Ask HN: What can I do to acquire more freelancing projects/clients?

53 points by BacioiuC 8 years ago | 38 comments

Hi HN,

I'm a game designer and programmer who recently started his own business. I was off to a rocky start but thanks to a blog post on gamasutra that ended up on HN I managed to reach my sales goal and I'm in the clear for the next 6 months. The problem is, I don't want to repeat the previous mistake and, although I have another game in the works and 2 more updates ready to ship for the first game, I'm looking to extend my savings and not have to bank on the next projects having the same luck.

I've setup an account on Upwork and have applied to more than 40 projects over the course of 1.5 months. I finally scored a quick 5$ job on translating a couple hundred phrases to another language. I have listed all the projects I worked on, quite a few of them being big titles (like The Dark Knight Rises, N.O.V.A 3, Frozen). I also listed the ones I developed myself as an indie and I have my credentials and LinkedIn listed as well.

I targeted projects related to my skills and experience with solid referrals and examples but I never seem to get the job. I lowered my hourly rate to 15$ / h and I still can't win any projects.

Any chance I can get some tips from people with more experience than me on freelancing? Or do you know any better place where I can find gigs related to programming (Lua, C#) or Game Development? Heck, I'd even take article writing since I like doing that and it would surely help me keep the lights on for longer.

Thanks!

Edit: I have been making games professionally since 2010 and even worked in fields related to Home Automation to save money for my own business.

startupdiscuss 8 years ago |

Here are my main tips:

Pick a niche. This is key. You may be the best programmer in the world, but people won't know whom to pick. You might be the best game programmer, but there are many others. However, if you pitch yourself as the expert in getting html games to perform smoothly with poor connectivity, then people with that problem know exactly whom to pick.

For this to be effective: Don't pick too broad a niche.

You can pick the niche based on data -- which if your skills is most in demand, pays the most, has the most wanted posts and so on.

Make sure your whole profile is geared to promoting your prowess in the niche.

Did I mention, pick a niche?

Once you have a niche, you can expand to adjacent niches.

Oh, and don't underprice yourself. The price is a signal of quality so only go as low (if you must) as the market average but no lower for your niche.

muzani 8 years ago | |

+1 to not underpricing yourself. At the lower prices, you will get a lot of low quality clients. If the problem is big enough, they're willing to pay.

pan69 8 years ago | |

Any tips on how to find your market average?

muzani 8 years ago | | |

Global rates for software developers are roughly about $25-$100 an hour. $100/hour is more for people with specialist experience in the US time zone. There are people willing to go cheaper than $25/hour, but you'll be a blur among people who are willing to work fo $4/hour.

But usually there are local rates as well based on your country. These are somewhat pegged to the international rates past a certain level of quality. These can be lower than international rates.

Sometimes you can squeeze an even higher price out of a local contract because you'd add the benefit of more strongly understanding the problem, better communication in terms of time zone, language, and face to face interaction. Plus there's some security in meeting a person face to face.

chrisabrams 8 years ago |

When starting from scratch: post on Freelancer Seeking Freelance every month.

You'll reach a groove once 120% of your referrals are word of mouth. The pendulum flips quickly between looking for clients and then getting a good rep. for doing good work and the clients flowing to you. Good work is hard to find.

With that said, don't negotiate for the highest rate possible at the start. Getting a good rep. will get you better paying clients a lot faster.

blisterpeanuts 8 years ago | |

Can you explain "post on Freelancer Seeking Freelance every month" -- are you referring to freelancer.com? Is there a general "seeking freelance" feature to that website? In my experience, you have to apply to specific jobs. And the chances of getting any of them are extremely low, at least in my experience; it seems to be dominated by Indian and other 3rd world folks eager to build up their skills while working for pennies.

tga 8 years ago | | |

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=freelancer%3F%20seeking%20free...

hanniabu 8 years ago | |

If you start out at a lower rate to build a good rep, how do you transition to a higher rate? If someone is referred to you from a previous client, I would think that a rate is shared and so they already have a number in mind for what you charge. Also, what about for recurring clients. If you gave them a better rate in the past and you have now bumped up your rate, do you honor your past rate or do you give them your new rate. For argument sake, let's assume this is not super frequent client that gives you stability, but maybe 15hrs of work every 3 months.

ricksharp 8 years ago | |

Does Freelancer seeking Freelancer actually work to find high paying contracts?

chrisabrams 8 years ago | | |

We've hired two freelancers from there. Only place I go now to find quality engineers.

jf22 8 years ago | | |

Yes.

anon1094 8 years ago |

I've been freelancing remotely as a front-end web developer for over 3 years now. Here's my advice:

1. Get off of Upwork, now. You're only getting into a bidding war with low-priced overseas developers.

2. Instead, search remote job boards, Twitter, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn for freelance remote contracts related to your field.

