What is Showcase? It is a visual directory that allows any web designer or company from any part of the world to list themselves and be exposed to thousands of potential clients.

It works like this:

You need to register at http://www.webdesigndev.com/showcase/registerfolio.html.

Step 1. Fill out your details (takes 1-2 minutes)

Step 2. Click Save and continue, and publish your listing.

So what are you waiting for? Add yourself to our web designer directory and start getting more clients!

Add Your Listing To Showcase

Elastislide

Elastislide is a responsive jQuery carousel image viewer.  The rotating image carousel will adjust itself automatically to present itself attractively no matter what size of screen or screen resolution the viewer has.  The images will also resize themselves along with the width of the container that the carousel is in to ensure that the all of each image is viewable across various screen sizes and resolutions.  You can download the source for this image carousel here.

Unoslider

Unoslider is a responsive image gallery that allows you to incorporate HTML rich captions and allows you to have per-slide options.  The gallery is touch enabled and mobile optimized, making it a dream for people who are viewing your images from a mobile device.  There are over 40 transitions to choose from and 12 prebuilt themes to use, which are easily customizable with CSS.

ResponsiveSlides.js

If you’re looking for a simple responsive slideshow, then ResponsiiveSlides.js is your answer!  Designers have the ability to choose between pagination and navigation controls, transition effects, randomization, HTML captions, and so much more.  It’s extremely lightweight, flyweight in fact, and won’t deliver a knock out punch when you implement it on your website.

jQuery Responsive Thumbnail Gallery Plugin

jQuery Responsive Thumbail Gallery Plugin is more than just a long name, it’s an amazing solution for a responsive image gallery.  It functions like most simple image galleries with thumbnail navigation, but is responsive and breaks itself down elegantly.

Photo Swipe

Photo Swipe is a free image gallery developed with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that is specifically targeted for mobile devices.  This image gallery is compatible on the Apple mobile iOS operating system, android powered devices, and blackberry mobile devices.  It’s easy to install, easier to use, and comes with a gaggle of configuration options so you can fine-tune it just the way you’d like to.

Responsive Image Gallery

Responsive Image Gallery is a phenomenal choice for a responsive image gallery.  Users have the choice of browsing photos with or without the thumbnail carousel, and if they’d prefer to use the thumbnails to navigate through the images or the next and previous buttons on the made slideshow area.

Seamless Responsive Photo Grid

Seamless Responsive Photo Grid  is an interesting approach to displaying a large amount of images on one page.  Images are displayed more like a collage than a replicated cookie cutter image and thumbnail gallery all organized in to one nice looking array and labeled as a gallery.  This is a fun option for the occasional project that would allow something like this, works on all major browsers, and is ridiculously easy to incorporate in to your own design.  You can download the files here. 

Elastic Image Slideshow

Elastic Image Slideshow is a responsive image gallery with an unobtrusive thumbnail navigation option.  The thumbnails are small blocks of solid color making up a bottom border of the main image in their native state, but slide and fade in to position once hovered over.  There is also an autoplay option for viewing the images if you’d like your viewers to enjoy a hands-free viewing experience.  Download the source code here.

Flexslider

Flexslider is another stunning example of a responsive image slider.  Not only is Flexslider supported in all major browsers, but it’s also programmed with hardware accelerated touch swipe support.  Add custom navigation options and the ability to place any kind of HTML elements your heart desires in the slides and you’ve got yourself a fluid image slider that you can customize to work seamlessly with any design.

Blueberry

Blueberry is a delicious image gallery slider that was written specifically for responsive web design.  It’s an experimental opensource jQuery plugin project that was originally launched in hopes of getting the designers of some of the more popular image sliders to think about making theirs responsive as well.  The fact that this slider is powered by jQuery means that blueberry should not only work on your Blackberry, but your Apple as well.

