Posts Tagged ‘designing the internets’
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
I have an idea. It might not go anywhere, but it’s an idea.
I’ve long been obsessive about music, rating my tracks and albums, working out the averages and putting together ‘Top 20′ lists and so on. There is obviously something incredibly nerdy about this, but it’s music related so it’s also cool. Isn’t it? Let’s just say there were certain parts of High Fidelity which were written about me.
Anyway, if you combine my website development ability with my album rating obsession and my occasional music review-writing, you might end up with some sort of nerdy music website. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten in the planning, and at this stage it will probably just serve as a place for me to keep my nerdy lists and rant about music.
As to whether anybody would be actually interested in reading the thing is another question. But at this stage the site would be more for personal enjoyment, which is a pretty good business plan I reckon.
Tags: designing the internets, Music
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Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
I have nothing to do today, so I’ve tided up the design here a bit, making things simpler, and quite possibly uglier. That’s the beauty of being half man and half awesome coding machine.
I wish I could code myself a new face.
Tags: designing the internets
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Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
The beginning of a new year is a good time to take a GOOD HARD LOOK AT YOURSELF, MY FRIEND.
I like to work from home shirtlessly, and using the latest techmology
Anyhoo, some of you may have gathered that I’m a full-time freelance web designer, and have been for about six months. Many people dream of working for themselves from home - the flexibility, freedom, and convenience is a huge bonus after all.
After tinkering in web design, building a few sites for family and friends, and testing my mettle in London, I decided to take a leap of faith and jump off the freelancing cliff. My own experience has been very positive, but I can see how things could easily have gone pear-shaped. Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, my involvement in the family business gave me a good grounding to cope with the rough patches, and I knew what to expect.
Obviously, it’s not all peaches and cream. I was blessed enough to come across a few key contacts early in the piece who gave me enough work to keep me going. I know everybody says you need a business plan, but to be completely honest, if I had kept trying to follow my dodgy business plan I’d probably have gone nowhere.
So here’s what I’ve learned about being a freelance web designer. If I could travel through time and read this letter to myself about six months ago, I’d be thanking myself. Or something.
Working from home will drive you bonkers
It’s not quite as romantic as you think. Personally, I’m very insular and enjoy being on my own, so I’m especially well equipped for solitude. However, if you thrive on conversation and the company of others, you’ll be tearing your hair out after about two weeks.
I was fortunate enough to be offered an opportunity to work from the local University (with a fellow web developer) for three days a week, so I’ve managed to create a good balance where I can enjoy my solitude for a couple of days, and enjoy the company of others for the rest of the week.
It’s also very easy to get distracted while working from home. Strangely enough, I generally get distracted by doing odd jobs around the house, like gardening. Luckily I enjoy my work, so when I’ve got lots of work on, I don’t find it to difficult to get motivated.
Paid advertising is a waste of time
Yup, it’s pretty much like throwing a whole bunch of fifty dollar notes at a brick wall and hoping some of them will stick. In my experience (and for my type of business) the most effective forms of advertising are free - networking and referrals. Develop new contacts within your industry. When you get work, do an excellent job so that people will refer you to others.
I’m not saying that paid advertising is always a bad idea - by all means develop a sophisticated marketing strategy, but make sure it’s highly specific and that you’re targeting the right people.
Allow sanity time
There’s no way in hell I can bill 100% of the hours I work. I need time for drawing up quotes, answering emails, sorting files, doing the finances, making cups of tea, using twitter, reading articles, learning new technologies, drawing up quotes, and fluffing around. You’re kidding yourself if you think you can bill people for more than 75% of the time you work and not burn out after a while.
I start work at 8am and don’t expect to start billing somebody until 9am. During the day I allow myself plenty of time to myself organised, I get up and walk around, and make sure I watch lots of funny shit on YouTube.
Clients are time wasters
If you’re going to work for real live members of the public, be careful, because they are intensely annoying. Jobs will usually take 50% longer than you think - you have to allow for holding their hand, talking to them on the phone, making revisions, and explaining the internet to them.
By all means, pursue client work, but make sure you charge good money and allow extra time for dealing with their shit. Enough said.
