From the article: What Do You Wish You Had Known When You First Started Freelancing?
Fill out the form below and let us know what you wish you had known. What are some pieces of advice you can give to new freelancers? Share Your Advice
More time than you would think.
- To build, maintain and produce results from a website requires a lot of time and knowledge than the average persons thinks. As previously posted, all the time spend on a web designs includes more than what you see. Add SEO into a website and you can increase your time by many hours. Successful web designers must bring out the best of their client and make a first impression all within a few seconds. Marketing and a keen eye for what works on the internet has to be included in a successful website. Their can be many hundred of factors to deal within a single page on the internet. This is why having a website and having a website that works are two completely different animals.
- —Guest DigitalExtremeMediaGroup
being a freelance is a challenger
- what the most web builder or designer will do when they create their website? its a tuff thinker present their site to visitor or to attract their first visitor to enter their website what will they do in the first step start with traffic counter who are entering their site and analyse the visitor character what they search for what make them come to your site and start with your 2nd step hoping they are satisfied with your front page or content that you presenting to your site this is challenging for the 2nd step try to move the 3rd step with coming idea suppose your form to fill up like email reply or other upload file with image added you can really on what your visitor searching your site at first time not to satisfied to early it may loose your visitor when they decide to leave your site with ignore what you do for them.
- —Guest flyingchicken
web designer
- Being picky about who you work for and not just taking a job for the money. I have one client who never knows what she wants on her website. She actually cut out colored pieces of paper & put them together and said this is what she wants her site to look like. Now that her website is almost finished she said it does not look like how she imagined it would even though I followed her instructions every step of the way. She was also concerned about money so I told her I would charge my non-profit rate. Never again! So I learned, one, never charge less than you normally would even if the client says they are low on funds. Two, always work with a contract with built in time frames. This lady is not only difficult, but she will work on the site and then not communicate with me for weeks or months at a time. I recently sent her a letter & said this business relationship is not working. So last piece of advice, don't be afraid to fire a client when the relationship is dragging you down
- —Guest DS
I wish I would have known
- That it takes being more than just a web design firm, you have to have a core niche market because the category is so vast. What makes you different? this is the question you need to ask yourself over and over. Thanks, JunctionQuest.com
- —Guest JunctionQuest
TAXES! ...and a bird in the hand
- Even tho it's tough to do, and tougher to leave sit during lean times, put money aside for income tax, or better yet, pay in quarterly installments. Getting hit with that self-employment tax in April can cripple you financially. Secondly, NEVER do work for cheap or free based upon a promise of more work in the future; a deal that is usually offered by those that can most afford to pay you for your work. You define what your work is worth; give it away for free, and that is what it's worth.
- —Guest donegan
Publish or be damned
- Print advertising, including newspapers and fliers, do not really work for web design and are a waste of your money. Instead, look for opportunites to write and publish articles on your profession. I have a monthly advertorial slot in a local business magazine which has helped to establish me as a local expert on web design, and the slot has also brought me several clients. In my articles, I try to give web design a plain-English, human explanation, much like Jennifer does. Phone up your local newspaper or business magazine - chances are they are desperate for content and will be happy to give you a regular spot.
- —idea15
The importance of your image
- Originally, when I first started as a freelance designer, I had a portfolio and a site -but I never really put enough into my own site and image. Potential customers are going to look at every little piece of information you send them, and you should use every opportunity to impress. If you're still fairly new at this and struggling, I'd suggest taking a second look at everything you're presenting to the client -from your email stationary, to quality of your original bid. Make sure your site really is everything you want it to be, and use your free time to fix all of those "good enough" elements on your site. As a new freelancer, you're going to have plenty of free time, don't waste it. And learn more about your own profession, sure you know a lot about web design -but do you know how google calculates page rank? You should, it will come up, as will a million other questions. Perfect your image, learn everything, and stop wasting your down time. http://www.mediabanana.com
- —Guest mediabanana.com
The reality of the hourly rate
- I think the most important thing I have learned and am learning is that the hourly rate I charge clients actually reflects 2 hours of my time. Not that I work 2 hours for a client, but that other hour goes to bookkeeping, marketing, and professional development.
- —Guest Dean Peterson