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

Mathijs Vissers

Mathijs Vissers explains it pretty well on his homepage, “I like drawing funny looking weird stuff.”  I’d say that his business card does a spot-on job of portraying that.  I also like the Chuck Norris KnowsVictoria’s Secret t-shirt design in his portfolio, classic!

Pampaneo

Pampaneo is a design and creative agency powered by duo Pedro Meca and Kelly Abanto.  I’m always a sucker for minimalist design and good usage of illustrations, so naturally I was a big fan of their business cards.  I was even more pleased once I clicked through their website, creative and well thought out through and through.

Chef Burger

Chef Burger was a burger joint in the greater downtown area ofKansas City.  Their business cards combine two of my favorite things, burgers and beer.  Well, beer coasters at least.  The creative side is a creepy looking burger monster that you want to smash with the bottom of your beverage of choice glass, while the information side is stylized with typography and color, allowing it to stay creative.

Pop Grub

Pop Grub is an excellent example of breaking free from the standard, rectangle business card and going for a unique shape.  It reminds me of a tuxedo pocket square handkerchief, which then evokes a classy association.  Being that the company is an online guide to pop up chefs in theNew York City area, for people looking for a one-of-a-kind culinary experience, perhaps it’s a good association.

Dario Monetini

Dario Monetini is an Italian designer who makes great use of one of my favorite business card trends, the clear, plastic business card.  Judging by his website, I’d say he does a superb job of incorporating his personality in to his business card.  And the fact that they’re plastic means they’ll outlast the abuse that could be dished out if someone just shoves it in the pocket of their jeans, or puts it in their wallet and then accidentally leaves their wallet in their jeans on laundry day.

Jae Salavarrieta

Jae Salavarrieta is a designer and illustrator whose business card is the full meal deal.  His logo is a clever mix of a shark, torpedo, submarine mix, or possibly airplane bomber, in the shape of a J, representing his name.  While the cut of the card then plays off the logo in that it’s the shape of a shark fin.  Quite clever.

David Fernandez Huerta

David Fernandez Huerta is a video game artist and illustrator who does a fantastic job showcasing his artistic and creative abilities with his business card.  I’d be curious to know how much it cost to make each card as there is quite a bit of cutting involved.  Either way, it’s a unique card that will surely grab the attention of prospective clients.

Darlene Dewell

Darlene Dewell at Print Production has another perfect example of a creative business card that took some outside of the box thinking to create.  She slightly alters the standard shape of a business card to give it a unique look, adds in nicely contrasting colors, embosses her logo in to it and even sneaks a cat in there to make it even more lovable.  Very well done, Darlene.

Robonut

Driv is a creative designer focused on typography, illustration, and graphic design who created these cards for his ongoing robonut project.  A clever logo and business card concept, turning the D of his name in to a smiley face with the help of a colon punctuation mark.  He also uses the decorative side of his card to give his smiley a body, very cool!

National Greyhound Adoption Program

It only makes sense that the National Greyhound Adoption Program would have dog tags as their business cards.  I’m guessing they cost a little more than your standard, single-sided, one color, cardstock business card, but you’ve got to admit, they’re pretty cool.  Very clever, who ever thought up this concept.

Next time you’re looking to develop a business card, whether it’s your own of for a client, challenge yourself to think outside of the box.  Force yourself to come up with something new, clever and unique.  Something that will cause a new client or customer to remember you specifically solely off how awesome your business card is.  Most of all, be creative.  I mean, that is your job, right?

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

Razorfish

Razorfish is a design firm that utilizes a full-screen background video in a rather unique way. The video is a live feed of one of their offices, and you’re able to select which one you want to view from a menu at the footer of the page. Take a virtual trip around the world without ever leaving the lobby of a Razorfish office, very cool concept to go along with a very creative website.

Gudrun & Gudrun

Gundrun & Gundrun is a clothing site that’s oozing with urban character. There’s no doubt in my mind where this company is from and who their target audience is. Nestled in the city that never sleeps is a clothing website with a very artistic, full-screen, background video.

