What actually works for finding automation work? Here's my data so far

Hire a Pro Offer Help
1

I build and maintain automation systems in Make. Four of mine run
in production for paying customers: WhatsApp intake, AI parsing with
Claude, invoicing through three accounting APIs, payment reminders,
and Python monitors on top.

I’m now looking for part-time contract work alongside that, and I’ve
been treating the search like an experiment. Sharing the numbers
because I couldn’t find anyone who does.

What I’ve tried:

· Cold calls, selling my own product. Around 100 of them. Zero.
· Warm introductions from someone the buyer already trusts, about
30 messages. Two customers. Same product, same price, same pitch.
The only variable was who made the introduction.
· A LinkedIn post about a production failure I fixed, which I
thought was my best story. Zero replies.
· Six cold emails to marketing agencies this week, rewritten short
after reading the benchmarks: under 100 words, first line about
them, interest-based CTA instead of asking for a meeting. Too
early to say.
· Replying to hiring posts in communities. One reply so far.

What I keep reading is that generic freelance platforms don’t work
and that community participation beats cold outreach. That matches
my warm-intro number, which is the only channel that ever converted
for me.

So for those of you doing this full time:

  1. Where did your last three clients actually come from?
  2. Do agencies subcontract to you, and how did that relationship
    start?
  3. Has anything worked that sounds counterintuitive?

I’ll post an update with my own numbers in a month either way.

18

the whatsapp intake plus claude parsing plus three accounting apis combo is a solid lead offer because every small agency owner hates doing it manually.

your conversion rate on cold outreach makes complete sense, most business owners have no idea what make or n8n is, but they immediately understand not having to reconcile invoices on friday night.

have you tried packaging that exact workflow into a fixed-scope productized sprint?

19

Your four live systems give an agency something concrete to judge: work you’ve built and maintained for paying customers. That seems more relevant to a subcontracting decision than the two warm-intro customers, who bought your product. The agency would be choosing someone to work on its client’s project. Did the reply to a community hiring post get as far as discussing a specific project?