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Hey everyone 👋
I’m new here on Contra, but I’ve previously grown and worked successfully on platforms like Upwork.
Would love to learn from the community. What actually works here in terms of getting clients and building visibility?
Any tips, strategies, or mistakes to avoid would really help 🙌
#Newoncontra #Cloud
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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• 1d
I just joined contra and wanted to say hi! Super hyped about the Community features and Job posts. ✨
Any tips and tricks you can recommend or share?
Try to showcase the type of projects you want to continue working on with clients, like strategically position yourself for a niche!
I just joined Contra as a full stack developer and honestly this platform already feels different from everything else out there.
No middlemen. No platform eating into your earnings. Just real people doing meaningful work on their own terms. That alone made me pause and think seriously about how I show up here.
I am still in that early exploration phase. Figuring out how the community moves, what clients here actually value, and what separates the people winning on Contra from the ones who never get traction.
So instead of guessing my way through it, I am going straight to the source and asking the people who have actually built something real here.
If you have built something meaningful on Contra, I genuinely want to hear from you.
Drop your answers below and tell me:
What are the 5 things a new independent should focus on to actually grow on this platform?
And what are the 5 things I should completely avoid like the traps, the time wasters, the things that quietly kill momentum?
I am not here chasing quick wins. I want to build a presence that attracts the right clients, a portfolio that does the talking, and relationships that actually last.
If you have been exactly where I am right now or you wish someone had handed you a roadmap on day one, drop it in the comments. Your words might be the turning point for someone just getting started.Â
Last month we hosted a session with Contra's CEO Ben Huffman and Stripo's CEO Dmytro Kudrenko on how freelancers can earn more with email marketing. If you haven't had a chance to watch it yet, here are the main takeaways.
1. The opportunity is real. Email returns $36-$42 for every $1 spent. Over 70% of businesses need outside help to execute their email marketing. And on Contra, email marketing projects average $2,000+ per engagement.
2. One project can become a retainer. The path: one-off design from a brief, then original creative, then A/B variants, then a full email design system (modules, brand kit, reusable templates). Once you build the system, maintaining it is the retainer.
3. Stop selling emails. Sell systems. When a client's brand kit, module library, and templates are all built by you, switching means rebuilding from scratch. That's not lock-in. That's value.
4. Speed is capacity. Faster production means more clients, more campaigns, same hours. holito went from slow, generic email production to 10x faster with a reusable design system built in Stripo.
5. Interactive content is a differentiator. Quizzes, scratch cards, polls inside emails. When a client's subscribers start expecting that from every campaign, and only you can deliver it, you stop being a vendor and become infrastructure.
@Omotayo A, one of our Stripo experts on Contra, is a good example of this approach in practice. He builds reusable module libraries that carry across client projects, connects each client's ESP directly to his Stripo account, and tests everything independently before handoff. One system, multiple clients.
Full session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrxwB43ML5g
What's your approach to turning one-off email projects into recurring work?
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