"If you build it, they will come".

Those immortal words might be true of baseball fields in Iowa, but they are not true of websites. One of the biggest mistakes a freelancer can make is assuming that people will flock to his/her website just because it is there.

It's been said that having a website is like printing up flyers and leaving them on your front porch in the hopes that someone will walk over and take one. That would be a foolish advertising strategy for a business, but that is exactly how some freelancers attempt to find work online. In order to attract potential clients, you need to do more than just have a website. You need to take full advantage of the power of the Internet.

Making the Most of Your Website

Lets start by looking at your website. Not all websites are created equal. Having a few samples of your work and some contact information is a great start, but that's only the beginning. Adding a few extra touches can go a long way towards pushing you higher up on a potential client's hiring list.

Put your contact info on every page

Make sure your email address and phone number appear on your header, so that they are readily visible anywhere on the site. It's not that uncommon for an art buyer to print out samples from two or three artists to show to the boss and/or the hiring committee. If they are having a tough time deciding which artist to call, having your contact info right there on the printout will make you the easiest one to contact. To a busy art director that could make all the difference.

Don't use Flash

Flash looks cool, and can make it difficult for Internet thieves to steal your artwork. But there are two ways Flash can work against you:

First, you can't print a Flash webpage unless print functionality has been purposely built in to the site (and often it hasn't been). If a busy art buyer can't print out your work, your samples won't make it into the hiring meeting.

Second, Flash sites are not as user-friendly as their non-Flash counterparts. With a static website each page has a unique URL. You can send an art buyer a direct link to the samples you want them to see. With a Flash website the potential client will have to start on the home page, wait for the site to load, and poke around to find the correct page. A busy art director may find this a nuisance at best and a turn-off at worst.

Post your resume

Ideally your portfolio and client list will speak for themselves. However, the hiring decisions at a big agency or corporation will sometimes take place outside the art director's office in a more corporate setting. The final decision is not always made by the art director alone, but by a group of businessmen and other non-creatives. This is especially true of large projects with a lot of money on the line. In such a setting, the lack of a resume can make you appear less-than-professional and keep you from making the final cut.

Post a PDF of your portfolio

Why should the art buyer have to go online to see your work? Wouldn't it be great if he/she could easily print out samples to keep on file, or better yet, to bring to the hiring meeting? Take a few of your best samples, assemble them in a PDF, and post them as a mini-portfolio for easy download. Make sure your name and contact info are at the top of each page.

Track your visitors

Having a website is great, but how do you know if anyone is visiting? Track 'em! I use a free service from StatCounter.com. By pasting a few lines of code on my website I can track not only how many people visit, but when they visit, which pages they visit, and how long they stay. If the number of visitors drops down for a while, I know its time to step up my self-promotion efforts.

Create a Sign-Up Page

You have a mailing list...right? If not, start making one. Even if you buy a mailing list from a service like ADBASE, it's still helpful to maintain your own list of colleagues and potential clients you've met through networking.

Fortunately your website can help you. Chances are there are people visiting your site who like your work and wouldn't mind being contacted with updates. Such people could turn out to be your best leads for future projects, but without a sign-up page you may never know who they are. With a little HTML magic you can start collecting names and addresses from people who actually want you to advertise to them.

Here's a few tips to keep in mind when designing your sign-up page:

  • Keep it short and simple. The more information you ask for, the less likely that a potential client will take the time to fill it out.
  • Make it clear that all fields are optional.
  • Add a line stating that you won't share your visitor's contact information with anyone under any circumstances.
  • Explain how often the visitor will get mail and/or email from you. People are more likely to sign up if they know exactly what they are signing up for.
  • Include a line asking how they found your site. Doing so can help you to track the effectiveness of your self-promotion efforts.

With a few tweaks your website can go a long way towards helping you get hired for your next project.

However, having a great website is pointless if no one knows about it. Fortunately there are several ways the Internet can help you get the word out.

Quarterly Emails Using ADBASE Emailer

One of the secrets of good self-promotion is persistence. Art buyers are busy people and they are constantly bombarded with promotional samples from illustrators and photographers. They will likely need to see your work or hear your name a half dozen times or more before they start to remember who you are.

Mailing out postcards on a regular basis can be very effective, but postcards are only one wing of the airplane that will take your business soaring to new heights. The other wing is a strong email campaign.

ADBASE Emailer is a powerful tool that helps you send professional-looking emails to hundreds, even thousands of art buyers. Simply upload a few samples of your work, type a few lines of text (including a link to your website), and with the push of a button ADBASE will send a sharp looking HTML email to everyone on your ADBASE mailing list.

Want to know if your campaign was effective? ADBASE tracks how many of the emails were actually opened, and how many of those readers clicked through to your website.

