Lets say that they sell 10,000 tickets and each ticket averages $100. That’s $1,000,000 from just the ticket sales. But where the real money (in my opinion) comes in is the Fight Club memberships. If 10,000 tickets sold out in 30 minutes because all of the fight club members bought them, we’re going to have to estimate that 10,000 people are a part of the Fight Club.

So, by taking those 10,000 members and multiplying that by the $74.99 per year fee, the Zuffa company is making $749,900 in just the memberships. So, for this event, they’ve essentially made $1,749,900 from the sale of the tickets without even selling to the public. Pretty impressive right?

The big takeaway, in my opinion, here is that the UFC cornered it’s market and it’s essentially impossible for anyone to buy a ticket to the fights unless they’re a member of the Fight Club, thus driving sales up of the Fight Club and also driving up the anticipation for the minute that tickets go on sale, because nobody wants to miss their chance to get a ticket (or two).

Why the UFC Fight Club memberships are so valuable to the members

It’s simple actually; they get access to the tickets before anyone else. The people who buy the memberships are the people who buy the tickets (generally), so they’re already sold on the idea ahead of time, which is a good business move for Zuffa (the company who own’s the UFC). The membership to the fight club ensures that these ticket buyers are first in line to buy their tickets before the general public can get their hands on them so it gives them the feeling of being a part of something special – because they are special. So, by doing this, they’re more likely to buy the tickets, spread the word about the UFC and get their friends to buy the Fight Club memberships.

Do we know for sure there are 10,000 members in the Fight Club?

Nope. My estimation is that there are probably more than 10,000. The ticket buyers are from all around the world and buy the tickets when the UFC comes to their town, or country, so you’ve got to guess that there are more than 10,000 people signed up to the fight club. What does this mean for Fight Club sales? It means that the money the UFC is making off of the Fight Club memberships probably exceeds the million dollar mark yearly.

How can you apply this to your business?

With your business, do you have a list yet? Do you have a membership based business? If not, you could consider building a membership based business on top of the business you already run. For instance, if you’re into selling premium design products like Media Loot, you should have a membership and not just one-off sales like iStockphoto has. With Media Loot, they’re able to bring users in, and through releasing killer resources, keep their users for months, which turns into a passive income stream.

You do need to ensure that your membership is worth it before you launch it though. For instance, with Giant Themes, I currently only have two themes available. Nothing to really jump up and down about if you’re buying a membership. So, I don’t currently offer membership’s, but as I build more themes I will put a membership into place. A good number (in my opinion) for me to hit before the membership’s are rolled out is 10 commercial WordPress themes.

This may take some time, but by building the marketing around my company and by releasing high quality themes, by the time the membership base is rolled out, there will (hopefully) be many people lined up and excited about the membership launch, which in turn means more revenue for me right from the jump.

What are your thoughts?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. I am only one person with one view, so I’d love to get everyone elses opinion on the membership model that the UFC has built up and any ways you could see it being better in the future. Also, if you run a membership based business, I’d love to get your thoughts on the subject as well.

How cornering your market can get you $1,000,000 in 30 minutes is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

Illustrators are some of the most talented people that I know. I’ve admired illustration work for years and I have dabbled in drawing since I was very, very young, but the quality of artwork that some of the top illustrators put out today is simply baffling. So, starting out as an illustrator, what can you do to get yourself noticed and slide into a top spot in the food chain? Today’s article is going to go over ten guerrilla marketing tactics that you as an illustrator can use.

Below you will find ten guerrilla marketing tactics that I have geared towards illustrators, but I am sure that even designers, writers and photographers could utilize some of them as well (for those who we haven’t covered yet, I promise you that the articles are coming).