3. Find the client's email and send them your portfolio directly.

Following this strategy is what has landed me the most freelance gigs these past years.

There's also aggregation newsletters like RemoteLeads that send you remote freelance gigs a few times a week directly to your email.

https://remoteleads.io/

Shameless Plug: I started RemoteLeads to make finding remote front-end freelance leads easier for myself.

mdekkers 8 years ago | |

Get off of Upwork, now. You're only getting into a bidding war with low-priced overseas developers.

As an ex frequent buyer on Upwork I can confirm, that place is the pits.

ricksharp 8 years ago | |

Does this actually work?

Where do you find Remote jobs on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn?

ishanjain28 8 years ago | | |

2 Engineers from Microsoft Azure team tweeted about lots of work opportunities yesterday. It was quite interesting. They were looking for Junior/Senior devs writing Go, Rust, JS, PHP, Python and a few more languages.

anon1094 8 years ago | | |

Yes, the next email is going out in a few hours. The next one after that on Thursday morning eastern time.

Various sources are scraped to find remote jobs and freelance gigs specific to front-end web development. I go through them manually after I've found them and only send the best 5 max.

bshimmin 8 years ago |

I was off to a rocky start but thanks to a blog post on gamasutra that ended up on HN I managed to reach my sales goal and I'm in the clear for the next 6 months.

I guess the shrewd commenters who said this piece https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ConstantinBacioiu/20171121/3... was actually something of a subtle sales technique were pretty much spot on!

BacioiuC 8 years ago | |

It wasn't really, but I'm not gonna lie and say I'm not happy it turned out the way it did.

niko001 8 years ago | |

Guess what the goal of the current post is ;-)

benAO90 8 years ago |

Looks like you've gotten some helpful tips so far. Here's a few things I can add.

As far as marketing yourself as niche vs. a generalist developer, it really depends on the types of clients and projects you are looking to work on. Being a generalist means you will qualify for more projects, and probably can create extra work for yourself since you can help clients with a broader range of development tasks. This will be useful if you want to help clients build and scale a product. Niche skills on the other hand means more niche marketability and searchability for clients looking for those specific skills.

When it comes to marketing yourself....keep blogging! Even if its only for 15 mins a day, write something. Share what you've been doing, answer questions for potential clients and other developers. You've already seen the pay off. Netowrk, online and off. Go to events and conferences, share your work and interests. Personal connections still count for a lot, and have a stronger tendency to lead to referrals.

Lastly, don't forget, as freelancer you are your own business. Some freelance platforms will take care of a lot of business aspects for you, but you still should be prepared/ knowledgeable about the following: -Terms of Service Contract -Your own (favorable) NDA -Time Tracking/Invoicing Software - Regular Review of Your Rate

Here's an article I wrote on landing clients as a freelance dev: https://www.codementor.io/blog/land-clients-freelance-develo...

hungerstrike 8 years ago |

Get on Shapr. I just started using it and I've made quite a few connections.

ricksharp 8 years ago | |

How do you make clients on Shapr? It sounds like it's more about peer networking.

hungerstrike 8 years ago | | |

I connected with a few guys who run consulting shops, who outsource skills that they don't have in-house. Also, some recruiters who can get me contracts with big city corps. I've also gotten in touch with 2 startup founders who are looking for a CTO.

JSeymourATL 8 years ago |

What does an ideal target project/client look like?

If you can answer this-- you can direct your own proactive business development campaign. On this subject, Mike Weinberg is brilliant > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simpl...

potta_coffee 8 years ago |

Upwork is terrible. All of my work comes through personal contacts and relationships. IMO you've got to find a way to grow your network, be that meetups, events, etc. Get creative. It sounds like you have a lot of skill in your domain, maybe you could do a lecture somewhere and meet people that way. Relationships have a tendency of naturally generating work.

saluki 8 years ago |

y, you're going to have problems getting viable projects on Upwork.

The best projects with reasonable pay will come from your own network, people you know. So focus on networking following up with old contacts/making new ones.

Reach out to the game dev community, get in contact with podcasts, write articles, get involved with the community.

VirgilShelton 8 years ago |

You worked on The Dark Knight Risers, and Frozen? Details please?

BacioiuC 8 years ago | |

TDKR back when I was with Gameloft, Frozen Free Fall at Mobility-Games as a designer and programmer.

thatsheelpatel 8 years ago |

As already said, pick a niche, and make sure you're known for it. Generate content in that area, you're a game designer, so blog about the issues you've faced, how you've overcome hurdles. If blogging isn't for you, create a podcast, just create content in whatever medium you're most passionate about and do something that makes you a thought leader in that space.

When someone is searching for a solution to an existing problem they face and you can demonstrate how you've solved it, and many more in that domain you're immediately valuable.