One of the best ways to build your client base is to spend your marketing efforts on high profile bloggers.

Two popular web designers, Chris Pearson and Unique Blog Designs (UBD), have used this method do build their brand and increase their clients. Chris did the design for Brian Clark’s Copyblogger. This led to many other clients. Many people saw his design since Copyblogger is popular. Chris writes:

Although I had no idea at the time, that design [for Copyblogger] would basically end up serving as the foundation for a career niche that I actually enjoy.

I have no clue how many emails and referrals I’ve received from the little link at the bottom of that site , but I can safely say that it probably rivals the attention I’ve received from all my other designs combined.

UBD did a similar thing. In the early days of their business, they offered to do a redesign for John Chow, a popular make money online blogger. John took them up on the offer. Jeremy Schoemaker, another popular blogger saw John Chow’s design and ordered his own redesign. By landing these two popular bloggers, UBD was able to get a lot of traffic and sales.

Go After the Big Players

Some web designers are scared to target popular webmasters. However, if you have the design skill, you shouldn’t be shy. Many webmasters want a new design but they haven’t found a designer they like or they haven’t had time to search for one.

Also, keep this in mind. Even if you don’t land that big client right away, be persistent. You oftentimes just need one popular client to turn your business around.

Making the initial connection can be tricky. You can just send them a “cold” email, but that can backfire since they might think you’re a spammer.

In my next post, I’ll talk about some non-spammy ways to promote yourself to popular bloggers. Until then, make a list of popular bloggers that could use your services.

Over to You

Have you targeted any popular webmasters with your services?