Freelancing can be
described as "Controlled Worry 24x7x365". This blog... rather
a mini manifesto if you will, is all about success and survival in the
freelance trenches, baby. Hard-earned lessons and experiences [and mistakes!]
applicable to multiple creative disciplines. [things that I wish someone had told
me when I was first starting out!]
Not everything here will apply or
be relatable. Hopefully you'll gain insight, inspiration and info. Fair
warning: a long read but well worth it, I assure you. ;-)
[Be sure to review the helpful
links in the right-hand column!] >
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1. Let's begin with simple, common
sense stuff. [and
ultimately, perhaps the most critical part of your business success] Freelance creative... design and
illustration is brutally competitive and requires more than talent to succeed.
• SERVICE. GREAT, fast service is KEY,
KEY, KEY.
• COMMUNICATION. Return phone calls and emails promptly...
polite, respectful, quick responses to a clients' needs. Great
communication skills are SO important...
and SO lacking in today's business world -
sharpening this skill alone will set you apart from and above your competition.
>>>
and while we're on the subject of communication: use
spellcheck in your emails -
there's nothing less professional to a client than misspelled words
• During a project,
develop the habit of sending out a "Just checkin' in"/progress-update
email first thing in the morning - open with a little light humor, inquire
about them on a personal level *; this communication effectively puts them at
ease that you're on-track with their project and keeps them off your back
during the day while you're busy creating that masterpiece... a win-win.
* Find out something
personal about the client - a hobby?... do they have kids?... what do they like
to do?... something that will additionally link them to you on a personal level
so, as your relationship develops, you can tap into this knowledge in your
subsequent chats.
• BEND
OVER BACKWARDS FOR A CLIENT. Service,
service, service, baby! [have I mentioned “service” enough?] - like it or not,
whether you agree or not, I tell my clients [my best clients, which frankly I can count on
only a couple fingers]: no day is sacred in my studio... I am available for you
7 days a week if necessary [subject to change depending on what
personal/financial stage of life you find yourself in, right? ;-)]
• PROJECT
A POSITIVE, CAN-DO ATTITUDE NO MATTER WHAT YOUR EMOTIONS. I can't begin to tell you how
many times I've had a client on the phone, either discussing a potential project
or one in-progress, and been emotionally down on that particular day -
invariably, I'll mistakenly allow those negative emotions to creep into my
voice and 9.9 times out of 10, they'll quickly sense it and comment: "You
OK with this project?"... you don't seem too enthused",
etc. - fake it if you have to but ALWAYS project the best attitude possible
towards a client.
• NEVER
LET 'EM SEE YOU SWEAT. [when speaking with an CD/AD, your various enthusiastic replies] "You ask if I can match that style?"... "You want it by Thursday morning?"... "You want me to revise panels 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9 for the 7th time?"... "You want me to stand on my head, spin around and whistle Dixie while simultaneously juggling 5 flaming bowling pins AND retouching a clearly inferior, low-res composite image, magically transforming it to annual report-quality?" To which you reply:
"Absolutely, positively,
guaranteed!... I can't WAIT to dive in!!... consider it done!!!... you can
TOTALLY count on me!!!!" ... then, slowly hang up the
phone and start sweating profusely. You'll get it done. ;-)
• BE
ON TIME with
preliminary and final submissions!
• KNOW YOUR CLIENT/KNOW THEIR BUSINESS,
prospective or otherwise.
• PROFESSIONALISM in every aspect of your business.
• Make each client feel
that they are the most important part of your business. [frankly, as a
one-man/one-woman operation, they are!]
>>>
TWO KEY THINGS... laser-etched in granite, to keep in mind:
1. Your sole goal and mission in life as a
freelance artist is to make an art director look good to his or her boss, period - check the ego at the door.
2. You're in business to land and keep
clients... think long-term:
some artists go in for the quick $$ kill on the first job - the big picture: consistently fair, honest, market-value fees - you want that client to be there down the road when you need the work to pay
that utility bill before it gets cut off!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Bidding Sites. the Upwork, Elance, Guru, 99Designs, iFreelance, Freelancer, DesignCrowd, CrowdSpring, etc. models are terribly flawed - bottom-line, often-sealed [unless you pay a fee], blind bidding is a mistake in SO many ways.
