Freelancefolder

Ten Things Every Beginning Developer Should Know

Posted June 29, 2011 in Getting Started, How-To

In the world of web development, there’s so much to look at and do, it can be confusing to decide where to start as a beginner. If you’re wanting to be a back-end developer, what languages do you learn? Do you learn HTML and CSS if you just want to work in PHP and Ruby? Should you learn basic design principles as well? Or, should you learn a little about everything?

A lot of people are afraid to jump into web development because of this choice paralysis. Depending on what they want to do, they hear endless opinions about how and where one should start.

I’ve been a front-end developer myself for over ten years, since I was in the sixth grade. So I’ve definitely been there at each language’s beginning. I was there when there were no standards or CSS, and I’m here now to tell you what’s really important to know if you want to be a developer.

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Freelancing & Your Identity

Posted June 15, 2011 in Getting Started

If you’re new to freelancing (or maybe even if you aren’t), you may be concerned about putting too much of your personal information online.

I can totally relate to these fears, because when I started out as a freelancer I had them too.

Of course, the worries are not completely without merit. There are some really good reasons to be concerned. There are scammers online and organizations that are just phishing for your personally identifiable information.

But, at the end of the day, if you’re a freelancer, you’ve probably found it necessary have some sort of online identity in order to get clients.

In this post, we’ll discuss some concerns about having an online identity and also identify some solutions.

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The Nitty Gritty Details Freelancers Need to Know About Getting Paid

Posted June 8, 2011 in Getting Started

You’ve just taken the leap into full-time freelancing. It’s a great move, but there are a few things you need to know about getting paid.

When you were an employee, you probably got paid every pay period (usually every two weeks or sometimes weekly) pretty much automatically.

Well, guess what? Getting paid isn’t automatic for freelancers. Instead, you have to arrange for payment and you should do it before you ever start working on a project. You have to make arrangements to be paid each and every time you get a new project.

In this post, I’ll discuss some of the nitty gritty details about getting paid that you need to know as a freelancer.

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How to Get Started as a Freelancer and Land Your First Real Client

Posted June 5, 2011 in Getting Clients, Getting Started

This blog post is all about starting out as a freelancer. I’ll outline the steps you need to take to make sure you are as successful as you possibly can be and explain how to grab that first real client. (Who isn’t your dad’s mate’s brother’s wife’s uncle’s dog’s friend–try saying that drunk?)

I think that the main reason that new freelancers fail is a lack of real life experience. You may have great skills on Photoshop or at coding, but if you don’t know how to be a decent account manager all you will ever do is work site to site, never quite managing and meeting expectations. This won’t be due to a lack of quality in your work, but in the way that you sell yourself.

What you have to remember is that being a good freelance designer/developer (or whatever your freelancing specialty is) only accounts for about 75% of the skills needed to succeed. The other 25% are project and account management skills. If you know what to say to a client and generally how to manage their expectations, then you are already one step ahead of the game. You just need the experience to do that.

The main point of this post is to get you started out as a freelancer. So, let’s get going.

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