Linda Jenkinson Web Content Design

To get started in a freelance business you need to promote your business. Don’t count on your website to generate business. You’ll find that, at least in the beginning, you’ll get very little freelance work from your website.

Many new designers and web developers start building their portfolios by using freelance sites such as Rentacoder and Elance. Although the pay may be abysmal, along with gaining a portfolio, these freelancers also gain testimonials, links to completed live freelance work, and possibly generate some referrals that do generate good freelance web development projects.

Become an active and helpful member of webmaster forums like SitePoint in your area of expertise. Showing that you are skilled in your area does generate business.

Join a networking site such as LinkedIn. Building a network of good business connections related to your business (and even those unrelated) also helps to grow your freelance business.

Add a blog to your website and add some tutorials that are pertinent to your range of skills. Join a few good social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon to promote your blog and your work.

Be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day and a business doesn’t succeed in two months. Create a business plan. Not one for a bank (these days it wouldn’t help much) but one that maps out where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. My favorite are two SitePoint articles: one by Andrew Neitsch, Write a Business Plan that Works. Another is The Principles of Successful Freelancing by Miles Burke. Read these and other articles on creating a business and making it grow.

Don’t wait for your freelance business to happen. Make it happen!