Reason 1: you may be one of 50... 100+ or more “professionals” [I use the term VERY loosely] bidding on the same project.
Reason 2: Essentially it's a "Race to the bottom". We're talking third world wages.
Reason 3: the absolute WORST time to be anywhere near these sites is during a recession, where employers KNOW creatives are desperate and easy prey for acceptance of sub-standard fees - where the numbers of creatives looking for work... any work... is especially high - where the odds are virtually 100% in favor of the employer.
Reason 4: to top if off, there are fees: for example, Elance deducts a service charge between 6.75% and 8.75% - Guru freelancers pay "a 5% or 10% project fee"... Guru freelancers can also purchase a Guru membership/subscription fee "to receive privileged access to projects and employers." Because Guru.com insists that you get paid through them, they are able to double dip - not only do they get your sign-up fee, but they also keep a portion of every payment you receive. iFreelance charges a membership fee [4.69 - 9.00/mo]...
... certainly not efficient, productive use of your time and limited marketing budget.
Frankly, these sites are a joke.
An excellent related article for you: Upwork vs Freelancer: Why It’s a Battle YOU Won’t Win
. . . . . . . . . . . .
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3. Sourcebooks. Don't be fooled into buying a
page/package in one of the creative sourcebooks, digital or conventional.
Reason: Think
about it - in a sourcebook, you are adrift in a mindless sea of
incredibly-talented creatives, page after page - essentially side-by-side with
hundreds of your closest competitors - a misdirected waste of your valuable and
scarce money; combined with the fact that publishers charge 2K-3K+ for packages
[Serbin/Directory of Illustration and Workbook ] - smart, efficient marketing
it is not...
... for substantially less you can join a professional organization, pay for
inclusion on some killer referral sites that will return you REAL hits and work
- and have enough left over to print a set of quarterly postcards, buy a
respectable laptop and dinner for 4 at your favorite restaurant.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. Due Diligence
As for "One-stop promo/marketing services sites"
[for example: Agency Access: Marketing & Consulting Services for
Artists] Information is so easily attained through a bit of time and
effort [online and conventionally], why pay these high fees?
There’s no substitute for
doing your own due diligence. Who knows you and your business better than you?
Who works longer hours than you? There’s no magic wand… you can’t just sit back
and magically grow your business by throwing $$’s at a service…
… hard work, long hours,
sacrifice of a night out or a weekend date, sweat, worry, direct emails, follow-up
emails, phone calls. Fighting the urge to send an email and actually making the
effort to speak to someone.
You have to want something so bad it hurts.
Tap
inward for self-motivation. Blindly competitive - always believing your
competition has packed it in for the evening and gone to bed, so you’re gonna
spend an extra two and half hours until 1:17am researching art directors within
various agencies, yet another online directory you can list on, etc., etc.
You want something bad enough you’ll find a way to make it
happen. No one’s gonna hand it to you.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Referral sites. [on the obvious assumption you already
have a viable, professional web site]
Determine your online referral site ad budget - some of my best referral sites
are free and some are fee-based and definitely worth paying for... WELL worth
the investment.
My best referral site: Graphic Artists Guild Member
Portfolios. Easily and without doubt my
best referral site for many years... by far...
accounting for nearly 23% of total hits to the site [GAG directory inclusion is
worth the membership fee alone]
Totals/top
4 performers...
699 hits/22.7%
196
hits/6.3%
36
hits/1.1%
A small sampling of honorable mentions in no particular order: [criteria
changes but aside from Communication
Arts Creative Hotlist, I believe most
if not all of these are free to list]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Reps. I had an East Coast-based rep for the better
part of 11 years...
[another one - West Coast-based - for only one year because she coerced me,
against my strong better judgment, into taking a page in a sourcebook [Graphic
Artists Guild Directory of Illustration] for 2K+ that resulted in ZERO calls
or work. Her whole claim-to-fame was talking an artist into a sourcebook
page, sitting back and doing nothing. Shame on me, right?!]
