Mark Castro-Garcia - freelance artworker - available Monday 15th July

Most of my posts have been about SEO and achieving a top ten search ranking in Google for #freelance #artworker

Now to see if I can actually find a new contract when I need it!

Also; another freelancer contacted me on linkedin, and asked how I find so many contracts, so I took the time to put it all down in an email for them, and I found it quite cathartic...I hope it works for me as well as for them!

Here's the jist of what I told them:

"-->I try (and have tried) lots of different avenues to get work:

1. recruitment agencies
2. linkedin's job search
3. reading my linkedin news feed every day
4. twitter searches for jobs
5. cross-referencing my linkedin contacts for twitter's to follow
6. checking my twitter followers and making sure I follow relevant ones back
7. on my email sign-off - listing my mobile number, linkedin address, twitter, portfolio, etc
8. signing up to job email alerts
9. using buffer/twitter/linkedin to say if and when I might become available, and changing my headline accordingly (this is in the early testing stages for me, as I'm rarely free, and I actually rarely tweet...I'm more of a reader/follower)
10. blogging
11. learning about SEO - making sure all my profiles link to all my other profiles, where possible
12. making sure I connect with past and new colleagues on linkedin
13. I did used to send out my cv out, direct to companies - on and off for about a year - but the amount of time and effort doing so (and in turn, trying to keep track of the replies, and filing them, etc) turned out to not be enough of a reward to make it worth my while (not to say you couldn't though)
14. I've signed up to peopleperhour, freelancer.co.uk, elance, creativepool, and elevate, but have so far had little joy (although I had 1 or 2 people making enquiries about me)
15. portfolio sites like behance, pinterest
16. there is a new facebook equivalent called (talent.me)...it's in the early stages for me trying it

I don't do all of these things all of the time...I do some of these things some of the time :)

I've concentrated my efforts on productive things, rather than facebooking...I never add anyone in one facebook anymore, and haven't for ages...it's all about linkedin for me :)

I don't have an exact method of getting jobs...fear drives me, hard work and perseverance follows, and a pinch of luck...I just keep trying...trying new things, rather than trying one thing over and over, seems to pay off best (and is less boring too)

I don't currently have anything lined up for next week, but I have plenty in the pipeline...sometimes, getting the long contract is about lining up a few possibilities, and then picking the one that seems best.

In the first year, I did all the chasing, all the hard work...the groundwork I laid then has since meant that sometimes people contact me via linkedin, twitter, email, peopleperhour and so on, or colleagues who have moved on but stayed in touch will recommend me

Sometimes I get jobs because a lot of people can't hack certain hours of work, or long commutes, and that's where I differ...I've driven to Peterborough for 6 months and worked 10-12 hour shifts as standard...I've worked afternoons and evenings in London, and not had much of a social life for 5 months a year. I've worked 2 jobs back-to-back, day and evening (on a short-term basis)

Now I'm driving down the M1 and halfway round the M25 to Surrey for 2 weeks' work...I just take what I can, where it takes me (within reason!) and I don't always have as much say in it as I would like!

Hope this helps, even if it is only motivational"

A little slip

I'm a freelance artworker...I'm no expert on SEO, but I know a few basics.

I've managed to keep my site in the top 8 search results on Google, for about 4 months now, and whenever it starts to slip, if I update my blog, the ranking improves again.

I hit upon the idea of  changing my linkedin url to include "freelanceartworker", but I forgot to reflect that in my site! This meant a broken link (as my old url said markcastrogarcia at the end) and my ranking dropped to a low of number 20!

Does this also mean that linkedin can heavily influence a ranking in a positive way? I've updated my site now, to reflect the change, and hopefully we'll see a drastic improvement soon  :)

I wonder if the same will work with facebook...?

I've had another idea...

I don't get many ideas very often, and then when I do, they all come along at once!

In order to build upon my new number 1 ranking, I thought about submitting my blog to some blog search engines/catalogues...I did this a few years ago, so I'm surprised I'd forgotten about it, until now!

The only thing that seems to have changed from 2010 is that there are less free services, and most seem to charge a fee now!

One free one that I came across can be found here, but they have a requirement that you have at least 10 posts (I only had 8, so I'm quickly writing 2 more now)

:)

PS. my site can be found here: freelance artworker

Back on top! Number 1 on Google, out of 2,340,000!