1. Comic Strips – Why don’t you take a bit of time and build a free comic strip and release it online (daily/weekly/monthly)? You can see N.C. Winters work all over the Tuts+ network and I’m sure that he’s received a lot of additional work because of it.
2. Guerrilla Sticker Placements – Designing stickers can seem like it’s counter productive because your client base isn’t “into” stickers, but if you utilize them by placing them in off the wall places (ie: above a urinal for example), you can get recognized by more eyes than ever, as well as be featured in articles around the web that showcases guerrilla marketing examples (like, on this website for example).
3. Write illustrator tutorials – not only will you get paid (for writing articles for websites like vectuts) but you’ll also get your name out to thousands of people online.
4. Design Skateboards – Not only will doing this give you the opportunity to make some extra income, but it will also allow you to showcase your work in a lot of places (skateboards hit the town on a regular basis). Places like deck peck are great places to allow your designs to be sold on skateboards, with no effort on your end to make them (they do all of the heavy lifting).
5. Pick a niche and draw it – If you’d like more illustration work for your business and would like to grab someones attention, why not draw the top 5-10 people in a specific niche? Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Leo Babauta and others would be a good place to start. Run a series of them on your blog, and who knows who might see them and want your services.
6. Design a tattoo – This can work on your own skin, or the skin of a friend or relative. If you’ve designed an awesome tattoo, people are bound to ask questions about it when they see it – giving you the perfect opportunity to say “oh, I designed it because I’m a freelance illustrator – here’s my card”.
7. T-Shirts for Sale – This is another guerrilla marketing tactic for illustrators that also has the side benefit of making you some revenue through the actual pieces you create. Design By Humans, Threadless and many other t-shirt websites allow you to submit designs and sell your t-shirts while being noticed by an entirely new audience.
8. Color by numbers – Here’s an off the wall way to get people involved in what you do – create the line art for a color by numbers drawing that people can either digitally color, or color on paper by printing it out. Make sure your logo and website link is at the bottom of the page, and you’re sure to get people to check out your site.
9. Sell Stock Art – Why not? The more you sell, the more you make, the more people talk about you, the more work you get. It seems like a logical step, right? You could also give away free vector files on your own website, which will help send traffic in your direction.
10. Social Media Interaction – No, not twitter and facebook. I mean, places like DeviantArt, Flickr and other design related social media websites. Set up your profiles on all of them, chat with some people there and make friends, and constantly update your profiles with new illustrations you’ve done. Do not limit yourself to just your actual portfolio, generate a buzz in these places as much as possible.

What do you think?

Any of these guerrilla marketing tactics seem like something you can utilize for your business? Let us know in the comments. And make sure you keep an eye out for upcoming guerrilla marketing tactics articles for freelance writers, photographers and more.

10 guerrilla marketing tactics for illustrators is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

In todays article I am going to go over the various things I see more and more business and blog owners doing in 2010 to gain more attention, sales and fan bases. These might be things you’ve seen done in 2009, but I believe that all six of these things will become the dominant things in 2010 for the guerrilla freelancer. So without any further waiting, read the 6 guerrilla marketing trends for 2010.

Giving away your knowledge – for free

This is the #1 trend I see really gaining momentum over the next 12 months. Web designers will start writing tutorials, tips and tricks about what they do for a living and it will in turn showcase their skill levels. Marketing companies will start giving away useful tips on how to use guerrilla marketing tips to your benefit – without charging you a dime for it. Free will definitely attract more eyes, and in turn, more business.

Sample Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

• Jon from Spyre Studios does this on his blog/portfolio website where he discusses design and is also a full time freelance designer.
• Chris Brogan gives away heaps of useful information on his blog and also
• Over at Blogging Tips you can check out their e-books and high quality information on blogging, which generates them a lot of traffic to their blog.

The lower the cost, the better

Times have been rough and it’s causing people to think more strategically about where their dollars are being spent. I would not be surprised to see 5-10 dollar guerrilla marketing ideas being deployed this upcoming year, and will make the bet with you all that these types of guerrilla marketing tactics will do better than a 5,000-10,000 dollar marketing campaign.

Sample Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

• Business cards from Uprinting are $30.80 (before s&h) – get them and read our 10 guerrilla marketing tips using business cards article
• Set up portfolios on other websites free of charge like we discussed in the 10 great places to promote your designs online article
• Get creative with your street signs like the dentist company did in this post on Bootstrapping Blog

Online websites will start promoting offline

This is a trend that I believe a lot of people will start to utilize. With more and more websites being created daily that take viewers away from your website, it’s like a cock fight for traffic online. I know that a lot of niches share traffic and promote others, but lets face it – not everyone does. So what better way to get unique traffic that none of those other competitors will have than to get them offline?

Sample Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

• Are you a print designer? Why not take your flyers into a printing business and leave them there?
• If your target market as a web designer is sports enthusiasts, why not head into sports shops and chat it up with the owners?
• Dropping business cards just about everywhere is a good idea – even if you just run a blog and don’t have a service to offer.

