Ask HN: What can I do to acquire more freelancing projects/clients?

Pick a niche. This is key. You may be the best programmer in the world, but people won't know whom to pick. You might be the best game programmer, but there are many others. However, if you pitch yourself as the expert in getting html games to perform smoothly with poor connectivity, then people with that problem know exactly whom to pick.

For this to be effective: Don't pick too broad a niche.

You can pick the niche based on data -- which if your skills is most in demand, pays the most, has the most wanted posts and so on.

Make sure your whole profile is geared to promoting your prowess in the niche.

Did I mention, pick a niche?

Once you have a niche, you can expand to adjacent niches.

Oh, and don't underprice yourself. The price is a signal of quality so only go as low (if you must) as the market average but no lower for your niche.

You'll reach a groove once 120% of your referrals are word of mouth. The pendulum flips quickly between looking for clients and then getting a good rep. for doing good work and the clients flowing to you. Good work is hard to find.

With that said, don't negotiate for the highest rate possible at the start. Getting a good rep. will get you better paying clients a lot faster.

1. Get off of Upwork, now. You're only getting into a bidding war with low-priced overseas developers.

2. Instead, search remote job boards, Twitter, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn for freelance remote contracts related to your field.

3. Find the client's email and send them your portfolio directly.

Following this strategy is what has landed me the most freelance gigs these past years.

There's also aggregation newsletters like RemoteLeads that send you remote freelance gigs a few times a week directly to your email.

https://remoteleads.io/

Shameless Plug: I started RemoteLeads to make finding remote front-end freelance leads easier for myself.

I guess the shrewd commenters who said this piece https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ConstantinBacioiu/20171121/3... was actually something of a subtle sales technique were pretty much spot on!

As far as marketing yourself as niche vs. a generalist developer, it really depends on the types of clients and projects you are looking to work on. Being a generalist means you will qualify for more projects, and probably can create extra work for yourself since you can help clients with a broader range of development tasks. This will be useful if you want to help clients build and scale a product. Niche skills on the other hand means more niche marketability and searchability for clients looking for those specific skills.

When it comes to marketing yourself....keep blogging! Even if its only for 15 mins a day, write something. Share what you've been doing, answer questions for potential clients and other developers. You've already seen the pay off. Netowrk, online and off. Go to events and conferences, share your work and interests. Personal connections still count for a lot, and have a stronger tendency to lead to referrals.

Lastly, don't forget, as freelancer you are your own business. Some freelance platforms will take care of a lot of business aspects for you, but you still should be prepared/ knowledgeable about the following: -Terms of Service Contract -Your own (favorable) NDA -Time Tracking/Invoicing Software - Regular Review of Your Rate

Here's an article I wrote on landing clients as a freelance dev: https://www.codementor.io/blog/land-clients-freelance-develo...

If you can answer this-- you can direct your own proactive business development campaign. On this subject, Mike Weinberg is brilliant > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simpl...

The best projects with reasonable pay will come from your own network, people you know. So focus on networking following up with old contacts/making new ones.

Reach out to the game dev community, get in contact with podcasts, write articles, get involved with the community.

When someone is searching for a solution to an existing problem they face and you can demonstrate how you've solved it, and many more in that domain you're immediately valuable.