Starting a Successful Freelance Operation

[Tron]

Friends,

I feel confident enough to share my true identity with you....

http://www.fliptron.com/

Peep it.... And tell any lawyers you know to peep it as well. Please!

My sneaks aren't that fresh, I'm wearing grey Vans Chukkas,

~Tron

[mmbt0ne]

Seems kinda amateurish with the comments enabled (especially since they'll get filled with spam very quickly if you're not careful) and I don't like the "Front Page" title. Other than that, good work.

[PokerJans]

I had a similar experience so I will share.

History: held a couple awesome online marketing internships during my junior/senior year of college and really learned a lot about search engine marketing/web analytics/ROI based marketing/social media marketing/etc from a few really sharp dudes who really made an effort to teach me everything I wanted to know during the 20-25 hours a week I was in their office. I was on the verge of graduating as a marketing major from a good business school near Boston and decided that I should start my own agency.

So over winter vacation as I was about to graduate I decided I could provide this service myself. My online marketing agency was born. Blah blah chow chow meow I built a basic website and started actively perusing clients during the final semester of my senior year.

My general strategy on the onset was to do some basic research and discover who was already utilizing search engine marketing/selling something on their website/had holes in their online marketing approach. I would then do some detective work and see if I could find out the information of their marketing manager. If I could acquire this information then I would send them an online marketing proposal. The equivalent of a cold-call basically. In all I sent out 10 proposals this spring while I was about to graduate.

I was able to get on the phone with two prospective clients. One was an international sports network from Ireland that had expanded to DirectTV and had a small north American operation. The other was a republican presidential candidate who raised the least amount of charitable donations during the first quarter.

They both wanted to talk to me on the same day. To make a long story short I basically totally blew both phone calls. I totally wasn't prepared to provide an initial 10 minute pitch either of these guys and as a result the general flow of each call was terrible. At the time I wasn't too concerned about it, however school really picked up as I was about to graduate and I also started to go out a bit. I lost all the momentum and confidence I had about this and as I was about to leave for Italy as my graduation I scraped the idea and decided when I got home to CA I was just going to get a job.

And like that my dream was dead. I realized to really get this rolling I would have to commit a ton of hours I wasn't willing to commit. I also needed more experience and overall interaction with clients (read: selling)

Advice to you: Find a way to actively peruse prospective clients and then just do it. Tell them why they need your service and note your previous successes.

Its great that you already have gone some great work because have that credibility goes a long way. I actually really liked the way you presented your 'portfolio' on your website. However your site needs a bit of work IMO. General lack of professionalism - not the overall design - just the wording and content. I wouldn't put my rates out in the open and I would try to deemphasize the idea that you are college student. First impressions are all that matters and those might be turnoffs that you could sell once you actually start consulting with prospective clients.

GOOD LUCK!