client confidence that they know specifically what they are paying for.

5. Allows Clients to Have Options

When package-based pricing is not available and a client gets a proposal or a quote from a designer, they may feel like it’s a take-it-or-leave-it situation. In most cases the designer could probably reduce or increase the scope and price of the project to suit the client’s needs, but this is not always communicated or undestood. Package-based pricing makes it clear to clients what their options are, and they can easily compare the various packages offered by a designer to determine what meets their needs.

Cons of Package-Based Pricing:

1. Reduced Flexibility for Pricing

The main reason that most designers and agencies do not use package-based pricing is that clients and projects are all unique, and this usually requires some flexibility and customization in the pricing and scope of the project. Package-based pricing attempts to put projects into a specific box. Sometimes this works well, but many times the project will have unique characteristics that make it impractical to use a set pricing strategy.

2. May Reduce Number of Inquiries Due to Sticker Shock

Many clients, particularly if you are dealing with small businesses or non-profit organizations, will have unrealistic expectations regarding what they are expecting to pay for web design and development services. When these people see prices listed on your website they may immediately leave if it seems to high, without even examining the details to see what is included as well as to take a look at the quality of your work.

It’s not uncommon for a potential client to receive a quote that they initially feel is too high, but after looking at the details, speaking with the designer, and checking out some competition, they may decide that it’s actually a pretty fair price. In this scenario the designer has the opportunity to clarify the details of the proposal and to pitch it to the potential client. The client may wind up being happy with a price that they initially would have passed up if they had seen it listed as a package price.

3. It’s Difficult to Create Packages if You Offer a Wide Range of Services

Many designers and agencies offer a wide variety of services. Package-based pricing is really only effective in situations where the majority of projects can fit into certain classifications. If you are offering different combinations of services (such as logo design, web design, business card design, SEO, etc.) to your clients, chances are they will not fit into a specific package. The more types of services you offer, the more packages you would need to provide as options, and this can simpy become too overwhelming for clients when there are more than just a few options.

4. Can Be Intrepreted by Clients as a Cookie-Cutter Approach

Clients like to know that their project is important to you and that they are receiving a service that is customized to meet their needs. Package-based pricing can sometimes lead them to feel like they like they are being forced to take a cookie-cutter approach rather than to have their specific needs addressed within the project.

5. You May Still Wind Up Doing a Lot of Custom Quotes

When I used package-based pricing in the past I still wound up preparing a lot of quotes because things just didn’t always fit with one of the packages. I imagine this is also the case for many others who use package-based pricing. While offering packages can certainly save some time in this area, it will not elminate the need to be able to provide custom estimates.

6. Competitors Know What You are Charging

In my opinion this is not really a big deal, and it’s probaly less significant than the other factors listed here, but it’s still something to consider. Many designers aren’t excited about listing their prices publicly so that all of their competitors can see what they are charging.

Conclusion:

There are certainly significant pros and cons for using package-based pricing. The situation where it is most effective is when the projects you are working on are very similar and there is only a difference in terms of scope. For example, PSD to HTML providers typically offer set prices based on factors like the number of pages being coded and the use of a CMS or shopping cart. Add-ons are then available for specific needs and sometimes custom price quotes can be provided depending upon the needs of the client.

In situations where a designer offers a wider selection of services and one project is vastly different from one to the next, package-based pricing will usually not work very well. When packages are used, it’s a good practice to still offer quotes for projects that do not fit within any of the options.

What’s Your Opinion?

Do you use package-based pricing? Why or why not?

