Open Elements

Everyone knows that in order to be successful as a drug dealer, you have to have a territory and own it. It doesn’t matter if you only dominate a street corner or several city blocks. It is important to own your territory and provide the best products in your market.

I think the same rules could apply to freelance web development. For example; when you’re starting out, you should focus on one area of the market and own it. Whether it be: small business websites, e-commerce websites, Flash or Multimedia websites, etc. Secondly; you also have to make sure you’re producing top notch quality work in order to attract more customers and grow your reputation. Sound familiar?

Marketing

Even the best dealers promote themselves. If a dealer dominates a street corner, he’d probably stand there and approach most of the people walking by his corner because he knows that they are all potential customers. He would of course weed out the people he did not feel comfortable with.

In web development, we need to stand in front of traffic and sell our services. If your specialty is small business websites, you might want to advertise where a small business owner is most likely to look for resources for his or her business; or better yet, seek out businesses that might need your services and deliver your pitch in elevator style.

How about you?

Do you dominate your freelance corner? If you do, that’s great! I am curious to hear from people who have taken the plunge into freelance web development. What steps did you take to get there?

Photo by icemomo

Mario Seijo
web developer