Generating leads as freelance developer

[city17]

Hi all, got a question on generating freelance leads. Not as a business for others, but for myself as a frontend developer.

I know there's quite a few people on here who also do freelance dev work on the side. I've also gotten more into this over time, to the point where it's my main income now, but I do have the occasional periods of drought where it can be tricky to find new clients.

I was wondering how most people on here find new leads? Particularly high quality ones, not the ones who want to pay pennies or only have work that could easily be outsourced to Upwork or done by AI.

Specifically I've found that my best clients have been from the US, but I'm in Western EU and it's a bit tricky to get new leads without having a personal network there. For example, I recently did a short project for a Google-backed startup and the pay and type of work is simply way better than it is locally (and I'm in a high income country myself).

To be more specific, my current main sources of new projects are:
- Repeat clients
- Referrals from old clients
- Portfolio site
- Hacker News (this is where I find my US clients)
- Local personal connections

Strategies I'm working on:
I'm currently working on a small site where I compile some of the best work in my specific dev niche and write tutorials on how to recreate that work. I know someone who has a very similar site (slightly different niche) who generates quite a lot of leads this way (he's also doing well by selling digital products through the same site).

Also started getting in touch (cold emailing) with some good digital agencies, and have gotten some good responses here, but no tangible projects yet. Seems difficult without having some kind of starting connection or recommendation from someone they know.

Looking for some pointers on how to get better at networking/sales and how to find clients outside the traditional freelance sites. Thought some people on here might have some good insights based on experience.

Thanks!

 

[bernard]

I'm currently working on a small site where I compile some of the best work in my specific dev niche and write tutorials on how to recreate that work.

I would think that blogging and tweeting and posting on LinkedIn would be a decent way to become noticed, but I really don't have anything to back that up.

You could also end up in a scenario where you are popular with DIY people?

 

[Biggy]

Just try to think. What services CEOs use. Try to be different than everyone. Heck at the end you can call them. It would come off as much better? Maybe ... it's all about testing. But emails etc. Go usually to spam or they just delete them.

I remember working for eCommerce literally we got thousands of emails from guru agencies etc daily 5-10 emails. It was pretty annoying. I would never ever work with someone contacting me over email.

 

[tziahs]

You could also start a sales thread here on BuSo or similar forums. Also, try to connect with CTOs, CEOs, or hiring managers on LinkedIn. In time, you'll create a group of specialists that may need your services. Good luck!