Giving away your product/service for free

This is something I will be doing for the launch of GIANT Themes on January 1st 2010 and something I see a lot of other business owners doing as well. For instance, Subernova held a contest here recently and gave away subscriptions to their product. Doing this not only gives you word of mouth exposure but it also gets people in the door who just might very well be customers for life.

Sample Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

• Like I stated above, Subernova ran a contest here on Guerrilla Freelancing and gave away subscriptions to their awesome service.
• OBOX gave away free themes to the readers of Fuel Your Creativity in a contest which gained 75 comments and a bunch of exposure for both parties.
• Billings gave away three copies of their app to members of the Spyre Studios website in a contest

Word of mouth marketing will be front and center

Sticking with the trend above, I am going to make the assumption that in 2010, word of mouth marketing will be the big focus on small businesses. Having other people talk about you and essentially vouch for your business is a huge way to gain traction in your quest to gain new clients/customers.

Sample Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

• Offer an insider secret product that only existing customers get. Once they get it, they’ll be sure to tell friends about it.
• Run a special “essentials week” similar to the Wordress Essentials Week I am doing on WordPress Guerrilla. Any ‘special’ will do, but keep it relevant to your audience and they’ll be sure to spread the word.
• Give your clients a little something extra – 1,000 free business cards with every web design purchase, 6 months of free website edits, ect.

Up-selling to your current clients

This is one that people often think is ‘evil’ or shouldn’t be done because it’s unethical. I tend to disagree. It’s a simple process really – if you’re selling a service why not offer them the opportunity to purchase another service/product that will help benefit them and the service you just gave them.

Sample Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

• Web designers, why not find out if your client needs hosting? If they do, give them a link to a hosting company that gives you a commission on the sale.
• If you sell an e-book about marketing or blogging, why not up sell the readers in the book by telling them about your top 5 favorite books on the subject and give them your affiliate links to click?
• If you’re a copywriter and you’re working with someone who doesn’t have a great web designer, why not talk to a web design company and see if they’ll offer a share of the profits for any referrals you send – I offer a select few this option at Guerrilla and it works out well for both sides.

What do you think?

Any trends we’re missing? Let us know in the comments.

Guerrilla Marketing trends & tips for 2010 is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

Dood Computer and Stir Crazy are two hiphop artists from New York and Detroit who got together and put together a project titled Penny Dreadfuls. The beauty of the project is not the style of their music or the quality of the lyrics, but this:

They put the album out as a cassette tape with a free download coupon inside of it.

In a day where the music industry is downsizing everything and focusing on itunes records instead of putting out an album worth buying, Dood Computer and Stir Crazy took it back to the age of Cassette tapes. But why is this a good idea?

People love retro items and love the ‘old school’ feel that a cassette tape gives. The target demographic will see this as a middle finger to the music industry, the ‘big wig’ execs and the direction that music is going now and will eat it up in the process. But they make the intelligent move of not just putting the $6.00 tape up for sale – they also give a coupon inside that allows you to download the album for free.

So, instead of just putting the album for free on their website (or charging the $6.00 to download it) they’re giving the buyer a piece of memorabilia that they can keep with them forever while also giving them the option to download it and put it in their ipods/mp3 players.

I did a bit of searching and found that getting 250 cassette’s printed up from a printing company can range anywhere from $250-$400 depending on the duplication process and extra items you’re after. So, if they’re spending $1.00 per cassette and selling for $5.00 profit – they’re making a killing on a product that most people would have otherwise just downloaded and forgot about.

Another piece of their marketing

Below is a video they put together with stop motion photography, which adds to their marketing campaign. The style of the video and the items inside the video are perfect (again) for their target demographic. I give these guys 2 thumbs up for the creativity they show here and wish them the utmost success. I’ve not heard of them before today, but I am a fan.

Standing out (and selling records) in a downshifting record industry is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

Below is the question that this post stems from.

I’ve got business cards printed up, but rarely find anyone to give them to. Are there places that designers can leave cards where they might get noticed, such as printers…?

Since I personally didn’t have business cards for the first year or so of freelancing, I know that this is a question I’ve often asked myself over and over again. Besides handing them directly to someone, how can we utilize our business cards to market us – even if we’re not around at the time someone gets their hands on them.

