Finding Your Next Client

Whether you've been a freelancer for years, or you are just getting started, you need clients. Even if you have enough work now, create a plan to find additional clients. If you wait until you are out of work (and money), you create additional stress for yourself. It is recommended that you dedicate at least half a day per week to locating new clients.

Build Your Network

Online networking is beneficial to entrepreneurs and freelancers alike. Most freelance work is channeled through current or extended networks. If you think about who you have in your network, you might be surprised at how many people you could contact who may have an interest in what you do, if not for themselves, for someone in their network.

There are, of course, several social media sites that you should be a part of such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning just to name a few. They all offer potential opportunities to expand your network and get more clients.

Be Visible

There are exhibitions, conferences, and magazines, and online forums attached to all sorts of professions, no doubt, including yours. Be active. Contribute regularly.

Make use of profiles and signature lines to include links to your freelance resume and portfolio so a potential client will easily be able to get into contact with you and look at your work samples without having to do too much digging.

Professional associations usually have job postings for their members. Consider searching for a professional association in your discipline; the Internet Public Library has a list of associations and their Web sites, organized by discipline.

Current Clients

Keep in touch with your clients. A satisfied client will likely help you out by referring you to their friends and colleagues for future work. Plus, keeping in touch with old clients can also often result in new work down the road.

Check out Job Sites

Job posting sites for freelance work mostly falls into three categories: job bidding sites, résumé posting sites, and job listing sites. Hiremymom.com, getafreelancer.com, craigslist.org or oodle.com are often a good source for freelance postings.

Beware that job bidding sites like eLance often favor overseas freelancers who work very inexpensively.

Find People Who Need You

Whether you write web content, do SEO optimization or web design, search the web. Start with an industry you have experience with and look at different web pages. If you're a web designer, for example, you may want to look for sites that could be further improved in terms of design and accessibility. Is it obvious that the writing needs work or the web design is shoddy? Send the company a personal e-mail. Explain the weaknesses you see (be nice, the boss could have done it) and how you can help to increase his or her profits.

Your own Website

Creating a website and sitting back and waiting for it to generate work is not as effective for freelancers generally. However, you can optimize your site for when you get visitors. Businesses find you through search engine results so it pays to have an optimized website in this case (i.e. a website that ranks well in search engines). Sell yourself - your products and services, credentials, experience, links to your work and testimonies are all important features. Don't forget to offer several different ways to contact you!