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Taking a Pride in your work...

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:00 pm
by nathanr
I've recently swapped to freelance work, and have found recently that I can't seem to downgrade my coding methods, everything I do has to be in validated XHTML strict, CSS2, be accessible, work in almost every browser right down to Navigator 4/ie4 and as for my php, well it's the same.

As you can imagine this means I end up taking way longer than I should to do a small project, it seems that I'm just giving my best and doing a "proper" job regardless of how much the projects are worth.

I know this is wrong, my rachel tells me enough, and it frustrates the hell out me, I feel happy with my work at the end but kind of resent the clients even though it's nothing they did.

Moneywise this is wrong (i think), ethically am i doing the right thing or not? or is it a case that everybody should work this way, but because they don't then I'm a fool to do it all perfect?

On this note, sites like scriptlance, every project gets a $50 bid, I live in the UK and bill out at £200-£300 a day, how the hell do I compete, what quality of work are these guys getting back, and how does one manage to demand the kind of rates i do in real life, but over the net? (or is this where self promotion comes in)?

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:12 pm
by Luke
I have managed to find work for $25-$50/hr freelancing before. It's just a matter of social networking. You need to get your name out. I wouldn't even try to use a scriptlancing type site. Like you said there is no worth in what we do on those sites. I would try and get work with people you know or wait for job listings on this site here. I've been able to find plenty of work by just visiting php forums and showing off my work.

To answer your question about doing everything perfectly... It depends on how much you are being paid. If you are being paid for perfection, give perfection. If you are only being paid for a half-assed site, than by all means build a half-assed site. You can't be expected to pick up the extra cost of doing things right if your client isn't willing to pay for it.

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:14 pm
by Kieran Huggins
Rent-a-coder sites are a real meat market.

Network locally, go to barCamp, blog, promote yourself!

Try attracting clients who understand that quality work is worth real money - try hitting up some local design firms maybe?

Rent a Coder

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:21 am
by Topup
Ninja Space Goat,

Just to address what Kieran said: "Rent-a-coder sites are a real meat market. "

There are ways around this for coders in mature economies. For example, the #1 coder on Rent a coder (http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/mi ... teList.asp) as of the time of this posting is Tometa Software from Washington, in the United States. Even though mature economies are less than 1% of all countries, coders from mature economies win 1/3rd of the work on the site.

First, set your bidding filter to "mature economy". Not every buyer wants to go to an emerging economy coder, because there are advantages to staying with a mature economy. For example, intellectual property protection, and better communication because of a shared culture, language and closer timezone. This will filter out the projects where you won't win the bid, and allow you to focus your time on the ones you can win.

If you are going to bid against people in emerging economies, there are other things you can do. Focus on the niche items which pay higher. Anyone in the world can create a 5 page website using open source software...and most will be able to do it cheaper than you. But not everyone knows propietary software, or niche things. If you are an Oracle developer, .NET developer, or do another similar niche development you can profit quite nicely. The other thing is that you probably communicate better in English than a coder in an emerging country. Succesful coders on RAC use this to persuade buyers to chose them. Sometimes this type of communication is crucial to a project. So when you bid, you can highlight this difference to zoom in on that type of work.

I hope this helps,
Rod Smith
Rent a Coder admin

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:02 am
by Kieran Huggins
In all fairness to Rod: I haven't checked out any rent-a-coder sites in years, and I don't have any specific experiences with rentacoder.com in particular. It's perhaps an odd coincidence that I choose the term "rent-a-coder" at all.. but I guess that's indicative of good marketing on their behalf. (Site could stand to advertise for a UI designer, however ;-))

@nathanr: It could be your cup of tea.. if you do place a few work bids please report your experiences.

Same situation

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:09 am
by lestervan
Hi all,

I am new here and I have the same situation as nathanr. Last time, as a student, I work as freelancer at very cheap price. Now I already graduate and I must earn more to live ( I am from Singapore, expensive country also ). Then I and one of my friend establish small business with website expecting more professional projects. But so far for 3 months, we keep doing cheap projects on the freelancing website :(. We really have no idea how to find professional projects with higher pay. My friend already finds a local firm to work with while I still stick with current business.

Just wonder that anyone here can live with doing freelancing works only? And how did you do to find high-pay and professional projects?

Re: Same situation

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:30 am
by onion2k
lestervan wrote:We really have no idea how to find professional projects with higher pay.
You need to sell your services. By 'sell' I don't mean "take money for", I mean "promote and tell everyone about". You cannot expect people to pay you to write a website for them if they don't know who you are or what you do. If you're not a salesperson then you're going to find it very hard work, but essentially you need to advertise, cold call, network, socialise, and do whatever else it takes.

For the record I don't think I've ever met a good developer who is also a good salesperson. The two skillsets required are completely and utterly different.

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:20 am
by lestervan
Thanks for your comment.

Yeah, sometimes I also think I need a like a marketer and salesperson who specialize in the marketing, advertising, etc. Well then I think I may need to discuss with my friend to look for a team and do a professional business.

Btw, I just wonder that with an online business, do we still need to find salesperson and marketers just like the offline one? Then how should we pay them for it? Is the payment undependable to location?

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:20 pm
by inova
I guess if your product doesn't have anything special or different, working in a firm doesn't sound so bad

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:49 am
by Sorayna
You would have a lot of advantages.All in all it's worth working in a company.