I use ADBASE Emailer to send a promotional email every three months. I almost always land at least one new project as a result, so it goes to show that art buyers actually do want to hear from the artists and photographers who would be a good fit for them.

Paid Advertising Sites

There are many websites that sell advertising to artists and photographers such as TheISpot.com, Portfolios.com, Blackbook.com and Workbook.com, just to name a few. The advantage of these websites is that they collect samples from hundreds of freelancers into one searchable database. Many art buyers find this appealing, and will often go to these sites to find outside talent.

Some sites (such as TheISpot.com) will even let you track how many people are viewing your work and which samples they are clicking on (and likewise, which samples they are ignoring).

These websites can be expensive and because you are lumped in with so many other artists it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. But art buyers love them, and if your samples are strong you can be certain that potential clients will be viewing your work.

Social Networking Sites

Many freelancers find work through connections they have in the industry. People tend to hire people they know and like, which is why networking is such a powerful buzzword. You can never have too many connections, and fortunately the Internet makes networking easier than ever.

Social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace, and social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and Technoratti, are being hailed by some as the next frontier of Internet marketing. They each have advantages, but by far the most effective site I know of is LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com).

LinkedIn is a rapidly growing website for professional networking. You simply post your contact info, a short bio, work history, etc., and then you build a network by "linking in" with other colleagues and past clients who are also on LinkedIn. LinkedIn users can write recommendations for each other, and the more recommendations you have the more likely you are to find work.

You can also send messages to specific individuals or even to everyone in your LinkedIn network. For example, if you need to hire a freelance model builder you could send a message to your entire network asking for recommendations. LinkedIn is rapidly becoming a handy resource for many freelancers.

Writing a Blog

A blog can be a fun way to raise awareness about you and your work. Many artists use blogs to showcase their latest projects. Others write about their freelancing experiences, discuss professional issues, or share tips and tricks. Bloggers tend to link to other blogs, so a good blog can gradually gain a large audience.

Writing a blog gives you a sense of credibility and authority. Potential clients will be more inclined to view you as an expert if you have a well-written blog. A blog also helps your previous clients stay caught up on what you are doing.

A popular blog post can quickly circulate throughout the Internet and bring dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people to your website. I was fortunate enough to have one of my blog posts featured on the popular art blog Drawn! (www.drawn.ca), and in one day over 3,000 people visited my blog. Many of them have stuck around. My blog (http://cedrichohnstadt.wordpress.com) now averages around 600-700 readers per day and growing.

Blogging is a more indirect method of promoting your work and may not be for everyone. It's really more about raising your profile than landing specific clients. Blogging is also very time consuming and the results are not always immediate. I've been blogging every weekday for six months and have only been approached by one client with an actual project, although several of my past clients read my blog so I like to think it helps keep me on their radar.

If you do decide to give it a try, keep these tips in mind:

  • Have a focus. Who will you write for, potential clients or other artists? Will you primarily showcase your latest work or share thoughts and ideas about the business? If your blog is too random, you'll have a hard time building steady readers.
  • Be consistent. The more frequently you post to your blog, the more likely readers will be to keep coming back. Post at least 3 times per week, preferably more.
  • Be helpful. Think about your audience and what their needs are, and write about those.
  • Who will host your blog? Decide if you want to host the blog on your website or through a free service like Blogger or Wordpress. Hosting the blog on your site will make it easier for readers to learn more about you and your work—they are already at your site. However, maintaining your own blog is a lot more work. A free blog service can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
  • Make sure your website and/or contact info are easy to find. If you blog off of your website, add a page that describes what you do and how you can be contacted for projects.

Google AdWords

Many search engines sell advertising as a way to promote your business. Google AdWords is perhaps the most well-known method. Here's how it works:

You bid a small fee to pay for certain keywords or strings of keywords (for example "freelance illustrator Minneapolis"). If someone searches for those keywords, and you weren't outbid by several other people, an ad for your website will show up on the right-hand column of the Google search results page. The higher you bid, the closer to the top your listing will appear. Most AdWords can sell for anywhere from ten cents to a few dollars. You are only charged if someone clicks on your ad, and you can set a maximum dollar limit per day to prevent your bank account from getting drained too quickly.

Not too many art directors use Google when searching for artists, so whether or not AdWords is an effective way for a freelancer to advertise is debatable. But it is fairly inexpensive and could work well if you are targeting a narrow client niche or a specific regional market.

Conclusion

The Internet is not just a place to host your website. If used properly it can be a powerful self-promotion tool. If all you have is a website, you are barely scratching the surface. While there are no guarantees, combining a smartly-organized website with a strong email campaign, social networking sites, a good blog, and targeted advertising, you can dramatically increase your chances of becoming a freelance dynamo!