David's Recent Articles
How to Inspire Your Team When Running an Agency
When we started Reliable PSD (a coding company that partners with agencies and freelancers to turn their designs into code) there were 5. Now there are closer to 25. Growing our team came with new cha...
What Agencies Really Want to Hear from Freelancers
As an agency owner, my partner Lou and I have seen our fair share of pitches from freelancers over the years. I’ll be honest – most of them end up in the trash pretty quickly. But every no...
Want to 10x your growth in 2025? Follow this 2-step “get focused” method.
Last year, I didn’t think the New Year would affect me at all. Most holidays don’t. Most “events” don’t. But when December 31 rolled over into January 1, I felt something. Maybe it was the c...
Your Client Testimonials are a Hidden Goldmine (If You Use Them Like This)
Testimonials are more important than just about anything else on your website. If you had a headline that said “We make awesome websites that help businesses grow” followed by 20 testimonials from...
How to freelance while traveling the world: my 6 pieces of advice
Last year my wife (slash business partner) and I spent 4 months traveling Europe and the west coast of the U.S. We also didn’t miss a day of work the entire time, and every venture we were involved ...
3 Email templates that will turn free time into client-getting time, today
If you find you have a lot of free time… but not enough clients… this is for you. UPDATE: You can now download this script + 14 more proven templates for getting new clients, following up, and b...
The 9-point checklist for a client-getting portfolio website
Want more clients from your portfolio website? This checklist should help you get it up to speed – and help you grow. A lot of these things I’ve written about in the past, but I thought it...
How to handle clients who are mad at “extra” costs
To you and me – it’s pretty simple: If I have to spend extra time on a project — because you want to add something to it that wasn’t quoted for — then obviously you have...
Bad, Crazy Clients Will Make You Rich
Sounds crazy, right? But looking back, I can attribute any and all success I’ve had to what the title of this post is saying. Bad, Crazy Clients Will Make You Rich I can also attribute people stayin...
How to write blog posts that actually attract new clients
In the awesome Millo Mastermind Facebook group I’ve seen this question pop up about half a dozen times now. So I thought I’d answer it once and for all – as well as squash the “...
The most powerful marketing method no one ever uses
Whenever people ask me for help with their marketing, I give them one suggestion. Yet no one ever takes my suggestion seriously. They maybe think they “get it” – but without actually...
How to build recurring revenue from retainer-based clients
Retainers seem super complicated if you’ve never done them before. I know I used to be afraid of them because they seem like these big, scary monsters you just don’t know how you’ll tame. Then y...
How our agency uses email marketing to find new clients fast
When you’re ready to make a big purchase… let’s say a new computer… you probably go steps like these: First, you start getting tired of the old one. So you start browsing around some websites,...
How I grow my business through networking (from a guy who hates “networking”)
Back in the day we had no budget for marketing. So my partner and I would hit up the local networking events every week. For the most part they were completely worthless, and soul-sucking. Everyone th...
This is what it means to be a freelancer (that no one else will ever understand)
Walk into any business, and you can almost instantly spot the owner. It’s not always their clothes, either. Some dress with more authority, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes they’re the ...
5 Awesome referral-generating email templates for freelancers
Asking for referrals can be pretty nerve-wracking. The good news: If you do it right, you only have to do it once (per client). That’s the biggest value this post has to offer you. It gives you a pr...
What to do if a client threatens you with a “bad review”
A few days ago, the phone rang at 10am. “Reliable! This is Lou,” my wife and business partner, Lou, said. (We run a design / marketing agency, but recently started Reliable: our new PSD to HTML &a...
This client-getting tactic worked so well… I actually had to stop using it.
Last year I attended a digital marketing conference in San Fran. I had three objectives: Learn cool stuff I could use for my own businesses and to help my clients. Pick up potential clients. Eat a lot...
2 huge mistakes most designers make that push clients away (and what to do instead)
Recently, over at Reliable (our new PSD to HTML & WordPress company), we had an interesting situation… A “tough cookie” wrote in asking for a quote on his project. But he didn&...
How to Sell the Heck Out of Your Design Services… In the Coolest, Non-Sleaziest Way
I’m an artist first. I care about creating beautiful, functional things more than anything else. If I could just sit in a room all day and create and pay the bills – well, that’d be just fin...