2009 was definitely a tough year for everyone in the web design business. With the recession, things could have really gone either way in the marketing industry. Companies had 2 options; They could of either stepped up their marketing efforts to generate more business, or pared it right back to wait it out. In my experience at least, the latter is what happened.

Clients that I had had for years were lost due to their sudden lack of need for freelancers. New clients were harder to source because they were hibernating. Plenty of shifts were happening in the marketplace with the increase of available skilled senior web people who had been displaced. Competition that didn’t previously exist for available web work was now a real obstacle to get work that was once easy to get. Chargeable rates went down. A complete mess.

However, I am very optimistic for 2010.

I am using this whole experience to improve the way I do things. Here are some of the things I am doing for 2010:

• I am going to rely much less on word-of-mouth to get my work. This year, I will be activity pursuing leads and developing new relationships with clients.
• I will be utilizing LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter as legitimate channels to build business leads.
• I will be using search engine marketing techniques to build leads.
• I will be blogging more often to build some more recognition.
• I will be pursuing affiliate marketing to supplement my production business.

If you are in the web design business, please share your experiences of 2009. How are you faring now that the powers that be are claiming that we are seeing the end of the recession?