How to Use Job Boards to Land Clients
If you’re a web designer charging a reasonable rate for your services, you’ve likely been really discouraged when you’ve looked at job boards in the past – lots of jobs that pay very little and want the moon. Or, worse, the jobs that want a designer to merely clone a pre-existing site.
And yet, if you’re looking for work, a job board can be a great place to find it. You just have to know these five tips.
1) Don’t Expect To Land Any One Gig
No matter how perfect you know you are for the position, don’t be discouraged if you don’t even get an email back. Rather, take the attitude that your right clients will find you with a little help by seeing you in their email inbox.
2) Apply For Many, Many Openings
Take a few hours, and find at least 30 positions you’d be great for. Apply to all of them. Applying for jobs advertised on job boards is a crap shoot, and the more awesome emails you send, the better your odds of getting at landing at least one client.
3) Apply For Each One Individually
Read the job requirements, make sure you apply the way they ask (if they ask you not to send a resume, don’t send a resume). Write a personal email for each opening, and even if you do some copying and pasting, make sure to write at least one original sentence explaining why you want this particular job. It’ll go a long way to catching the eye of whomever is slogging through the applications to know you’ve treated them like an individual.
4) Take A Long-Term View
As you read the job requirements, don’t just think about how you could help immediately, think about what the client needs going forward. For instance, a client who wants a WordPress blog designed might also need future training, or advice on attracting more search engine traffic. Something that can really help to drive this point home is to use a testimonial from a client who you started with Project A and then also helped them with Project B. If you have a client who can say, “We hired Jo to design a company blog, and then found ourselves without many visitors. So, we called Jo again and were able to attract 50% more search engine traffic in a month just by making the recommended tweaks” that can go a long way towards making your point.
5) Make Sure You Get The Pieces In Order First
You’re going to need a portfolio, whether it’s on your own site or a portfolio site. You’re going to need contact information beyond an email address. An awesome resume won’t hurt, nor will some killer client testimonials. A lengthy client list (especially if you’ve worked with big players in the prospect’s industry) is also useful. If you don’t have these pieces yet, don’t despair, but do start putting them together as you go – they all go a long way towards
demonstrating your credibility.
Final Thoughts
If you’re good, you can expect to land 1 out of every 10 jobs you apply for even if yours is the highest price they receive. Sure, those are somewhat long odds, but when you’re
looking at projects around $5k, it’s well worth the two hours it’ll take you to knock out thirty emails and land three gigs. So, be personable, be professional, and apply for a lot of jobs. Will you lose out on some jobs because your prices are too high? Of course! But, you’ll lose out on all the jobs if you don’t apply at all.
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CONTRIBUTE
Dave Sparks
August 19, 2009
I’ve always been put off job boards for the very reason you open with – maybe it’s time to give it another shot. Any decent boards worth looking at?
zack
August 19, 2009
Great post. Been looking at writing something similar =b
Andrew Houle
August 19, 2009
@Dave – There are a ton, but these are two of the ones that I’ve heard have a better rep, check out Design Jobs on the Wall and Authentic Jobs.
Luis Lopez
August 19, 2009
I’ve never tried job boards for the moment, but I want to do it so at least now I know some good this I can use If I get started there.
thanks
.-= Luis Lopez´s last blog ..Video Of The Week #09 – Kudan by Taku Kimura =-.
David
August 19, 2009
When I first started out as a designer I would often visit job boards for projects. But after awhile it seemed as if people focused more on how cheap they can get the project done for instead of the quality they would be receiving. Then they would post another project complaining about the last project’s quality outcome but still try to get a redesign for even lower of a price..
I guess from that I’ve developed a pet peeve of sorts towards job boards..
.-= David´s last blog ..Upcoming Goodness =-.
Jessica
August 19, 2009
@Dave – I’ve actually had good luck with just about all of them (including Craig’s List), but tend to prefer the ones attached to a blog because they’re a bit smaller and the descriptions tend to go more in depth. When you’re first getting started, focus on one at a time, and give it your all–if that particular board doesn’t work well for you, move on to the next one. They each have their own personality, and there are many to try!
@Luis – I’m delighted to hear you’ll give it a try–good luck! And I’d love to hear how you do.
@David – I felt exactly the same way for a long time, but then I discovered that though there are some project-posters who really do want the lowest price no matter what, there are many others who just don’t know how else to evaluate a project, so they focus on price. But, if you give them a good reason to pay more, they’re more than willing to do so. Just about everyone appreciates good value and not being driven crazy by their designer ;-). (Though, I definitely stay away from the people looking for a redesign of a previous project like you describe–I’ve found that if a client starts badmouthing their previous designer before we start working together [or even soon after] they’re usually not a very good client for me, either.)
.-= Jessica´s last blog ..WordPress Warning and Chocolate Cake =-.
Nic
August 19, 2009
Great tips! I actually think I might try job boards, thanks.
Christine Wilde
August 20, 2009
Excellent tips there! I have just started using a job board to build up my client base and have one reply out of about 6 so far. Which I thought was pretty bad and I must be saying or doing something wrong. I’ll keep at it though.
.-= Christine Wilde´s last blog ..Spicy Web Designers.com Interview! [1] =-.
Jessica
August 20, 2009
@Christine–Those are great results! I know it can be discouraging at first, but it’s such an easy way to bring in business when things are slow, that it’s well worth mastering the process.
@Nic–Glad you enjoyed it. I’d love to hear how it works for you if you give it a try.
.-= Jessica´s last blog ..WordPress Warning and Chocolate Cake =-.
larryheard
August 25, 2009
I couldn’t agree more and if things doesn’t work well with Job Boards you could also try some other freelancing sites, there are tons of it. The best part, you could use the same formula as what Jessica mentioned. I bet with 10 or more applications, you’ll definitely land a project as long as you supply your great looking resume template and cater all your prospective employer’s question.
Matt Ward
August 27, 2009
Very interesting post. I’m really just starting out on this freelancing design kick, so this is good to know. I’ll definitely by trying some of these job boards once the current craziness of my life settles down! Thanks for this!!
.-= Matt Ward´s last blog ..Wedding Wine Labels =-.
Jason
November 27, 2009
Another place to find clients is webmaster forums. Sometimes you can also find local businesses that need web designers.
Jackie Stewart
February 16, 2010
I don’t trust sites with huge database of employers, my ad is always brought down and I can never find what I really need. I prefer small niche sites that have special offers for me, not for everyone.