Below are some ideas I’ve put into use in the past. I sincerely hope they help you out in your freelancing business and I hope the list sparks other ideas as well – and feel free to drop a comment with your own guerrilla marketing tips using your business cards.

1. Turn them into bookmarks – You can leave your business cards inside books at the library. Make sure the books are ones that your target market will be reading. You could also get creative and design bookmarks like you would your business card. Overnight Prints has some great bookmark packages for highly cheap prices you can check out.
2. Leave them in strange places – And by strange, I do not mean the toilets in a public restroom But if you can find a unique place to put them, they’ll stand out more. Try inside magazines at the doctors office, leave one behind with your tip at a restaurant, ect. The more off the wall the place, the better.
3. Point an arrow at it – Here’s one I tried – and succeeded with. Find stores in your area with places you can tack cards/paper to – grocery stores usually have these when you first walk in. Use a thumb tack to put your card up. Now, take 15-20 thumb tacks and put them in the shape of an arrow, pointing directly to your card. It’ll instantly stand out.
4. Make a coaster out of it – Yes, realistically your business card will become wet and will eventually be of no use, but if you leave it on a table inside a starbucks or a place similar to that, with a cup sitting on it, people will notice it.
5. Send one with a bouquet of flowers – Send a potential client a bouquet of flowers (assuming the potential client is a woman) and in the spot where you place the card, place a nice written card and behind it put 2-3 of your business cards.
6. Turn your cards into magnets – I recently seen at wal-mart that they have packs of 100 business card sized magnets which you can stick your business card to. So, being the ‘outside-the-box’ thinker that I am, I took 10 of them (5 front facing, 5 back facing) and put them on street poles (the ones around here have metal boxes on them – flat surfaces). One guy emailed me already and mentioned them – he took it home with him and has it on his fridge now!
7. Business card or coupon? – For those of you who haven’t printed your business card yet, try this one out. Use the back of your card as a ‘coupon’ by designing it to look like a coupon. Get it printed in a paper stock you can write on and put a line in the design for a “referred by” spot. Let your friends/family take 10-20-100 cards and write their name on it so they get credit (or even offer them a referral bonus).
8. Gas Station Counter – This is another one I’ve personally tried and received clients from. Purchase a business card stand from Office Max or any other office supply store (I purchased the $1.00 ones) and place 10-20 cards on the counter at your gas station. You never know who will come to the gas station, see your card, call you and hire you.
9. Fish Bowl Marketing – Get a glass fish bowl and put a sign in front of it asking business card carriers to place their card in for a chance to win free design work (or copywriting, consulting, a free dinner, ect). Make sure you have a stack of your cards next to it so interested people can take one. Now, you’ve got interest and a fish bowl full of potential leads (minus the winner of course).
10. Free, take one – Here’s another one I’ve used before. People love to see the word “FREE” so by putting a small sign (even hand drawn if you’d like) next to a stack of business cards that says “FREE – take one”, peoples eyes will gravitate towards them. They’ll (hopefully) find it funny, grab a card and check your site out.

Obviously these are just some of the ways you can turn your business cards into a great guerrilla marketing tool for your freelance business. As I said above, if you’ve got more ideas, feel free to leave a comment so others (as well as myself) can benefit from your knowledge. I know I’ve got some amazing readers here, so I expect some creative ideas in the comments section

Also, I am planning on doing a series of articles from questions I get from you guys, so don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.

10 guerrilla marketing tips using your business cards is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

However, in this article, we’re going to look over the things Charles Manson did and pick out some of the points that will help you in your marketing, and business in general. I hope you enjoy the article, and please, feel free to leave comments at the end of the article to let me know your thoughts.