... Molly was a seasoned and sharp businesswoman, a great friend to
this day, a daily confidant, supportive and caring in every way and brought me
high-end projects.
How did I land the
rep? [this
directly relates to my #8 tip: Find your niche]:
I approached her with
samples of my work, which at the time were almost 100% technical/informational/instruction-assembly
B&W lineart [now THAT's a narrow niche!] - not a common
discipline for reps and most importantly, a niche that no one in her collection
remotely covered.
She had a killer stable
of amazingly talented artists and no initial desire whatsoever for anyone new.
She began: "Hmmm...
I have to be honest with you, I'm not looking for anyone right now and I just
don't think there's enough money there." I convinced her that indeed there was
good potential; she finally agreed to rep me on a "trial" basis; as luck
would have it, the very next week Cuisinart called her looking for an
illustrator to illustrate a product manual full of technical lineart. Bingo,
baby!... and a
wonderful professional relationship began.
Soon after that, one
of her illustrators had just finished a logo for Fafnir, a division of The Torrington
Company [now Timken] - the art director was frustrated over unsuccessfully
trying to find an illustrator to work on a huge project converting 40+ years of
existing engineering/mechanical/assembly drawings, diagrams, charts, graphs,
etc. into a series of digitally-produced catalogs - she said: "I
have just the guy for you!"... guess what?... the first purchase
order [of several] was for 50K [!!] I kid you not. Long-term over the better
part of a year... AND... it allowed
plenty of time for add'l freelance projects. Niche.
Reps are a wonderful and perhaps a necessary evil, especially when you're just
starting out in a career [though most reps rightfully prefer an artist with
"some" time-in-grade and self-promotion experience under their belt].
Reps look for style and a
well-developed visual vocabulary in a portfolio. Someone that is unique and
highly-skilled - ideally, an illustrator that has gone through the process of
soliciting work, portfolio development, performed self-marketing, competitions,
billing and bookkeeping etc. is going to appreciate what a rep provides to them
more than an illustrator who has never had to experience how much work is
involved.
Attributes they look for:
personality, professionalism, loyalty, dedication-to-craft and PASSION!.
They handle all the
initial client contacts/price negotiations, marketing, promotion and PR - but a
heads-up: do NOT make the mistake as I once did of
relying solely on a rep - you have to run your business as if the rep does not
exist - if they come in with work, great... if not, shame on you if you have
not been marketing on your own.
I'm guessing a rep experience is only bad if you don't perform your due
diligence - check out the rep BEFORE you approach them:
• Obviously, make darn
sure your portfolio is truly ready for primetime and the professional world
before even thinking about approaching a rep.
• Email a few of the artists in their stable... ask them their opinion of the
rep, their experiences, are they happy?, any negatives?, etc., etc.
• What is the commission percentage?
• Respectfully ask the artist if they'd be willing to provide a copy of their
contract for you to review, if one exists.
• How are tax withholding's handled?
• Does the artist routinely interface directly with the client or does the rep
act as a buffer? [major red flag]
• Does the artist invoice the client directly or does the rep do the invoicing
and then pay the artist? [potential red flag: how do you REALLY know what the
rep charged the client? - I only say this because it happened to a friend and
fellow illustrator]
• and if the rep pays the artist,
what are the net terms?... i.e. the rep pays the artist only when she gets paid
by the client? [potential red flag - ask yourself: can you afford to wait min.
45-60-90++ days to get paid?... I know I can't!]
I was fortunate - I spoke
directly with the client at all times during the project after she initially
brought in the project and worked out the fees - I invoiced the client directly
and paid her when I was paid... and I had no contract - I suspect this type of
relationship may indeed be quite rare.
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. .
7. Join a
professional organization and become a part of their community. The professional benefits to you are enormous.
I've been a member of both the Graphic Artists Guild and the AIGA off
and on since the early 80's; my experience with the two
suggests this: both offer community through network, forums, conferences,
seminars, job/portfolio postings, newsletters, health/industry discount
options, etc, etc...
... when money became especially
tight [when is it not??!!], I had to choose the single best organization that I
personally would most benefit from - and chose the G.A.G.
