Professional freelancing advice needed
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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.
Oh. And a 5 for sticking around and listening to others after asking for help. Not seen often enough. Good luck.
"It reads like a B3 page (and for those who don't know what B3 is, it means bullsh*t Baffles Brains)" - Pete O'Hanlon
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I'll take a closer look later today if I have time or tomorrow and let you know what I would do. Sorry, I'm just in a bit of a crunch right now to deliver something for an out-of-town meeting later today, and after the meeting I have my birthday celebrations :) WebKit's layout engine shouldn't be too hard to work around. For IE6, what I do (and you may or may not want to do this, but I certainly recommend it due to the vast percentage of IE6 users still out there) is make a copy of my CSS file once I'm done making it look pretty on everything else and append "_ie6" to the filename. I then proceed to butcher the crap out of it until it shows up in an acceptable fashion on IE6. I then use the very handy conditional IE statements to use that stylesheet instead of the regular one on IE6 systems only. Often times I make compromises on the way it looks on IE6 systems, but it always looks acceptable. You can throw in a message that informs the user they are using an outdated web browser so the experience may not be optimal, and give them an upgrade link.
I already use a conditional hack for IE6... Thats not the issue...I think the problem is due to the fact that IE does not scale bitmapped graphics...so while the text increases (being vector drawn) the background images do not hence the text looks far larger than it should and everything loses it's layout. I would have to use variable height graphics for the meuu bar and the background header image which would require changing my design drastically or hacking like made using JS and alphablend. 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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Oh. And a 5 for sticking around and listening to others after asking for help. Not seen often enough. Good luck.
"It reads like a B3 page (and for those who don't know what B3 is, it means bullsh*t Baffles Brains)" - Pete O'Hanlon
Haha. What would be the point of asking for help if you don't stick around to listen to the replies? ;P I agree with much of what has been said and disagree with some as well. Those that stung most are probably most relevant so that is what I am gong to work on first... 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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Haha. What would be the point of asking for help if you don't stick around to listen to the replies? ;P I agree with much of what has been said and disagree with some as well. Those that stung most are probably most relevant so that is what I am gong to work on first... 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
Ok, maybe I should have said 'show' that you stick around... :)
"It reads like a B3 page (and for those who don't know what B3 is, it means bullsh*t Baffles Brains)" - Pete O'Hanlon
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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.
Mr. PCSpectra, Sorry your site dosent't look much more than A GIANT CONTACT US FORM. What I can Suggest u is build the site with Joomla or Droopal CMS. Since u r your self PHP expert or have expertise of some level. Can book on any of the CMS get the basics and build on your own. There are numerous help sites, in case u r in trouble. 1. Have yr own Blogs [first ask yr friends to blog, it often helps ] 2. get goggle adds on 3. Add your site path XML to Google.com [it will increase yr hits] 4. Add a separate section for code hosting. 5. ..... I hope u under stand the rest.... Rajarshi
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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.
There are a lot of good responses here, but there's one that can't be reiterated too much: REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE. Most, if not all, of your potential clients are not technically inclined and don't care to be. Involve non-technical friends and family in creating the text of your home page; keep simplifying it until you can get your basic message across without explanation. If you do still want to keep the technical stuff on your site (which can be a good idea), move it to a separate page - those that are technically-inclined will look for it. Other comments: * Like someone else said, don't be afraid to be a small shop! You are what you are, and any potential clients will find that out sooner or later. It can also be a benefit - a lot of small businesses prefer to do business with other small businesses. (Besides, if the potential client is looking for a 100-person consultancy, you don't want their project, anyway.) * Move the Contact Us part to a separate page. It deserves to have lots of space. I would also eliminate the "required" and "optional" field labels (if they're filling out the contact form, they want you to contact them and will fill it in appropriately) and change the label on the last field to use more active language (something like "How can we help you" or "What kind of service do you need"). * Have a friend who's a very good writer check your grammar. There are several errors, and those will stick out to many business owners looking for the small things to judge your quality. * Eliminate non-professional language. A perfect example is the quote that ends with "it sucks." Even if that is accurate, it can also have the effect of driving away business owners who value professionalism. Remember: the first impression is vital, especially if you are relying on marketing materials to make that impression. * I'm not crazy about the first-person quotes, either. The concepts presented in them are fine, though, so I would work them into your prose. Good luck!
