How to get more clients without spending more on advertising

Things have been going pretty well lately. Translation, interpretation and copy-writing assignments have kept me busy during January and February. Surely, I felt tired constantly but the truth is, I have had the time of my life with interesting tasks, exciting new topics and two book translations. Every time I was asked by my friends or colleagues about how I was doing, I responded with a simple but true statement: "I could not enjoy my work more..."

Oftentimes in this profession, we get stuck with daily / weekly assignments and have no time left for other duties to fulfil, such as administration, handling invoices and yes, dedicating our time and money to self-advertising. Sometimes I wish I had the resources to hire some professional help, like a personal assistant or something. Then there are other days when I simply enjoy marketing duties and find it pretty easy to acquire new clients.

However, based on my previous experiences and my out-of-the-box mindset, I collected a list of different methods to get more clients without having to either spend a fortune or dedicate much time to the task.

• Increasing online presence (Are you on LinkedIn yet? How about Proz.com?)
• Networking (Not necessarily in professional events...)
• Newsletters (I know..."been there, done that...")
• Getting personal with clients (e.g. birthday messages)
• Word-of-mouth (Never miss an opportunity to tell about your freelance profession - and never think of it as self-indulgence!)

Using these tactics have gotten me 4 new and many more potential clients for March. Right now, I am testing how much I can handle. Anyway, I am up for the challenge! You should be too!