1. Confidence in yourself – When you hear Charles Manson talk, you see that he believes highly in himself. He has a set viewpoint on what he is and how he does things, and he operates under that at all times. In interviews or writings he has done, you can tell that he built up a reality around himself and there are a lot of people out there now who believe his reality – they believe in him because he belives in himself. When you speak with potential clients, make sure you exude that confidence. They’ll take notice if you do – and if you don’t.
2. Loyal Followers – Charles Manson had a lot of women around him who would do (and did do) anything he told them to. Not because he was a hard ass, but because they loved him and wanted to please him. With that loyal following, he had everything he wanted in the palm of his hands. Even while in prison, he has a flock of women who write him & swear that they love the man.
3. Learn where to align yourself – Having the term “Helter Skelter” associated with him, which was a Beatles song, aligned Charles Manson with music & subsequently, with pop culture. This has made him a legend and one that pop culture, to this very day, still talk about. He recorded songs before the murders, and after his arrest, the songs were released commercially – with bands such as Guns N Roses & Marilyn Manson covering the music. How can you align yourself in your particular industry? Are you a lone wolf or can people recognize you because of something you’re aligned with?
4. Have a game plan & stick to it – Charles knew that he had “The Family” under his control and he knew that anything he said to them can, and would be carried out. When he mentions Helter Skelter around a campfire, he explained that he would release an album of music that would give subtle messages to the world and a race war would start. The remaining humans out of that race war would then be under The Family’s power. He had a clear game plan and he stuck to it. What is your game plan? Do you have points of attack on your target market? If not, why?
5. Make a lasting impression – I know in the points above I mention how Charles Manson has cemented himself in pop culture, but I think that it needs to be mentioned again. Charles Manson has definitely made a lasting impression – one that transends from movies, to music and operas. Wrong or not, Charles Manson will go down in history and his name will be forever known. What are you doing that will make your life memorable? If you’re not doing anything worthwhile, what are you really doing?

Disclaimer

No, I do not like Charles Manson. No, I do not approve of the things he did. No, I am not a psychopath. So, before the hate filled comments start flooding in, please read this over again. This post is the second in a series of unlikely sources that we can learn marketing tips from. I hope you enjoyed the article. You can read the Marketing Tips from Adolf Hitler article by clicking here.

Marketing Tips from Charles Manson is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

1. Keep a clear and concise message – You may disagree with the nazi’s message (as do I) but they never swayed their opinions. They never broke on their beliefs and they made sure to directly display these messages every chance they got. You should be doing the same with your brand.
2. Word of mouth from your tribe – Word of mouth is the soul of social media marketing. Hitler had his entire army of white supremacists leading his marketing by talking to everyone they knew and putting their beliefs and message inside everyones head that would let them. Get together a tribe of people to spread your message through social media and regular every day conversations.
3. Power in numbers – Do you think Hitler would have been able to do what he wanted if he only had half of the people behind him and his message? I doubt it. Networking is something you should be doing every day. With social media websites, business expos and other group meet-ups, you should have no trouble gaining a nice network.
4. Make people believe in you – Hitler did one thing very well. He gained the trust of people. A large amount of people. Millions to be more accurate. Hitler didn’t just sell ideas, he sold a belief that sparked a fire under everyone who would listen. How can you spark a fire under your customers and make them believe in you and your business?
5. Let your leader lead the way – Adolf Hitler was a great leader. He got his entire army of nazi’s and was the forefront of it all. If he said something, they followed him. In your business, make sure there is one clear leader who has the final say-so, otherwise things could get a bit out of hand.
6. Keep your visual style clear – In my recent post, I showcased 42 information packed twitter backgrounds. This is a great way to carry over your design brand into other areas. Hitler and the Nazi’s did the same thing. With the army style outfits, the arm bands with the swastika on it and the black boots, Hitler made sure if you were to see one of his followers walking down the street, you knew right away what they were about. Does your design do this for you? If not, it definitely should.

Disclaimer

No, I do not like Hitler. No, I do not approve of the Nazi movement. No, I do not have a single racist bone in my body. So, before the hate filled comments start flooding in, please read this over again. This post is the first in a series of unlikely sources that we can learn marketing tips from. I hope you enjoyed the article.

Marketing Tips from Adolf Hitler is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

The answer to this might be a bit more simple than you think. You may not have the big budgets to run 1,000 television commercials at the 6-8pm slots on channel 2, 4, or 7, but I bet you’ve got the creative mind to come up with a simple solution to generating more buzz for your company. And if all else fails, read the 10 guerrilla marketing tactics below and try to branch out off of them and generate your own list as well. The ideas are infinite as long as you apply your creativity to them.

