I've been a PHP freelancer for a year. My first year was fantastic. This year, however, has only been like $250 a week and has been one great big struggle. Now the mortgage payment is a struggle, I now have $0 in savings or so-called "retirement" accounts, I'm in crisis mode, and I've got no choice but to throw in the towel and just see if I'm lucky enough to go catch a full-time or contract PHP job in another town, living out of a cheap apartment, hardly ever seeing my wife and two teenagers. I feel pretty terrible.
Of the gigs I almost land this year, they fall through because they either ask for the world with a limited budget, or ask me to build something that cannot be done because it violates a TOS of a website or something, or the guy just doesn't like my very low rate.
And I've paid for advertising, but only get time wasters.
I heard about people who get like "sham jobs" where they work an easy job in a closed-door office, get their quota of work done in 3-4 hours, and then spend the rest of the day freelancing. Man I'd love to do that, but that sort of thing doesn't exist around here. Those jobs either pay so little that it's not worth my time, or they have too much day-to-day supervision that I can't get a moment of freelancing in. And the part-time jobs around here pay too low and are almost impossible to find.
Getting Discouraged
Moderator: General Moderators
Re: Getting Discouraged
Hello supermike, first of all, I am sorry to hear that.supermike wrote:I've been a PHP freelancer for a year. My first year was fantastic. This year, however, has only been like $250 a week and has been one great big struggle. Now the mortgage payment is a struggle, I now have $0 in savings or so-called "retirement" accounts, I'm in crisis mode, and I've got no choice but to throw in the towel and just see if I'm lucky enough to go catch a full-time or contract PHP job in another town, living out of a cheap apartment, hardly ever seeing my wife and two teenagers. I feel pretty terrible.
Of the gigs I almost land this year, they fall through because they either ask for the world with a limited budget, or ask me to build something that cannot be done because it violates a TOS of a website or something, or the guy just doesn't like my very low rate.
And I've paid for advertising, but only get time wasters.
I heard about people who get like "sham jobs" where they work an easy job in a closed-door office, get their quota of work done in 3-4 hours, and then spend the rest of the day freelancing. Man I'd love to do that, but that sort of thing doesn't exist around here. Those jobs either pay so little that it's not worth my time, or they have too much day-to-day supervision that I can't get a moment of freelancing in. And the part-time jobs around here pay too low and are almost impossible to find.
How much do companies there pay for a PHP Coder?
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Re: Getting Discouraged
At least you have the wife, kids, and the house! Florida...well pretty much anything I have to say about it would get me banned rather quickly we'll just say. 
What I do know is that family is the most important thing in the world. Consider your skill set, are there any companies willing to hire you in the area? Are you literally far out in the desert or are there any decently sized cities within maybe an hour's worth of driving? Have you considered doing work for hire online?
I'm sure there are plenty of successful members here are on the forums. I think it would be most helpful to know what to look for...and of course environment does play in to many things, if so how about looking online for projects people need and are willing to pay for?
Just keep your chin up! I face overwhelming amounts of negativity in general and I scoff at it because I am able to realize that I am progressively getting better at what I'm able to do...and that makes me more of an asset...or closer to one in a sense.
Markus Frind posted on May 11th that he is finally going to hire someone else to start working on code for the singles site plentyoffish, he has like $10 million in the bank. Obviously there are things successful people are doing that can be emulated. What have you coded? What are you capable of? Who could you mutually benefit?
What I do know is that family is the most important thing in the world. Consider your skill set, are there any companies willing to hire you in the area? Are you literally far out in the desert or are there any decently sized cities within maybe an hour's worth of driving? Have you considered doing work for hire online?
I'm sure there are plenty of successful members here are on the forums. I think it would be most helpful to know what to look for...and of course environment does play in to many things, if so how about looking online for projects people need and are willing to pay for?
Just keep your chin up! I face overwhelming amounts of negativity in general and I scoff at it because I am able to realize that I am progressively getting better at what I'm able to do...and that makes me more of an asset...or closer to one in a sense.
Markus Frind posted on May 11th that he is finally going to hire someone else to start working on code for the singles site plentyoffish, he has like $10 million in the bank. Obviously there are things successful people are doing that can be emulated. What have you coded? What are you capable of? Who could you mutually benefit?
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l.francis30
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Re: Getting Discouraged
I'm sorry to hear that too.. You can search for freelance work in the internet.. There are many work for php coder i guess..
check getafreelancer or scriptlance
check getafreelancer or scriptlance