Developers - How do you advertise?

seamus

I have a mate who's looking to start a sort of side-business, providing general web monkey services, mainly web development to begin with. He doesn't want to have to get massive loans from the bank to start a serious business, just do some work when he gets a chance and build it up from there.

He asked me last night, what I thought would be the best way to get his name about, and I hadn't really thought about it before. He doesn't want to invest too much in advertising (newspapers, golden pages, etc) from the start, since he mainly wants to aim at the very small business/sole trader market, and he's not exactly rolling in spare cash. I promised I'd ask here.

I assume step one would be to get a website up, with basic info, who he is, what he can do, what he will do, how to contact, etc. But is most of the most valuable advertising done by word-of-mouth? That is, George and Alfred are discussing George's new website on the back nine, and George casually recommends the developer?

Sposs

Best thing starting is just to advertise locally , try and get a few customers there , do a great job with them and let word of mouth spread, then start advertising more when you've build up a nice customer base and can afford it.

Stay away from golden pages , independent directory etc no one serious about their website etc is going to look there try pclive etc.

tomED

Since i started in this industry 7 years ago i have only seen word of mouth being the best form of advertising for web design / development.

Everyone knows someone who can design a website - whether its a friend, family member etc.

If you are good, provide a good service the name will eventually get round.

The last company I worked in spent some money on advertisements - in golden pages, independent direcrtory and local papers, but like sposs says I don't think people seriuos about their website will look there.

In fact the golden pages generated a lot of - "I want to get an email address" queries.

IMO word of mouth is the best way to get going!

Tom

mneylon

Word of mouth works best.
Local papers may help, but you might get a lot of "bottom feeders" who want the world but do not want to foot the bill.

dahamsta

Golden Pages is a waste of space anyway, unless you're willing to spend big bucks.

adam

nahdoic

I was mad into this a few years ago.

I sent flyers to local businesses in my area. Put ads up in shop windows. All I got back from it once a call from a competitor who wanted to know who I was, and a call from a guy with "hundreds of pictures of beautiful women". ahem.

Word of mouth is very powerful, but you still need to get your first client without it somehow. I ended up cold calling businesses. I focused on ones that I thought were prime candidates for having websites and who had an email addresses contact but no website yet. It was especially good if their competitors had websites.

It worked and I got my first clients from it, but you need a lot of persistence/desire/enthusiasm. I couldn't do cold-calling for more than a month or two. But after that you have your foot in door and of course the word of mouth.

Although I’m very glad I’m out of that whole area now and I can just develop my own now.

paulthelegend

so how much did u pay for the "hundreds of pictures of beautiful women" hahaha

Yea word of mouth is the best way, to get your foot in the door try doing some charity sites. Make sure u dont end up killing your self for FOC sites though, some of them charity places when i was starting up wanted microsoft type sites but theres alot of ones out there that would be very greatful for a site of any standard, in return (and put this nicely to them) they include a little advertisement on the bottom of there flyers and stationary and you put your ad on there page aswell, it's great PR.

Then go to pubs and drink like a fish!!!! till you choke! Thats where most networking is done, have got a good few clients from talking to strangers.

Fergal C

Make sure you have a great website yourself. It sounds obvious but I've come across a few newbie designers who were "too busy" to develop their own site. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

damnyanks

Freelance sites such as www.elance.com www.rentacoder.com etc. is another way. Its competitive though.

Terminator

Join a lot of web-related discussion groups such as this one and make sure your username/signature contains your website address.

To get started take on a few cheap/pro-bono clients such as small recruitment sites/charities/estate agents - companies that benefit most from the web (might be best to avoid shopping sites as they are way too much hassle). Do a damn good job (make sure you put your logo at the bottom of every page) and then add them to your portfolio on your own site.

Also its worthwhile starting a blog on web design topics (minimum 1/2 small posts per day to get decent results) as they are a great way of bringing targetted traffic to your site(s) which you'll naturally list in the sidebar.

Ph3n0m

I normally advertise like this

http://www.napierdot.com/html.jpg

mneylon

Originally posted by dahamsta
Golden Pages is a waste of space anyway, unless you're willing to spend big bucks.

adam

What about the online version? Their sales team have been trying to persuade us to advertise.. so far I've been politely refusing ...

buddy

I must say I admire the contribuotrs to this thread, I don't see many industries helping out their (potential) competitors.

Normally, to gauge methods you have to look around and make your own judgements.

Thumbs up to all involved.

rymus

Originally posted by blacknight
Local papers may help, but you might get a lot of "bottom feeders" who want the world but do not want to foot the bill.

That sounds familiar... I've got a guy that buys a brand new €100,000 merc every year but somehow always manages to be skint when it's time for payment. Needless to say, one has to be very skilled in the art of debt collection. It's a harsh learning curve but ultimately rewarding (more so mentally than financially I might add).

yellum

Originally posted by rymus
That sounds familiar... I've got a guy that buys a brand new €100,000 merc every year but somehow always manages to be skint when it's time for payment

I am aware of said chap too. [;)] But his greed is ripe for exploitation....

buddy

Originally posted by yellum
I am aware of said chap too. [;)] But his greed is ripe for exploitation....

I bet the merc dealers don't mind!

chakotha

Word of mouth and networking is the only way to start. A decent website and get some cards printed. Otherwise how will that great prospect you met in the pub last night reach you!

mneylon

Originally posted by rymus
That sounds familiar... I've got a guy that buys a brand new €100,000 merc every year but somehow always manages to be skint when it's time for payment. Needless to say, one has to be very skilled in the art of debt collection. It's a harsh learning curve but ultimately rewarding (more so mentally than financially I might add).

One of the advantages we have as web hosts is that we can always disable a site if the client does not pay. We've done it a few times and payment has been very prompt

The Corinthian

As has been said, word of mouth is the best means of advertising if you’re a freelancer or doing a nixer.

Additionally you should publish or perish - submit articles to magazines and/Web sites that are relevant to what you do. In most cases you won’t get paid, but they do add credibility to your skills.

Build a simple (< 10 pages) Web site to display your portfolio of past work and any articles you may have written. Think of it as an on-line CV without the personal and education details.

Networking is very important - get cards printed up that have your mobile number, your email address and Web URL and bring them around wherever you go. Talk about what you do. Hand them out. Even if they don’t need a Web site, they may be talking to someone a month later who does.

Finally, join a few industry related mailing lists. Lurk for a while before posting and only post when you have something relevant to say - Overcome the temptation to post on frivolous or newbie topics. Other than being informative, such lists will often advertise projects and if you’re well thought of on a list, you’ll start finding people contacting you off-list to offer you work.

Originally posted by blacknight
Local papers may help, but you might get a lot of "bottom feeders" who want the world but do not want to foot the bill.

Actually those are known as tyre kickers (Bottom feeders are the freelancers/nixers who specialize in doing very cheap and even nastier work). Tyre kickers want free advice or consultancy but either have no money or have the money but won’t spend it ‘cos there’s a sucker born every minute and it’s your turn to get ripped off by them. The moment you hear the words “profit share” towards the end of your meeting (i.e. they wanted you get as much info out of you even though they had no money), you’ll know you have a tyre kicker on your hands. All I can suggest is that you give everyone one free meeting. Just one.

One of the advantages we have as web hosts is that we can always disable a site if the client does not pay.

You can always specify that you will retain all IPR, passwords, source code, etc until final payment in a development contract. Also, with a client with no prior history, always look for between 30% - 50% up front.