8 Ways to Promote Your Work Through Internet Collaboration
Promoting our products and services can be a time consuming and daunting task. A lot of us get tangled up in online self promotion without realising the value in collaboration more often with other people through the web. It can be a wise way to expand your network, pool resources and save time, money and work.
The internet has opened up a range of exciting possibilities for gaining value through mutually beneficial arrangements or simply interacting with others in promoting your work effectively and ultimately landing more clients.
Here are eight ways you can do this:
1. Joint Blogs/Sites
Getting a blog or simple website out there that you can use to showcase your work, build credibility in your field, promote yourself, and simply express your interests, is an important element in one’s online self-promotional strategy.
A successful blog requires regular and outstanding content to be in for a chance of attracting many visitors. Particularly for those lacking in time, it is worth considering setting up a site with one or more suitable other people. With others working on the same platform, it is now possible to build up posts quicker, combine skills and resources, and promote everyone’s work through a single site.
Some freelancers might even want to consider using a joint site as a platform to promote the combined skills of several people as a business, as opposed to promoting individual freelancers.
2. Contacts on Social Media Sites
Social media allows people to build up substantial networks of people who we’d want to know about our work. With sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, it has become possible to link up with potential clients, fans, as well as key influencers and even celebrities in your industry. It’s best to add new people to these networks with appropriate personal messages.
What is extremely powerful with being connected to people who are well connected themselves, is that you are effectively ‘piggybacking’ on their networks whenever they are linked to something of yours. For example, on Facebook, if someone with connections joins your page, all their contacts will be aware of this in their newsfeeds. Linked up with key people, you can keep them in the loop with whatever you are working on, which will benefit your online visibility.
3. Content Exchanging
Getting material on someone else’s website can be a great way of having fresh new people seeing your name on the internet. You can agree to put an article or a guest post on another site in return for content for your own, or even agree to swap decent comments with someone else with a site or blog relating to yours.
One underused method of enhancing your validity online as a freelancer is to request a review/testimonial swap with someone. These can be placed visibly on your site, is mutually beneficial, and adds real value to the services etc you offer.
4. Joint Interviews
Find someone in your industry to interview in return for them interviewing yourself. Interview each other, either in written, audio or video format and upload to each other’s blogs or elsewhere. Include each other’s links at the bottom of and incorporated into interviews.
Appearing as an interviewee on another, ideally popular website, is an excellent self promotional method because, apart from appearing a separate site, an interview is a great endorsement of you and will add value to you as a professional.
5. List Promotion
If you send out a newsletter to a mailing list that you’ve built up, you can use this to promote other people and get your name on other lists. Having a feature, link, article about you on someone else’s newsletter is possible through polite asking. However, it’s even more possible through agreeing with relevant people who have mailing lists to swap content like articles or even simply a link in a newsletter so that you and your work get seen by a new and targeted audience.
6. Joint Products
By ‘products’ I mean both physical products such as giclee prints, and non-physical, like information products or audio downloads. Creating products like ebooks are one way of gaining exposure, especially if it is something that will spread through people are sharing it with others.
Obviously, sharing the knowledge, skills and work load with one or more partners is an excellent way of getting a high quality product together faster and to each collaborator’s already established contacts. You might also consider making products to give away for free for the promotional value within them.
7. Exchanging Links
A straightforward but useful promotional tactic is in agreeing to place a link on your site to someone’s work who has done the same for you on their site. People do click on links featured on or recommended by sites and by having many of your web links on key sites around the web, this will benefit your exposure.
8. Working with Others on Collaborated Projects
These can be paid projects, but it is also an option to create an interesting, self initiated project with others that you can add to your portfolio. Pooling skill and talent in this way will lead to high quality projects that will greatly boost the value of your personal portfolio and support your self-marketing efforts.
Really aim for a piece of work that is remarkable as you make use of the benefit of combining talents with others. The ideal partner to collaborate with is obviously someone who is well known in the first place, so that you can ‘piggy-back’ on their success and promote via the contacts they have as well.
Related Content
- How to Make Remote Team Collaboration Work
- Collaboration Tips for Designers Working with Developers
- 15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration
- Related categories: Project Management and Resources
Buy Alex Mathers’ Book!
If you enjoyed this article, read more of Alex Mathers work by purchasing ’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’, which is an in depth guide to marketing oneself online, making more sales and getting more clients, is available now.
About the Author
26 Comments
Daniel
March 10th, 2010
It looks like I am… FIRST!
