Nice! I too work on CodeIngiter and Laravel along with Angular and React. I live in India and the local companies pay peanuts, which means no local projects. How do I find more clients and projects in the US?
The best thing is to do is to build out your network. Keep reaching out to the people in the USA. Make sure your english is impeccable, as that will help build your perceived level of trust.
I suggest also getting out there more. Blogging works but you have to market your posts, and it's more long term. Teaching for notable learning platforms works, as well as helping to write public courses.
Anyway, the key lesson is to get out there and meet people. Then as you talk about what you do, and if you are good, you'll find work.
never met you - this is not bashing you - but I will tell you what not to do.
* do not call or email me weekly for years on end telling me how great your programming is. i don't care - i have too much on my plate already.
* do not join slack channels and pm each person individually telling them you want to start work on their php project.
these two things have turned me off of almost all developers who are not in my immediate area, but especially ones outside my country. please do not harass me. I've had more than a dozen folks - probably nice and well meaning - join our local developer groups and then email everyone in the group individually asking for work. I've had several more that would ping me every time I opened skype with "hello mr mike - we are ready to take on your next php project". Holy tamole... just stop.
What works? I've done a couple of small projects testing out non-us folks. These were either word-of-mouth referrals, or I'd found someone y their blog when searching for something niche. Keep a good clean blog, have a portfolio, build a network of folks who may read your blog or see your portfolio who may recommend your services. It's pretty straightfoward. Do not pester/harass me or my friends. It's the fastest way for me to block you.
> * do not call or email me weekly for years on end telling me how great your programming is. i don't care - i have too much on my plate already.
I receive too many random emails too. Absolutely annoying. A few weeks ago I received one that begin "Hello,
I recently spent some time doing a site review of your website. (Yes, I do random site reviews for a living.)"
Wanting to call the bluff and wondering which website they claimed to have reviewed I replied "You don't say! What website are you speaking of?"
Their reply: "Thanks for your response. Actually i do email marketing so i usually send emails in bulk. I got your email id from domain directory, so i send you too. If you have any kind of requirement regarding Web Development or Digital Marketing please let me know. I will be happy to assist you.
Look forward to work for you!"
I knew it! My response: "Oh. So you didn't review my site."
Their response: "Thanks for your prompt response. I just reviewed your website, which is {real web site address}[1] and it seems that your website is in under process."
Do they also think I really believe their name is Steven Moore too? I wouldn't trust this person or company to ever do work for me...
[1] The site address was really there (not a template holder).
I once met a guy in a Starbucks in New Delhi. He asked me about my job.
Me: "I am a software developer."
Him: "Oh no! You are not one of those Indian guys who keep on sending Skype messages to everybody asking for projects and selling services? Are you?"
LOL. I agree, a lot of people engage in spamming others like that in India. A lot of people do just this (sending unwanted messages to "leads" on Skype , email, slack, whatever) as their day job to make a living.
I totally understand your feelings. I too have hired local freelancers in the past and I still get emails from them now and then. I always mark them as spam, but they tend to change their email addresses every time :(
I suggest also getting out there more. Blogging works but you have to market your posts, and it's more long term. Teaching for notable learning platforms works, as well as helping to write public courses.
Anyway, the key lesson is to get out there and meet people. Then as you talk about what you do, and if you are good, you'll find work.