Thursday June 12 6:4 PM
A friend of mine asked me where most of my projects come from. Yet another installment of Radical Transparency Theatre. Don't worry, people. I'm working on a new SteamPunk'd, and an Ask the Designer, and a 'What the hell are you people searching for?' A majority of my projects come from referrals. 'Referrals' can mean a client tells a friend of theirs, who then gives me a call; but it can also mean people who have clicked on a link to my site from another site I've done, or from browsing the home pages of some of the awards my work has garnered.

As it turns out, some clients come from people who have linked to sites that I've done on their blogs. Catherynne M. Valente's blog brought several leads from the link she put to Ian's site on there one day. (Catherynne, if you're reading this, thanks! And give me a call.) Check her site out, she's doing some really interesting things with online writing.

I also get a lot of traffic from Slashdot, where my link shows up at the bottom of any post I make. If my loyal six readers remember the entry on 'Attempting to Artificially Inflate My Page Hits For No Particular Reason', I discovered that this sort of traffic is spotty and hasn't yet resulted in a lead. I keep it on there mostly because you never know who might need a website, and the more eyes you get the better chance you'll have those people show up at your doorstep. Also, I'm posting there anyway so it's not like it's hard.

The other way people can get to this site is through Google searches. This very blog has turned out to be a pretty good source of traffic, especially when the keywords people are searching for turn up in the title and teaser. It's more traffic than $50 a month of AdWords ever brought in, anyway, and it's totally free. I'd highly recommend putting a blog on your site as a way to drive hits. Only if you plan to update it regularly, though. Nobody likes four-year-old blog entries.

Google searches also turn up image results, and those are often the stickiest visitors. Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn't record the keywords that returned those particular image results, so it's hard to say whether people found what they were looking for.

Finally, there are the hundreds of business cards I hand out. People have actually kept them, and called me months and even years later. I was as surprised as anybody. Who knew business cards served a purpose?

The point is, you never know which vector of your self-promotion will work. I sent out thousands of postcards to my demographically perfect businesses, and yet it's still referrals that work the best.

"Aha," you're thinking to yourself, "how can I possibly get referrals if I'm just starting out?"

You got me. Start with your friends. Maybe they know somebody who wants what you're selling. If they do, presto! That's a referral.

So if you don't know me yet, please introduce yourself. You never know when I might need what you're selling. Unless what you're selling is web design. I think I can handle that myself.