Ok, that was immature. I had to do it though, I couldn’t resist :) I’ve never been the first person to comment here before.
Great article btw.
Melody
March 10th, 2010
@Daniel, what a “sincere” outlook on the article…
Anywho, I’m hoping to do some more collaborative projects, it’s great not only for spreading your own work but just making friends with some awesome people..
Dana
March 10th, 2010
This is a great article. A lot of people don’t know how to promote their work, and this is a nice list of tips and resources for them. Wonderful.
Chuck Bartok
March 10th, 2010
Thanks for the concise presentation.
I learned 50 years ago, “No Man is an Island” and I have never met a successful person who DID it Alone!
Our community and Blog membership stimulates growth in each member’s business through Masterminding and sharing
Maidstone
March 10th, 2010
Some good useful tips, social networking really is the new “word of mouth!”
Julie B
March 10th, 2010
Excellent article. I’ve been doing ore and more collaboration with colleagues and friends just recently. Right now, I’m mostly using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as my tools. I would like to learn more about proper link exchanging and any other outlets that may help with online promotions.
Thank you for the great info, Daniel!
Julie B
March 10th, 2010
Oops! My apologies from my comment above… I was THINKING Alex, then saw Daniel’s name as I was typing.
So, thank YOU, Alex! Excellent article!
Jessica
March 10th, 2010
Great Article! I’m currently trying to work with the new Google Wave tool in efforts of further promoting my efforts. I have a feeling this is going to be a “must” in social networking and online promotions eventually.
Anatoly Gilderman
March 10th, 2010
I am currently joining blogs, getting involve in social media sites, content and link exchange. So far these methods are doing wonders for me but it will actually take time to be able to get people notice your products or services.
Audrey
March 10th, 2010
This article is a great reminder that if you find other people who offer value and compliment your product and services, you will create and enhance what you offer to your clients 100 times over.
Who doesn’t want a more holistic or in-depth approach to covering a topic they are interested in?
Natalie
March 10th, 2010
I agree. Making as many connections as possible and creating a huge social network online is the key to success.
Leah
March 10th, 2010
Very useful article Alex! Will be making sure to save this article.
Duane
March 10th, 2010
Great tips Alex. You are becoming quite the guru of self-promotion. Cheers.
Francisc
March 10th, 2010
Very nice article and pretty useful for me as I just created my own blog and wanna promote it and get myself on this “highway”.
Check it out by clicking my name.. and comment on it if you will, I would appreciate it. thanks
Lava360
March 11th, 2010
8 effective ways that will work, Great read thanks for share Alex Mathers
Alex Mathers
March 11th, 2010
Thanks for the comments everyone :)
Casey
March 11th, 2010
Great article! We just launched simplethemes.com and I’m looking for ways to get the word out. This was very helpful. Thanks.
Thomas Craig
March 11th, 2010
Nice post Alex, been really pushing the social media aspect over the past month and can admit that I have seen a nice increase in traffic as well as general inquiries, (not just for work, but also questions, which allows you to network among peers within your industry)
Blasting Mind
March 12th, 2010
Very nice post. I agree with your 8 ways to promote ourselves in the internet. Thanks for sharing! :D
Bibokz
March 13th, 2010
Social media seems to be the quite player to promote your works. I’ve been in blogging for many years and it really helps a lot.
Adrian
March 16th, 2010
Nice post Alex,
I agree that social media can be very powerful and I like the idea of exchanging testimonials etc. I also like sites such as logopond where you can upload work for critique by others.
Edward Mathews
April 4th, 2010
Asking a website owner with ezine to recommend you can instantly make you an authority figure in your niche.I have more sales
Lyn Martin
April 29th, 2010
Thanks for all the input, Alex! Sometimes I feel like I need all the help I get in this “brave new world”.
Gunwinder
June 13th, 2010
While its a article worth to read for a newbie like me… Thanks again,
Adrianna Gonzalez
December 17th, 2010
Thanks very much for these tips, great info!
Mark Liu
April 3rd, 2011
Hi everyone, I am currently running a web collaborative project – Patch it up. We aim to make “today slightly better than yesterday” and we would like to invite designers and artists to contribute your design talent for this project. Full detail is on http://www.patchitup.org , alternatively, you can pay us a visit on our FB page as well – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Patch-It-Up/154605081267420
Look forward from all your collaborative contribution to make our world slightly better ;-)
cheers,
Mark
Leave a Comment