Zing Consulting

Creative Bonanza

Timebomb Customs

Wokomon Design

Luice Design

Tee & Whiskey

Chapolito Web Design

Alienfoot

Trajectory

Space150

Still Motion

Antidote X

Ordered List

Di Depux

Optimum Fotography

In60Seconds

Visual Dialogue

Cleverly Gifted

Driv

AlexArts

Orderin

Cafe Java

Lethal Dose 50

(e) Studios Aqua

Greenstone Group

For more on business cards please see:

• 11 Tutorials for Business Card Design
• Showcase of Personal Business Cards
• Showcase of Professional Business Cards
• Showcase of Cool Business Cards

Jason McGrew

Cleverly Cut

Chris Kaufman

Whitney Shaw

Butter Label

Kyle Van Horn

Bryon Darby

Med Traveler Club

Fresh Impression

Sarah Powers Media

Wendy Torello Photography

Vida

Identity Kitchen

SupaFly Designs

Hoey Design

Cinq Partners

Shalini Saycocie

The Mind Spring

MindPunch

Space 150

Jessica Hische

Blok

Matthew Duerksen

My Old Red Hat

Darden Studio

David Jarrell

Caroline Myers

Penelope Jones

Studio Lab

Forget technology

Scarpetta

Colleen Ellse

Brenna Quan

For more on business card design please see:

• 11 Tutorials for Business Card Design
• Showcase of Professional Business Cards
• Showcase of Cool Business Cards
• Showcase of Personal Business Cards

1. Know What You Want to Accomplish

One of the most common mistakes that is made in social media marketing is not having a purpose or a goal. Many businesses and entrepreneurs recognize the power and potential of social media and social networking, so they feel that they need to be involved. However, simply having a Facebook fan page or a Twitter profile is not going to make a real difference.

Developing a social media marketing plan requires having a specific purpose or goal (if you’re using social networking only for fun or personal reasons then, of course, this does not apply). Web designers may want to use social media to find more clients, network with other professionals, or maybe to build links to their blog or portfolio site. The first step to using social media effectively is to have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish. This will shape the approach that you take and the way you use the social media sites. Without having a goal or something that you want to accomplish, there is really no way to know if it is working for you and your business.

2. Market Passively

Users who are new to social media and motivated to use it to market their business will often make the mistake of marketing too aggressively. By nature, social media is all about people interacting with people, and when there is an obvious marketing initiative, many users can be turned off. Aggressive marketing is rarely successful for this reason.

In the case of a designer, an example of passive marketing would be the use of Twitter to communicate with other designers, and possibly with potential clients. Maybe the designer provides help or feedback to other users from time-to-time. Others may see this designer as being helpful and qualified, and when they are in need of services they may reach out to this designer.

3. Choose the Right Sites

There are hundreds, probably thousands, of social media and social networking sites out there. Of course, you cannot possibly use them all or even be active at a large number of them. It’s much more effective to have an active presence at just a few social media sites than to have a not-very-active profile at hundreds of social media sites.

The best approach is to decide on a small number of social media sites (maybe 2-4) that would be ideal for what you want to accomplish. For designers, Twitter is a great place to be active because almost every designer is on Twitter. If you’re hoping to use social media to promote posts on your design blog, niche sites like Design Bump and Design Float can provide a much more targeted audience (although significantly less traffic potential) than major social news sites.

Chose a few sites that work well for what you are trying to accomplish, and don’t worry about not being active at all of the other social media sites. Focus your social media efforts on the specific sites you are targeting so that you can have enough time there to make an impact.

4. Be a Consistent Part of the Community

Once you have chosen the specific sites that you want to target, make an effort to use them on a consistent basis. Social networking is one of those things that can easily get pushed to the back burner when you are busy, so if it is a priority in your marketing strategy, make sure that you have some time allocated for social networking on a regular basis (preferably every day, but at least several times per week).

Social media users are pretty good at picking out who is using the site to truly be a part of the community and who is using it strictly to market themselves or their business. If you become a consistent user that really becomes a part of the community, occasionally marketing your products or services will generally go over a lot better than if you are not a consistent user, and only participating when you want to market yourself.