It's my opinion that what sets the G.A.G. apart is it's legendary dedication to
the advocacy of an artist's professional and legal rights. [to which I have
accessed and used, from their various contract and agreement docs to
emails/calls to pro bono industry-related lawyers with legal questions]
. . .
Graphic Artists
Guild.
Initiation/Application
fee: 30.00 - Professional Member: 200.00 - Associate Member: 170.00 - students:
75.00
>> with a
Guild membership, you belong to a global creative community that tirelessly
supports and advocates for artists rights - benefits include:
• Industry discounts [ADBASE - Theispot - Allworth Press, sourcebooks,
magazines, etc... hotels, car rentals, credit unions...]
• Health insurance discounts [The Guild recently affiliated with the United
States Federation of Small Business which means that Guild membership will now
have access to group rates on health insurance plans in 28 states]
• Professional development [Artist to Artist Hotline - Job Referral Systems
& Promotional Services - JOBline news]
• Advocacy and access to a wealth of industry-related legal knowledge
[Grievance Committee - Legal Referral Network Pre-Paid Legal services - Contract
Monitor with sample contracts and related docs]
• Informational services [Guild News - Local Newsletters]
• The great and very useful "Pricing and Ethical
Guidelines" book
• and of course their proven online Member Portfolio directory
As I've mentioned, for many years their portfolio directory has routinely
produced more hits to the site [ and jobs! ] than any other referral site by
far. Heck, the benefits of the online directory are truly worth the cost of the
membership alone; the other benefits are gravy after the referral hits from
their directory.
[ Graphic Artists Guild | Portfolios ]
. . .
AIGA.
• Contributing [student] $50/year
• Supporting [junior designer] $150/year
• Sustaining [pro designer] $250/year
• Leader [top of your profession] $500/year
... each with varied benefits and opportunities.
[ AIGA
| Join! ]
Good luck in your organization analysis!
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. .
8. [Illustrators]
Find your niche and market the devil out of it. An illustrator today making ANY kind
of a respectable living [surviving?... making the rent... paying most of the
bills perhaps?] is working within a niche; as you well know, pure commissioned
illustration is a vacant shell of what it used to be.
Within the broad category of "illustration" - viable, commercial
subcategories/niches that come to mind might include:
• architectural
illustration
• children's book
illustration
• fashion illustration
• medical/scientific
illustration
• product illustration
• technical illustration
[my specialty.1]
• informational/instructional illustration [my specialty.2]
... perhaps editorial... BUT... within the general
"editorial" category, niches may include very specific/narrow
industry trade pubs, whereby your imagery is geared to a small, key audience
and subject matter, etc., etc. - maybe you can think of more - you get my drift.
SUMMARY: any
illustration sub category that cannot be covered by stock!!!
>>>
an additional bonus of a narrow niche specialization: once you determine the unique set of keywords
and phrases that describe that niche for search engines, you'll invariably come
up higher in the rankings because of the more specific nature of those details.
[vs the generic "illustration"]
>>>
speaking of stock: the IPA - Illustrators
Partnership of America has an
incredible library of related articles on the effects of stock houses on the
illustration industry [click the IPA link in the right-hand
column... go to > Topics > Stock]
It's safe to say that the majority of rookie ADs wouldn't know how to commission
[or think to hire?] an actual freelance illustrator to save their life - they
may crack open a stock CD or visit the multitude of stock illustration sites
and base their campaign on the stock imagery gathered. [I have some fun stories
on how using royalty-free imagery has come back to bite and embarrass a client
when they discovered their competition using the same material!! - a serious
and satisfying "I
told you so" situation
- what can I say?, I warned them!]