10 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics for Designers

1. Offer free hosting for every 1st time client meeting – The main goal is to get time with the prospect and sell them your services right? A 2-3 minute conversation might not get them to buy, but a 30-60 minute meeting with them could definitely persuade them into hiring you. So offer every prospective client free hosting (3 months, 6 months, your choice) just for having the meeting.
2. Give something else away for free – Do you create custom wordpress designs? Why not create a free theme and give it away? The publicitity from it, the link backs and the traffic are sure to land you some new leads/sales. The same can be true for texture packs, brush sets, free fonts, ect.
3. Cover your car in vinyl – You’ve got the design skills right? You’re a designer afterall, so why not create the design for a kick ass vinyl piece to cover the back half, side or entire car! It’s inexpensive and will be advertisement for you wherever you go.
4. Business Cards in Library Books – Find the beginner xhtml/css or web design for dummies books and put your business cards inside them in every library you can get to. This way, anyone looking for them books to do their own website will instantly be met with a way to get out of reading the book and trying to do it themselves.
5. T-Shirts for the homeless – Take your design skills and create a design for some t-shirts, get them printed and then go pass them out to the homeless. If you’re able to do 100 or so t-shirts you could probably even get media coverage for doing it.
6. Stickers EVERYWHERE – Bands and record companies use stickers a lot – and for good reason. They’re relatively cheap, easy to place and can be everywhere you want them to be. Pass some out to your friends/family and have them put them up as well. Have family in a different state? Send them some in the mail and have them place the stickers around town.
7. Customer of the Month vouchers – Design some nice coupons you can print out (use a business card printer as they’re perfect size for people to carry around) and allow them to use it for a discount or pass them out to others so their friends/family can get the discount.
8. Display your toolbox – Taking a tool box (a real one for hammers, screw drivers, ect) and placing it open in an area your target market will frequently come with different tools of your trade (ie: business cards so they can contact you, pencils & paper, computer mouse, ect). This will work especially well if a toolbox is something not found normally where you have it (ie: coffee shop). Inside the top of the toolbox thats open and facing the people coming up to it, you can have a note similar to “The tools of my trade – Custom Web Designs”.
9. Show off your package – No, not that package For those of us who design packaging for clients (ie: boxes for products, ect), why not create a mock up box and get a bunch of them printed up and place them inside different grocery stores or places where your target market will frequently visit.
10. Free web consulting – Allow potential customers to have 30-60 minutes of your time for free. Absolutely free, no questions asked. Do not push your services on them at all. Leave them with a business card and notes from the conversation and be on your way. This selfless giving will leave an impression on the potential client and will also showcase your knowledge of the web and what you COULD be doing for them – if they were to hire you. They’ll most likely feel so happy with the conversation that they almost feel obligated to hire you for their web design as a way to pay you back for your time you gave them.

Illustrators, Coders, Writers & more are coming soon

This will be a series of posts geared towards guerrilla marketing ideas for all kinds of freelancers. Off the wall, out of the box thinking will be applied to each freelance niche and posted soon. You can request a freelance profession to be covered in the comments and I’ll do my best to get it covered as well, so don’t be shy

10 guerrilla marketing tactics for designers is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

Not only do you get the added promotion, but you can also connect and network with some other great designers. I’ve had designers who were too backed up with work pass some along to me through twitter and a couple other social media networks, so I can honestly say that it will help your design business. Don’t go into it looking for handouts and you’ll get a much better response.

So below are the 10 places I’ve found that I will be utilizing here in the upcoming months. Look each of the sites over and see which type of design work usually does best and cater your portfolio there to that type of work. Design marketing at its best 

