7 Evidence-Based Strategies to Land More Freelance Clients in 2025

In this article, we're going to talk about seven pretty easy, evidence-based things you can do to massively increase your chances of landing freelance clients consistently. After interviewing over 100 freelancers—from beginners to serious industry pros—the thing that separates people who keep getting clients from those who don’t is the simple but practical actions they take every single day.

Look closely and you’ll see seven relatively straightforward things you can do to stack the deck in your favor. If you’re already doing all seven, amazing—you’re winning. If you’re missing some (or any), these are super easy wins you can start applying as soon as you finish reading.

Quick note: If you want extra help finding gigs (without spending hours hunting them down), feel free to check out our AI job finding tool. We're still testing, but early feedback has been amazing.

Let’s jump right in.

Table of Contents

• Three Before Lunch

• Wrong Is Right

• Activate Your Network

• Go Where Others Don’t

• Infiltrate Communities

• Learn Out Loud

• Straight From the Source

• The Key Is Consistency

  • Get More Help Finding Freelance Gigs

Three Before Lunch

The idea here is super simple: do a tiny bit of outreach every single day instead of waiting until you’re desperate. I guarantee you’ll start seeing results almost immediately.

Here’s your rule: every morning, send three pitches, proposals, or messages to potential clients. It could be on Upwork, LinkedIn, Instagram, email, or wherever you normally look for gigs. The channel doesn’t matter as long as you send three offers before you eat lunch.

• Keep it simple at first. Don’t try to craft the greatest pitch of all time; just get those three messages out there.

• Stay consistent. If you only reach out when you need work right now, you’ll find yourself in constant panic mode whenever things slow down.

• Use AI tools if you want to speed things up or polish your pitches. But remember, consistency is what matters most.

Once you start getting consistent opportunities, it completely changes your mindset. You stop feeling desperate, and you can even start turning down clients or projects that aren’t a good fit. That’s the real goal: having enough potential projects in your pipeline that you’re never stuck accepting a bad offer just to pay the bills.

Wrong Is Right

Most days, you’ll see job offers that make you go, “Huh, that’s close but not quite me. I’m missing some skills, or I’ve never done this before.” Believe it or not, that’s actually good news.

Whoever posted that job is in the middle of making something interesting happen in your field. Even if they don’t need your exact skill set right now, they might need it soon—or know someone else who does. Some of the best and most successful freelancers I interviewed reach out to the “wrong” opportunities on purpose just to grow their network in the most organic way possible.

• Example: You’re a videographer but you see a listing for a makeup artist on a film shoot. Reach out anyway! Say something like, “Hey, I noticed you’re filming. Do you also need behind-the-scenes footage or editing help?”

• Another example: They need design + coding + marketing. You do design. You could say, “Hey, I specialize in the visuals. If you need the other parts, I can team up with someone or refer you. Let’s talk!”

Even if it leads nowhere, you’ve started a conversation with someone who’s clearly already working in your industry. That’s the real win—always be building relationships with the people behind those job posts.

Activate Your Network

This next tip is ridiculously easy but often forgotten: the people you already know can be your fastest path to new gigs.

• Past clients are way more likely to hire you again (or refer you) than random strangers.

• Ex-colleagues might now be in positions where they can bring you in.

• Even friends, family, or acquaintances might know someone who needs your help.

Here are some quick ways to “activate” your network in less than five minutes:

1. Post a short message on LinkedIn or Instagram Stories. Something like, “Hey! I still have a couple of open slots next week. If you need XYZ, let me know!” You’d be surprised how many people don’t realize you have availability until you tell them.

2. Nudge dormant leads. Remember those potential clients who ghosted you a few months ago? Shoot them a quick message: “Hey, just checking in—did you ever find someone for that project?” You’ll be amazed how often they say, “Oh, I still need help!”

3. Reach out to local businesses. Think about your neighborhood gym, café, or bakery. Offer to help them with what you do—design their menu, revamp their social media, take photos for their website. Sometimes people don’t realize they need your service until you point it out.

Why work so hard to grow a network if you’re never going to tap into it? Use it!

Go Where Others Don’t

If you start asking freelancers how they got some of their best clients, you’ll hear some seriously random stories. The lesson? You need to go where other freelancers aren’t even looking.

