Years ago, it was enough to to lug your portfolio around and show it to every AD and company you could get it in front of. If you were lucky enough to have an artist's rep do it for you, then you probably have already paid those early dues! I think the majority of illustrators don't make enough to justify having a full time rep. Maybe I am totally off base on this. I have been looking at a lot of websites that rep artists or where you pay to have a portfolio on their site, and I simply can't afford them. There are a lot of opportunities and places on the net where you can post up your work for free and join in the forums and participate. I've mentioned several here before. ArtOrder, CGHUB, ConceptArt.org and many others.
For me, social media is a very fertile ground for generating leads. I have made numerous contacts using my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn accounts and this weblog. They are solid foundation to work from. Nothing happens overnight though, and it takes a lot of work to put your name out there, develop relationships, build trust and then land projects. All the applications you need are out there and usually at no cost to you, which is good. You just need to be able to put a little time and effort into it.
I'm testing out this little wibiya toolbar that appears at the bottom of my weblog. I like it's cool features like being able to follow on Twitter, fan on Facebook or view some images from a slide show from Flikr, all without leaving my site. That's pretty awesome.
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