As a freelancer (or potential freelancer), you live and die by your ability to sell your services. And unless you’ve got some kind of agent or marketing firm doing your marketing for you, you’ve got to be your own marketer.

If you’re like me, that doesn’t come naturally. But by focusing, learning and practicing these 10 essential freelancing marketing skills, you can be a natural self-promoter and get more work than you actually need. Let me first say that when I say “marketing” I don’t mean you should be one of those pushy, spam my, overhyping marketers that you see so often on infomercials and on spam websites and knocking door-to-door.

Don’t be a huckster or a con artist. The real way to market yourself is in a natural, professional, honest manner — shows that you’re good interact in a positive way, find ways to let people know about your services and talents without coming on too strong, and let your talents sell themselves.

This gets easier as you’re more established and better there are, in fact, essential skills that anyone who wants to make their living as a freelance marketer needs to possess. You may be surprised to learn that these are not exotic skills, limited to a talented few. Known, but it can be done by anyone.

There are, in fact, essential skills that anyone who wants to make their living as a freelance marketer needs to possess. You may be surprised to learn that these are not exotic skills, limited to a talented few.

Search Engine Marketing

Getting your client found by search engines is one aspect of search engine marketing, but it isn’t just that simple. You will need to know how to get your client’s website found by visitors as well. Using on-site and off-site search engine optimization techniques, content marketing, link building and pay-per-click strategies will effectively boost your client’s presence on search engine results pages.

Collaboration

One of the best ways to market you is to collaborate with others. Instead of only working by yourself, offer your talents on a project. If you€™re a writer, offer to collaborate with other bloggers — if you give them some free writing (do a guest post), you have just reached a wider audience, and you€™ve developed a relationship with another blogger. You can do the same with whatever service you offer — offer it up for free (or at a discounted rate) so you can develop relationships and reach a wider audience.

Landing Page Design

Landing pages are usually the first page that a visitor sees when they arrive at a website. This is different than the home page because the landing page is optimized to get people to act. Knowing how to design landing pages to entice visitors to make a purchase, sign up for a service, opt in to receive email or do anything else that helps your client is all part of a good marketing package.

Business card

Don’t go with anything tacky or overly complicated. Keep it simple, professional. The fewer items on your card, the better. Really, all you need is your name, your service and your email address, but you can put a slogan or logo if that works for you. Also, some have argued that the new business card is to simply say “Google me”. If so, be sure that you’ve researched your Google results thoroughly.

Social websites

If you freelance in a certain field, find the forums and other social websites where your field communicates. It could be on MySpace or Facebook or a certain popular blogger one of a number of online forums. Be a participant, contribute valuable knowledge without showing off, and be friendly and helpful. You might form relationships that could pay off in the long run.

Update Your Profiles

Regularly update your user profiles on every website that you generate business from, so that everyone who sees them will be updated about your services, availability for freelance work and your current skills.

Listings

Be sure that you’re on all the freelance job sites, or at least the ones that applymost to the service you offer or the market you’re aiming for. You don’t have many words to make a pitch, so offer a few words to differentiate yourself and a link to your blog if possible.

Market Yourself

Many people in this business have a lot of potential but not the skills to market themselves professionally. It’s not rocket science, though. Marketing yourself doesn’t mean wearing a two-piece suit and putting gel in your hair, but it does take confidence. Be honest with clients about your skills, but don’t be afraid to promote your accomplishments and abilities.

Make use of all the marketing tools at your disposal. Send newsletters to prospective clients and companies socialize on multiple platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Fly your flag everywhere you can.

Be Honest with Clients

Being honest with your clients is the key to a long-lasting relationship. Be yourself, and be open to criticism. Be humble and flexible, and remember: it’s a competitive market — if you won’t do the job, then someone else will.