Four tips for making more money while staying local

Categories:

Business, Freelancing

Tags:

business, community, freelance, local, refreshcambridge, seo, twitter

Published:

5:18pm on Wednesday 4th March, 2009

John Nunemaker of Ordered List recently wrote about the effect that the current state of the economy is having on his company, and by extension the web development industry. Like many other colleagues, John and Steve have found that business has actually picked up over the last six months; however, one point that John made got my attention:

Every piece of work that we are commissioned to do comes from the reputations that Steve and I have built online. Geographically, our closest client to date was almost 100 miles away. Our clients find us online and we work remotely for them, which opens up far more opportunities than if we focused on the local chamber of commerce. Recently, someone asked me what the market was like in South Bend. My response was, “I don’t know.”

While there are some lucky companies or individuals that have the influence or reputation to work solely online, there are many of us who must rely on local connections and affiliations—and it’s that aspect of freelancing that I want to look at here, with four tips for improving your income while staying local.

1. Make local connections

The number one piece of advice for finding work locally is to make contact with as many other local web designers or developers as possible. They are not the competition, to be either resented (in the case of big, successful agencies) or pitied (omg they still use tables for layout?!); instead see every local web worker as a potential partner, outsourcer or contractor.

By creating—or being part of—a local network of tried and trusted suppliers, you will be able to take on more, and more varied, work than when working alone. Finding other designers or developers with complementary skillsets to your own lets you confidently pitch for work outside your comfort zone, safe in the knowledge that your local “Flash guy” or “Joomla guru” is available to take on what you can’t handle. And by making yourself available to other local companies or individuals, especially if you are a specialist in a hard-to-find area, you will quickly find yourself swamped with requests.

One of the best ways to get in touch with other web professionals in your area is to join a community group such as Refresh. There are Refresh groups in many major cities across the US and UK, or there will be many other diverse user groups and professional associations meeting regularly in your area. And if there isn’t a group that suits your needs—why not start one yourself?

I started Refresh Cambridge in 2006 when I moved to the city, and since then almost 300 people have joined the mailing list or attended the monthly sessions. And in return for the investment of my time and energy in setting up the group, I have made dozens of strong connections with other Cambridge-based freelancers, which in turn has led to several lucrative projects—work that I would never have landed without those local connections.

Participating in a mailing list or speaking at a local event is also a great way to promote yourself as an expert in your field, so grab every opportunity to share your skills or help out other people—you never know what opportunities it might lead to.

2. Find your neighbours online

The second way to make sure you are never far away from what is happening nearby is to join your local community online. By that I mean you should find the online social spaces where your geographical neighbours can be found.

I’m a big fan of Twitter, but until recently most of the people I followed and interacted with were not even on the same continent as me, let alone in the same city. That has now changed, and—partly as a result of Refresh and the naturally high geek quotient on Twitter—I am now also following and speaking with many people in my local area, both within and outside of the web industry. Simply by being myself I can effectively advertise my presence and areas of expertise to a local audience.

Other opportunities for local online participation might be your town/city forum, local newspaper forums, or other local interest groups with web presences. I’m certainly not suggesting spamming your services all around your corner of the web, but a well-placed forum signature or consistently helpful advice about the web can position you as a local expert and the guy to turn to when anyone needs any design or development work carrying out.

3. Participate in offline community

Another way to make connections within your local community is to get involved with offline community projects or groups. Many business blogs recommend joining your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club, but there are often opportunities in other, less business-oriented, arenas. Attend classes at your local community centre or school, or volunteer with community groups or your local church, and you’ll meet many locals outside of your normal social circle, all of whom could be a potential client or referral.

I volunteer as a governor at my local school, which—in addition to providing me with the chance to think about something other than web development once in a while—has introduced me to a circle of people, all of whom are active in their community, and all of whom now know their friendly neighbourhood web designer! These kinds of connections are worth far more than an expensive advert in your local newspaper; there’s nothing like word of mouth recommendations for bringing in work.

(I should point out that none of these opportunities will work for you if you approach them at all cynically, with an eye for a fast buck—if you’re going to join groups or volunteer your time, do it for the right reasons. The fact that it may also help your business is a bonus, but it shouldn’t be your sole motivation.)

4. Search engine optimisation

Finally, what about some practical advice to finish with? If you want to attract local clients, there are some simple steps you should take to optimise your blog or portfolio site to capture local searches. As with any SEO, think about the sort of searches people might be performing. For me, this might mean:

• “cambridge web design”
• “web designers in cambridge”
• “cambridgeshire web development”
• “web design near cambridge”

and various other arrangements of those key search terms. My website should include pages optimised for those various target phrases, but it’s also worth considering your alternative target market: other web designers. Include specific technologies and systems in your optimisation—and often there is much less competition for SERP’s places than for the more popular phrases above—and open yourself up to traffic from industry colleagues looking for help with your favourite platform.

I experienced this myself recently, when I was contacted by a local information architect looking for some help with an ExpressionEngine project. He had searched online, and apparently I was the only relevant result for “expressionengine cambridge” (albeit via an old page that only mentioned EE in the footer). Needless to say, I will shortly be adding a dedicated ExpressionEngine entry to my freelance site to ensure that I don’t miss any similar opportunities.

Summary

While it is true that the internet has broken down borders and removed the need to only deal with clients in your immediate area, there is still a great deal of opportunity to be had right outside your front door. By participating in both the online and offline life of your home town, you will open doors that can lead to rewarding—and profitable—relationships.