Note: see Tip #6 above: Reps. [landing
one relates to "niche"]
>>> Survival and success for an
illustrator today depends on finding that special niche, period and amen.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
9. An artist
first. Ideally,
a fine arts background or sensitivity to the masters and their techniques, then a mastery of the computer for art and
illustration - the computer is nothing more
than a wonderful, glorious tool and ONLY a tool ... synonymous to an airbrush,
paintbrush or pastels - the operator still needs a complete understanding of
spatial concepts, light, form, layout, color, design, perspective, etc., etc. Bottom
line: raw yet studied conventional art talent/appreciation first - the
computer will exploit and explode that talent beyond your wildest dreams.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10. Marketing knowledge, or the willingness and aptitude [and above all, the PENCHANT, PASSION and DESIRE!!]
to promote is a HUGE plus - there are a lot of talented
artists out there who don't really have a solid clue as to how to promote and
market those talents properly - reversely, there are marginal artists who are
aggressive, driven and persistent... good at multiple forms of conventional and
online promotion... and, they get the work - the ideal, obviously, is to be
talented AND savvy in marketing.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
11. Single style
vs. multiple styles? Hoo
boy, tricky question - several schools of thought and opinions at work here:
Single style
Some profess concentrating on a unique, consistent style and I
cannot disagree… BUT… only to a
degree.
Advantages: easily recognized
and identifiable to ADs that want to base their campaign on a specific
look&feel.
Disadvantages:
• this desirable style can be hot and trendy for a period of time and either a. fall out of favor b. be copied ad nauseum to point of stale
insignificance [I guarantee you can think of trendy styles that are routinely
copied – when I had a rep I can’t tell you how many times an agency AD would
call and request that I copy a specific "in" style - and did I do
it?... copy the style? - let's see... rent, food, utilities, kids... hmmm...
yes.]
• the danger of the style becoming downright boring and limiting for you
[??] - finding yourself pigeon-holed, churning out same-o/same-o stuff
Multiple styles
Advantages: multiple
styles/multiple ADs – simple math, folks - the more art buyer tastes you can
fulfill, the more looks/styles in your skill set, the more projects.
Disadvantages: none.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.
Testimonials/references. I've found these to be a valuable marketing tool.
Serves to validate you as a worthy and competent professional and provides
assurance to potential clients.
As far as collecting
testimonials, timing is everything: wait until the end of a successful project
and respectfully ask your happy client if they wouldn't mind providing a
testimonial - give 'em some hints perhaps: what are some of the benefits,
attributes and talents you brought to their creative table, what it's like to
work with you, how do they value your services, would they work with you
again... and why, etc. Honestly, I've never once had a single client decline
the request.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13. Invoicing. I obviously can't speak for all of you
but if I had to wait even 30 days for an invoice to be paid, my rent would be
late, my internet would be cut off, the pantry would be empty and
most probably I'd be quickly heading out of business!!! [TRUST me, I've been
there, more than a few times!] Each prospective/new client gets an intro
letter/agreement [to which they must sign] - it explains what I bring to the
creative table: the project and cost benefits of a particular discipline, my expectations and reference needs, average project cost/timeframe...
and only one payment term, that reads as follows:
. . .
Payment term [50%
advance / 50% net 0] and notes:
1. [your name here]
requires an advance payment equal to 50% of the project estimate, due upon
project initiation - the remainder is due, net 0, upon email/FTP delivery of
final files;
2. The project is entered into the studio workload queue once email
confirmation of the online transaction has been received - usually quite
quickly [you also receive an email receipt] – once the project has begun, the
advance is non-refundable;
3. As collateral I offer my 25+ year multi-industry experience, extensive
portfolio, client testimonials and respectable Fortune 500/Promo 100-based
client work list, which effectively establishes sufficient proof of
professionalism and worthiness of advance trust;
4. Method of payment is to be a secure online transaction* [AMEX-VISA-MC-PayPal]
through my web site;
Notes: [this is
optional... some may feel this is TMI - perhaps to be articulated verbally
rather than in writing]
• [your
name here] is a
one-man operation - this advance is my life blood and absolutely essential to
my survival;
• As you know, a
freelancer routinely experiences extreme highs and lows in workload; hence the
increased need for consistent, reliable receivings – I therefore must
respectfully require this one term;
. . .
Now I realize you may not
offer 25+ years as collateral, but if you're not firm on prompt payment with
SOME form of an advance - if you don't portray yourself as a confident,
proficient, creative professional worthy of market-value fees to be paid in a VERY
timely manner, a client will step all over you... and the next illustrator
behind you.
