June 14, 2004 | View Comments (15) | Category: Web Business
Summary: Do you find that your blog helps you in gaining contracts?
This entry is simply to gain a better understanding of everyone out there who happens to pass by this site. I am curious as to how people go about getting their clients. More importantly, if you are a designer who has some fairly large clients how did you manage to pull them?
The reason I ask these questions is because I am curious as to the effect of blogging on designers and their business. Has blogging helped you gain business you think or did it prove to be a futile venture? This all goes along with a future article I am thinking of writing.
My thinking is that blogging opens doors to new opportunities, but many freelancers miss these opportunities merely because they don't utilize the power of blogs. I know one person that has had great success in this respect is Keith who has landed more than one gig through his blog. I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Shea, Bowman, Cederholm, and Hicks have landed opps through their blogs as well.
I don't think too many designers put enough effort into their blogs to really warrant a return. Many times it's either “I don't have the time” or “There is no point”. But there is! Blogs are free advertising. Blogs become a way to develop your own personal brand which can be powerful. Many, many designers fail to establish a brand for themselves thinking that one person does not need one.
In any case some designers are content with dealing with small contracts, but if you were fortunate to land something truly big how did it happen? Dumb luck? Did you go after it? Also what types of jobs have you landed from your blog?
Disclaimer: This is not a help me get Business Logs clients thread (of course that wouldn't hurt), but we have a strategy in place that seems to be working.
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/260
All my clients used to come fro word of mouth referrals. That is still where I get most of my freelance work.
Recently I've been getting more and more "cold" contacts from my sites. A few of these have been great, but more often than not I find myself shying away from these.
I'd have to say that while my blog generates quiet a few leads, for the most part they're not good leads.
But then again, I don't really promote myself via my blog as such.
Keith (http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/)
Well at least I was right in saying you have landed more than one gig...never said they were good ;-)
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
Most of my clients have come from the deepest pits of Hell.
:-)
well, ok, maybe not. Maybe the women I've dated, but not my clients. They're a good bunch who've mostly been word of mouth. One came through my donating some services to a PBS auction, and he's given me lots of leads, not that any of htem have panned out. :-)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Hate to add a "meto" comment here, but...
I'd have to say that 90+% of my clients have been word-of-mouth. The other 10% came from plain ole' door knockin and face-to-face.
Of course, my current blog is not purposed to getting clients.
Mark (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Most of my work has come from referrals and people I used to work with. There's only been a couple times that I've actually received work through my site but mostly from my expertise in a specific area.
The reason people like Kieth, Dave S., et al get business through their blog is because of the amount of exposure they get. It's going to simply get harder and harder to bring in an audience in the web design blog market because of the number of sites that that already cover the subject. Meaning it'll be harder for the small guys/girls to generate significant revenue through their site.
An interesting question would be, "How does one break into the upper tier of blog traffic?" (because I'd really like to know!)
Jonathan Snook (http://www.snook.ca/jonathan/)
I've had clients that considered my services after seeing my weblog, especially when it was posted at your CSS Vault! :)
Weblogging can be helpful getting work, but of course word-of-mouth can do much more.
markku (http://rebelpixel.com/)
I think the reason design weblogs fail to directly produce clients is simply that potential clients aren't reading them. Sometimes it's hard for us die-hard weblog types to imagine people not spending two hours a day reading various blogs, but its a rare few that actually do this. Business decision makers are NOT reading our weblogs. Perhaps if they are tasked with finding a local design shop, they may find a blog via a link from a design shop's main web presence, but even that seems a bit far fetched. Probably most of these people think all weblogs are just personal journals and leave a weblog before even reading a single entry. To the uninitiated, weblogs still have a stigma of being joe-schmo's prattling about his kittens and love life.
I believe the true value of the weblog when connected to business is in it's ability to give a face to an otherwise faceless entity. When I can see who the people are behind a company, I am more likely to trust them and in turn work with them. The reason word of mouth advertising is so effective is that it involves actual people telling other actual people about a service/product. Weblogs are step toward personalizing and giving a human factor to the internet and to business.
Tom Werner (http://www.mojombo.com)
99% of my business is still via friends or referrals from older clients. I get some "cold" contacts from my main website once in a while, one of which turned into a few projects (it was a designer needing programming work done). I've never gotten business through my blog though. My audience there is mostly other designers or developers, not really the type of people that need my services.
Vinnie Garcia (http://blog.vinniegarcia.com/)
Do any of you think though that maybe if you wrote more on topics that potential clients search for then maybe you could turn up a couple more leads. I understand that everyone that visits your site might not be looking for you services, but I am sure there are many people doing searches on google everyday and maybe you are not utilizing the power of Google and Blogs to write about topics that clients might find interesting.
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
I can only chime in with the rest of choir here, and say friends / family / business partners generate practically everything.
