[consulting] What Causes Feast or Famine?

[Jerad Bitner]

Probably all of the above Fred. Each item you mention really has one common
theme; reputation. You garner that reputation by doing all of the things you
mentioned, and more. Marketing yourself as a professional by writing
articles that show your colleagues and prospective clients that you really
do know what you're doing and what you're talking about certainly can't do
you any harm either.

For starters, put something in your email footer. Who are you Fred? Where
can I read more about what you do and what you know? Do you have any
specialties? These are questions that go through my mind and I'm sure
prospective clients, so having links next to your signatures is a great way
to say, 'Hey, read more about me! See what I know and what I can do for
you!'. I seriously don't know anything else about you right now because you
have no more information even in the email you just sent, I'd have to go
searching, and I don't really want to spend my time on Google looking for
'Fred Jones'... I mean, how many of them are there? ;)

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Fred Jones <fredthejonester at gmail.com>wrote:

> It has been discussed here more than once that there are two main
> camps of Drupal developers--those flooded with work and those
> constantly looking for work. Without going into unnecessary detail
> about my boring private life (or lack thereof) I would like to move
> myself from the second camp into the first. :)
>
> I am wondering therefore, what it is that people think creates for
> them a flood of work? I am wondering if it's:
>
> 1. Modules you authored on drupal.org. People find you there and hire you.
> 2. Your fantastic site. People find you there and hire you. I doubt
> this is relevant for a little guy like me however.
> 3. Your constant presence on d.o forums or IRC where you meet people
> who want to hire you.
> 4. Your clients all refer to you new clients because they just love
> you and they all hire you.
>
> I hang out on a certain non-Drupal forum sometimes and I have gotten
> work from that a BIT, so I know that can work. But I don't know about
> d.o nor IRC nor authoring modules. As far as client referrals go, I do
> have some but my clients generally either have no one to send me or
> the people they do send me aren't the type I want to work for, i.e.
> don't have a budget or whatever.
>
> More than one client has said they WOULD highly recommend me, but they
> don't have anyone to sell me to. Not surprising because a massage
> therapist, an autistic school secretary and a car wash guy don't
> necessarily spend much or any time discussing building web sites.
>
> So I was thinking of making myself a website and then trying to put
> some energy into whatever it is that might help attract more work to
> me, as opposed to my current system of chasing after it.
>
> Any ideas are appreciated. :)
>
> Thanks,
> Fred
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-- 
~Jerad Bitner
Lead Developer and Drupal Trainer at Lullabot
http://lullabot.com
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