5. Be Helpful and Approachable

The designers who are most effective at using social media to promote themselves have developed a reputation for being helpful and approachable. People often choose to do business with people that they like. Developing a good reputation and making some friends can go a long way towards improving your business through social media. Rather than using Twitter to always announce your availability for work you could take a few minutes to answer questions asked by other users.

6. Have a Blog

Social media and blogging often go hand in hand. A high percentage of social media users also have a blog, and a high percentage of bloggers also have some social media profiles. Having a blog allows you to use social media for drawing traffic to your site and to build links as well. Blogs are also great for interacting and communicating with others.

Just like you need to have a purpose for your activity on social media sites, you also need to have a purpose for your blog. Are you using the blog to attract visitors who may be potential clients? Are you using it to connect with other designers and developers? Do you want to use the blog to increase your profile in the industry? Do you want to use the blog to supplement your income (such as ad revenue or template/theme sales)? The purpose of your blog will determine the types of content that you publish.

7. Share Your Work

If you are hoping to pick up new clients or to increase the awareness of your work through social networking, you may want to share your work. If you’ve just finished a client project that you’re really proud of, consider sharing a link on Twitter, Facebook, or whatever sites you are using. Showing your work (assuming it is quality) can help to put yourself in the minds of those who may be looking for a designer.

Although it can be helpful and productive to share your work, it also goes back to the issue of being an active, consistent user. If you’re only using social media to showcase your work and not interacting with users in other ways, it is unlikely to be very effective. However, if you’re an active user who has developed a strong reputation and you’re occasionally sharing your work and looking for feedback from other users, it can be much more effective.

8. Link to Your Portfolio and Blog from Your Social Profiles

Almost every social media site will provide you with a profile page that allows you to link to your own URL. Doing so will not send floods of traffic to your site, but it will make it easier for other users of the social media site to track you down or just to learn more about what you do. People who do not know you may come across your social profile and click through to your blog or your portfolio site, and this may even lead to new clients.

9. Integrate Social Media into Your Blog

Having a blog also provides a lot of opportunities to cross-promote your social media profiles and to improve interaction with blog readers. There are plenty of ways to display recent tweets on your blog, to integrate your Facebook profile, or to encourage social media votes with voting buttons or widgets. Among design blogs, buttons for niche sites like Design Bump are common, and re-tweet buttons are also very common now on just about any type of blog.

By integrating social media into your blog you can increase the number of people who are following you or interacting with you via social media, which of course can increase the impact that you are having with social media. Ideally, you’ll want to use social media sites that a high percentage of your blog readers are also using so that there is maximum opportunity for people to connect with you.

10. Focus on Depth of Relationships Rather than Numbers of Friends or Followers

When using social media it’s easy to get caught up in numbers of followers, fans, or friends. In reality, those numbers will not have nearly as much to do in determining your success with social media marketing as compared to the depth and quality of the relationships that you make. Having a high follower count on Twitter doesn’t necessarily mean that you are able to convert those followers into anything meaningful for your business. On the opposite end of the spectrum you could have a much smaller number of followers and still have a greater impact if you are developing real relationships with them and landing new clients as a result.

While numbers can be indicative of impact, that is not always the case. Rather than going after high numbers, make an effort to actually develop something meaningful by getting to know other users. A few solid contacts that come out of social media and networking will make it very much worth your time.

11. Take Advantage of Available Resources

There are plenty of resources available that have been created for the purpose of improving your experience with social networking. Twitter in particular has a huge number of of resources and apps that work with the API. Free options like TweetDeck and Hootsuite can easily save time in your use of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. There are also apps and software that you can buy for specific purposes, but in most cases the free options are pretty good.

By finding an app that will help you to make more efficient use of your time you can easily have a bigger impact and grow your network without the need to spend more time on social media sites. Since several great free resources are available there is really no reason to not take advantage of them.

12. Have a Long-Term Focus

If your goal with social media is to pick up a new client quickly because you’re in need of work, it’s probably not the most effective way to meet those needs. The best way to use social media for the purposes of marketing yourself and your services is to take a long-term approach. Building a strong profile and network on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can take a considerable amount of time, which lends itself to being more valuable in the long-term view.