>>>
Negotiate your fees and present your terms from strength [even if it's only perceived and you
haven't had a project in a month!!!]
Often enough, a prospective
client may predictably whine about this term - if you calmly and professionally
state your case... the talents, skill set, benefits and positives, unique
offerings and industry experience you bring to the table and reasons behind
your term[s], they will most always relent - and if they don't, it's a blatant
red flag and you don't want them as a client anyway!
14.
LinkedIn. #1 pro networking site. Free. Respected and long-established
[2003]. LinkedIn has been an extremely valuable marketing tool for me since
2007. Highly recommend.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15. Postcards. As wonderful as online marketing is,
conventional direct-mail still works - consider developing a set of four
postcards each year and mail one per quarter. Just a few places to start your
pricing research:
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
16. Email marketing.
Yes, cold email works - I've had decent results the few times I've allowed full
brainpower and attention to a mini campaign. It's important to note the key
characteristics of those emails:
1. The emails featured a narrow niche speciality [big surprise,
right?] within my overall
skill set and were targeted towards an equally-narrow short list of potentials that have a need for this specialty.
2. Extensive due diligence is
performed in advance – exhaustive analysis of industry-related sourcebooks, directories and search engine results. If you're lucky, you're
able to secure an art buyer/art director/contact name from a sourcebook...
oftentimes, not so easy.
3. Once
the list of potential agencies was secured, then a visit to each site -
drilling down to locate the creative director/art director. An email never goes out dead-cold, not without a valid, qualified contact name who's job [partially]
in life is to hire someone like me.
4. The
emails contain a small, web-prepared set of imagery from the portfolio -
embedded [vs. attached].
5. I
included a Return Receipt required - a lot of folks don't click on a Read
Receipt – many do. I wait a few days and then call them directly, respectfully
inquire whether they received my email, if they had any comments, did they like
what they saw, could they identify a need, etc., etc.
. . .
Another email
marketing option
FWIW, for a short time, I worked as a freelance creative director for a small
growing company here in Miami and I’ll tell you what’s been a wonderfully
successful marketing tool for them related to this subject…
[successful
also because the contact lists were painstakingly prepared and targeted
specifically to a niche segment within an industry]
…
for these folks, I USE to use Constant
Contact but now
use a few others with some clients. Constant Contact has effectively
over-engineered their templates to death.
One of the major concerns
in email marketing is the goal of having the messaging and imagery display
properly, as you designed it, within various email apps and across OS
platforms. A daunting task. All email clients have extensive back-ends to ideally control display, some more kludgy than others Hence the need to use a highly-rated, proven email client service. [vs. launching a campaign from the client side, building the
email from within, say, Outlook]
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
17. SEO. Read-up
on web developer/search engine analysis sites [I know... BORING!!!!!!... but you will not regret the research
time spent]… analyze and improve your search engine optimization - there are
sites that explain the Google algorithms... how it analyzes a web page, what it
likes and doesn't like - try to understand how the top search engine models
find and rank sites... what to do, what not to do. Latest: Google's recent
search rankings are now based on quality mobile-friendly websites, with solid
content; the days of gaming through meta tag SEO are essentially dead.
. . .
>>> a start: Google
Algorithms - Google Site and Link Analysis
Google looks at factors such as the following:
• The length of domain
registration
• Domain ownership changes
• WHOIS data and physical address information
• C-Class IP information
• Keyword and non-keyword domains
• The discovery date of new domains/pages
• Document change frequency and the amount of change
• The number of linked internal documents
• Link anchor text
• Link discovery date
• Link changes and deletions
• External link growth patterns
• The authority of external links
• Link quality ratios
• The distribution of links
• The lifespan of links
• Link patterns [ new vs old and old vs new ]• Anchor text variety
. . .
>>> Robots.txt file: Important! - used by web owners and webmasters to
signify to spider/spam-bots and search engines not to crawl or index certain
files and directories. The Robots.txt file is a command file that most
creditable search-bots will obey and check for on entry to your website URL.
Here's
my robots.txt file: http://www.pbeach.com/robots.txt - notice that access to the Graphics
folder [among others] is blocked [ Disallow:
/Graphics/ ] - this'll serve
to prevent most/reputable image search bots from securing and indexing your
site's imagery...
