Making a living out of freelancing - anyone here doing it? - Developers

Howdy guys, I'm wondering if I could get some advice and some questions answered from some freelance web designers, even better if there are some here which make a living out of it. I'm currently working as a web developer, using ASP.NET which I'm leaving at the end of this month. I won't go into details, but after lots of thinking about my career and what I want to do in life, I've decided I will either move onto something new outside of IT, or I'll start doing freelance web design/development. Let's just say I hadn't enjoyed the office and big company environment as much as I hoped, it seemed to cut off the things I really loved about the work. I do have some experience, I did some freelancing as a hobby a few years ago, I learned quite a lot and did a few jobs for people. I only really stopped because of this job, my free time is limited right now so I spend it outside most of the time. So, if any of you guys have any advice to give, it would be really appreciated as I have a few questions: If you're a freelancer, how successful have you been, and do you make a living out of it/plan to? What are your views on using freelancing to make a living? I currently have pretty good knowledge of HTML, CSS and Photoshop/other image editing software. What other stuff should I start learning? I'm guessing JavaScript and PHP would be 2 of them, and I'm guessing I need some more experience working with databases. How long do you think it would usually take to go from starting out, to having a good enough reputation and enough regular clients to have a stable income? I have around 2 years I'd say to spend building up a portfolio and learning more stuff whilst not having to worry about income much. What about education? I'd imagine going to uni to do a degree would be a bad idea, since the qualification itself isn't going to help much, and what I learn there could be learned from other resources, without the massive costs. I'm not expecting this to be easy at all, but I think it would be a so much more satisfying way of working. Sorry for dumping a load of questions like this, but hopefully I will be jumping back into the beautiful world of web development soon in which case I'll be active in this section, where hopefully I can give something back to the community. Thanks for reading, guys.

It's something I'd love to do but the work/pay seems a bit too inconsistent to be relying on it to live. Seems like everyone and their dog knows how to design websites these days and there is a shitload of competition.

I do it for a living. You have to have a lot wider skillset than just being good at web design/development to be successful though. You absolutely [b]must[/b] to be a good networker (in the people sense, not the IT sense). You need to know how to market and promote your skills well. You need to know how to run your business well. It's not easy. That being said. I think it's incredibly rewarding. I don't know anyone else who can take their laptop in the back yard and sit under the sun kicked back in a lawn chair while they work. [QUOTE=Noble;31090366]It's something I'd love to do but the work/pay seems a bit too inconsistent to be relying on it to live. Seems like everyone and their dog knows how to design websites these days and there is a shitload of competition.[/QUOTE] The "everyone and their dog" web designers are not the people you want to be competing with anyways. If you're not positioning yourself above them, you're not taking the right approach. There's a lot of competition, yes, but the key is to make sure you are better than your competition and make sure that your clients know it. [editline]13th July 2011[/editline] The best advice I can give is to head over to [url]http://www.freelanceswitch.com[/url] and read up. Read the articles on that website until your eyes bleed.

I've been doing it for about 2 years. I've only just started getting work, I've have 2 projects on the go at the moment and about 4 lined up. From experience, word of mouth is your best tool. Don't waste too much money on advertising and DO NOT under sell yourself. The only thing your selling really is your time. Be competitive but don't charge too little. [url]http://www.meikledesign.co.uk[/url]

If you've just started getting work you haven't been doing it for two years :P

I make wordpress plugins (released as a freemium) and other stuff like that. I find that it is much more profitable to do that as it is passive income (make once earn forever - in theory anyway). I have a long list of plugins I want to make and doubt i'll ever exhaust it (always adding new ideas to the list). Another note on the freemium release model: I spent about 5 months fiddling with the way the licensing/cost of my plugins worked and this is my story - I hope it is useful to anyone looking to do the same: Initially I released the plugin completely free (with a donation link). 3 weeks later it had a few thousand downloads and no donations :( so I decided to make some of the features "premium" which required a donation to unlock. I started receiving donations (usually 1 or two pounds and occasionally 10 or 15). I then put a price on the premium (£5) - my donations went down - this was because the people who would have donated £10 spent less and many of the people who would have donated £1/2 decided that it wasn't worth the £5. I quickly rolled back the change and for a while I left it like that. It was clear that defining a price was a bad plan as it was bound to be below what some people would donate and high enough above others that they wouldn't purchase at all. Just before christmas I rolled out a slight tweak to the current donation page ( [url]http://spiders-design.co.uk/donate[/url] ) - I set the default to £5 rather than £0. At first donations shot down (it was christmas) then in January the donations increased as many thought guilty about donating less but I was still not isolating those who were unprepared to donate that much. From January to early June (when I pulled the plugins while I update them) my donations have increased month by month. The only changes in that time is more visible donate links (make it strikingly clear what they are missing) and more and more features (including revamped UI). This shows that the quality of the plugin ( aesthetics as well as functionality ) plays a great part on what someone is willing to donate.

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;31090699]take their laptop in the back yard and sit under the sun kicked back in a lawn chair while they work. [/QUOTE] I call bullshit. I've tried this, screen glare makes it impossible. :D

Not with the high res matte screen on the MBP ;)

[QUOTE=Meekal;31090895]I've been doing it for about 2 years. I've only just started getting work, I've have 2 projects on the go at the moment and about 4 lined up. From experience, word of mouth is your best tool. Don't waste too much money on advertising and DO NOT under sell yourself. The only thing your selling really is your time. Be competitive but don't charge too little. [url]http://www.meikledesign.co.uk[/url][/QUOTE] It'd probably help if you spelt Quote correctly.