Wayne McGregor – Random Dance

The Wayne McGregor Random Dance site is another website with a very artistic full-screen background video. But would you expect anything less from a dance studio? An interesting thing about this site is that the video only plays on the homepage, once you begin to navigate through the site the background switches to full-screen images.

White Lies

The White Lies website is proof that not all white lies are bad. They make use of their background with a full-screen video of a live performance. The video quality is quite good and there’s even a buffer bar at the very bottom of your screen to let you know how far ahead of the game you are. Another thing I really liked about this site was the option for a background slideshow, in case anyone’s browsing the site from their high speed 56k dial-up modem.

Matter Strategic Design

It’s no surprise that a design firm would utilize such a foreword thinking design concept as a website with a full-screen background video, and that’s exactly what Matter Strategic Design did. Their background video is quite interesting, just a series of close-up face shots of people smiling. Their site is not cluttered with links as to overshadow the video, rather they just feature a simple dropdown menu with links to their work.

Less Rain

Being from the Pacific Northwest where rainfall is just a way of life, I had to chuckle when I came across the name of the German digital creative agency, Less Rain.  It’s no surprise that an agency with as many awards as they have also has a creative online presence. Their background video is more or less a background image with a video loop of a passing train. A clever way to sneak in a background video without bogging down the load time of a site.

Nike Jordan M6

Nike has developed a reputation for developing extremely progressive websites for some of their specific brands and the Nike Jordan M6 microsite was no exception. The site features full-screen background videos that are short clips of the shoe designers discussing the making of the M6 through various stages of the process. The navigation is not overly invasive, simple text links tucked away in a corner to the other videos and features of the shoe. A very clever and very well done site.

I Surf Because

I Surf Because is a microsite from Billabong that allows visitors to create their own statement on why they surf. The site features a full-screen background video clips of surfing enthusiasts doing what they love. There is a soundtrack that accompanies the video, which you have the option of muting, as well as some basic navigation at the top. After you leave the homepage the video background is swapped for some hi-res, full-screen images.

Russian Standard Vodka

Russian Standard Vodka is said to be every bit as good and high quality as Grey Goose, by taste testers and industry insiders, but a fraction of the price.  All I know is that both have pretty cool websites, but Russian Standard has the slight edge thanks to their use of video as a background element. Along with the main navigation links in the top right, you’re able to control the background videos by hovering on the bottom of the page to produce the video options. Very cool, very clever, very well done, dare I say, just like the drink?

Design Kitchen

DesignKitchen is an extremely good use of video for a background image. As their site states, they specialize in making high-definition videos for premier Motorola technology platform. The background video is a hand swiping and sliding through a smorgasbord of different videos and showing the extensive diversity of what they can deliver to their clients. The site also has a standard navigation and news feed that is subtly overlaid as to not interfere with the video, but easily identifiable and simple to use.

Using a full-screen background video is certainly a great way to grab the attention of your viewer. Whether the video you choose to feature is one that showcases your talent and portfolio or one that is pleasing to look at and doesn’t do much more than add a spark of life and uniqueness to your site, one think to consider during your planning process is how to keep the video size small as to not bog down the load time of your site. This can also be done by offering the viewer to switch to a slideshow, simple background image, or just stop the video all together and leave it at that.

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

Ditch The Mouse: Well mouse has got nothing to do with tablets. You are supposed to use finger to get things under control in a tablet device so that simply means, you should not make navigation small. Do not cramp up things as it will make it tough for general users while navigating and will lead to poor users’ experience. Since finger is a lot larger than the pointer of a mouse, you need to make sure that users would not have to zoom in and out just to access some areas of your website. Best solution for this problem is to stick with a middle ground. The size of the navigation button should be large enough for fingertips but they should not be ridiculously large.