… and speaking of your
site’s imagery: technical illustrator James
Provost posted an insightful,
helpful article on his TECHNICAL ILLUSTRATORS.org site: “How to Protect Your Images with Metadata”.
I was quickly able to follow his direction and updated all the graphics on my
site in less than 20 minutes.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18. Link
popularity/reciprocal links. Secure quality inbound links. Make sure the links are directly
related to our industry... VERY important. Heads-up: Google has adjusted and refined
their Page Rank algorithm many times in the last few years; they favor
links [ideally, strong one-way inbound links] pointed back to your site from
respectable, reputable sites that are directly related to, in our case, the
creative industry-related illustration/graphic
design/creative industry sites of "highly
relevant related content"... vs. random, no-relation link
swap sites.
Google Link
Popularity Analysis Tool -
only looks at Google links and the pages associated with those links. The
reports show PageRank data, internal and external link counts, anchor text weights,
class C IP reporting and much more.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
19. External
links. For
what it's worth and some may strongly disagree: I am passionately against any external links of any kind on a portfolio site - of the
philosophy that you do not want to give a prospective client any option whatsoever to leave your site,
even if the code will open the page above or below yours...
... think about it: if you had a client in front of you in your studio would
you then show them easy ways to leave?... usher them out the door?... encourage
them to visit another studio? You have a captive audience, keep it that way.
Detractors may respond [this was actually posted as a response in an
illustration site forum]: "I think it's healthy
competition. I like the idea of supporting other illustrators and sending
traffic their way." ...
... to which I reply:"HUH???!!!"... when an AD is on your site, they have
already made the choice to be there - why give them an easy option to leave? Healthy competition?... noble but naive. I need to pay my bills - no way I purposely choose to divert a
potential client's attention away from the possibility of paying those bills.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
20. Search engine
submission. Consider
paying for a "Priority Submit" service whereby they submit your site
on a regular basis to, say, the entire Inktomi network - for 49.00 it's
certainly worth considering [http://www.prioritysubmit.com/]...
it's worked for me.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21. Trackers. Insert
free stat tracker code on your index page [and subsequent pages if necessary]
and analyze the heck out of the results on a daily basis - VERY informative and useful ...
• what are your best
performing referral sites?
• what keywords and
phrases are people using to find you?
• what pages are getting
hit the most?
• where are your visitors
coming from?
• what search engines?...
browsers?... screen resolutions?, etc., etc.
... you can further tweak
your site, your code and your online marketing strategies accordingly, based on
the analysis.
Some free trackers include:
Additionally, all ISP's provide a section within your account/control panel
which you can access and extensively analyze stats... essentially the same
stats, give or take, that the above links provide. I visit my ISP control panel
often - here's what they provide:
When: - Monthly history - Days of month - Days of week - Hours
Who/Countries:
- Full list
Hosts:
- Full list - Last visit - Unresolved IP Address
Authenticated users:
- Full list - Last visit
Robots/Spiders visitors:
- Full list - Last visit
Navigation:
- Visits duration - File type - Downloads - Full list
Viewed:
- Full list - Entry - Exit
Operating Systems:
- Versions - Unknown
Browsers:
- Versions - Unknown
Referrers/Origin:
- Referring search engines - Referring sites
Search:
- Keyphrases - Keywords
Others:
- HTTP Status codes - Pages not found
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22. Have
fun!!! "Don't worry... be happy." Life lesson here gang: do yourself
[and your loved ones] a huge favor - make a conscious effort to notice, embrace
and celebrate the smallest and most insignificant things that life presents to
you each day - we're on this earth for the briefest fractional moment - it all
goes by in 1/4 of the blink of an eye.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FWIW, it's been a
sincere pleasure. After so many years in the industry, it feels good to give
back... thanks for indulging me.
Take good care and I wish
you massive success, personally and professionally, beyond your wildest
imagination!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Peter Beach ;-)
www.pbeach.com | LinkedIn
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
© Peter Beach / pbeach! - All Rights Reserved under any and all U.S. and international copyright laws to which the work is subject.
