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Craigslist Let’s start with an easy one.I write article on this one for hours how to get clients but this one helps you getting started, You will need to initiate contact with some prospects. But, think about how much easier it is to close the deal when the prospect is actively searching for you. Now, instead of selling your services and yourself, all you have to do is sell yourself. There are 2 sections on Craigslist where business owners will post ads looking for someone just like you. Under, “Jobs” there is a section called Web / Info Design and under “Gigs” there is a section called Computer. Business owners will post ads looking for web design and internet marketing services in both of these areas. All you need to do is send them a quick email and wait for their response. In the beginning, I used to spend 1-2 hours a day on this every day. Yes, it’s boring. But it’s an effective starting place to get your feet wet and you get to do it all through email. I don’t do this method anymore, but it’s a GREAT way to get your first few clients. Now, when you send an email to one of these business owners on Craigslist, keep in mind that they will get about 100 of these email responses within just a few hours. So, you need your email to stand out from the rest. How do you do that? Don’t send canned responses like most people do. Actually read their ad. Write back and customize your response to their needs. If they give you their business information or web address, check it out and write back with an analysis. But, keep your response short and sweet. Nobody will read your long email when they have 100 emails to sort through. Just send a quick intro about yourself. Tell them what you can do for them. Send a link to some references/portfolio if you have one and then tell them how to get in contact with you. I give everyone my cell phone number and business email, both of which I monitor 24/7. When they respond to you, you will want to respond right back within minutes. Your quick response will give you a lot of bonus points.. Local Website With this business, you do NOT have to limit yourself to local businesses. I have clients all across the country and even in other countries. So don’t ever think that you can only service the businesses in your area. Your services are global. However, business owners generally like to work with someone local. So you will have an advantage in your area. Creating a website geared towards local businesses and events can be a great way to get your foot in the door. This is what I did. I made a local website and put information about local businesses on there for free. I made it into a site where residents and business owners would want to go. They could find business information, local weather, calendar of events, read their horoscope, play games, etc. The site was 100% free.this just give great ideas. My agenda was to get my foot in the door. You could make this same site and charge businesses a monthly fee to be listed or to advertise. But, in my opinion, it will be far more profitable to collect monthly checks for $500 for SEO services than $25 for a directory site. Anyway, I would then offer business owners the ability to put a video on their listing if they want. It would be a 30 second video that I’d come shoot on my Flip video camera or they can send to me. I’d put it on YouTube and then paste the embed code into the site. And I just made friends with a business owner! Something else I did was I had a weekly raffle. I’d put a 5 second clip of a song on the site. People could then enter their name and their guess on what song it was to be entered into a raffle. I’d make the song something really easy so that people would know it and then enter the raffle. They’d enter the raffle by filling out the form, thus building my local email list. If going build web site then need Hosting..
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