In this article we are going to talk about what you need to start your work as a freelance designer without dying in the process. Of course your designs must be of good quality, and you must want to do this job perfectly… but what more do you need?
As you can see, this is a guide; I will explain more deeply each point, especially those related to the choice of domain name and hosting company, and online promotion.
1. Learn fluent English
This is essential, 99.9% of my clients speak English, they are generally from the United States, England or Australia. You will also reach Germany and France.
2. Create a Paypal account
I would never start designing without some upfront payment, so we need a fast payment method, otherwise you may lose customers who need something fast, most of them.
Paypal is essential if you don’t want to be deceived; you can receive instant payments via email, plus it’s free and easy to use. If your client doesn’t have an account, it’s easy to sign up and pay with a credit card, fees aren’t high, and transfers to your bank take 3-4 days; if you use a personal account you save all the fees but you have limits when using the money, it is better to use a business or premier account. In this way, when you ask for payment in advance there will be no excuses. The problem with Paypal is that it is not available in all countries, especially in South America.
You can also use Epassporte, it’s similar but less people use it and it’s worse for Europe (it costs 50 US$ to transfer your payments to your bank).
Another alternative is Western Union; the client deposits in your name and gives you a code, then you can request your money at any Western Union office. This system is quite fast, but it can take a couple of days.
The rest of the alternatives (cheque, money order, bank transfer…) are much slower, so we will have the same time problem.
3. Create a 5-star portfolio
If you don’t have samples of your work, you can’t show how good you are.
Nobody will pay you a fortune without a good portfolio, try to choose works in which you can shine; Your priority now shouldn’t be money, but building a quality portfolio. If you work hard, in a couple of years you will have a great portfolio and you will be able to choose more profitable clients… if what you need is quick money, sorry friend, you are in the wrong business.
I started charging US$15 per design, now I don’t charge less than US$250 per logo or mascot design.
At first you must be very versatile, the more things you know how to do, the more chances you have to get clients: logo design, web design, graphic design, comics, illustrations… anything. Also, if you offer all this, more than one client who came for a logo will also ask for a website.
4. Create a website
It is useless to have a great portfolio if no one can see it… if you are not on the Internet you do not exist.
You have to design a website, it doesn’t have to be anything very advanced at first, an html site with a gallery of your work and your email is enough. As you grow you must do better.
5. Register a domain name
Now we need a domain name (for example: http://www.sosfactory.com); do not register it through hosting companies, many of them offer it for free but sometimes that is a trap because they do not give you complete freedom to use it, especially if you want to change to a different hosting company.
It is better to spend 8 to 20US$ and register it yourself with godaddy or eurodns or any other you know that allows you to manage it completely. It is also important to register a .com, because they are better valued.
Of course you have to think of a good name, now is a good time for it… don’t choose long or difficult names to write, or that sound bad in English.
6. Hire hosting services
Hosting is the space where you host your website so that everyone can visit it.
I have all my sites hosted on Downtownhost, it is a young company, not overcrowded and with an excellent technical service, now that you are looking if there is something you need is help with your doubts and problems… forget about unlimited bandwidth or terabytes of HDD.
I have been with very bad and crowded hosting companies that give you a free domain but hide in clauses that nobody knows where they are (not even their own employees); That way they don’t let you go when you discover the lousy service they offer.
7. Promote yourself
Well, after having everything we said above, only the most difficult part remains :), the promotion.
It’s better if many people see your website, you never know who may visit it, protect yourself in art communities, forums, blogs… My biggest client so far, Funrise Toy Corp, came through an art community called Deviantart. .so go there.
As you can see, the more visits, the better, but it is also important that your traffic is directed to potential customers. Go to designer forums, blogs and art communities where you can offer your work.
It is good to learn something about search engine optimization (google, yahoo, msn…). Basically it consists of getting quality links to your website, in this way you will gain relevance for certain search terms and your site will appear in the first results of Google.
Conclution
Being a freelance designer is not easy, you need quality, versatility, speed and intelligence to be able to see where potential clients are.
To be able to live from this, I mean to have stable clients who appreciate you, I think you will need a minimum of 2 years… you know… do you want Fame?