With a proper long-term perspective, social media can tremendously help to improve your exposure in the industry and provide opportunities for getting to know others. At this point when you have established yourself and your social media profile, it is likely that more work will find you and you may not even need to use social media to actively market yourself.

13. Don’t Allow it to Consume Your Time

Although social media can be a great thing for designers (or other professionals for that matter), it can also be a serious waste of time if it’s not kept under control. It’s easy to lose track of how much time you are spending on social media sites, so be sure that your social media efforts are not hampering your ability to perform services for clients or to run your business.

What’s Your Experience?

Are you a social media user? If so, do you have any advice for using social media to promote yourself?

For more freelancing-related content please see:

• 15 Steps to a More Productive Workday
• Freelance Designers: 9 Ways to End a Productive Workday
• Having a Long-Term Purpose as a Freelance Designer
• 9 Tips for Establishing Your Own Marketing Method as a Freelancer

In this article we’ll look at a series of tips and suggestions that are aimed at designers who want to network more successfully, but without committing large amounts of time each day or each week. The idea is to get as much benefit as possible from a reasonable time commitment that can be accommodated by just about any schedule.

1. Organize Your Contacts

Whenever efficiency and minimizing time commitment are the goals, evaluating and improving organization is a great place to start. If you are wasting time trying to find an email address, a phone number, or a name from someone that you met a few months ago, that is a lack of productivity that could be avoided with better organization.

There are any number of ways you can organize your contacts. You can use a program like Outlook or Thunderbird, or you could choose a full-feature CRM like Highrise. How you organize your contacts is less important than the fact that you actually have a method for doing so. Each person is different, and you should consider your own needs work habits in deciding on a solution.

For more, see 12 CRM Options for Freelancers.

2. Take Advantage of Useful Tools and Resources

Aside from organizing, another part of achieving efficiency involves making use of resources that are available to make networking less time consuming and more effective. Particularly when dealing with online networking, there are a number of resources available, some free and some for pay. Two examples that are highly useful for designers are Skype and TweetDeck. With Skype you can talk to people all over the world to get in touch whenever necessary. TweetDeck makes it possible to use Twitter effectively without spending all day reading and sending tweets. Personally, my usage of Twitter multiplied exponentially after I started using TweetDeck while still not losing productivity.

Skype and TweetDeck are certainly not the only options, they are simply two examples. Make an effort to find resources like this that can help you to get more out of your networking efforts while keeping the time requirements low.

3. Set Aside Time in Your Schedule for Networking

Because networking activities tend to get pushed to the back burner in favor of other more urgent tasks, it may be necessary to build blocks in to your schedule in order to find time to network. Simple networking activities won’t require that you give up large amounts of time away from your income-generating work. For example, you could block off an hour to update your LinkedIn profile and look for some new connections, set up a day to meet a contact for lunch, or even to simply read some blog posts and respond in the comments.

Of course, some types of networking activities will require more time (such as traveling to a conference or an event), but just building in small amounts of time in your weekly schedule can make a noticeable difference.

4. Think About Your Career Path

One of the reasons that networking is so important is that it can play a crucial role in career advancement and development. Knowing the right person and being in the right place is just as important as having the right skills. However, in order for your networking efforts to truly be effective in helping you to get the career that you want, you’ll need to think about which direction you want to go with your career.

Networking without a plan may lead to some great opportunities, but networking with a plan will give you a much better chance of getting the results you are looking for. Take some time to think about your future. For example, if you goal is to be a freelance designer, making connections with people who can help you to land more work would be very significant. On the other hand, if you are freelancing with the goal of being hired by an agency, you would be more likely to meet your goals by working towards making some contacts with designers and/or managers from various agencies.