1. Flickr - With the endless amounts of simply amazing flickr groups that are run by design blogs like Fuel Your Creativity and Design Shard, you can get your work in front of thousands of people every month.
2. DeviantArt - I wouldn’t say that Deviant Art is a place for clean cut website designs, but for those of us who are creative and can utilize 3d elements, amazing textures and span the more intriquet details of design, it’s definitely the place to be. There are some amazing surrealism pieces there that I drool over.
3. Carbon Made - When asking on twitter about what other designers would recommend for promoting your design work, Carbon Made was mentioned more than any other on this list. I love how their portfolio page shows portfolios by recently updated and also by category. Definitely a must have if you’re looking for other marketing avenues for your design services.
4. Coroflot - Armed with a free portfolio on Coroflot, that is only the beginning. There’s also a job board that you can check out and find design work. People can “like” your work and that also helps you get added promotion on the site. Definitely another must have in your designer marketing arsenal.
5. CSS/Logo/Flash Galleries - So you want the recognition of putting a bunch of logos in the bottom of your portfolio to show which websites have featured your work? These are the types of sites to do it on. There are tons of design galleries out there and you should be trying to get your work on all of them – yes, all of them. Why not?
6. Shown’d - You can import your flickr sets automatically and also embed your shown’d galleries into your other web pages around the internet. You can become a featured artist on the home page and you can also get hired through shown’d. Plus, it allows you to track your portfolio’s performance with google analytics.
7. FigDig - By now you might be thinking, “what can these type of sites offer that the others don’t?” – well, what about being able to upload your graphics in HD? No more size limits and restrictions. If you create a great design, you want people to see it in all it’s glory right? This would be the place to do it.
8. Behance - Another twitter favorite, behance is a great website to put up your free portfolio. I know there are even a few big name designers who swear by it as their single best form of business generation.
9. Creative Binge - With portfolios ranging from vector illustration to photo manipulation, Creative Binge is another place you should set up a portfolio. The community is active and you can “binge” your favorite designs and others can do the same with yours. Instead of just “Browsing Portfolios” you are actually able to “browse designs” so you have a better shot at being featured – and more often.
10. Computer Love - From featured portfolios to featured people, CPluv breaks the barrier of the website being “just another portfolio” and allows great interaction between its users and it also gives us a great dose of design news from their site as well as others. This is one I will definitely be signing up to.

So there you have it – Now, go start your marketing. Sticking to the same routine every day might work – but will it work forever? When your twitter well runs dry, where will you find work? These are ten places you can start.

Do you have a favorite place to promote and market your portfolio(s) ? Drop me some links to your fave’s as well as your portfolio links so everyone can check them out.

10 great places to promote your designs online is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)

Branding yourself and/or your business is a great way to build yourself up as an expert and build up your business in the eyes of the masses. But what if you don’t know where to start on branding yourself online? Would you jump all over the idea of someone giving you 20 branding tips using only social media sites? Would that be something you’d like to share with your network you’ve built? I think so, and thats why I’m writing this article today. I want to show everyone who is reading this, and everyone you link to this article that social media branding is a straight forward process that anyone can conquer with the right time and energy invested.

Social Media Branding Tips

• Use the same profile image (submitted by @collageartist, @mayhemstudios, @54degrees &@imjustcreative)
• Use the same username (submitted by @mayhemstudios, @inspirationbit)
• Provide quality links and resources (submitted by @behoff)
• Make personal connections (submitted by @damienbasile)
• Write quality content that people will like (submitted by @zigbot)
• Make your backgrounds on twitter information packed, similar to @chrisbrogan and @problogger
• Keep your message consistent when you write anything online
• Connect each of your social media sites as much as possible
• Be as personal as possible
• Be as approachable as possible

Voting Activity

• Vote as much as possible
• Vote as honest as possible. If you don’t like a link, give it a vote down
• Vote outside of the social media marketing niche to become visible on a larger scale

Friend Activity

• Add friends as much as possible (but don’t make it looks spammy)
• Contact your friends when you think you’ve got something of interest for them
• Ask your friends what you can do for them
• Send birthday notes to your friends (this will definitely set you apart from the 1,000 friends they have who don’t)

Even More Branding Tips

• Pick your favorite social media sites and be as active as possible
• Give more then you receive – and don’t expect anything in return
• Engage in conversation, don’t dominate it

One Last Note

There are probably a million other ways to brand yourself through social media website, but these twenty are ones that I truly believe in. If you’re looking for more social media branding tips, check out this great post by Chris Brogan on his blog titled 100 Personal branding tactics using social media. And as usual, if you’ve got any thoughts on this subject, I’d love to hear them in the comments section below.

Special thanks to everyone who I talked to on twitter who answered with their favorite branding tip. If I missed anyone, please leave a comment and let me know or Direct Message me on twitter so I can feel bad, cry and send you a box of cookies  You can follow this blog on twitter at @gfreelancing if you aren’t already.

20 branding tips using only social media is a post from Guerrilla Freelancing For our regular subscribers, we've got a relaunch in order in the next week or two. Keep your eyes peeled :)