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There are a lot of good responses here, but there's one that can't be reiterated too much: REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE. Most, if not all, of your potential clients are not technically inclined and don't care to be. Involve non-technical friends and family in creating the text of your home page; keep simplifying it until you can get your basic message across without explanation. If you do still want to keep the technical stuff on your site (which can be a good idea), move it to a separate page - those that are technically-inclined will look for it. Other comments: * Like someone else said, don't be afraid to be a small shop! You are what you are, and any potential clients will find that out sooner or later. It can also be a benefit - a lot of small businesses prefer to do business with other small businesses. (Besides, if the potential client is looking for a 100-person consultancy, you don't want their project, anyway.) * Move the Contact Us part to a separate page. It deserves to have lots of space. I would also eliminate the "required" and "optional" field labels (if they're filling out the contact form, they want you to contact them and will fill it in appropriately) and change the label on the last field to use more active language (something like "How can we help you" or "What kind of service do you need"). * Have a friend who's a very good writer check your grammar. There are several errors, and those will stick out to many business owners looking for the small things to judge your quality. * Eliminate non-professional language. A perfect example is the quote that ends with "it sucks." Even if that is accurate, it can also have the effect of driving away business owners who value professionalism. Remember: the first impression is vital, especially if you are relying on marketing materials to make that impression. * I'm not crazy about the first-person quotes, either. The concepts presented in them are fine, though, so I would work them into your prose. Good luck!
Great advice, thanks. I agree there is much that needs to change from a business perspective. This has probably been one of the most eye opening experiences in my life. It's clear to me I don't understand the world of business. Interestingly, today I I visited my doctor who acts like a psuedo-shrink to me. I vent and he listens and offers non-biased constructive feedback. Anyways, while venting today, it clicked as to what "sales" really is. I have always disliked sales. Why? The concept of paying someone commission (large portion of the overall fee of the project) just didn't sit well with me. Like I was ripping off the client or something, had they only researched and found me, they could have saved that $500 fee. I guess what a sales/marketing guy does is bring value added services to an existing service, by saving the business man of having to do the research themselves. Although obviously a sales man is going to be biased. As a techie, to me everything is about being critical, even of myself. When I do something wrong I want someone to tell me, even if it hurts my feelings, how else to do you ever plan on striving to become the best? Apparently that same mentality doesn't transcend into business, so I can't tell a business man his current software sucks and this is why. :P Thankfully I've been on contact with a sales savvy programmer with an interest in PR, something I will never be good at. Sounds like he's interested in being the front man to PCSpectra for a fairly large commission mind you, but I guess I'll just include that onto the client's bill. :P Thanks again, to you and everyone for all the advice given. Some sucked, some was constructive and very helpful in making me realize where I went wrong and have likely been going wrong for the last 10 years as I attempted to start my own gig. Unfortunately most of my previous work has been with companies I would consider "competition" which is why I decided to go at it alone, experience has taught me I can do it better, in some case a lot better. Here is where that "greatest widget in the world" story comes in I guess. Anyways, thanks again, keep the advice coming, obviously I need it. :-O :laugh: :) Cheers, Alex
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Progr
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Mr. PCSpectra, Sorry your site dosent't look much more than A GIANT CONTACT US FORM. What I can Suggest u is build the site with Joomla or Droopal CMS. Since u r your self PHP expert or have expertise of some level. Can book on any of the CMS get the basics and build on your own. There are numerous help sites, in case u r in trouble. 1. Have yr own Blogs [first ask yr friends to blog, it often helps ] 2. get goggle adds on 3. Add your site path XML to Google.com [it will increase yr hits] 4. Add a separate section for code hosting. 5. ..... I hope u under stand the rest.... Rajarshi
Mr. PCSpectra...haha...thats awesome. :) Thank you for the advice man, I'll take it all into consideration. 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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I already use a conditional hack for IE6... Thats not the issue...I think the problem is due to the fact that IE does not scale bitmapped graphics...so while the text increases (being vector drawn) the background images do not hence the text looks far larger than it should and everything loses it's layout. I would have to use variable height graphics for the meuu bar and the background header image which would require changing my design drastically or hacking like made using JS and alphablend. 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