For instance, I’m building an AI tool to help freelancers find jobs. Every day, it scans the entire internet—no matter how weird or obscure the site—and sends our beta users a personalized list of gigs. During testing, a Berlin-based photographer found an awesome, long-term client paying over $1,000 a month through… a random eBay-style site. (Yes, seriously!)

Everybody knows about LinkedIn and Upwork, and that means everyone is on them, which leads to crazy competition. Meanwhile, other “smaller” or unexpected sites, forums, and local job boards can have cool opportunities with way fewer applicants.

Set aside a little time each day to check less obvious spots. Sometimes, you’ll find a hidden gem where you are the only one who even applies. That’s the dream: easier negotiations, flexible payments, and a grateful client who’s thrilled to have found you.

Infiltrate Communities

Some of the best gigs never get posted anywhere. Instead, they pop up in Slack channels, Discord servers, Telegram groups, local co-working spaces—places where people share opportunities before there’s an official job listing.

Here’s your step-by-step approach:

1. Join the right communities. If you want to work with tech startups, join co-working spaces or Slack channels for entrepreneurs. If you do wedding photography, join wedding planning forums or local vendor networks.

2. Look around without pressure. You don’t need to spam or pitch right away. Just keep an eye on what people are saying.

3. Participate. Spend 10 minutes a day commenting, asking or answering questions, and—if you’re feeling adventurous—posting your own thoughts or updates. This is how you stay top of mind.

When someone in that community says, “Hey, I need a graphic designer. Any recommendations?” boom, you’re the first to step in and say, “I’m your person!”

Learn Out Loud

Clients don’t just buy your final results; they buy your approach, your personality, and your way of problem-solving. So if they don’t see that side of you, they’re less likely to hire you. Learning out loud basically means sharing your behind-the-scenes process and lessons—not just the polished product.

• Level 1: Post your finished work. Great! It’s better than nothing.

• Level 2: Add quick behind-the-scenes. Share your rough sketches, your lighting setups, or that one idea that didn’t make the final cut.

• Level 3: Write about what you learned. For example, “I spent 2 hours fighting with Premiere Pro until I realized I should do X instead of Y. Here’s how it saved me a bunch of time.”

• Level 4: Ask for advice. The exact same post as Level 3, but end with a question like, “Has anyone else done this? Did you solve it differently?”

See what you did there? Now you’re sparking conversations, learning from others, and showing off your skills. It’s a sneaky but powerful way to market yourself without feeling pushy or salesy.

Straight From the Source

The last tip is all about reaching out to someone who’s a step or two ahead of you in your field and asking for advice or feedback. This does a few things:

1. You’ll learn real-world tips you’d never even think to Google.

2. You’ll skip hours of research by getting info from someone who’s already done it.

3. You’re flexing that outreach muscle. Remember how we talked about sending pitches every day? This is another way to get comfortable contacting new people.

4. You expand your network with people further along in their careers, which can lead to referrals.

Just find someone whose work you admire or who landed a client you’d love to have. Send a short, direct message: “Hey, I loved your project with X. Any tips on how you landed that deal?” If they don’t reply, no biggie—move on. If they do, fantastic. You’ve learned something, built a connection, and maybe even opened a door to future opportunities.

The Key Is Consistency

That’s it. You could literally do all seven of these tips today in under an hour. But the real key is to keep doing them consistently. Even 10 minutes a day is enough, as long as it’s every day. Consistency trumps perfect or fancy strategies every single time.

Most of the time, the difference between people who reach their goals and those who don’t is in the simple daily actions they commit to. So I encourage you: keep it simple, start now, and stick with it. In a couple of seconds—when this article ends—it’s up to you whether you click on something else or spend the next 30 minutes taking action for your career.

Oh, and if you’re looking for more insider tips on freelancing and the creative industry, check out The Creator Lens newsletter. We’re always sharing real-world insights and practical advice—kind of like what we talked about today.

Get More Help Finding Freelance Gigs

If you’d rather skip the manual searching altogether, definitely check out our AI-powered job finder. We’re in beta, but we have a lot of freelancers saying it’s already been a game-changer for them. Hope to see you there!

Good luck, and see you soon!