5. Identify Key People

After you have given consideration to the path that you would like to take with your career, you should take some time to identify key people who would be able to have an influence. Once you know who you would like to get to know, make an effort to connect with them in one way or another. If they have a blog, you could start by getting involved in the comments on their posts, linking to their posts and writing your own responses, or you could even contact them about writing for their blog. If you know what groups or professional associations they are involved with, you could make an effort to get involved there as well.

Knowing specifically who you want to connect with will help you spend your time in the right way. Your efforts will lead to better results, as opposed to networking with whoever you happen to come across.

There are a few things that should be pointed out here. First, while identifying your key contacts is a good habit, always keep in mind that networking is a two-way street and simply using them for your own gain is neither ethical nor effective. The most effective way to network is to find ways for mutual benefit, so first you should be looking at how you can help them or what it is you can bring to the table.

Second, keep in mind that if you have identified these people as being key, chances are many other designers like you have done the same. Getting connected to an influential person is not easy because they most likely have a lot of people contacting them on a regular basis, which is all the more reason why you need to know what you have to offer them.

Third, have realistic expectations. Depending on your level of experience, you may want to work on your designing and networking skills for a while before reaching out to those key people that you have identified. It may be more effective to dedicate the time to improving yourself as a designer and building up your network of people who are at comparable places in their careers and work your way towards your key people.

6. Integrate Networking into Your Work

One of the most effective ways to build your network without losing valuable working time is to combine the two activities. The are a number of ways that you could do this. Personally, I stumbled across one method a few years ago without even realizing that it could pay huge dividends. In my situation it was freelance blogging that allowed me to go about my business and build my network at the same time. I started to write for other blogs as a paid contributor because it gave me a way to make some money in addition to designing, but what I found out is that it was an extremely effective way to get to know influential people in the industry. As a paid writer for a number of successful design blogs and publications, I’ve had the privilege of getting to work with some very talented and well-connected people.

Many freelance designers do some work that agencies choose to outsource. Just like the freelance blogging example, this can be a very effective way to build your network without neglecting the income-generating work that you need to do. If you already maintain a blog of your own, one effective method would be to interview other designers and post the interviews to your blog. Most designers are open to accepting interview requests, and it will give you a good opportunity to learn and to build some ties to the other designer while simply producing content for your blog. Regardless of what your approach may be, if you can find ways to strengthen your network while still focusing on your work, you will be well on your way to building the network that you need without much time commitment.

7. Pursue Collaborations

Building on the previous point, collaborative efforts are great for strengthening your network while still staying focused on your primary business objectives. Your collaboration could be the sharing of referrals with someone who offers complimentary services, developing an app with someone you know, starting a multi-author blog, working with someone else to design and develop templates for sale, and the possibilities are endless.

Collaborations are great because they allow people to focus on what they do best and to complement each other’s skills. Additionally, it allows you to build very strong relationships with other professionals that can often lead to bigger and better opportunities. Like point number 6, it also allows you to earn some money and make very productive use of your time while strengthening your network.

8. Maintain Quality Relationships

A strong network is based more on quality of relationships than quantity. Rather than trying to get some contact with every designer out there, make an effort to build a few very strong relationships. Making the most of the connections you have may be more important than dedicating time and effort to making additional connections (of course, this depends on your situation and your existing network).

In order to maximize the connections that you already have, make an effort to stay in touch with the people who seem like they would be the best fit for your network. Find new ways to work together or just get to know more about them. Stronger relationships and connections will be much more likely to lead to something significant than several casual connections.

9. Up the Level

There are a lot of different ways to communicate with others and different levels of networking. This would include things like leaving comments on blogs, responding to forum postings, using IM, tweeting back and forth, email, phone, face-to-face, etc. If you’re looking to get more impact with your networking efforts, take it to the next level. If all of your contact with someone has been done via email, make an effort to get on the phone with that person. If you’ve always spoken on the phone, try to set up a face-to-face meeting. Different levels of communication and networking will produce varying results. Getting to interact with someone on a deeper level can lead to a stronger connection.