Hi, Sorry for my delayed response. Here are my personal recommendations: - put any text that should be part of the banner (i.e. the "Are you a..." stuff) into the image. The text should appear exactly as you have placed it at all times, so there really isn't much point to keep it as text. You can add an invisible div somewhere if you think the text is important for search rankings (which won't violate search engine rules as far as I know because the content is actually visible, just part of the image). - The links on the bottom of your banner shouldn't be inside your "banner_text" div, they should be outside it in the "banner" div. Position it relative to the banner, that way if the text above it is scaled (if for whatever reason you decide to leave it as text), the positioning of those links won't be affected. - You have your paragraph text set with an explicit size (i.e. in pt or px), but your headers aren't. This means IE7 will scale your header text, but not your paragraph text, and thus look pretty crazy when viewed with text zoom. Either explicitly set both so neither zoom in IE7, or use relative sizes to define your paragraph text (predefined settlings like "normal", "larger", etc, or in % or em units) so that both scale proportionally (probably the better idea). Here is an excellent summary of how text is sized in the various browsers, and also take note of the section on fixing IE's text sizing exaggeration: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/howtosizetextincss[^] - Get rid of any transparencies you have. Nothing about your site layout requires partial transparency. It can all be converted to solid images without changing the look. The ONLY time I would ever use transparencies is to easily add non-critical "effects" to dynamically generated content without having to modify the underlying image (i.e. adding some sort of fade effect to an image you pull from a database). Example: www.galaxystonetile.com has various effects added to the big focus image. Those effects are simply removed for IE6 users, and website informs them that they are using an outdated browser to view the page. (Oops, I misread your previous statement about the alpha/png thing after I typed all that out, I thought you had some now. The point is still valid though - don't go PNG/alpha route, there is pretty much always another way around it).
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Great advice, thanks. I agree there is much that needs to change from a business perspective. This has probably been one of the most eye opening experiences in my life. It's clear to me I don't understand the world of business. Interestingly, today I I visited my doctor who acts like a psuedo-shrink to me. I vent and he listens and offers non-biased constructive feedback. Anyways, while venting today, it clicked as to what "sales" really is. I have always disliked sales. Why? The concept of paying someone commission (large portion of the overall fee of the project) just didn't sit well with me. Like I was ripping off the client or something, had they only researched and found me, they could have saved that $500 fee. I guess what a sales/marketing guy does is bring value added services to an existing service, by saving the business man of having to do the research themselves. Although obviously a sales man is going to be biased. As a techie, to me everything is about being critical, even of myself. When I do something wrong I want someone to tell me, even if it hurts my feelings, how else to do you ever plan on striving to become the best? Apparently that same mentality doesn't transcend into business, so I can't tell a business man his current software sucks and this is why. :P Thankfully I've been on contact with a sales savvy programmer with an interest in PR, something I will never be good at. Sounds like he's interested in being the front man to PCSpectra for a fairly large commission mind you, but I guess I'll just include that onto the client's bill. :P Thanks again, to you and everyone for all the advice given. Some sucked, some was constructive and very helpful in making me realize where I went wrong and have likely been going wrong for the last 10 years as I attempted to start my own gig. Unfortunately most of my previous work has been with companies I would consider "competition" which is why I decided to go at it alone, experience has taught me I can do it better, in some case a lot better. Here is where that "greatest widget in the world" story comes in I guess. Anyways, thanks again, keep the advice coming, obviously I need it. :-O :laugh: :) Cheers, Alex
Blog Entry: 7 Software development best practices to make you more effective and productive PCSpectra :: Professional, Affordable PHP Progr
You're quite welcome. This is something that I've often thought of trying myself, but circumstances have always changed my mind. :) And you're right on the role of sales/marketing: it's all about communication. Think of it this way... Your customer isn't going to pay for you to sit at a keyboard and hack out a web page - anyone can do that. Your customer isn't going to pay to hear you talk about how much better you are than your competition - people that claim that are a dime a dozen, and businesspeople know that many are full of hot air (but they may not be able to tell the difference). Your customer *will* pay you for your ability to effectively translate their business needs into the medium that is the web, and they *will* pay you for your ability to translate the technical jargon into something they can understand and, more importantly, something that is meaningful to their business. If you can do that, you'll find that it will set you apart of the majority of your competitors, and it may even allow you to charge a premium once you've established yourself. Oh, and yes, you can tell someone that what they're using sucks - just do it in a nice way. :) Constructive criticism can be a very useful tool, but only after you've already established the business relationship. Until that point, focus on the positives of what you can bring to the table. Ed
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You're quite welcome. This is something that I've often thought of trying myself, but circumstances have always changed my mind. :) And you're right on the role of sales/marketing: it's all about communication. Think of it this way... Your customer isn't going to pay for you to sit at a keyboard and hack out a web page - anyone can do that. Your customer isn't going to pay to hear you talk about how much better you are than your competition - people that claim that are a dime a dozen, and businesspeople know that many are full of hot air (but they may not be able to tell the difference). Your customer *will* pay you for your ability to effectively translate their business needs into the medium that is the web, and they *will* pay you for your ability to translate the technical jargon into something they can understand and, more importantly, something that is meaningful to their business. If you can do that, you'll find that it will set you apart of the majority of your competitors, and it may even allow you to charge a premium once you've established yourself. Oh, and yes, you can tell someone that what they're using sucks - just do it in a nice way. :) Constructive criticism can be a very useful tool, but only after you've already established the business relationship. Until that point, focus on the positives of what you can bring to the table. Ed
I see now what the expression: "Sell the sizzle not the steak" really means. I never understood that expression.