My biggest client, that continues to give me lots of work, was gained in a rather peculiar way. I visit a danish "mens site" (we're talking pictures of babes, cars and the like), where they plead for help from the community with php and a few design assignments. I get in contact with the boss, who likes my work so much that he hires me for his media company, and the work starts pouring in.
Funny how things go.
Brian Andersen (http://www.brian-andersen.dk)
Hmm .. are your terms and conditions, prices, list of services clearly displayed?
The average bod wandering in here will probably see a discussion, not a "services offered" message.
Wouldn't they be correct though?
OK, you've then you've got your link to BusinessLogs - nice site, could be a sales pitch in there?!
Disclaimer: I've been working on the sales pitch for my own site for 14 hours straight, and it's well gone midnight, so this is probably a pumpkin talking, BUT ...
BusinessLogs looks really nice. It looks interesting. But I'm picking that to someone with little idea what a blog is, it's going to be one of those "looks really nice, looks like some interesting stuff happening, but I can't quite figure out where up is" type sites.
I guess this depends on who you're trying to pitch this idea at? Other bloggers? Wouldn't that amount to preaching to the choir? Mr/Ms Busy Marketing Exec? Are they going to bookmark it and come back tomorrow if they can't grok what's going on today, even? (Do you expect them to know one end of a blog from the other? I would assume you're relying on them NOT to know all about it already ...)
I could be missing the point of course, but wouldn't it work better to have a more traditional home page, with a clear introduction to the whole concept, and general orientation before introducing them to the blog? That, and maybe a slightly more prominent sales pitch?
(Or maybe even a quick orientation piece before the current entry? It could be me, but it the immediate impression of the page is that the current entry is the logical place to start reading - I find that anything above that point on a page is usually invisible (banner, logo, navigation -oops, always have to conciously think to look for it there!?) Anyway, I came back to the "what we do" links, tended to look and feel a bit like more blog entries to me though.
Er, just figured that out: goes to the same place as the orange link under the sign-up form for the PDF ... except THAT link goes to the top of the page - now, we have some context, which helps ...
OK, definitely into the pumpkin zone now, posting and switching off ...
Ian Stewart
Great feedback there Ian. Hell, best feedback we have received yet. Many points that I agree with and would normally be on my way over to start making changes (changes are already in the works), but surprisingly we have drawn great interest from people already along with entering talks to partner with a large Blog Software company.
Our site probably doesn't cater to the crowd that is looking to land on a site and instantly be sold, but have to do some exploring and research, which is what many CIOs and executives (at least the ones I know) would do. Overtime, though we may morph the site more into a traditional company site with the blog integrated into the homepage without it totally being the homepage, ala stopdesign.
Another great thing with the blog concept is that many times people will not find your "homepage" through search engines, but will land on subpages through search engines and links from other sites. Therefore the homepage doesn't really help at all and the user is forced to explore anyways (unless they go right back to the homepage ;-).
Ian, again killer feedback that I will make sure to take note of.
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
Most of my clients also come from word of mouth. At the beginning of my internet website back in 1996, I received almost all my new clients through my business website. A lot of international clients, US, Scotland, Taiwan...Things has changed a lot since this business became (too) popular. Today I get 99% through contacts, or a contact person that changes to another company and introduces me there, a friend of friend etc. Contacts are really everything!
Veerle Pieters (http://veerle.duoh.com)
I've just recently discovered that my blog can be (and has been) a big pull for freelance and contract gigs. When I left my full-time job a couple months ago, I posted about it on my blog and noted that I was looking for work. With that, I instantly started getting e-mail from parties interested in my services. Since then, I've redesigned my blog and I've tried to play up the fact that I offer design services, while still keeping the site "personal" and "blog-like".
Jeff Croft (http://jeffcroft.com)
Keep track of comments to all entries with the Comments Feed
©2003-06 9rules, Inc. | Thoughts Feed | Notes Feed
Amazon Stores: Powertools | Jewelry | Books | Health | Landscaping | Kitchen | Movies
#1
I've never paid a cent to advertise my design business. All of my clients so far have come through referrals. At first it was friends or family of my other business partners, or extensions of freelance work I had done previously. Some came from business contacts we had at a previous company. Now, I have an arrangement with a sales rep of a large printing firm in the San Diego area that generates new clients for me, and more business for him.
I've only just begun seriously blogging with business promotion in mind, and as such, have not found any business that way. I hope to integrate my weblog with my business site in the near future to encourage the transition from one site to the other, thereby increasing the possibility that a potential client will become interested in my services.
I think weblogs are a great way for a potential client to get to know the people they would be working with. To gauge their attitude, expertise, and methods before ever calling them up. In some cases this could be detrimental, but if you really know what you're doing, then any additional personality you can give to your business should increase the likelihood of converting a potential client into an actual client.
Tom Werner (http://www.mojombo.com)