Of course, it may not always be feasible to take it to the next level, such as a face-to-face meeting, but try to consider the situation thoroughly. If you are trying to build a strong network while still maintaining an active business that involves plenty of design work you will typically be spending only small amounts of time networking and slowly developing some connections. On the other hand, if there is a convention or conference in your area that you could attend for a day or two, you would miss some time for client work, but you could have a better impact with the time that you allocate for networking.

10. Minimize Meaningless Activities

Since you want to achieve greater efficiency with your networking activities, pay attention to the results that you are getting and dedicate your time to those activities that are producing results. If you are spending an hour every day on social media sites hoping that your Diggs and Stumbles will send enough traffic to someone that they will notice you, most likely you could be more successful with other methods.

What’s meaningless and unproductive for one person may be very effective for someone else, so give it some time and evaluate your own results to make the best decision for yourself. After you have been consistently networking for a while, adjust your strategy and your schedule accordingly so that you are getting the most out of your time.

What is Your Experience?

How do you go about building your network while still maintaining focus on your primary services to clients?

Because there are so many designers out there competing for work, knowing how you plan to market yourself is critical. Some freelancers who have had a few years to establish their businesses are fortunate enough to generate most of their work through word-of-mouth marketing, but this is the exception, not the rule.

In this article we’ll look at the subject of marketing yourself as a freelancer, but the information will also be applicable to small design studios. Regardless of whether you are just getting started as a freelancer or whether you have a good bit of experience, giving consideration to your marketing efforts is a worthwhile activity.

1. Consider Your Ultimate Plans and Goals

For some, freelancing is a temporary gig that will be used to build a portfolio and ultimately to find full-time employment. For others, the goals may include branching out and turning the business into something more than just an individual freelancer (see this interview with Matthew Jurmann of CHROMATIC for some good insight). And still for others, freelancing may be a long-term plan, something that you see yourself doing 10 years down the road.

Whatever situation you are in, these goals and plans should be kept in mind as you attempt to market yourself. Different purposes should result in different approaches. For example, if your primary goal is to build a portfolio to help you land a full-time job, setting up an attractive and effective portfolio site is a must. Many students who set up a portfolio site for this purpose will even list their graduation date and availability for hire. Taking low-priced work or starting personal projects in order to add something of quality to your portfolio may be necessary, whereas if you have other long-term goals this may not be something that fits into your plan.

2. Have a Branding Approach

Branding is usually associated with companies more than it is with individuals, such as freelancers, but it can be equally effective when used properly. How do you want potential clients to remember you? Adii Pienaar successfully marketed himself as a WordPress rockstar and became recognized as one of the leading WordPress designers. After the reputation had been established, he teamed up with some other talented designers and started WooThemes, which quickly become one of the leaders in selling premium WordPress themes. I’m sure that Adii’s branding helped WooThemes, especially in the early days of it’s existence.

Take some time to consider how you want to be viewed as a designer, and think about what it will take to get you to that point. Your marketing approach should be steering things in this direction.

3. Consider Name Recognition

The importance of name recognition for freelancers can be debated. In my opinion, it’s not necessary for success, but those who do have well-established names in the industry will certainly benefit in a number of different ways. In terms of marketing, this is an area where you should again consider your ultimate goals. If you’re planning to freelance only in the short-term, there are other things that are much more important than building strong name reputation, which can take a considerable amount of time. However, if you are planning to be an independent designer for the foreseeable future, or if you hope to use your freelancing career as a springboard to other opportunities (such as writing a book or speaking at conferences), name recognition is important.

4. Consider Your Ideal Client or Target Market

One of the first things any new business owner should consider during the planning stages is the target market of their product or service. However, many designers haven’t given sufficient amounts of thought to what types of clients they would like to work with. Having a clearly defined target market can make all of your other marketing and promotional efforts much easier. Once you have a better idea of who you would like to work with, you can do a better job of optimizing your site for particular searches, branding yourself in a particular way, advertising in certain places, and more.

