Once the transition period begins, you must immediately begin marketing your services in order to build a client network. After you quit your day job in order to become self employed, building a client network list should be considered a full time job. The good news for freelancers is that due to the power of the Internet, it is possible to advertise for either free, or a very low price. One website that you can advertise on, which I mentioned in the previous chapter, is Craigslist. This site has a classified ad section for all the major cities of the U.S., as well as many major cities around the world, and freelancers can post ads looking for work. In the next chapter, we will go into more details about how to properly advertise and market yourself, but CL is one of the best websites on the web for this purpose.
However, one thing that I should note at this point is that CL charges a fee in order to post an ad in many of the major cities. If you want to post an ad offering your freelance services in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, as of this writing, you must pay a $25 fee per post. While this may sound pricey, when you compare it to traditional newspaper ads, the price is cheap, and it is worth every single penny. Many employers in these major cities look for freelancers on CL, and getting your ad listed there is well worth it. We highly recommend advertising your services on CL, because if you're not, you can be rest assured that your competition will be.
When you go to the CL website, you will find that they have a section for jobs. As of this writing, there are thirty job categories on the site, and they range from accounting and engineering to finance and programming. This section should give you a good overview of the many IA jobs which can be found over the web. Craigslist is one of the highest ranked sites on the web; millions of people visit this site each month, and many of these people could become part of your client network.
Another site which is considered to be second only to Craigslist is Back Page, which you can visit here:www.backpage.com. Like CL, Back Page is a classified ad site that also has a job section. One key difference between BP and CL is that while CL is an international website, Back Page currently only covers the United States. Another difference is that BP currently allows you to post free ads, though this may change in the future. BP also currently has 18 job categories as opposed to the 30 job categories found on CL.
Both Craigslist and Back Page are just one of the many classified ad sites that exist on the web, but they are the biggest. More of these sites will be created in the future, and it is possible that the popularity of both CL and BP will wain. Our advice is to keep up on the latest classified ad sites so that you will have an edge on your competition. As should be obvious, the more sites you're able to advertise your freelance services on, the more likely it is that you will build a client list within a short period of time. Despite this, prior to advertising your services, it is absolutely critical that you build a website.