How do you market web design to offline clients?

I've finally decided to stop working "for the man" and go full time with webdesign but in order to fully quit working "for the man" I need to market my service to clients and get a few clients first so I have some income.

I'm looking at offering webhosting, web design, seo, and IM as different packages and all-in-one as well. But how do I get the local business to buy my services?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Flyers/leaflets. And forget the hosting bit.

You have two options.

1) you take the blue pill the story ends and you wake up still working for "the man"
2) you take the red pill and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Once you stop working for "the man" there's no turning back, you have to find those clients consistently and it's going to be hard work. I suggest you don't rush into leaving your job because your only going to have to work harder. Start by planning out exactly what your going to do and you will know when you feel confident enough or the time is right.

JDIZM said:

You have two options.

1) you take the blue pill the story ends and you wake up still working for "the man"
2) you take the red pill and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Once you stop working for "the man" there's no turning back, you have to find those clients consistently and it's going to be hard work. I suggest you don't rush into leaving your job because your only going to have to work harder. Start by planning out exactly what your going to do and you will know when you feel confident enough or the time is right.

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I'm quite sure you've never been in this situation before. Speaking from experience, that suggestion you mentioned above is just plain silly. One can never excel if you're only doing 50/50. How are you even able to find time for your web design business when you're spending your whole day in the office? You'll just end up either doing very poorly in the current job or neglecting your web design clients. What I suggest to you OP, is to have a decent saving in case you get total zero profit, for at least 3 months. Then, you leave your job. And you can skip on the hosting part as well. What I do is I usually offer my clients hosting free for the first 6 months or 1 year and then charge them $10/month but only hosting it on your account. Hope that helps.

As other people have said, avoid the hosting part. I'd recommend you to start telling all your friends and to set up an affiliate program, so you can get more people (non-clients and even clients) interested.


I'd start looking for job-seeking folks on Craiglist, and then I would pitch them my affiliate program. They're needed, and so are you, so it's a perfect match.

The above methods will work just fine

You can also send them a letter in the mail, e-mail, or even contact them by phone.

I like the affiliate idea and will be using it often I think. I mentioned my plan to my cousin earlier today and she sent me a referral already - the guy owns seven websites and needs a new webmaster.

I affiliate it with the google.