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:
I took a look at your site. It looks fine, albeit generic. Hate to say it, but the same goes for your logo, company name and tagline - all very generic. There's nothing to seperate you from 1000 other companies offering the same thing.
It's all good...everyone has an opinion. It's funny you say that though, cause the exact same was accused last time too and that time I did have a professional design it for me. The way it is now...is the way I have always wanted it...it took me damn near 10 years to finally achieve that look and feel. :P That is all me...design and everything. So in a way I take that as a compliment as to me it means, I have finally reached profesisonal design status and no longer look like a newbie. :)
Drew Stainton wrote:
I've been in business for nearly seven years, starting on my own and now have three employees. I don't believe I've gotten a single bit of work other than through word of mouth. I've never advertised (not even Yellow Pages), my current web site is a sucks. It doesn't matter, though, because for me it's all about the people network, doing a good job, keeping in touch, being friendly (but firm when required) and being someone people want to call.
Obviously I would argue that a professional looking web site is very important. As a reflection of your brick and mortar business, having a crappy looking or functionaing web site is akin to having a homemade front desk, dirty toilets or wooden sheet for windows. :P Personally I don't do business with people whose web sites suck. It tells me there to cheap to invest in my profession so why should I invest in theirs?
Drew Stainton wrote:
People will take a chance on others if they can relate to or at least feel comfortable with them (in my experience, anyway).
This is true. The few times I have had warm leads it was always at busines networking seminars, etc.
Drew Stainton wrote:
I noticed, when searching for your company name, that it usually came up on computer-related sites. Bill's Flower Shop isn't going to look there to find someone to do his web site. If he belongs to the local Chamber, he's going to ask people he knows there. He's going to ask his 'Computer Guy/Gal' if they know anyone. He might look in the local Yellow Pages if all else fails, but ultimately it comes dow
Hi Alex, I hope you view this as constructive criticism. I think your web site layout is pretty decent, especially when you compare it with many other sites out there. However, I think its too technical - you've written it and its good stuff but your a developer through and through. The small business owners who are going to give you a call back and place an order, haven't a clue what most of the stuff on your site is about and why they should need or want it. You may have heard the old sales/marketing phrase - "Don't sell the sausage, sell the sizzle". I think if you got a lot of the content re-worded, it would help a business owner understand why he/she needs to call you back. I suspect that might require some experienced, professional marketing company who will probably charge quite a bit for it. Example : "PCSpectra are experts in many web technologies, especially those concerned with the LAMP stack" - change to PCSpectra are experts in the latest web technologies. Also, you may have to volunteer 1 or 2 free development projects so that you can provide good quality customer testimonials. Hope this helps - stick at it. John
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Hi Alex, I hope you view this as constructive criticism. I think your web site layout is pretty decent, especially when you compare it with many other sites out there. However, I think its too technical - you've written it and its good stuff but your a developer through and through. The small business owners who are going to give you a call back and place an order, haven't a clue what most of the stuff on your site is about and why they should need or want it. You may have heard the old sales/marketing phrase - "Don't sell the sausage, sell the sizzle". I think if you got a lot of the content re-worded, it would help a business owner understand why he/she needs to call you back. I suspect that might require some experienced, professional marketing company who will probably charge quite a bit for it. Example : "PCSpectra are experts in many web technologies, especially those concerned with the LAMP stack" - change to PCSpectra are experts in the latest web technologies. Also, you may have to volunteer 1 or 2 free development projects so that you can provide good quality customer testimonials. Hope this helps - stick at it. John
Hey John, thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated. I do certainly have to work on the text/marketing material, that much is clear to me now. :) 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