Above The Fold: Since people are using seemingly endless number of platforms to access internet, web designers really do not have any clue where to put the above the fold thing and what to put in it without marring the whole usability thing. Now, if you are new in the game, let me tell you that above the fold is the most important section that usually has all the important elements of the website to draw maximum attention from your visitors. So, as a designer it is your religious responsibility to make a visitor see the above the fold section irrespective of the devices he is using, before he leaves the website. To ensure this, you need to scale the design to raise the fold to make sure that everyone sees it right away – otherwise your website may not fair very well in tablets.

Check the Contact Form: I think you do not want your targeted visitors facing troubles contacting you while they are browsing sites on tablets. You have to be double sure that everything is working fine in tablets. So, take some time out of your busy schedule and check your website in all possible tablet devices. Send some test mails and if they work fine, you are good.

                                                                            ( photo courtesy - http://www.kitguru.net/)

Do Not Use Flash: I remember a story where a designer is told to make a flash presentation work in iPad in an hour. I hope you get it why it is impossible to get the flash presentation fixed for iPad in one hour. Yes, iDevices do not support flash and that means, you will be better off if you design your website in standard HTML and CSS. Don’t use technologies that will require browsers to download additional plug-ins or software. Rather, try HTML5. It offers similar level of interactivity and that too without making the website heavy.

Portrait or landscape Mode: The greatness of tablets lies in the fact that you can see things either in portrait or landscape modes and sometimes, you can switch between the two. So, apart from making your website multi-screen sizes friendly, you need to make it a point that your website can be accessed when accessed in different modes. Make sure that the website does not get screwed up when switched between views and if you find any issues, just iron them out.

Keep Things Simple: Do not add elements that may look like gaudy. You should not forget the fact that a website may render precisely in a desktop but it can go horribly wrong when accessed on a tablet. As a tablet user, you will definitely hate the idea of zooming in and out to have a proper view and so, you need to remove all those elements that can lead to this nagging issue.

It is not a bitter pill: The truth is that tablets give you little scope to try your creativity. But at the same time, they teach you the importance of simplicity. So, do a review of your website and strip away anything that may cause trouble while accessing the website in platforms other than standard desktop.

Michael Evans is a passionate writer and he has been writing for Site2You, which is a simple website builder. He has written different article on web design, online marketing and SEO. He is equally enthusiastic about latest gadgets.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour has a nice balance of typography and imagery.  The overall design elements of the site are drawn from the oversized text, the images just help balance it out, as to not overwhelm the first time viewer of the site.  You’ll notice they also don’t overdo it with the number of different fonts that they used, just as the fonts don’t drastically clash with each other.

More Hazards  More Heroes

More Hazards More Heroes is a great example of simplicity through design.  There are really only two images that offer anything to the main homepage screen.  The band name in the top left is what really grabs your attention, and it’s a cool use of typography as well to get each word of the band name to display more creatively than stacked one on top of the other.

Stephen Caver

Steven Caver’s site is the epitome of a well-done typography based site.  Large blocks of text dominate the site leaving the sparse amount of images to go relatively unnoticed.  You’ll also notice that the fonts aren’t anything crazy, just clean, simple, and pleasing to look at.  The fact that they’re easy to read also takes the strain off your eyes, not to mention brain, when trying to decipher what the text says.  I’ve seen some sites with typography this size in a font that’s more difficult to decode than a captcha security word image.

Elan Snowboards

Elan Snowboards is another cool website that uses typography well.  The site is laid out more like a hybrid scrapbook and journal and they did a great job at selecting the proper fonts to help maintain and portray that look.  Again, there are multiple fonts on the page, but they don’t contrast one another greatly and there aren’t a gaggle of them to exhaust the viewer as they go from one section to the next.

Marie Catrib

Marie Catrib serves up a delicious looking site full of fun typography.  Not only does the typography help give the site character, but the different colors of each font help liven up the site as well.  The designer did a great job of blending the fonts, as you will notice there are quite a few, but they all work together.  A great site and very well thought out.

