1. I just go to places like Craigslist and Twitter to advertising my services.
   You can waste a lot of time on Craigslist and Twitter trying to advertise your services.  There are so many fly-by-night people that think they are website designers and they ruin it for the professional.

   Don’t get me wrong, you can find business with services like Craigslist and Twitter but you are better off using something like YahooPipes to sort out all the garbage and find only the type of customers that fit your business.

   Personally, I found networking in places like LinkedIn to be much more profitable.  Facebook is better for personal networking instead of business. You need to check out Learning LinkedIn

2. Your hungry and get an inquiry so you throw a quick quote out at a low price.

   This is one of the largest mistake you can make.  It is very important to do the ground work on each project prior to pricing a project to a prospect.  A project is like a car, you don’t go to a car dealer and say give me a chevy.  The salesman is going to hit you with questions to find out what you really want.  Website Design is the same way.  You must understand your client and his company. Then you have to figure what time it will take in hours to do the work.  There forms out there to help you.
   Information needed:

   1. Basic Proposal Cover Letter To Prospect
   2. New Client Needs Analysis Form
   3. Web Development Proposal
   4. Quote For Services
   5. Post-Pitch Follow-Up Letter
3. I don’t require contracts, I don’t wont to loose a client because of a lot of paperwork. Without the paperwork you can not do a good job for your client. If the client is not willing to do the paperwork then you don’t need them.

You must make sure you get a contract and other forms signed like:

1. 1. Authorization For Use Of Copyright Material
   2. Hosting Authorization Form
   3. Project Briefing Paper For Contractors
   4. Web Development Schedule
   5. Client Management Process
   6. Logo Design Creative Brief
   7. Website Design Agreement
   8. Website Performance Report
   9. Project Brief
   10. New Site Testing Checklist
   11. Site Development Process

Like any other business, you must lay the ground work to be successful.

Do you have any mistakes you have made in your website design or freelance business and want to share with us?

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