been licensed for about eight months, got a decent setup, and I genuinely thought finding freelance work would be easier than this. I built a little portfolio website, posted on a few local Facebook groups, even did two jobs for basically nothing just to get testimonials. but the phone is not ringing and im starting to wonder if the market in my area is just too saturated or if im missing something obvious about how people actually find clients.

my area is a mid-sized city, not huge but not tiny either. I keep seeing other photographers advertising drone add-ons which makes me think theres demand but maybe people just prefer to hire someone who already does the ground photography too. idk. anyone gone through this slow start phase and actually broken through it?

the facebook groups thing rarely works in my experience, at least not directly. what worked way better for me was just walking into real estate offices and asking to talk to the broker. sounds old fashioned but when you show up in person with a tablet and some sample footage people actually take you seriously. also partnering with a ground photographer like you mentioned ? thats actually a really smart move, find someone who does real estate photos and doesnt have a drone cert and offer to split jobs with them. they get a drone service to offer clients, you get a steady stream of referrals. took me about six months of that before things really started moving on their own.

saturated markets are real but i think people overestimate how saturated it actually is. most of the "competition" you see online hasnt flown a job in six months lol. the ones who actually stay busy are just weirdly persistent about follow-up. I lost a roofing inspection client once becuase I sent one email and assumed they werent interested. turns out they just forgot. now I always follow up twice and Ive picked up several jobs that way that I wouldve never gotten otherwise.