How to get clients while being a freelance web developer?
Everybody wants to make money, right? There are many web developers out there who have a lot of experience in doing side projects but can’t pull clients. This article is exactly for those people.
However, if you are a person who has been doing web development for just 3–4 months only, then I would suggest you not to rush the process and jump straight into clients. Take it slow, learn, research, invest more time into the hobby, and then see if you actually like the process or not, and only then decide whether you are ready to develop a website for a client/business.
Remember this, don’t work for money, instead work for your passion. This may not apply to everyone but just a motto I follow.
Upwork
Upwork is one of the best freelancing platforms I’ve ever come across. You got a section to find freelancers as well as freelancing offers based on your skill. You can view how much money your client has paid to other freelancers, what projects they’ve worked on, etc.
You get these thing called “connects” every month. It’s basically the same concept as credits. You require a minimum of x connects to send a proposal to a client. The value of x is determined by the client itself.
If you know how to set up your profile and send proposals the right way, you’ll be getting clients left, right, and center. One of the best in my opinion.
You might be wondering, why did I put Reddit 2nd? Isn’t it a social media platform for memes and porn? Well, guess what? no.
It’s actually very very VERY useful for us freelancers too. There are multiple subreddits such as: -
r/forhire
r/slavelabour
r/programmingrequests
r/programmingtasks
r/remotejs
r/webdev
And maybe even through your local city’s subreddit. Back then I got my first ever client through r/dubai. So that’s why, Reddit is an awesome place to interact and get clients.
Cold Mailing/Calling
If you’re familiar with the topic of “cold mailing”, it’s the process of getting a client's email before they come to you and mailing them personally about your skill and your offer. The majority don’t like this, but it still has a slight chance.
Cold mailing is one difficult task, but it’s definitely worth it. This can be a bit hard and tedious task, but if it’s done right, then you can crack multiple clients. What you gotta do is, google “industry name website city name” and you’ll get multiple results. Most trading and construction companies have quite bad/old websites which haven’t been updated since 2010.
Now to extract all contact details from their landing page, you can use a Google plugin such as ‘Email Finder’ or ‘Swordfish’. Then just research about the company, draft an email suggesting them what they could improve to get more clients and leads, etc. and hit send.
Family Friends/Relatvies
Ask your parents to tell your relatives about the work you do and you’d be surprised how many relatives might need a website for their new startup or business. The only downside is, you’d probably have to reduce your offer by a bit since they’re your family friend/relative/friend.
Discord
Join multiple discord channels, such as Web Dev, ReactJS, TinkerHub, The Coding Den, Reactiflux, etc. Most of these servers have a strong community who can give you advice to get clients and possible even give you a referral. And most of these channels have a room for freelance such as #freelance where you can find jobs and clients too. Make sure to not miss this. I believe Discord is very underrated and is still not used to its potential.
Nah, Instagram hasn’t completely taken over Facebook. Tons of people still use Facebook, especially business owners and middle-aged clients. Trust me.
Join groups, and sell yourself. Create a page for yourself and advertise there too. And don’t miss out on boosting your posts. Well yes, this costs money, but it’s not really much. With around 600 INR you can reach about 1500 people in a week. If you want to earn money, you gotta invest time and money first.
I’ve put LinkedIn at the bottom because I don’t really know why. It’s just not my type. But all you gotta do is, post your achievements every day, connect with anyone you see on your feed, and comment and like posts to show that you’re active on LinkedIn, and BAM! You’ll get many messages from people. I’d say give it a try!
This is almost the same as LinkedIn to me. Except for the fact that Twitter has a much better developer community. Instead of getting messages from “non-coding” clients, there are more chances of getting approached by actual developers who probably need some help with some code.
Well, that’s it! Does it seem hard? Sure it does. After all money making is not an easy task. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get your first client quickly. Just keep grinding until you get one, I’m sure you’ll do if you truly have the skills, passion, and drive. If you’ve made it till here, thanks for giving my article a read!
