Ask HN: What are some good ways to find local web design/dev work?

2 points·ryanb··2 comments

Is going door to door to small businesses effective? Flyers around town? Ad-words?

I'm looking for short term work so I can continue working on my own projects.

door to door effectiveness will vary greatly on your location and your own personal charisma and experience selling. Most people don't have it, and fail miserably.

Here's a short list of suggestions:

* Flyers in coffeeshops/libraries/copycenters * Attending local meetup groups (not programming/tech ones, but business ones) * Presenting at local meetup groups * Craigslist posting your services * Answering other craigslist ads * Google adwords (possibly, but don't spend too much without testing/targetting) * Word of mouth via your personal network

I'm sure others will have their own suggestions. Your profile suggests you're in NY - door to door might be more effective there because of the density of all types of businesses.

Gentle plug: these are the sorts of topics we'll be tackling at http://indieconf.com in November. I hope you get your local webdev work before then though :)

Go to a meetup for your language/area of expertise. I've found that having a network of other people with similar skills can often lead to people passing on job offers they don't have time for, which is a job for you!

Also, set up an RSS feed on a Craigslist search (check out the bottom right hand corner of the screen), and pounce pounce pounce.

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