Sibling Rivalry

Sibling Rivalry is loaded with all sorts of fun fonts.  Again, not a ton of images on the homepage, but a lot of fonts and they’re in a wide variety of colors.  All of these things work together nicely to make up a perfect blend, not something you’d expect from three brothers.  But if you read some of the text on the homepage you’ll understand how fitting it is and how well the designer was able to capture their philosophy and attitude, then portray it in this design.

Typographica

With a name like Typographica one would think that it would be oozing with all sorts of cool fonts.  It certainly doesn’t disappoint, that’s for sure.  I think one of my most favorite elements of this site is the somewhat subtle and almost hidden nature of their top level, main navigation.  At first glance I thought that “Typographica. Type Reviews, Books, Commentary,” was simply the company name and tag line.  But all it takes is a simple hover to realize those are all links.

What A Lovely Name

What A Lovely Name is a fun site featuring good use of typography.  It carries the fun, baby theme that surely gets expecting parents excited as they begin the quest of coming up with the perfect name for their child.  You’ll notice that rather than relying on several different fonts to add character to the site they simply relied on various sizes, very clever.

Just Dot

Just Dot looks like a lab that creates magic potions for awesomeness, which I guess is a good aura to have for a media services company.  Their choice of fonts works nicely with their scientific doodle drawings as the background.  It’s a great balance of fun and professional, giving them the upper hand over other media service sites that look just like all of the others.

Elysium Burns

Elysium Burns features a few different fonts to make the site look good, just as he claims he does.  There is a lot of text in this site, but thanks to the creatively executed use of typography it is all very well organized and displayed.  Large font sizes and different colors help the slightly more important text stand out and beyond that the quality of the work does the talking.
There are several ways to implement typography in a site and really make it have an impact on the site.  Whether it’s through a different font, increased size, or different color, implementing words on your site shouldn’t come across as a chore, or something that you have to tuck away and hide somewhere so that it doesn’t obstruct the look of all the other images and visual elements.  It should be viewed more as another layer of the design tree, and something to help emphasize other aspects of the site.

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

So what exactly does Codelobster PHP Edition do?

• All code highlights depending on a type, the also mixed code is thus supported, so the area of HTML will be highlighted as HTML, PHP as PHP, and Javascript as Javascript in the same file. You can choose color schemes, including popular IDEs.
• Powerful auto completion for HTML, PHP, CSS and Javascript, including HTML5 and CSS3. For PHP, the structure of the project is fully recognized, and the complete list of methods falls out in the proper places.
• HTML/CSS inspector similar to Firebug, which allows easily to correlate the selected elements of page with a code and proper style.
• Context help on all supported languages. By pressing F1 key the page with detailed description for current tag, attribute or function will be opened.
• PHP debugger. PHP debugger allows to execute PHP scripts incrementally, watching the values of all variables in every line.
• SQL manager allows to produce all necessary actions with a database – to add, delete, edit a structure and records in tables, to export data, execute SQL queries. Highlighting and auto completion works for SQL files too.
• Support of FTP allows to work from a remote server and to do all necessary file changes via FTP;
• The portable option allows to use editor without preliminary installation.
• Other useful utilities: pair highlighting, possibility of blocks selection, collapsing, tooltips, navigation on descriptions of functions and included files when holding CTRL key, viewing file and project structure, preview in a browser, bookmarks, and many other features.

But that’s not all. There are also special plug-ins for work with:

• CMS: Drupal, Joomla
• PHP frameworks: CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony, Yii
• JavaScript libraly: JQuery
• WordPress blogging engine
• Smarty template engine

Download link:
Free PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript editor (IDE) – Codelobster PHP Edition

Cellar Thief

Cellar Thief is great.  The C represents the name of the company, while a hand holding a bottle of wine helps create the letter.  It’s brilliant, simple and has a fun, shall we say “corky” sense of humor that helps people immediately relax and get a feel for the personality of the company.  I know it puts me in the mood for a glass, but that’s not saying much.

