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Early on, the mistake is trying to sell “SEO” instead of a very specific outcome for a very specific type of business. My first clients came from doing audits and fixes for people who were already asking questions in public forums, communities, and referrals from friends of friends. It was easier to help first, then get pulled into paid work, than to cold pitch generic services. I would take lower paid projects only if they map cleanly to the kind of work you want more of, you just lock yourself into bad positioning. Long term, referrals and repeat clients beat every channel, but they only show up if you can explain results in business terms, not rankings. Freelance platforms can work, but they are noisy and tend to push you toward price competition unless you niche down hard. Treat the first year as proof building and message refinement, not income optimization.
