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Its my first week on Contra!
Any advice from people who've been here a while?
What actually helped you land your first few clients on Contra?
I haven't got any clients so far myself, but I'd say
- Keep your eye on the "discovery score" . The things you do to increase it can also push you in the right direction to get work.
- It helps if you already have past/current clients to bring to contra, to give initial...
I haven't landed a Contra client yet, so I can't give you a success formula. In my latest 30-day numbers, Contra itself sent only 1 of 70 portfolio views, so I'd use a strong profile and useful comments here to support direct outreach.
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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9 years of design. Here's where things stand.
Discovery score is now 141, up from 122 last time I posted. Still top 5% of creatives.
What's actually moved the needle: proposals. Not profile tweaks, not tags, not waiting to be discovered. I checked my traffic breakdown recently and only 3% of my portfolio views come from Contra's discovery. The rest is direct, mostly people clicking through from proposals I sent, and search.
So if your profile is complete and nothing's happening, the profile probably isn't the problem. The volume is.
The other thing I've learned this round: the proposal that gets a reply usually isn't the one listing credentials. It's the one that names a real risk in the client's project before they've thought of it. Clients get twenty messages saying "9 years experience, I'd love to help." They remember the one that said "your subscription app is going to fight your theme."
What I do: one-person studio. Brand identity, packaging with production-ready files and 3D mockups, and full website builds, handled end to end so nothing gets lost between design and execution.
Happy to give back here. If you're working on your Contra profile and want a second pair of eyes on case studies, services, or positioning, send it over and I'll help however I can.
Excited to share that I’ve been accepted into the Contra Labs Network as a Web Designer 🎉
Through Contra Labs, I’ll have the opportunity to collaborate on paid projects with AI teams—testing, evaluating, and helping improve the next generation of creative tools.
Really excited to combine web design, Framer, and AI in new ways 🚀
Congrats Ulises! Wish you the best works & projects.
would use dark mode instantly