Holly Kae Photography

This was a logo for a freelance photographer around my area.  She’s since changed career paths and is no longer doing commercial photography, but the logo is still a great one.  The HKP forms the shape of a camera and represents the business, Holly Kae Photography.  Quite clever.

 Firefox

Firefox is another great logo.  It’s a world wide web browser, represented by the globe.  And Firefox is the brand name, represented by the amber colored fox searching the globe. It makes for a great looking icon in your taskbar or in your browser tabs as well and has come a long way from the original logo of a bird with its wings on fire that was originally launched back in 2002.

 General Electric

The core of the General Electric mark has been around since the inception of the company back in 1892.  At first glance I envision a washing machine or dishwasher, washing away.  And those are the things I most closely relate to the GE brand, home appliances.  But once you look closer you notice the mark in the middle of the circle is in fact a GE, just like the original logo over a century ago.

Galluzzo Communications

Galluzzo Communications is a full-service marketing communications company that focuses on giving their clients smart creative.  And that is exactly what their logo is, smart and creative.  The first time I saw this mark I thought it was simply a G representing the name, Galluzzo.  Then I noticed it that it wasn’t exactly a G in a unique font, but a C within the G.  Another clever aspect of this logo is that it could form an arrow or a loading timer on a website.  Imagine the logo spinning counterclockwise to let the viewer know their content is loading.  That’s smart creative.

Volkswagen

I have admired the Volkswagen for quite some time.  It’s simple, unique, yet is extremely well recognized.   I can’t help but picture a wheel when I look at this logo, where the outer blue is the tire and the white/gray VW in a circle is the wheel.  The logo has progressed since first being introduced in 1939, but the core concept of a VW inside of a circle has always been there.

McMenamins Hammerhead Ale

Pacific Northwestcraft beer moguls, McMenamins, hit the nail on the head with this logo for one of their most popular ales.  The logo is every bit as tasteful as the beer and gives a great interpretation of how one might feel after enjoying a few pints of it, responsibly, of course.

Race Face

Anyone who is in to mountain biking is probably familiar with Race Face products.  Known for their uncanny ability not to break, even under constant abuse, their logo shows every bit of that grit and toughness thanks to the red eye inside of a chain ring.

Red Bull

The Red Bull logo is a lot like the Hammerhead logo.  It’s a literal representation, with two red bulls.  And the fact that they’re about to headbutt each other is a bit foreshadowing of what kind of effect their energy drink may have on you.  They say it will give you wings, but the unspoken impression they give is that you’ll be able to run through a brick wall after downing a Red Bull.

 Hartford Whalers

The Hartford Whalers may longer be a professional hockey team, but thanks to their creative logo they will certainly not be forgotten.  When I saw this for the first time I immediately saw the tail of a whale, which promptly lead me to figuring out the green below it was a W.  Then the genius of the logo set in as I realized how the H came in to play.

Logos are a tricky thing to create.  What’s even more frustrating is the lack of awareness that the average consumer has of how long it takes to create an effective and eye-catching logo.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone scoff at a logo after hearing how much someone paid for it, insisting they could have made it in a few minutes for a fraction of the price.  If that’s the case, and you are that person who can create high quality and aesthetically pleasing logos in a few minutes for pennies on the dollar, by all means, please contact me.

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

This lead to several other questions including one that I’m asked quite frequently, how do I get clients?

Word of Mouth

Customer service is the number one most important thing when freelancing, your reputation is based off it.  A happy client is a client that will be dropping your name every chance they get.

Don’t be ashamed to plug yourself.  When I first started out I thought plugging myself at every possible chance would make me sound desperate, too desperate.  Then I quickly learned that plugging myself meant eating soup rather than soup can labels.  There are certainly tactical ways of going about that spare you an aura of desperation and make you sound more like a good contact to have.  Make them ask you what you do.  You can accomplish this by asking what line of work they’re in, then follow that up with questions about their online presence.