Some things to consider when working on narrowing down your target market include, geographic location (do you want to target local clients?), type of business, specific type of work that you want to do for them, CMS or platform, budget, and anything else that can be used to describe the clients or the work that you want to land. Keep in mind that this is just your target market, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able and willing to take other work as well.

5. Consider Specialization

As a freelance designer or developer you may be able to offer a vast amount of options to your potential clients, or you may choose to focus or specialize in certain types of work. There is no right or wrong answer to the issue of specialization for freelancers, but it is something you should think about in terms of how it could impact your ability to market yourself, land clients, the rates you can charge, your ability to stay up-to-date in the field, and your own satisfaction in your work.

Perhaps specializing in something like e-commerce design or development for a particular CMS would bring significant benefits to your business. While there are plenty of reasons to specialize, there are also some drawbacks: you may not like doing the same type of work all the time; you may be limiting the number of potential clients; and if the type of work you specialize in loses its demand for clients, you could struggle to find work.

6. Develop a Small Advertising Budget

Most freelancers and small design firms invest nothing in advertising, and if you can run a successful business without it you may be ok. However, there may be times when your workload slows down and it would be nice to have a little bit of money set aside for advertising. It doesn’t require a lot of money to advertise a freelance business. You may be able to get some excellent results with a targeted PPC campaign that shows ads to well-qualified potential clients. These ads are great for freelancers because they can quickly and easily be turned on and off so that they are only running when you are in need of work.

Of course, PPC is not the only advertising option. You could purchase banner ads on targeted sites for relatively small amounts of money, or you could move offline and try other methods (although most people looking for a web designer will focus their search online). Think of your marketing budget as an investment in your business, and don’t forget that business expense can be tax-deductible.

7. Work on Finding Partners

Although freelancers are independent workers, they do not have to be disconnected from other professionals in the field. In fact, most successful freelancers have built a strong network. You may find that developing connections with others in similar fields may be great sources of new clients and mutually beneficial relationships. When I say “work on finding partners” I’m not referring to finding others that will become your official business partners with whom you share ownership (alhough that is a possibility). Rather, I am referring to finding others that you can work together with in some capacity.

As an independent designer, I sometimes receive inquiries for work that would not be a great fit for my schedule and my skills. In these cases I may refer them to another designer that I think will be a better fit. However, I don’t search for specific designers for these jobs, I’ve just had the opportunity to network with many talented people over the past few years and the relationships have developed naturally. Work on building your network and keeping an eye open for those who you could partner with in some way.

8. What’s in Your Portfolio?

Most potential clients who will be considering your services will be evaluating your online portfolio, and the work that they find will be a huge influence on whether they contact you or move on to another designer. Is the work in your portfolio beneficial to your marketing? Is it relevant to your ideal client? Does it represent your best work?

If your portfolio is out of date or lacking in these areas, your marketing efforts could be greatly impacted. It’s a good idea to get your portfolio to a level that you are satisfied with before investing considerable time and/or money marketing yourself.

9. Consider Blogging

There are any number of ways that you can get people to see your portfolio, but blogging has proven to be very effective for some designers. Blogging can be an excellent way to build name recognition, to brand yourself, and to network with other designers and developers. Personally, blogging has been more influential on my career as a designer than just about anything else.

If you’re in need of exposure to potential clients, consider blogging as a means for gaining that exposure. Maintaining a successful blog does take time and effort, but using it to market a freelance business does not require so much time that it is not possible. In addition to starting and maintaining a blog on your portfolio site, you could also consider writing posts for various blogs that accept posts from freelancers.

For more on business and productivity, please see:

• 15 Steps to a More Productive Workday
• 12 Realities of Pricing Design Services
• Freelance Designers: 9 Ways to End a Productive Workday