Unfortunately, my first attempt at freelancing left me unhappy, in debt and desperate. I took several full-time jobs between my last attempt at freelancing and this one to teach me some valuable lessons and make my way out of debt.
I made many mistakes the first time around and, like any good freelancer, I learned from them and now I am a better, stronger worker. In this post, I’ll share some of the mistakes that caused me to fail as a freelancer the first time around.
This is a really good article on starting out in freelancing without the experience of working for others. Often people ask if they should start freelancing right after school thinking they know everything ’cause they’ve got a few sites under their belt. I’ve always told people not to do that. Go work for someone else, learn the ropes, learn how to DEAL with people; either easy clients or the pain-in-the-ass ones. There are ways of getting rid of those (See Adii’s great article on Pulling The Plug on Bad Customers) but if you’ve never had to be the Boss, it’s hard to show authority and deal with them.
So what’s different now that I’ve left my full-time job again and have been a successful freelancer for a few years?
Experience. After working full-time in the field for almost five years, I am professional, experienced and can speak with authority in my field.
Today too many blogs are being created, I feel lost in the information and inspiration. There can only be so many different showcases featuring (insert number here) Examples of Brilliant Illustrations. I understand the internet has endless information, and we are just trying to showcase that. I would just like to go to a few destinations to get all the information.
[...]
What I am trying to say is the blogosphere is being over saturated with design blogs. I am writing today to bring up a realistic solution.
Let’s contribute to already established blogs instead of creating new blogs.
Launching a really good web magazine takes a lot, and I mean A LOT, of work: getting authors to contribute, getting a steady stream of really good, relevant-not-outdated content, etc… It’s a steady job, not one you post to once, sit back and relax. If you decided to open up shop, you must know that you are competing against some really great ones out there.
Before giving John his quote, you ask a little more about the project. After chatting for a few minutes, you ask him about his budget. A fair question, you think. After all, you could approach the project in so many ways. Without knowing the budget, knowing where to begin is impossible. In your mind, building a website is like building a house. Without knowing the budget, you can’t possibly know how many rooms the client can afford or what materials you should use to build.
John, on the other hand, is instantly suspicious. Why would you want to know about his budget? The only reason he can think of is that you want to make sure you don’t charge him less than what he is willing to give. Besides, he doesn’t really know his budget. How the heck is he supposed to know how much a website costs?
Finally an article that’s not about lists and crap other sites have already discussed! Great article for both the new freelancer and the old. Speak English to your clients! They don’t give a crap about accessibility or web standards. Just give them the site they need.
I should’ve been a little more specific in my tweet. I was talking about designers who don’t have even the most basic HTML and CSS skills to turn a flat design into an actual site. Not people who intentionally choose not to code; those who can’t. And I’m also referring only to front-end code here; of course it’s ridiculous to think that designers should also be amazing back-end programmers (although there are exceptions).
As Elliot pointed out, it created quite a stir on twitter. My favorite reply is this one by AndyBudd which Elliot has also quoted:
However if you’re designing fairly large scale sites it’s often not desirable, possible or practical to do the coding especially if the complexity of the various components (e.g. complex JS functionality) outweighs your technical ability.
Now, quite a few have opened up their blogs to keep the discussion going:
I’ll start by saying that I’m a Canadian and a very proud one at that – being born on the 1st of July could have something to do with that – and yes I’m glued to the Vancouver 2010 site and all 4 channels (CTV, TSN, Sportsnet and RDS) showing the Olympics, cheering our athletes on!
Yes, I was jumping in our living room when Alexandre Bilodeau won our very first Olympic Gold medal on Canadian soil a few nights ago in Moguls. I had the same reaction when Maëlle Ricker won last night in Snowboard Cross. I gave some “Woot” and major fists in the air when Mike Robertson, Jennifer Heil and Kristina Groves won their medals as well. I’m extremely happy for athletes who have improved in their performances even tho they couldn’t bring home a medal.
Our Women’s hockey team is kicking ass again. I can’t wait for the U.S.A. vs Canada match-up. As always, it should be a nail-biter.
Our Men’s hockey team finally started last night and had a great solid win over Norway. Again, can’t wait for Sunday’s game against the U.S.A. (and Russian hopefully down the line).
Unlike many people I’ve talked to, I quite liked the opening ceremonies. The effects on the floor were very cool. K.D. Lang’s rendition of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen gave me chills. Sarah McLachlan’s performance was great as well. I wasn’t overly impressed by Garou signing tho. I think Ginette Reno would have been a better signer for that one, it’s one of her big hits after all, by I guess Garou is more internationally-known than her and that’s why he was chosen. Whatever. The unexpected “Wow” for me was the “We are more!” poem by Shane Koyczan!
The major disappointment for me so far is the constant delays because of the weather. It’s fine that “some” of our athletes are used to it, especially our downhill skiers since most of them train in B.C. (tho even that didn’t help them!) but it must suck big time for those not used to the weird Vancouver weather.
Anyways…
Here’s to better weather for the skiers and great performances by our Canadians.
@MattBarnabyESPN That decision is totally redonculous...yes you read right... redonculous! Lapierre gets 4!!! games for a shove, Cooke = 0 #4 hours ago