Volunteer your time and expertise to help out a non-profit or volunteer organization.  These types of organizations have no quarrels with plugging your name and recommending you to anyone they can.  It also looks great on a resume to be able to say you’ve done some volunteer work.

Network

A personal recommendation will almost always hold the most weight, that’s why it’s important to have as big of a network as possible.  Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn make this a piece of cake.  They allow you to deliver your work to the masses and interact with prospective clients.

Tradeshows are another great place to expand your network and find a niche where you can really make a name for yourself.  Attend tradeshows of things you consider to be your hobbies or things that interest you and chat up some of the vendors.  The fact that you’re already knowledgeable on the subject will make conversation flow easily and give you an advantage over a larger design firm who doesn’t know anything about that field.  You could even plan ahead and check out the sites of some smaller vendors and talk to ones whose sites you could work miracles on.

Get Your Name Out

Getting your name out plays in with word of mouth and networking, but what if you don’t live close to a major city?  Businesses are few and far between (and probably don’t have a large budget to spend on a website) and the closes tradeshow is hundreds of miles away.  You can easily get past all that by taking to the web.

Contact a few blogs that you have bookmarked and visit frequently.  Offer to write an article in exchange for providing a link back to your site in your bio.  Not only will that help get your name out, but the link back will help boost the SEO of your website as well.

If you only know how to write code or are having a severe bout of writers block, stick with what you know and showcase your talent by developing a free WordPress or Joomla template, or even a HTML template for that matter.

When ever you work with a retail client ask if you can leave some business cards on the counter of the reception desk.  Or kick it up a notch by having some pens made with your name, contact info, and what you do, then leave those on the counter.  Scour your local grocery store for a bulletin board and leave a card or some sort of promotional flyer there.

At the very least you can be active in some web forums and online communities.  Find places where people are seeking advice in your area of expertise and offer struggling members some advice.  Comment on blogs in areas you know about, or if there’s an inspirational roundup of sites and you feel yours fits in drop a link and suggest people check it out.

A brainless and extremely passive way to do this is to include all of your contact information, complete with a link back to your site, in the signature of your emails.  Every time you send an email that info is there for who ever is reading it, whether they’re a client, friend, acquaintance, doctor, student, or what ever. It never hurts.  Links back to your site on the websites you’ve developed is another similar method.

Cold Call

If times are slow and you’re hungry for work as well as just plain hungry, work the phone and email contacts.  Look at businesses in your local area and check to see if they have a website and if they do is it useful or can you improve it?  When I first started I was afraid to tell someone their site was an eyesore.  Granted I never would have used that description, nor do I recommend you do, but you would be surprised at how thankful those people are when you offer your services.  More often than not they’re too busy doing what they do, just wanted some kind of web presence, and gave it their best attempt.  And when prompted will admit they didn’t know what they were doing nor did they have the time to find a reasonably priced professional.

Give your current clients a courtesy call and see if there’s anything you can do for them.  Suggest an upgrade to their site with some fancy new trick you’ve learned, or tell them about some cool feature you saw on their competitor’s site and assure them you could develop something even better.  See if they want to have some ads or business cards made up.

Be Prepared

It’s the scouts’ motto, but if you’re not prepared then you’re probably not going to seal the deal.  Finding yourself in a conversation with a prospective client and then not being able to hand over your business card or send a link to your online portfolio is a swing and a miss.

When meeting with a prospective client it’s always nice to have little gems that you’re able to drop to help them build confidence in you.  Imagine you’re in a meeting with a prospective client and they ask what you know about responsive web design.  It’s one thing to say, “I’ve read an article on it.”  Chances are so did they, that’s why they’ve heard about it and are asking to see how much you know about it.  Now imagine the same scenario but being able to reply, “Actually, I just had an article published on responsive web design.”  Checkmate.

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

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