My recent ideas to improve my ranking have shot my page back to the top of the rankings on Google, if you search for "freelance artworker"!

Number 1, out of 2.34 million results!

It's the first time it's been at the top since 9th January 2013  :)  It's been riding high in the top 5-8 spots for 3 months, so I'm happy with that  :)

All I did was keep my blog updated from time to time, strengthen/improve some of the links, so that they contain "freelance artworker", wrote a little bit of content for the site, and a tiny redesign...

What it desperately needs is a proper redesign, but unfortunately, I'm not a designer...I've tried looking at some free templates, but none of them have really won me over yet

PS. my site can be found here: freelance artworker

Keeping the momentum going

While working on my redesign, I also noticed that my ranking had slipped one place to number eight on Google, when you search for "freelance artworker", so I updated my "about me" page to include more relevant links and key words...by the next day, I'd risen to number five  :)

However, it's already gone back to its previous number seven ranking again. So, as well as updating my blog (which might help it rise again), I've also created a new Google account - with more relevant naming - which now gives me a new Gmail address, YouTube username and Google+ account...hopefully a combination of these will add to it?

I also plan on uploading a video to youtube, about what being an artworker entails...hopefully all of this new, relevant content, coupled with stronger keywords, will help boost my ranking further.

Now I just need to finish redesigning my site!

Still riding high!

I haven't touched the blog or the site for nearly 2 weeks, and I still appear in 7th place on Google, if you do a search for "freelance artworker"  :)

Looks like all my groundwork has paid off - although I will try and keep both up-to-date from time-to-time  :)

One thing I noticed, Firefox and Chrome's results now tally up the same, but Safari's is still different (I appear on page 4 there, and my pinterest page features higher up the ranking than my actual website - oh well, at least it's on the radar!)

Top spot on Google! 1 out of 171,000!!!

Only a couple of days later, and my website comes out on top of Google, if you search for "freelance artworker"!

Currently listed as number 1 out of 171,000 results!

Success on Google! Top ten position! Number 4!

On my previous blog, I stated on 28th December, that I wanted to get my website into the top ten on Google, if you searched for "freelance artworker", as I was languishing at position 50-to-60-something...

10 days later, I've done it! My site is in the top ten...riding high at number 4!

I know it won't stay there on it's own...I'll have to keep working on my site, and making sure I keep my blog up-to-date - as content is king!

For some tips and advice on how I did it, please read the previous posts on this blog, and my previous blog

I guess that the only thing I can do, to try and top this - apart from keep it in the top ten - is to improve it's position...and one thing I haven't figured out is why Safari, Firefox and Chrome all have different results? Maybe because Chrome is Google's, it's more up-to-date? Personally, I prefer to use Firefox, so maybe my results are based on the cache...I might need to clear it.

Sitemap

I've set myself a goal, to try and get my test website listed in the top ten results on Google, when you do a search for "freelance artworker"...on thing I noticed is that, although I have a sitemap on there, Google's webmaster tool didn't see it, so I have generated one and pointed Google to it...

Hopefully, this will improve my ranking, and promote me up to the 1st page!

I missed a trick!

I posted this just now, on a blog called "freelancing", on a different blog address:
http://yewhew.blogspot.co.uk/

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My name is Mark Castro-Garcia, and I'm a freelancer...I set myself a goal, to get myself listed on the first page of results on Google, when you search for "freelance artworker" (ie. in the top ten).

The other day, I noticed I'd risen from the 5th page to the 3rd page, at position 21...this morning I checked, and I'm in at number 11, on page 2! Only one more increase, and I'll have achieved my goal! I won't stop there though...I intend to keep on improving - I mean for a start, my page/site is pretty sparse, so I will work on the content and the layout more, and keep updating my blog regularly as well.

One thing I've spotted is that the old link to my blog, via my site, directed people to a specific blog entry, and not my whole blog, so I've corrected that now...hopefully that will make a difference, as I've heard that blog content can be just as important to SEO results as site content. 

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the trick I missed is that if I am trying to boost my connection with the search "freelance artworker", then it would make sense that my blog is called that, and so is the address! I will now amend my site's blog link again, and then carry on adding to this blog from now on