Web Design Clients

What is the best way to obtain clients for web design? I've been trying Hunwarrior's technique for over 2 months with only one conversion...

I'm aware this market is saturated but I've tried everything from paid referrals to classifieds to emails, what could I do next?!

I could move to another method but design is my specialty so I want to stick with this.

the solution is to Get out of your comfort zone. and get some offline clients, if you find it hard to talk to them, you could partner with someone who can!

Offer free webdesigns, get yourself reseller hosting and let people pay for a whole year of hosting in combination with a free landingpage style site made for their business. (Could use optimizepress).
You extend your packages and offer Animoto videos and/or facebook packages for an aditional 50/100$. A free website + design is much easier to advertise to people, and once all your clients get rebilled after a year you have a nice long longerm income.
Like hakemsaeed said, get out your comfort zone or either get a partner. I have a partner who brings me in the clients, he does all the support and I set up their offer and our split is 50/50.

Can I see your portfolio please.

I run a company and may have some work for you.

I've messaged you B.O.S.S. VIA PM. I like this reselling hosting idea...any good ones? Hostgator are naggy on payments I've heard.

I've gone down the free website route and it's quite ineffective though :S

If anyone does want to obtain customers for me for a slice of my profits, please PM me and we'll talk business.

StrictlyBiznez said:

I've messaged you B.O.S.S. VIA PM. I like this reselling hosting idea...any good ones? Hostgator are naggy on payments I've heard.

I've gone down the free website route and it's quite ineffective though :S

If anyone does want to obtain customers for me for a slice of my profits, please PM me and we'll talk business.

Click to expand...

Your talking about Hostgator affiliate, you should set up your own reseller hosting and make your own prices on that service.
Once clients are starting to get rebilled or want the packages with a facebook fanpage or whatever extra you offer, you are making more per client that you would be making over at HG through affiliate.
I'm using a friends hosting company but soon thinking about getting a cloud server at host1plus since they also offer foreign country extensions (Which I really need).

As for getting clients try offline marketing, contact companies who are only registered in yellowpages but not online with their own site, or sites on online directories in your area that don't have a own site. There are a lot of methods to it, just find out what method works the best for you because it does definitely work. You could also offer 1-3 months for free or something and then start automatic-rebilling your clients if they havn't cancelled til then. Another way is to offer free SEO and one free adwords campaign with the free $100 voucher they get when they first sign up.

Free Site with 100$ Adwords Coupon + Promotion video and Facebook fanpage for less than $150 should get a lot of people interested, especially if you can prove that webdesign companies in the area are charging xxxx$ for the same package.

ps. i'd like to see your portfolio too if you don't mind.

it's simple ... setup a campaign for 1 niche .. i.e. doctors ... what would doctors need in a website? figure it out ... then create a package for these doctors .. and have the upsells ready ,.... i.e. doctors need appointment management .. doctors need expert articles ... then get on the phone and cold call .. if u can't cold call, u aren't suited for this business ... y? cause how are u gonna deal with them when ur face to face? ..

what is hunwarriors technique?

I have a few techniques. I've sold over 40 websites this year.

Will do a post this evening on this thread.

Try advertising here on BHW. Maybe buying a sales thread and promoting your services. Forums are a great way to advertise your services. With the money you make from the forums, put them towards offline advertising. Fliers, local businesses, business cards, etc. Hope this helps.

@SteHughes I'd really appreciate if you could do that because that'd be so helpful.
@SmileAtmysins haven't tried that actually, i figured web design would be oversaturated.

And for anyone that wishes to see my portfolio, www.hypnotiqdesignz.co.cc
I am actually a graphic designer turned web designer. I'd been doing graphic design for 5 years and realised web design generated more revenue so I hired a programmer and started designing sites.
AND before anyone starts, I WILL get a .com domain eventually, my previous one keeps messing up hence why I'm on co.cc

Offer some samples and promote your skills in webmaster forums

Offer freebies/free stuff on webdesign forums.

Beny

you are using Wix, the flash website builder for your portfolio site. It seems strange that if you are a good designer you need to use a website builder

Well, it couldn't hurt to try. A couple of the designers got shit listed and banned. So. It also depends on the quality of your designs.

StrictlyBiznez said:

@SteHughes I'd really appreciate if you could do that because that'd be so helpful.
@SmileAtmysins haven't tried that actually, i figured web design would be oversaturated.

And for anyone that wishes to see my portfolio, http://www.hypnotiqdesignz.co.cc
I am actually a graphic designer turned web designer. I'd been doing graphic design for 5 years and realised web design generated more revenue so I hired a programmer and started designing sites.
AND before anyone starts, I WILL get a .com domain eventually, my previous one keeps messing up hence why I'm on co.cc

Click to expand...

When I first started out, I used Craigslist to get the first few through the door.

if you are good then they will come from word of mouth and also advertise yourself in some freelance web sites and have a strong portfolio to back yourself up because most wanna see your previous work.

Thanks to everyone this is great advice. @jonoryan that is hunwarrior's method. You use a WYSIWYG editor to build your site, upsell to small businesses etc and the chain continues. I also build legitimate sites designed by myself, and all my graphic designs are done by myself. HOWEVER the reason I like this Hunwarrior method of using Wix to upsell, is that it's very straightforward.
I have tried Craigslist btw, but those classified sites like Gumtree, CL etc are oversaturated with web designers trying to upsell their websites. I guess offline is the way forward!

None of your portfolio pieces are for real clients. When a real client looks at your work, they see school projects. There isn't 1 actual web design in your portfolio. And the actual design of your portfolio isn't appealing either.

You need you spend a couple weeks doing a free website for 5 - 10 people, treat them like they are paying, and get good work up on your portfolio. All your pieces are rap posters. I'm pretty sure Kesha isn't going to contact you for a poster design. Also, the photo of you attempting to look like a gangster isn't very professional and makes you look like an idiot IMO.

A web designers portfolio is everything, you need to develop it much more. Get some real clients and make a actual portfolio that doesn't look like a school project. I suggest you get to know wordpress and stay away from flash sites.

Right:

Your portfolio is a problem.

1.It's flash. Flash is on its last legs and people are starting to get that. It's so hard to sell now. People know you can get the same/better effects with HTML5 and jQuery.

2. You don't show a single example of web design work... If this is what you're trying to sell there should be many examples.

3. If you really worked for rappers and record labels your website looks like crap! If you didn't and you're lying just tell the truth. People will find out and as soon as you loose trust you loose their custom.

Using wix is not web design either.

Go and build a portfolio. Do cheap/free/charity work and build up 5 or so solid examples of work that you actually did and that you're proud of.

You're website needs to stand out in a saturated market. Most people also want a CMS website so go learn wordpress like its your left nut.

I've closed 35 clients this year. I coded every line. Not used 1 template. Not used 1 WYSISYG.

If you want to do this, do this properly. Selling people templates like wix have will not get you anywhere and that is just not web design.

There is big money to be made if you have the talent.

^ I like the fact you told it how it is, I think I needed that. I'm gonna redevelop my page soon, and make sure I give it a more professional edge. HOWEVER I am not an ACTUAL web designer, I'm simply using the technique of Hunwarrior ( http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/358785-s-easy-money-days-recurring-cash.html ) to make quick cash.

I'm not looking to learn actual web design but I'm trying to target mom-and-pop type companies etc, that won't care about the source code etc.

AS for the people who think 'rap posters' aren't professional, who are you to make the judgement that hiphop oriented work isn't professional? I designed it for the client and got paid for it. I am proud of that fact and a lot of people would be impressed at the fact a 17 year old designed for Lil Wayne.