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Finding your market(s)

January 15th, 200610 Comments

If you are working with the web, chances are you’re offering people some type of service. Whether it’s web design, SEO, copy writing, backend development, or even blogging for one of the hundreds of blog networks, you need to find a market that you can appeal to.

For the past 3 or 4 years I knew that I could make money from web design if I could just find some clients. Unfortunately it’s pretty tough to find clients when you don’t have much of a portfolio and don’t have many contacts. I started writing for this blog about 2 months ago and I already have too many work requests.

What are people asking me to do? Blog design.

With the popularity of blogs exploding (or maybe it already exploded) people are looking to distinguish themselves from all the other blogs by creating a unique design for their site or network of sites. People like simple, clean designs with warm colors. That’s what I try to do. I’m certainly not the best designer out there and I don’t have a background in typography or logo design but since blog designs are relatively simple, even someone who is self taught like myself can create great looking, unique designs.

So I found my market in blog design and consulting. I have even started turning down requests for work because I am starting to get backed up with school work and design work - not bad for someone who didn’t even have a client 3 months ago.

I’m telling you this story so that you can start looking for your market. If you’re offering a service, try to focus on one particular market. One person can’t possibly focus on everyone’s needs. Why not figure out what one market needs and try to provide that service better than everyone who is trying to focus on everything at once? Chances are you’ll be successful.

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Finding your market(s)

Dennis Bullock | January 15, 2006

That is a great post. It sounds like I am in the same position as you but without people beating down my door for blog design work. I have a blog but where are the clients?

Anthony | January 16, 2006

Dennis, IMO tough love has never hurt anyone so I’ll just say that the sites I first saw Ben at and strongly considered buying one of them he demonstrated his superior design skills.

Your blog looks like a WordPress theme with a very basic unique header graphic. To be honest it’s not really inspiring me to make contact with you to work on one of my sites.

It’s not the blog that gets Ben clients it’s his skills that are showcased via his blogs. If you’ve got the skills to make a difference to people’s blogs then put up a unique high quality design, announce you’re available to do blog designs and hang around the right circles. If it’s good enough you’ll get clients. Simple.

Ben | January 16, 2006

Thanks for the kind words Anthony :) And I have had a bit of luck - 9rules has given me lots of exposure and now Blog Media is giving me more.

Anthony | January 16, 2006

That’s cool mate.

I think people make their own luck with the good ideas and quality execution but like I said if you hang around the right circles the skills get noticed.

Noah Winecoff | January 16, 2006

Good writing. Inspiring.

Tim Linden | January 16, 2006

And never give up ;-) Too many people give up because they aren’t making any money right away, but you stuck around for months. An internet business can make alot of money, but like any business it takes time to grow.

chartreuse | January 18, 2006

Your last paragraph needs to be read by entrepreneurs of all stripes. Especially some of those hundreds of blog network owners.

Problogging.com | January 19, 2006

[...] There really isn’t any magical secret, it takes a little bit of planning and a lot of work.  Anyone can make $165 a month from blogging, you just need to write a lot, write well, and write something unique.  It’s all about finding your market.  I wish I could give people a magic formula that guarantees $2,000 a year, but I can’t.  What I can tell you is that once you hit $2,000 you just need to repeat the process and you’ll hit $5,000.  After that, you’ll hit $10,000.  If you want to make “big money” start several blogs, even as many as 20 or 30, and you’ll start to see your cash flow jump through the roof. What it takes to blog (professionally) was written on January 19, 2006 at 3:12 pm by Ben. It currently has 0 comments and you could help us out by adding one more. [...]

Deron | January 19, 2006

I feel kinda in the same boat as you where a few months ago. It’s hard to find work when know one even knows you exsist, and when people hardly consider your portfolio a portfolio. Hopefully I can get some ideas I have for my own sites off the ground, then I’ll put those in my portfolio, then I’ll get some work request, and it’ll keep building from there one step at a time.

59ideas | January 21, 2006

Absolutely agreed with Tim Linden above. Do not give up!

I had a couple of failures myself. This time I’m giving myself a year target.

Thanks Ben and everyone for sharing your experiences.

Share your thoughts!!!

performancing hive

Finding your market(s) was written by Ben Bleikamp on January 15th, 2006 at 3:20 am and posted in Business Ideas, Creativity, Marketing

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