Ask HN: What can I do to acquire more freelancing projects/clients?

Hi HN,

I'm a game designer and programmer who recently started his own business. I was off to a rocky start but thanks to a blog post on gamasutra that ended up on HN I managed to reach my sales goal and I'm in the clear for the next 6 months. The problem is, I don't want to repeat the previous mistake and, although I have another game in the works and 2 more updates ready to ship for the first game, I'm looking to extend my savings and not have to bank on the next projects having the same luck.

I've setup an account on Upwork and have applied to more than 40 projects over the course of 1.5 months. I finally scored a quick 5$ job on translating a couple hundred phrases to another language. I have listed all the projects I worked on, quite a few of them being big titles (like The Dark Knight Rises, N.O.V.A 3, Frozen). I also listed the ones I developed myself as an indie and I have my credentials and LinkedIn listed as well.

I targeted projects related to my skills and experience with solid referrals and examples but I never seem to get the job. I lowered my hourly rate to 15$ / h and I still can't win any projects.

Any chance I can get some tips from people with more experience than me on freelancing? Or do you know any better place where I can find gigs related to programming (Lua, C#) or Game Development? Heck, I'd even take article writing since I like doing that and it would surely help me keep the lights on for longer.

Thanks!

Edit: I have been making games professionally since 2010 and even worked in fields related to Home Automation to save money for my own business.

Here are my main tips:

Pick a niche. This is key. You may be the best programmer in the world, but people won't know whom to pick. You might be the best game programmer, but there are many others. However, if you pitch yourself as the expert in getting html games to perform smoothly with poor connectivity, then people with that problem know exactly whom to pick.

For this to be effective: Don't pick too broad a niche.

You can pick the niche based on data -- which if your skills is most in demand, pays the most, has the most wanted posts and so on.

Make sure your whole profile is geared to promoting your prowess in the niche.

Did I mention, pick a niche?

Once you have a niche, you can expand to adjacent niches.

Oh, and don't underprice yourself. The price is a signal of quality so only go as low (if you must) as the market average but no lower for your niche.

Can you explain "post on Freelancer Seeking Freelance every month" -- are you referring to freelancer.com? Is there a general "seeking freelance" feature to that website? In my experience, you have to apply to specific jobs. And the chances of getting any of them are extremely low, at least in my experience; it seems to be dominated by Indian and other 3rd world folks eager to build up their skills while working for pennies.

Get on Shapr. I just started using it and I've made quite a few connections.

What does an ideal target project/client look like?

If you can answer this-- you can direct your own proactive business development campaign. On this subject, Mike Weinberg is brilliant > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simpl...