Freelance designers blog to find work and make money
I would advise anyone who wants to make money and find more work to get blogging.
I was encouraged to get a WordPress blog by a friend but I didn’t really realise what blogging was at first. I thought, what’s the point of writing “I woke up this morning, had breakfast …”? I really only started taking it seriously in November 2006 about two months before I started to get results.
There are plenty of ways to make money from your blog from advertising but that’s not what I’m discussing here. And, personally, I find blogs that are peppered with adverts really ugly.
Blogs are, for me, a great way to find work and make contacts through searches. But, because of the illogical and secretive way search engines in general and Google in particular work, you will never know how to be top of the list on certain searches. So the trick is go for every conceivable search you can think of.
You should write about what you know. Write about your work, your way of doing things, practices that other people might find useful. What sets you apart from others.
Take me as an example. If you search for “freelance graphic designer” on Google, I’m number 22. That’s the third page. Not so good. Even worse is “London graphic designer”, number 68 on Google. Pretty bad. However, one day someone – now a client of mine – wanted a PDF newsletter designed in InDesign so searched for “freelance InDesign London”. Guess what? I’m number 3!
How did that come about? Because I wrote a blog discussing PDF design, newsletters and InDesign amongst other things.
My point is I never would have guessed that someone would search specifically for that. It was only by writing about the nature of my work that I got work! And it is the blog that makes that process so easy.
Still waiting for you to prettify your URLs
I tried nice, SE friendly permalinks. But they didn’t work in the header links so I reverted. Will try again now that I have upgraded to WordPress 2.1.2. And while I’m about it I need to do something with this response text. It looks dreadful!
Links prettified. And all text in Trebuchet MS!
[...] needs to be constantly on the look out for new business and therefore market and sell himself. A personal website or blog is one way of doing this. He also needs to maintain a portfolio of his recent [...]
hello, again
For a month now, we had worked on our blog with my husband to be, and it’s going ok I guess, we have just a problem, we had until now just a few comments, and we don’t know why the blog it’s not appeling to bloggers. Maybe u can gives us an ideea.
Hello webee,
I think your site is great, as I’ve said before:) I have the same problem as you. A lot of people visit my site but don’t leave comments. Come to think of it, according to my stats, I maybe have 1 comment per 200 visitors!
But, I’m delighted to see people coming and – I hope – finding something useful. I get a few requests for work through the site so it’s OK.
I do have one bit of advice. Have you ever tried to link to one of your posts on http://www.reddit.com or http://www.digg.com ? It’ll only take you 5 minutes and you may get some more traffic from it.
I promise to leave a comment on your site
I agree with all you say about blogining, I have to start writing on a regular bassis. Ron is blogger good? And is there somting to know while doing it to get the best ROI on time invsment?
I like your post on productivity and the 4 quadretns, I read the book by Stephen Couvey years ago and think Stephen was pretty inventive when he wrote about it. Today all the self help books and time managemnt books are full with purpuse and efficiant vs. effective wich is the 2nd quadrant. one strong quote that is good to remember is “If you’ll keep on doing what you always did, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve allwys got.”
If you use Outlook I would highly recoment a book with the title “Take back your life” Using Microsoft Outlook to get organized and say organized – by Sally McGhee
Hi Chaim,
I really couldn’t speak higher of blogging. I’ve had thousands of pounds worth of business through my site and what does it cost? £50 a year? That’s good ROI! (Sorry about the funny money £1=2$US) Also, you make contact with like-minded people in your business from all over the world!
I think if you have a blog it’s probably good to post at least once a week. Talking about time management – that’s probably 15 minutes work a week.
I’m glad you liked the Stephen Covey post. I was impressed with that book as well. Thanks for the great quote. Sorry I use Mac Mail
Anyway, hope you find something here that’s some help to you, Chaim. All the best!
I actually found you through a google-search for ‘artworker’, where you were on the first page. I’m going through the blog now, there are some interesting things on here.
I just recently moved to London and i’m trying for a graphic design/illustration job after having neglected that side of the art-spectrum for a bit (doing 3d game-content), so it’s nice to be able to follow someone who’s involved with it.
Hello, Anonymous.
If you get in contact with me personally I can recommend a few agencies for you, if you wish. Good luck!
There is nothing as effective as blogging. I think it gives you a well rounded personality and also at the same time gives you contacts like you said.
I think the point is that blogging can be seen as a full time profession too…
Yes, Best Man, I think the people who make good money from it are only less than 1% of bloggers!
Looking for some site from where I can get some print design business. Can any body support me on this?
Good article for starters and strugglers like me. Wish you had some articles on how to find the right kind of blogging topics .
Hello Sanjay Malhotra and Lights Man, thank you for your comments. Have a look at my self-marketing series and my article about what to write in your blog.
The easiest blog that you can create is to find whatever it is you like to write about and just let it go. Research and write – you will become an expert or considered one soon enough. Oh and promote yourself too!
Absolutely, Jason, blog about what you know about and what you’re interested in. It’s a great way to market yourself.