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With the closure of public places, mass events and service outlets, the market seemed to stand still. Some free-floating IT specialists have lost customers, and business development companies are thinking about saving their budget.
Year after year, there is a depreciation in the value of the work of Internet specialists due to high competition and a low threshold for entry into the profession. This material will be useful to those who are taking their first steps in finding customers as a freelancer, as well as to all those who do not want to reduce their rates in order to get a client during a business crisis.
1. Portfolio of works.
2. Where to go for orders.
3. Test task and who needs it.
4. Interest, business share, rate, cryptocurrency and bitcoin: how not to be deceived.
5. Time has passed, but there are no answers. How to use time to your advantage if you:
5.1. copywriter;
5.2. SMM specialist;
5.3. developer;
5.4. designer.
6. Instead of a conclusion: a subjective forecast of the industry after the crisis.
The idea for the material was born after an unsuccessful search for customers as a private SEO optimizer. I work in an office, and in the evenings or weekends I promote websites to clients who came to me through recommendations. With the onset of the crisis, SEO for service websites became unprofitable, and freelancing had to be put on pause.
For the first time, I went out looking for orders on my own. After studying several specialized interest clubs online, I began to act. The material was written based on the results of a study of advertisements for the search for specialists on the network, on specialized platforms dedicated to freelancing, where both customers and performers hang out.
The first difficulty began with compiling a portfolio. When looking for a job in the office, he was not asked, and his competencies and level were revealed during interviews by experienced specialists. What should the portfolio of a private SEO optimizer with about 6 years of experience look like?
The most obvious thing is screenshots of traffic indicators and positions. But I’m just starting out with a portfolio, and some of the data is simply missing for various reasons. In addition, the projects were not carried out by me personally, but by a team of agency specialists.
I have collected all the data that is currently available, with results and screenshots. For projects for which there is no data, she described a positive result before the end of cooperation with a note about the deadlines.
Dissonance arises - after all, this is teamwork, and it’s dishonest to attribute all the laurels to yourself. But, on the other hand, we can always emphasize the collective contribution.
This is not enough and uninteresting. More competencies are needed.
List your favorite software? No, because there are many of them, and a good SEO specialist works with the one that gives him the result, and not the one described in the ad.
List technologies? It’s also not worth it, because this is public information. Everything that is new is always used in practice as a matter of course. The client will not understand, but both he and the agency only need the result.
Attending seminars or courses? Sure, but they don't add any extra value. Courses with practical experience are useful, but seminars often turn into infobusiness.
Guest posts and speaking engagements? Necessarily. After all, large publications and sites carefully select authors.
Detailed cases? I think it’s not worth it - there is no specialist who would have time to work with all the niches. And what is available may not suit the client: you described working with an online store, but the client has a massage clinic.
Reviews? They are often devalued. Their absence does not reduce your professional reputation. We all know how difficult it is to get them from clients, and it's not worth wasting your time on fake recommendations.
So, with a ready-made portfolio, I go looking.
I have a small point - responses to advertisements seeking website promotion by a private owner should not be recent. Why?
If you look at freelance exchanges, you should not strive to respond first. Customers can collect information for a project, look for cheaper or more experienced specialists, and sometimes simply stroke their pride by receiving responses.
Previously, I had not thought about putting links to sites on platforms with vacancies. But after ads on such platforms quickly disappeared into the archives, it became clear that this was not the best strategy.
I found several specialized freelance communities where current advertisements for specialists are published, and began writing to the authors, observing all response requirements.
While working in the office, I noticed that promotion specialists are always in demand. In half of the cases, incompetent employees are fired, and in the other half, the increase in the volume of orders does not allow the workload of full-time employees.
If the site owner is looking for a specialist, even after a year you can safely contact him and find out whether he is looking again or is satisfied with the current contractor.
Self-isolation measures have significantly complicated the situation. The results of my search are as follows:
At the time of writing, I sent the following responses:
Now I’m slowly filling out accounts on exchanges, since there is no need to rush - I’m not ready to reduce the rate.
I don't need the test task, and I don't prefer to do it. Unfortunately, many advertisements for specialists require a mini-audit of the site in response.
In my practice, such situations often occur when clients ask to do an express audit of site errors in order to use this as a basis for breaking the contract with the current contractor. But not a single client returned.
Sometimes I also turn to colleagues with an audit, but immediately refuse if I do not see continued cooperation.
You have to work with the customer using persuasion, providing a clear work plan and performance forecasts. It's difficult, but quite doable.
Payment in bitcoins and cryptocurrencies is rare. To be honest, I don’t understand cryptocurrencies, and I don’t see the point in using them. This is no longer a trend, and such payment methods may not be effective.
When I was interviewed for the position of an Internet marketer, I was offered a good salary, but at the meeting it turned out that this was a myth - the minimum percentage rate on sales was stated.
In such cases, I prefer clear payment terms. In Russian reality, a share in a business rarely lives up to expectations, and often this is just a way to save on labor costs.
If you are looking for orders in SEO, it is better to give preference to traditional payment methods - rubles or other stable currencies.
