5 Ways To Get More Exposure To Your Portfolio Site
Posted October 24, 2008 in Business, How-To, Marketing 19 Rockin' Comments »
Build it and they will come!
Right… if you just build it and do nothing, chances are nothing will happen.
Once you have your portfolio site up and running what you need is visitors, which may eventually become paying customers. How can you get more exposure and traffic to your portfolio site then? Let’s see.
Start A Blog
I know many designers and programmers will say they don’t have time for a blog and they prefer to focus on working on projects. Sure! But you already spend some time marketing your business, right? Why not set aside some time every week to write on your company blog? Even if it’s just 2 or 3 hours a week!
Blogging is a great way to connect with people in your field and potential clients. My design business totally exploded when I started blogging about 2 years ago! Now I have to turn down clients or send some work to other designers I know (that I met through blogging!)
Write For Popular Blogs
If you feel you don’t have time to manage your own blog, why not consider writing on established blogs? These blogs already have an audience and are most probably looking for articles and tutorials to publish!
And the cool thing is you get paid for writing about what you know and love! You get exposure and money! Take 5 or 6 blogs that you enjoy reading and try to come up with a list of ideas for articles, then simply send a quick email to the blog owners and ask them if they’d be interested in your articles. It’s easy, try it and see if it works for you!
Portfolio Sites
There are many sites where you can create a portfolio for free or for very cheap! Here are my 3 favorite ones:
Of course you can then direct people to your own portfolio site and then convince them you’re the one for the job! Even better if you have a blog on your own portfolio site, this way people can get to know you better! And if they like your work and your personality chances are you’ll get the gig.
Social Networking Sites And Forums
Then you have networking and sharing sites:
Link to your own portfolio site every chance you get, look for people you know and expand your network and then let people know you’re available for work! I also write a post about networking using Twitter some time ago, check it out! Remember that if you’re genuinely interested in other people’s work and profiles it’s always better!
The Old Fashioned Way — Business Cards
Ok, if you don’t have business cards already, I’m honestly wondering why! I know that many freelancers don’t feel it’s necessary to have business cards since all the work they do is online. But let’s not forget there is a world offline, people looking to hire designers for their very first website! Maybe these people have no idea how to look for a web-designer online.
Networking is not only done online, every time you go to a conference, a seminar or to a computer store, why not bring business cards? You never know who you’ll meet!
Your Turn To Talk
You have a portfolio site? How do you get traffic to your site? Do you use any of the methods I mentioned in the post? Tell us what works for you! :)
Jon Phillips
******
Image in this post: Larsz
About the author: Jon Phillips is a full-time freelancer, blogger and designer, he loves WordPress and plays guitar in a heavy act. He's also the founder of Freelance Folder.
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19 Rockin' Comments
Colin Wright
October 24th, 2008 at 10:52 amI created a mobile version of my portfolio site and always have my iPhone handy. Now, if I need to show a particular piece of work to someone at a party, I’ve got it ready and close at hand. The added bonus is that it shows I can create web sites as well, which opens up a whole new wing to the conversation.
Freelance
October 24th, 2008 at 10:57 amGreat tips. I’ll add since its my turn :) I would also recommend using signatures as a great way to promote. Email signature, forum signature, or comment signatures. It is a good technique for subtle marketing. As for your tips, I’ve used them all except writing for popular blogs — which doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all. I will give your method a try. Thanks for the great tips!
Cheers,
RemoteGurus
http://www.remotegurus.com
Josh McGlinn | MCG Studio
October 24th, 2008 at 11:28 amI totally agree with RemoteGurus, but I would go one step further. I would suggest that you take advantage of the commenting icon to push your branding using Gravatar. A gravatar is a free service that swaps out generic avatars with your own personal one. It is used and recognized on most comment posting services. For example, the one I use.
Mason Hipp
October 24th, 2008 at 11:35 amCollin that’s a great idea. With the number of iphone users, it makes perfect sense. Plus, being able to whip out your phone and show designs to potential clients — priceless.
Salwa
October 24th, 2008 at 11:56 amThanks for the great tips! I am currently looking for every possible way to help me get more exposure to my portfolio website so this article came in handy.
DKumar M.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pmNice list of tips Jon, Each one needs handwork to implement in actual.
Also, i too agree with RemoteGurus as he having good point on various types of signatures.
Thank you,
DKumar M.
http://www.instantshift.com
Averyl | inspireocean
October 25th, 2008 at 12:45 amthanks for all the tips! also, i also recommend link exchange to design sites (usually under Links section).
inspireocean: get inspired!
http://www.inspireocean.averylc.com
Brandon
October 25th, 2008 at 3:29 pmLocal SEO and advertising - like Craigslist and other local classifieds, etc.
Dainis Graveris
October 25th, 2008 at 8:00 pmHuh, I love to hear this again and again - writing to blog, guest articles always are the best things for designers to promote his proffesion, portfolio and get work offfers.
Sean
October 26th, 2008 at 7:06 amRe: business cards - I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have them. When I finish a site with a remote client I’ll send a not via post and include some business cards for them to distribute to their friends or people they may know looking for a site.
Aliff Afiq
October 26th, 2008 at 8:27 ami think blog is the most efficient way to keep updates with the readers, the clients or maybe some fans (you never know). I used wordpress to show my clients my photo & if they like it, they will hire me for their big day. Business card is important for me because its like an offline networking things.
Economist
October 26th, 2008 at 11:29 amHey
sory to write to you like this, but i could not find the contact form. I really like your blog and i was wondering if you would maybe like a link exchange with my website http://www.sayeconomy.com . It is not as big as yours, since it isn’t up so long yet, but it’s gaining visitors fast and i have ordered an advertising campaign recently.
Next to link exchange i would like to offer you an option to publish some articles of yours about economy on my blog, send them to me and i will publish them. You can add link to your blog under each article and i will publish it as a source.
Well let me know on info@sayeconomy.com . I would really like a link exchange with your blog (i like it alot).
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Cheers,
Matt
Espie
October 27th, 2008 at 1:34 amAll good tips! Blogs have become extremely popular and a great way to market one’s talents. I’m still a bit wary about social networking sites though, but may give it a try in the near future.
Craig Farrall
October 27th, 2008 at 7:57 amMany great ideas and help for more traffic here, I have noticed since I have opened my blog, that I have had more clients, and also have built up some strong relations which holds you in good stead, so definately a must I believe if you want to expose your blog.
Taiyab Raja
October 27th, 2008 at 5:52 pmI’m sorry but the content here is almost identical to the post on FreelancerMagazine with regards to the topic, just check this:
http://www.freelancermagazine......ts-part-2/
You guys need to stop copying…
Jon Phillips
October 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm@Taiyab Raja: I’m sorry about this, but honestly my goal with this article wasn’t to copy or anything… I wrote it from scratch, from my experience. I admit some points are similar, and in fact your article is more in depth than mine… but my goal with this article was more to point out ways you can get more traffic to your site… having a usable website and converting this traffic into paying customer is a whole different topic, which you have covered in the post you linked to (and I believe your post was published after mine if I compare the dates?)
Thanks for leaving a comment anyway. If there’s anything, you can always send me an email (jon [at] freelancefolder.com) and I’ll be more than happy to chat with you and resolve any issue there may be. If not, keep up the good work with FM. Cheers!
James
October 29th, 2008 at 4:41 pmThe biggest draw for my web site has been tutorials. I’ve come up with several tutorials related to what I do- video editing and motion graphics - and now I have a large tutorial site linking to those. I get a lot of traffic through that.
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