I work part-time as a freelance social media consultant and offer custom blog designs via The Real Estate Tomato (custom blogs for the Real Estate space). In the beginning, I wasn’t billing very many hours nor was I selling very many sites. So what I did was I reached out to some of my most loyal readers and offered to give them some free hours in return for feedback on building my services and a testimonial. I also reached out to some graduate student groups at a local business school and offered to build a free website for them in exchange for free membership and access to all of their industry and networking events. Then one day I picked up a speaking gig at a large conference and then another… Next thing you know, I started billing more hours and closing some sales on custom sites.

But it all started by offering some discounted prices and doing some free work to build up that portfolio. I got some good word-of-mouth out of the free work that I did.

I have some things planned for the intermediate future which might be of interest to you too.

@ Kathy: How are you my fiend, long time no seen. Oh yeah, I feel AMAZING! I have already changed my health totally around and the new lifestyle is doing wonders for me and my body.

Plus, I’m hooked on the new lifestyle too. Might have to blog about that as well.

I always enjoy reading your articles. You provide good, common sense information for new writers. I agree about the low bids from overseas, and also see the wisdom provided by Lissie. Once clients see our work ethics and results, they are much more willing to pay the higher cost of doing business with us.

Thanks again. I look forward to reading your future posts.

@ Miles: You are welcome. BTW, your pic is very much Jolie.

@ Lissie: Agreed, I had the same experience too. My oldest clients are those who initially paid me a pittance, now I can name my price which shows that they are happy with my services and think I provide value for money.

I stumbled on your site and I really appreciate your tips and posts.

Keep it up.. Will be tailing your blogs soon..

Cheers,

Miles

No. Not “strive”. “Strife”.

Normally, I don’t correct people, but we’re all writers here.

Sorry my first post was truncated somehow.

Jim

@ George: I hope so. As you know, my aim is always to help new freelancers find their ways. The same advice worked for me, so it will work for anyone.

@ PW: I totally agree with you. I actually hired an Indian writer myself to give him a chance to get started in the industry a little way back, but upon closer inspection his articles mostly suck. It’s just a repeat wording of the same old and I had to go over each one and re-write the whole lot.

I suppose I can only blame myself for not checking before I paid him (yeah, I was that stupid!). But I’ve learned yet another thing through that experience.

To be fair though, there are some web writers who are Indian and they are very good. I happen to know a couple of them myself.

Thanks for stopping by.