Starting a web agency

Im a fullstack web dev and i want to start my own web agency. I would not just rely on SEO (high competition) so what could i do besides that?

Here are some options:

Fiverr, freelancer? Wages are too small. Too much competition.

Making work for free to get recommendations and establish relationships? I dont believe in that. For a good looking website I would have to spend at least 15-20 hours. Maybe it would work, but I dont have any guarantiees that I will get a paid customer for that.

Business cards + recommending your self to your family and friends so "they will spread the word"? Its not serious. If you have only 100-200 then maybe you will get one project and thats it. Probably your and my friends dont have proper conncection neither so how can they "spread the word"?

Facebook ads? I heard that they're not that good for that niche because you want to target just business owners and it could be difficult with fb.

Google adwords? Too expensive. Maybe in the future. Im not experianced enough.

Cold mailing? Does anyone still treat spam seriously?

So maybe leaflets lol? In the U.S it would be $0.20 to print and send a leaflet with targeting using USPS (or USP, i dont remember).

Which option would be the best? Is there something better I could do?

Don’t sell yourself short no matter what and give your service away for free. You want paying customers and not ones looking for handouts. Getting started is always difficult and that’s what makes getting started difficult... but once the ball gets rolling it keeps rolling. I suggest putting together a portfolio, keeping an active blog on your website where you provide tips and show off your skill set. The key is to act like you know what you’re doing to make yourself attractive to potential clients.

When you start landing clients and building leads then I suggest you keep in contact with them, ask them if they need help, offer services, continually try to up sell them. I made the mistake early on expecting my clients to come back to me. Because I wasn’t keeping in contact with them, reaching out, letting them know about my new services, I lost a lot of repeat business and the ability to sell them additional services. Make note of the kind of websites you build too because that will give you an idea of what services they will want. An eComm site is a slam dunk because they will need marketing and you can offer marketing services. A blog focused website might want a newsletter and be interested in collecting emails and emailing them. A service provider will want leads. They all will want SEO, but don’t think you need to build links. In fact, I offer a “traffic“ package that is a combination of on site SEO and paid advertising. I don’t guarantee rankings in the serps, instead I focus on bringing traffic to their site because reports showing traffic really present well and are simple for clients to understand. Plus, it pairs nicely when you are capturing leads on their site as well.

I suggest blogging, blogging, and more blogging. This will create content about you and demonstrates your skills building faith in potential clients that you can deliver. You can drive all the traffic you want to your site but if you don't look like a pro don't expect them to hand you their money. Also, make sure you have [email protected] and not some free email, and make sure you clients have a professional email too which is another service you can sell.

nullOrEmpty said:

Im a fullstack web dev and i want to start my own web agency. I would not just rely on SEO (high competition) so what could i do besides that?

Here are some options:

Fiverr, freelancer? Wages are too small. Too much competition.

Making work for free to get recommendations and establish relationships? I dont believe in that. For a good looking website I would have to spend at least 15-20 hours. Maybe it would work, but I dont have any guarantiees that I will get a paid customer for that.

Business cards + recommending your self to your family and friends so "they will spread the word"? Its not serious. If you have only 100-200 then maybe you will get one project and thats it. Probably your and my friends dont have proper conncection neither so how can they "spread the word"?

Facebook ads? I heard that they're not that good for that niche because you want to target just business owners and it could be difficult with fb.

Google adwords? Too expensive. Maybe in the future. Im not experianced enough.

Cold mailing? Does anyone still treat spam seriously?

So maybe leaflets lol? In the U.S it would be $0.20 to print and send a leaflet with targeting using USPS (or USP, i dont remember).

Which option would be the best? Is there something better I could do?

Click to expand...

Looks like you talked yourself out of all viable options there, so maybe quit now.

Also NEVER WORK FOR FREE.

#1 Make a great website and use Ads. Extra: Comment on forums and ranking q n a from phone in free time (i.e. you take bus)
Good luck, I will open my SEO agency too in just a few months lol

Cold-emailing, cold-calling or speaking with the manager/owner of an offline business directly in person are still one of the best ways to gain new customers.