[QUOTE=Meekal;31090895]From experience, word of mouth is your best tool. Don't waste too much money on advertising and DO NOT under sell yourself. The only thing your selling really is your time. Be competitive but don't charge too little.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't rule out doing charity/pro bono work. While it's definitely important not to undersell yourself, any opportunities to practice and develop your skills and assemble a portfolio are very valuable when starting out, even if it means you do a few gigs cheap/free.

Thank you for your replies guys! I agree, there is a huge crowd of web designers who don't stand out at all, I was part of that crowd for a while which is fine, but I plan on taking it a little further than that. I'm thinking I should find some kind of speciality, or some kind of niche to make me stand out, what that is yet I don't know. [QUOTE=spidersdesign;31093543]I make wordpress plugins (released as a freemium) and other stuff like that. I find that it is much more profitable to do that as it is passive income (make once earn forever - in theory anyway). I have a long list of plugins I want to make and doubt i'll ever exhaust it (always adding new ideas to the list).[/QUOTE] I hadn't really thought much about doing other things like this, you've got me thinking. Once I've got going I'll explore other things I can do, like this. Thanks again guys, I think I'm gonna go for it. For something that everyone says is so much hard work, I'm feeling strangely excited about doing it.

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;31096653]Not with the high res matte screen on the MBP ;)[/QUOTE] Can you show me pics? I'm going to be getting a new MBP soon and that'd be enough to win me over to the matte screen. I love working outside. And this seems to be a conflicting opinion: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicwalker/925821377/[/url]

I was sitting in the full sun wearing a white tshirt (so that was also adding to the glare) and I was able to see fine. It's cloudy so I can't get pictures right now though haha.

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;31113812]I was sitting in the full sun wearing a white tshirt (so that was also adding to the glare) and I was able to see fine. It's cloudy so I can't get pictures right now though haha.[/QUOTE] You don't have to strain your eyes? I can see my glossy screen if I really really strain hard, but it's uncomfortable.

Id start collecting a bunch of PHP scripts that do little things. Actually hoard a bunch of stuff Email this, Parse that, Download this, Send that. Hang onto fonts, get a nice collection of them together. Same with stock images; you will need them and the more you have the better. Even if you have to get them through less than legal methods A nice familiarity with jQuery is almost essential with today's websites getting fancier and fancier Flash doesn't hurt. Most importantly... People know people who know how to do stuff people who can give you other ideas and take a look at your code and be like "Psh what a nub" and fix it for you.

[QUOTE=lkymky;31114312]Even if you have to get them through less than legal methods[/QUOTE] That's absolutely horrible advice for someone looking to make a living from this. License everything you use in a professional context at all. You're way more likely to get fucked if you are caught and you have been profiting from it...

Stock images are lame.....never use them.

MORE SMILING BUSINESS MEN [editline]14th July 2011[/editline] POINTING AT COMPUTER SCREENS

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;31116842]MORE SMILING BUSINESS MEN [editline]14th July 2011[/editline] POINTING AT COMPUTER SCREENS[/QUOTE] OF AS MANY DIFFERENT RACIAL DESCENTS AND GENDERS AS POSSIBLE

This thread is awesome. Gives me hope. I've wanted to do freelance web design for years.

[QUOTE=Meekal;31090895][url]http://www.meikledesign.co.uk[/url][/QUOTE] i wouldn't hire you

I hope this doesn't make me seem like a douche, but what are the chances of getting caught using fonts you didn't exactly buy?

You shouldn't even be asking that question

[QUOTE=Meekal;31090895][url]http://www.meikledesign.co.uk[/url][/QUOTE] On an unrelated note, your CSS fails validation - Seems as you have a "Valid CSS" link on your site, it's quite important for you to fix it: [url]http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meikledesign.co.uk%2Fstyle.css&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&vextwarning=[/url]

[QUOTE=Alcapwne;31188363]I hope this doesn't make me seem like a douche, but what are the chances of getting caught using fonts you didn't exactly buy?[/QUOTE] You could always use free fonts instead of pirating the ones that have a price tag on them.

[QUOTE=yngndrw;31190287]On an unrelated note, your CSS fails validation - Seems as you have a "Valid CSS" link on your site, it's quite important for you to fix it: [url]http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meikledesign.co.uk%2Fstyle.css&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&vextwarning=[/url][/QUOTE] [url]http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=zzlawlzz.com%2Ftesting&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&vextwarning=&lang=en[/url] :v:

[QUOTE=yngndrw;31190287]On an unrelated note, your CSS fails validation - Seems as you have a "Valid CSS" link on your site, it's quite important for you to fix it: [url]http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meikledesign.co.uk%2Fstyle.css&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&vextwarning=[/url][/QUOTE] lol it validates with 3 just fine [url]http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meikledesign.co.uk%2Fstyle.css&profile=css3&usermedium=all&warning=1&vextwarning=[/url]

[QUOTE=Dragonblz;31227887]lol it validates with 3 just fine [url]http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meikledesign.co.uk%2Fstyle.css&profile=css3&usermedium=all&warning=1&vextwarning=[/url][/QUOTE]I think his point is more that the valid css link should have been set up with the correct version of css as if you're a client with limited technical knowledge you're going to see the fact that it failed and that will be all you would see. You have to think about it from a potential client's standpoint not your own.

Validation links are pointless. Anyone that knows or cares about it is going to know how to check it on their own.

[QUOTE=KmartSqrl;31233963]Validation links are pointless. Anyone that knows or cares about it is going to know how to check it on their own.[/QUOTE] yeah but won't tech illiterate clients be like "whoah valid html"