How do you keep going?

[Neily]

Hi Guys,

I'm barely on the first rung of the 'design ladder' and have been getting odd bits of work here and there, but its very hard to keep my chin up!!

How do you freelancers do it? Or, how did you do it when you first started?

[Tim Pennington]

It took me a good 12 months to get noticed.

It's all about word of mouth.

One successful project could result in three interested clients. My first project created about 250 hits to my site a day just from saying "website by x", plus the owners of the company were chuffed and went around telling their friends.

It can just be a lottery but it can also be a result of being professional and reliable.

[TheNoone]

I have been teaching myself the basic concepts of design, and using design programs.


TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS. If you want to get used to most of the tools
in the programs you use, Illustrator,Photoshop,Indesign,Gimp,Lightroom etc.

As far as my creativity goes iv requested alot of samples from sites.
Flyers,Business Cards etc. and also Theres a thread on here somewhere
that will give you a list of the great books you can use for inspiration.

Im not any official, freelance designer whatsoever. I just design to teach myself
although word of mouth, family, friends, friends of friends etc is a great way to get
yourself out there, I dont currently have a portfolio of my work yet, Iv earned a
considerable amount of money during the learning process.

I dont think its just a case of, Computer on! Facebook for 20 minutes, and then think uhh have a dabble on photoshop, Its always the bigger picture, Like someone cant fit a lightbulb and call themselves and electrician

and thats coming from a novice!

Good luck!

[10thWay]

Some good answers here!

[dogsbody]

I'm thinking about jumping off the ladder me self!

[Minuteman Press]

SEO, Customer referal, WOM and networking.

[NeedForBleed]

Nescafe...

[am:pm graphics]

Its a lot of hard work and mainly word of mouth. It does take time though..You just have to keep networking, pushing your website, advertising in the right places...

Pauline

[Minuteman Press]

Pauline - spot on.

Needforbleed - should be needforacafetiere.

[JMCDesigner]

I guess, telling people what you do ALL the time and handing out business cards ALL the time. You never know if somebody you're speaking to knows a friend of a friend who might want some work doing. I guess its one excuse to get out and socialise more! I'm just starting out in the self-promotion game. I have a ton of business cards, I just need to start meeting people and finding a niche!

I think the more you target your audience the easier it can be. It would be silly for me to offer my Web Design to big corporate companies, they'd only hire big web design companies! I guess part of my target audience would be bands, I'm in a band myself and I get to network with a lot of bands. Only problem is the bands I meet don't seem to have any money :icon_thumbdown: