Professional freelancing advice needed
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Some "issues" (I like the word "issues", it covers a multitude of sins :) ) with your site that you might want to consider... 1) If your core message is "Professional Web Developers for hire", your site does a good job of hiding it. I open the link and the first thing I should see is "Professional Web Developers for hire" 2) No product showcase. If I were to even consider buying your services I would expect (and even demand!) to see what you've done for other people. Moreover, you should be shouting at me "Here's what I've done for company X, just imagine what I can do for you!" 3) No personal touch. Make your photo (and that of anybody else involved) more prominent and give me a tailored autobiography - incidentally, I don't care about pets or kids, I want experience, achievements, more experience, work ethic, professionalism and even more experience. Similarly I don't want airy-fairy statements like "Over the last 15 years we have developed professional relationships with some of the brightest and best in their respective fields... With these best of breed contacts", I want specifics. Above all I want to feel confident that you can do the job; you can tell me about your personal life when you invite me around for dinner as your number one customer. 4) Design. It looks nicely put together, but it's boring and too corporate. It says to me accountancy - not dynamic finger-on-the-pulse of technology. 5) Present content is far too technical. I'm a business man, not a developer, and I'm interested in selling more [whatever it is I sell or do] to more people via the web. I don't know what the LAMP stack is and I probably don't want to - I'm only interested in the results. (Although by all means have a separate technical area - just don't include it as part of a sales pitch) 6) Language: Watch out for stuff like "You have nothing to lose but an entire high-tech world to gain so contact us today!!!" and "No worries. We have a database of professional cost effective freelance web designers who will craft you a perfect design." 7) In a crowded marketplace you need a unique selling point and YOU MUST MAKE IT KNOWN! 8) Blog - didn't like the security like pop-up when I clicked the link, and the very first thing I noticed about it was the title "Rants about technology and software, especially it’s design and development". Bad move - I don't want a ranter, I want someone calm, collected and confident. And there were a couple of other things, but I can't remember wha
Awesome. Harsh and cruel and hurt my feelings but very good feedback. I'm just kidding about the hurt my feelings bit. :P The text and targeting clearly need to be revamped. I do seem to target to many things -- for lack of a better word. I think I will have the site split on: a. Web design agencies looking to contract work b. small/medium business seeking Internet solutions When you click on either of those links you will be taken to the appropriate site and given appropriate content. The security buzz words, etc are probably confusing to the business man, I agree. Again, excellent points...thanks for the feedback.
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
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Alex - I've managed to control my urge to heave long enough to move further into your site - specifically your Open Source page. I'm sorry, but as a client, I couldn't give a fetid rats toss as to how involved you are with Open Source. Well, whoopdefreakindo. Then, you go on to say that one of those open source products should be ignored because you've got another one on the backburner. That's not a great message you're putting out there.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Agreed. I admit the text was mostly rushed into place just so I could begin builing linkbacks and boostin SEO and awareness. The idea was, at least it's better than "This page is currently under construction". I'll have to spend some time this weekend working on the text and organization. :)
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
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I have had a web site under the name PCSpectra (either .ca or .com) for almost ten years but I really only ever used it as a place to host source code, ideas and remotely store files of importance and backups. A couple of months ago I decided to put some serious effort into it and promote my services through my web site and not just some random PHP developer guy. I've been linking back to my site from various places (mostly forums and programming communities, Linux, Web design, etc) and I'm getting only about 50 unique hits a day. Sadly none of my online marketing efforts have transpired into any lead or contact, etc. What I do get a lot of is bogus emails coming in through my contact form, of people telling me how much my blog sucks or how much my site sucks, etc... X| :laugh: Some comments are actually funny. :) Unfortunately none have made me any money. I am gradually changing all my forum aliases to PCSpectra from Hockey and linking to my site from my sig and promoting my blog on other related blogs. It's all quite a lot of work when all you want to do is develop software. :P For the last year or so I've been developing a newsletter/email marketing software package to compete with the big guns and now I need extra cash to pay for the hosting and advertising fees, hence the serious effort in promoting my web site/business -- if you can call it that. :) So my question is, clearly I'm advertising in the wrong places, probably mostly developers or other tech savvy people viewing my site and borrowing ideas or trying to hack it. I have joined a few business networks like Ryze and tried promoting my services there as well with little or no success and yet I see others who do the same thing, with no web site (or one of poor quality, in terms of design, layout and validation, etc) and they apparently do find busiess on these sites. It's frustrating to say the least. What I would like to ask the CP community, especially those who have any experience doing freelance/contract work on a full time scale (something I've never been able to do -- simply cause I couldn't find enough business) can you please look at my site, tell me what you think and more importantly tell me how I can improve what I already have. More content? More blog entries? Where and/or how can I find leads? My webiste: PCSpectra p.s-Please do not recommend those PHP freelancing web sites. I am aware of them and despise them.
Forget your website - in fact, take it all down except simple contact info, if you must have anything. Your website is irrelevant to the work you will get. Forget online job forums / boards. Reputation and word of mouth is the beginning, the middle and the end of it and is all you should concentrate on. Forget looking for work in cyberspace - get out and about in your home town amd find a small local business that needs help and sort them out, remembering that communication is the key to a good client relationship - always answer phone calls and emails promptly and politely. Your relationship with your clients shuold be as important as the projet you are building for them - the two go hand in hand. If they want a website or a brochure or something, find and recommend a good local graphic design team, and try to build a relationship with them too, so that they may pass work back to you. Don't be fooled by the hype of the Internet Age: there is no substitute for personal relatioships in business - some things never change. From a small acorn, the migty oak does grow... Good luck
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Your website looks like a generic template taken from a CMS theme gallery - there's nothing on there that makes you stand out or look like a real operation. my 2pc
Again, this is my design, 110%...in the past I have hired professional photoshop designers (cause I think it looks better and brand is very important -- I buy M$ not little corner software shop software). Accusing me oflooking generic means I have done my job right (and it's taken me years to get that design just right). If my site looked less generic it probably means the design is to amatuer or as some might argue simplistic. I didn't want a simple design (although the layout is simple IMHO) I wanted a design that reflected my feeling about technology. I have always wanted that cold corporate blue look, because to me, cold is calming, cold is what it is 60% of the year in Winnipeg. Cool is better than hot, unless you like Paris Hilton??? LOL Blue is easy on the eyes and reflect the serious nature of my professional skills. I'm a joker in everything I do in life, but I take software extremely serious. Cheers, Alex
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
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Even though you go on to give 4 reasonable reasons, BUT, by starting your web site with these words "In a market that is already over saturated with competition and outsourcing, why would anyone use PCSpectra services?" In my opinion, you are giving your potential customers a way out without properly introducing yourself or your services. To use your words "why would anyone use PCSpectra services?". My answer "NOBODY", why - because the market is saturated and is cheap AND you haven't told me what you can do that I can't get done cheaper or better elsewhere. If this style is similar to how you approach businesses with your newsletter and e-mail marketing, then you may well need to go back to "start" and have a proper rethink of how you want your business to be portrayed and stating in confidence what it is you can possibly do for your customers to make THEM more profitable then you might start attracting customers and retaining customers thus you begin to create the kind of business success you are looking for. It will be good for you to have a read of Pete O'Hanlon's "Going Solo" series in particular those where he speaks of Marketing Techniques.
Good point. Thank you. I will address that. The idea was to make light of the fact that most web applications are riddled with holes because so many PHP developers are not even aware of what SQLi is...or how to prevent XSS exploits... I didn't exactly want to hilite existing projects I knew were flawed cause I thought that would have been bad taste. That is how I wanted to separate myself though (from competition). Everyone claims to be better than the next, but no one explains how or why. Ideally I want to say look at product X...according to secunia they had Y number of security exploits. Look at our product and there haven't been a single exploit. We profile product A and product B and compared to our own. Ours on average ran 35% faster than all these products. Ours also validate according to W3C, are comepletely accessible without javascript and semnatically for screen readers. We are also i18N and locale aware, etc, etc. First I need the product finished (which is very close -- although I'm spending alot of time promoting this web site) and secondly...I'm not sure if comparing my apples to my competitors onions ia good practice, ethically or professionally. Cheers, Alex
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
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Good point. Thank you. I will address that. The idea was to make light of the fact that most web applications are riddled with holes because so many PHP developers are not even aware of what SQLi is...or how to prevent XSS exploits... I didn't exactly want to hilite existing projects I knew were flawed cause I thought that would have been bad taste. That is how I wanted to separate myself though (from competition). Everyone claims to be better than the next, but no one explains how or why. Ideally I want to say look at product X...according to secunia they had Y number of security exploits. Look at our product and there haven't been a single exploit. We profile product A and product B and compared to our own. Ours on average ran 35% faster than all these products. Ours also validate according to W3C, are comepletely accessible without javascript and semnatically for screen readers. We are also i18N and locale aware, etc, etc. First I need the product finished (which is very close -- although I'm spending alot of time promoting this web site) and secondly...I'm not sure if comparing my apples to my competitors onions ia good practice, ethically or professionally. Cheers, Alex
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
PCSpectra wrote:
The idea was to make light of the fact that most web applications are riddled with holes because so many PHP developers are not even aware of what SQLi is...or how to prevent XSS exploits... I didn't exactly want to hilite existing projects I knew were flawed cause I thought that would have been bad taste. That is how I wanted to separate myself though (from competition). Everyone claims to be better than the next, but no one explains how or why.
It does not matter at all if most web applications are or are not riddled with holes, as long as your offerings are sound and professional. Everybody claims to be better than the next - the reason is - they are marketing themselves by saying, which you are not, that they can deliver.
PCSpectra wrote:
Ideally I want to say look at product X...according to secunia they had Y number of security exploits. Look at our product and there haven't been a single exploit. We profile product A and product B and compared to our own. Ours on average ran 35% faster than all these products. Ours also validate according to W3C, are comepletely accessible without javascript and semnatically for screen readers.
You must NOT make claims that you cannot justify but you can say your products, in your opinion, are best of breed.
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Good points - I had to go back and take a second look because I was that put off by the look of the site that I didn't even look at the content. The first rule is KISS, and this hasn't followed that at all. It reads like a B3 page (and for those who don't know what B3 is, it means Bullshit Baffles Brains).
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
It reads like a B3 page (and for those who don't know what B3 is, it means bullsh*t Baffles Brains).
Requesting permission to use this quote in my signature. :-D
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I have had a web site under the name PCSpectra (either .ca or .com) for almost ten years but I really only ever used it as a place to host source code, ideas and remotely store files of importance and backups. A couple of months ago I decided to put some serious effort into it and promote my services through my web site and not just some random PHP developer guy. I've been linking back to my site from various places (mostly forums and programming communities, Linux, Web design, etc) and I'm getting only about 50 unique hits a day. Sadly none of my online marketing efforts have transpired into any lead or contact, etc. What I do get a lot of is bogus emails coming in through my contact form, of people telling me how much my blog sucks or how much my site sucks, etc... X| :laugh: Some comments are actually funny. :) Unfortunately none have made me any money. I am gradually changing all my forum aliases to PCSpectra from Hockey and linking to my site from my sig and promoting my blog on other related blogs. It's all quite a lot of work when all you want to do is develop software. :P For the last year or so I've been developing a newsletter/email marketing software package to compete with the big guns and now I need extra cash to pay for the hosting and advertising fees, hence the serious effort in promoting my web site/business -- if you can call it that. :) So my question is, clearly I'm advertising in the wrong places, probably mostly developers or other tech savvy people viewing my site and borrowing ideas or trying to hack it. I have joined a few business networks like Ryze and tried promoting my services there as well with little or no success and yet I see others who do the same thing, with no web site (or one of poor quality, in terms of design, layout and validation, etc) and they apparently do find busiess on these sites. It's frustrating to say the least. What I would like to ask the CP community, especially those who have any experience doing freelance/contract work on a full time scale (something I've never been able to do -- simply cause I couldn't find enough business) can you please look at my site, tell me what you think and more importantly tell me how I can improve what I already have. More content? More blog entries? Where and/or how can I find leads? My webiste: PCSpectra p.s-Please do not recommend those PHP freelancing web sites. I am aware of them and despise them.
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Hahahaha...I wonder if thats legit... :) I'm not there yet thank god
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
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PCSpectra wrote:
The idea was to make light of the fact that most web applications are riddled with holes because so many PHP developers are not even aware of what SQLi is...or how to prevent XSS exploits... I didn't exactly want to hilite existing projects I knew were flawed cause I thought that would have been bad taste. That is how I wanted to separate myself though (from competition). Everyone claims to be better than the next, but no one explains how or why.
It does not matter at all if most web applications are or are not riddled with holes, as long as your offerings are sound and professional. Everybody claims to be better than the next - the reason is - they are marketing themselves by saying, which you are not, that they can deliver.
PCSpectra wrote:
Ideally I want to say look at product X...according to secunia they had Y number of security exploits. Look at our product and there haven't been a single exploit. We profile product A and product B and compared to our own. Ours on average ran 35% faster than all these products. Ours also validate according to W3C, are comepletely accessible without javascript and semnatically for screen readers.
You must NOT make claims that you cannot justify but you can say your products, in your opinion, are best of breed.
The speed would be hard to justify as I would have to release the source code, not to mention it's a hosted service so speed over competitors is irrelevant. Obviously I wouldn't make any claims which I could not justify. :wtf:
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
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Drew Stainton wrote:
Finally, I think changing your user name to your company name here is a big mistake.
Maybe he's Phil Spector, and he's trying to disguise this but not in a very clever way.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
changed the font size and your layout degraded instantly. If you're pushing yourself as a professional web company, then your website needs to be rock solid and not fall over on such basic areas. If you can't get it right on your site, how's a client to expect that you'll get it right at their site?
Unfortunately that is a tradeoff I made... I favour standards and table-less design over archaic tables, especially for layout. Tables have a semantic meaning and that is to represent data. I also favour fixed width over fluid layouts because the layout stays the same across the board, regardless of resolution. Using fixed XHTML/CSS layouts will cause some minor issues when someone resizes the text although it's not so bad that it becomes unreadable it's just not aesthetically appealing.
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
Looking at your site, one of the key things that strikes me is that you've given no thought as to how your site will place in search engines. You may want to consider taking a look at SEO techniques and figuring out what your site should focus on - and if you get the chance, get somebody in to write your copy. You will suck at it, and a professional will shine; it's nothing to be ashamed of because it's not what you are there to do. Marketing is a tough job to do, and while I'll sometimes poke fun at it I do respect it.
That is something that needs work, yes.
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
You can design XHTML/CSS pages to scale gracefully with font size changes without compromising the intended look at the "normal" font size fairly easily. I've had to do much more complex layouts than the one you have with XHTML/CSS and ensure they scale well. It would only take a few tweaks on your site to do the same.
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I have had a web site under the name PCSpectra (either .ca or .com) for almost ten years but I really only ever used it as a place to host source code, ideas and remotely store files of importance and backups. A couple of months ago I decided to put some serious effort into it and promote my services through my web site and not just some random PHP developer guy. I've been linking back to my site from various places (mostly forums and programming communities, Linux, Web design, etc) and I'm getting only about 50 unique hits a day. Sadly none of my online marketing efforts have transpired into any lead or contact, etc. What I do get a lot of is bogus emails coming in through my contact form, of people telling me how much my blog sucks or how much my site sucks, etc... X| :laugh: Some comments are actually funny. :) Unfortunately none have made me any money. I am gradually changing all my forum aliases to PCSpectra from Hockey and linking to my site from my sig and promoting my blog on other related blogs. It's all quite a lot of work when all you want to do is develop software. :P For the last year or so I've been developing a newsletter/email marketing software package to compete with the big guns and now I need extra cash to pay for the hosting and advertising fees, hence the serious effort in promoting my web site/business -- if you can call it that. :) So my question is, clearly I'm advertising in the wrong places, probably mostly developers or other tech savvy people viewing my site and borrowing ideas or trying to hack it. I have joined a few business networks like Ryze and tried promoting my services there as well with little or no success and yet I see others who do the same thing, with no web site (or one of poor quality, in terms of design, layout and validation, etc) and they apparently do find busiess on these sites. It's frustrating to say the least. What I would like to ask the CP community, especially those who have any experience doing freelance/contract work on a full time scale (something I've never been able to do -- simply cause I couldn't find enough business) can you please look at my site, tell me what you think and more importantly tell me how I can improve what I already have. More content? More blog entries? Where and/or how can I find leads? My webiste: PCSpectra p.s-Please do not recommend those PHP freelancing web sites. I am aware of them and despise them.
PCSpectra wrote:
What I would like to ask the CP community, especially those who have any experience doing freelance/contract work on a full time scale (something I've never been able to do -- simply cause I couldn't find enough business) can you please look at my site, tell me what you think and more importantly tell me how I can improve what I already have.
Yes I can, the number on overarching piece of advice that trumps anything else you might get is this (and I mean this in the nicest possible way and in all sincerity, I'm not just trying to yank your chain): ditch the freelance and write software you can write *once* and sell over and over ad-infinitum to the general public. Freelance programming is a suckers game, always has been always will be.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Hahahaha...I wonder if thats legit... :) I'm not there yet thank god
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Programming, Web Development and Documentation
I'm generally just a lurker and information gatherer on most forums I visit but when I feel like I can offer 2 cents I do. I have been a freelance developer for just under 2 years now. Before that I worked at a couple of different software shops that gave me some good experience and insight into sounds development practices, etc. I have been a "professional" developer for almost 7 years now. I have always had a passion for this line of work and I started with BASIC when I was around 13. In my 2 years now as a freelancer, I have never once had to advertise, have my own website, or even purchase business cards for that matter (the few I have I got for free, I may need to buy some eventually when these run out). What has worked for me and like many others here have mentioned, is simple word of mouth networking. One of the best things I have done, is to get in contact with other freelancers (conferences, local coffee shop, etc) and form relationships with them. This has led me to plenty of work. In fact, much of the work I get comes from work that my other freelance contacts just can't fit in so they recommend the client call me or give me the client's contact info on their behalf. Other work has come from satisfied clients recommending me to their other business-owning friends, etc. The bottom line is, this has worked and is working great for me (your results will vary ;) ). I have a small client base that usually comes back for more and a few good freelance contacts to share work with. Business is solid, I make my own hours, I please my clients, I please my wife, I play with my son. Life is great! In summary, if there were 3 strong points I could make that make all the difference: 1) Relationships 2) Relationships 3) Relationships
~ballistikx
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PCSpectra wrote:
What I would like to ask the CP community, especially those who have any experience doing freelance/contract work on a full time scale (something I've never been able to do -- simply cause I couldn't find enough business) can you please look at my site, tell me what you think and more importantly tell me how I can improve what I already have.
Yes I can, the number on overarching piece of advice that trumps anything else you might get is this (and I mean this in the nicest possible way and in all sincerity, I'm not just trying to yank your chain): ditch the freelance and write software you can write *once* and sell over and over ad-infinitum to the general public. Freelance programming is a suckers game, always has been always will be.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
John C wrote:
Freelance programming is a suckers game, always has been always will be.
You're entitled to that view... and I agree that writing a commercially viable product is a great idea. But in the meantime, you have to earn a living. And writing your dream app in your underwear doesn't pay the bills. See my post above for my freelance experience, it has been anything but a "suckers game".
~ballistikx
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John C wrote:
Freelance programming is a suckers game, always has been always will be.
You're entitled to that view... and I agree that writing a commercially viable product is a great idea. But in the meantime, you have to earn a living. And writing your dream app in your underwear doesn't pay the bills. See my post above for my freelance experience, it has been anything but a "suckers game".
~ballistikx
I think you've missed John's point. What I think he is saying in his own peculiar vernacular is that freelancing on its own is a good way to make some money, but you'll never be filthy rich from doing so, and here's the reason. Let's say that you can work X number of hours per day, for all 7 days per week, at Y dollars per hour. Therefore, the most you can ever make per week is 7 * X * Y. Now X can only be increased to a maximum of 24 (and I would hazard a guess that you would find it nigh impossible to continue to work 24 hours per day for any length of time). Y can only be increased to what the market values development at. However, if you had a product sitting on the shelf waiting to be sold, you could be raking in far more than your hourly rate times the number of hours. That being said, it's the same with hiring sub-contractors and/or staff - if you make a portion on top of what you pay them, you can make as much money (if not more) by simply managing their contracts and finding new contracts for them, without having to actually expend development effort yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------- Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad!!
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I think you've missed John's point. What I think he is saying in his own peculiar vernacular is that freelancing on its own is a good way to make some money, but you'll never be filthy rich from doing so, and here's the reason. Let's say that you can work X number of hours per day, for all 7 days per week, at Y dollars per hour. Therefore, the most you can ever make per week is 7 * X * Y. Now X can only be increased to a maximum of 24 (and I would hazard a guess that you would find it nigh impossible to continue to work 24 hours per day for any length of time). Y can only be increased to what the market values development at. However, if you had a product sitting on the shelf waiting to be sold, you could be raking in far more than your hourly rate times the number of hours. That being said, it's the same with hiring sub-contractors and/or staff - if you make a portion on top of what you pay them, you can make as much money (if not more) by simply managing their contracts and finding new contracts for them, without having to actually expend development effort yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------- Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad!!
You left out the many other negative points besides it not being very lucrative (in fact if you factor the hours worked it's seldom better than any other run of the mill job, but that's far from the worst part of freelancing), ultimately, if you're successful at it, it adds up to a hell of a lot of stress, a hell of a lot of work, innumerable people all dependant on you which feels good at first and comes to suck away your soul in no time at all. Endless meetings and goal post moving and debating what's covered or not in contracts blah blah blah. In short your own personal little hellscape. Anyone who is successful at it and isn't merely farming out the work but doing it themselves and claims they don't feel a tiny urge to slit their wrist after a few years of it is a liar. There are endless other, far better, ways to make ends meet while writing and learning how to market a killer application you can turn into a decent life in less than a decade with very little stress, as much time off as you can afford to take (in my case 6 months a year) and pretty much all the worldy posessions you desire depending upon how hard you really want to work at it.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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I think you've missed John's point. What I think he is saying in his own peculiar vernacular is that freelancing on its own is a good way to make some money, but you'll never be filthy rich from doing so, and here's the reason. Let's say that you can work X number of hours per day, for all 7 days per week, at Y dollars per hour. Therefore, the most you can ever make per week is 7 * X * Y. Now X can only be increased to a maximum of 24 (and I would hazard a guess that you would find it nigh impossible to continue to work 24 hours per day for any length of time). Y can only be increased to what the market values development at. However, if you had a product sitting on the shelf waiting to be sold, you could be raking in far more than your hourly rate times the number of hours. That being said, it's the same with hiring sub-contractors and/or staff - if you make a portion on top of what you pay them, you can make as much money (if not more) by simply managing their contracts and finding new contracts for them, without having to actually expend development effort yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------- Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad!!
Well of course you can only make so much as the hours you can humanly work. There is always the possibility of expanding and sub'ing work out to others which like you said makes your earning potential that much greater. But I think the conversation here is more about the enjoyment of ones work than it is about the potential for riches. That being said, I do have a commercial app in the works. Any unallocated hours I can squeeze in go towards that project. The current money-makers come first. :-D
~ballistikx
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John C wrote:
Freelance programming is a suckers game, always has been always will be.
You're entitled to that view... and I agree that writing a commercially viable product is a great idea. But in the meantime, you have to earn a living. And writing your dream app in your underwear doesn't pay the bills. See my post above for my freelance experience, it has been anything but a "suckers game".
~ballistikx
See my reply to Damian two posts down and tell me again how blissful it all is when you've been doing it for more than two years. Suckers game is the very mildest way I can put it on this particular forum. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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See my reply to Damian two posts down and tell me again how blissful it all is when you've been doing it for more than two years. Suckers game is the very mildest way I can put it on this particular forum. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Everyone has their opinion. I'll let you know if mine changes. It may very well one day. But for now, it sure beats the pants off of working for the man. I would rather work 60 hours a week for myself than 60 hours in a run-of-the-mill-nobody-cares-about-their-job-that-i-only-get-paid-for-40-hours-anyway situation.
~ballistikx