Sharing your ideas to create more business

Sharing things you have learned is one of the best (and free) ways to gain more business. Clients will come to respect your opinion if you become recognized in your field for a particular area of Web development. For instance, I co-authored a book on Flash usability called Flash 99% Good: A Guide to Macromedia Flash Usability. The book generated a lot of positive PR. Macromedia (now Adobe) featured the book on their site, and the related book site won numerous national design awards …This PR translated into a better Google ranking for my business site, because my name and link to my freelance site was included on the book site. The PR generated with the book helped get my name in front of many senior creative executives. A few months after it was published, a senior creative at TeamUSA advertising (the agency of record for Lexus) contacted me asking me to lend my creative and Flash usability skills to the development of the new Lexus Web site.

How do you find your niche?
When you set out to find a niche for yourself, think about the things in our industry that interest you the most. When I came up with the idea to write a book about Flash usability, it was mostly spurred on by the lack of relevant information I could find online. I knew there was a vacuum, and I knew I could write about the subject matter because of my years of experience building interfaces in Flash. Think about problems or issues you face in your day-to-day work. Is there a book project or article floating around in your head, waiting to be written to solve that problem or issue? Do you see something happening with Web sites or Flash design that you know could be fixed with a particular technique or software tool?

I do a lot of free writing for Web sites like www.pixelsurgeon.com, www.creativebehavior.com and www.commarts.com. When I write an article or software review for one of these sites I always try to think of what my target audience wants to read. I wrote an article for Creative Behavior (that appears in this book as well) on when to fire your client. This article was wildly successful because as freelancers we always struggle with clients that do not pay, and in the end are not worth the effort. This article received a lot of acclaim and many people e-mailed me thanking me for writing it. The article also has additional benefits because the link at the bottom of the article lets people learn more about me, but it also increases my Google page ranking. Google, as you may know, ranks Web sites based on how many people are linking to them. Having more links pointing to your site increases the chances that it will achieve better ranking in Google search results.

There are many online magazines that would love to have articles written for them. While most of them do not have a budget to pay you for your efforts, the link to your Web site at the end of the article can be just as good as money. If you can get published just once or twice through these avenues, then you will help increase your popularity and the traffic to your Web site.

Speaking Engagements
I do several speaking engagements a year for various organizations. I have spoken to universities, at tradeshows and I have had the privilege to speak several times at Flash In The Can (FITC) in Toronto. Some of these organizations will pay me to speak, but often I do it at no cost for the free publicity. Every time I speak to an organization I notice an increase in revenue for that quarter, as my name is kicked around in the design community. It always amazes me how people find out about my work.

Several months after I spoke at FITC 2004, I had a prospect call and ask for a bid on a large interactive Web site. I inquired how they had heard of me, and they responded that they had obtained my contact information from the FITC Web site. Even though the person did not attend the conference, being a speaker and having my name associated with FITC gave me credibility. This prospect turned into a full-time client that does a lot of work with me each year. The speaking engagement was worth every minute I put into it, just for the link on their Web site.

“This all sounds good Kevin, but you’re a published author, and I’m relatively unknown except to my loving family and friends!”

Yes, this is partly true. It is a lot easier to get speaking engagements if you have written several books for well-recognized publishing companies. However, you do not need to be a published author, or a heavy hitter in the world of design in order to speak about design or technology. There are many organizations that would love to have a guest speaker talk about real world industry experience. I cannot tell you how many e-mails I get a month from students asking me to mentor them, or who ask for advice on how to become a better Web designer. Before I spoke at larger conferences, I did small speaking engagements to university departments on how Flash can be used in their design work. If you have any national brand name clients under your belt, students will be even more eager to pick your brain. Regardless, if you are practicing your craft and getting paid to do it, it does not matter if you have two years experience or ten years experience. You will be pleasantly surprised how much you really know.

Here is a list of organizations you can contact regarding possible speaking engagements. Take a risk and get your name out there!

Potential Audiences:

• Local university, community college or design academy.
• Local chamber of commerce meeting.
• Mac user groups.
• In store (computer store) demonstrations.

Potential Topic Ideas:

• Effective Web site design.
• Improving your Google ranking.
• Current design trends.
• Hands on tutorials: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, etc.
• Using typography in Flash and Web site design.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas on how to get started.