Sub-contracting is awesome
There’s nothing wrong with asking people in your industry for overflow work. In fact, when you’re starting out and still developing client contacts, it’s an excellent way to improve your skills and keep the cash flowing. Sure, you’ll earn less money - everybody knows the big dollars come from clients - but the work is usually very low-hassle.
Personally, I love sub-contracting. I think it’s great dealing with people who know what they’re talking about and who understand the technology. It’s less risk, and the flow of work is steady, and the relationship is often easier to manage.
<?php $basket=1; $eggs=12; if ($basket<2) echo “This is a bad idea”; ?>
Yeah, um, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t count on one (or even two) clients providing you with enough work, you’ll need to expand your horizons and get a few more options happening. When times get tough, you’ll be able to adapt more easily.
Don’t be the ball
I am not my business. I am an employee of the business. I don’t get paid nearly enough to be working more than 38 hours a week and constantly worrying about money.
The last thing I wanted was to be a slave, so when I decided to freelance full-time I decided there were several conditions. Firstly, I’d get the benefits of any other employee. I allow myself public holidays, sick days, annual leave, and superannuation. Sure, I’d end up with less in the hand, but isn’t sanity worth more than money, and don’t I deserve to be treated like anyone else? Every week, I put money aside to cover my holidays, sick leave, and super.
Secondly, I get paid a weekly wage just like anybody else. My own personal money is separate from the business money. There’s no dipping in from my end, and there’s never a week where I don’t get paid. Nice and simple. We like it that way.
Have cash
Freelancing is a case of feast and famine. Sometimes I have absolutely nothing to do, which is terrifying. Other times I can barely manage the phone calls and emails. Since the work is sporadic, that means my cash flow is going to be up and down like.. um, some kind of crazy up and down type thing. Building a $6,000 website is great, but you need the cash to get you through until that invoice gets paid.
Therefore, I need cash to back me up. Sometimes that comes in the form of the tax money I put aside, but that’s not always available, so I need at least a few thousand dollars as a ‘buffer’. Obviously the idea is that you dip into the money in lean times and pay it back when those big fat invoices get paid.
Don’t undersell yourself
I started out desperately underselling myself because I was trying to get clients. I would torture myself for hours while deciding on prices, and then feel guilty for charging good money. I wasn’t doing myself any favours.
Early on I lost a client job because I was too cheap, and that was an important lesson. People associate low prices with low quality, and it’s extremely difficult to convince people otherwise. Do your research, look at competitors’ prices, and charge good money for your services. You deserve it.
That’s a wrap
Hope you enjoyed my crappy article. Just a few pointers I probably could have used in my early days.
I’m looking forward to the coming year - I feel like I’ve really cleared the early cobwebs and I’ve got a good focus and understanding of where I want to go with freelancing. My strategy at this stage is to focus on sub-contracting - personally I find the work convenient, the people easy to deal with, and the money quite good. I’m always learning new things too, so that’s an added bonus. Obviously I am still going to accept client work, but I won’t be pursuing it actively.
Another goal of mine for this year is to give myself a raise. Building up momentum always takes time, so I was never expecting to earn big bucks in my first year. However, I’m almost getting to the stage where the business is generating enough to warrant a higher wage. It’s probably a few months away yet, and it won’t be a huge jump, but will certainly be a welcome one.
Tags: designing the internets
Posted in Web | 4 Comments »
Monday, August 25th, 2008
Hi, there. Time for an update on my major life experiment, which is starting my own full-time freelance business. Despite the fact that I am an insanely busy freelance web monkey, I still find time to keep you abreast of all the latest developments. Isn’t that nice? Isn’t it?
Business is going fairly well. When I started, I didn’t know what to expect, and I was right. Freelancing is a strange creature - the best thing is the flexibility (I’ve never had a job before where I can take the dog for a walk when I feel like it), and the worst thing is not knowing if you’re quite going to bill enough to pay your wage for the week. The thing that amazes me is that I can work for a full day and only bill five hours sometimes.
After a few (anticipated) weeks of low earnings, things are starting to pick up. I’ve made several extremely useful contacts in the web industry who are throwing me a fair bit of sub-contracting work to supplement my ‘public’ business. In fact, I’m starting to wonder whether I might prefer to sub-contract full time. Dealing with clients, by all accounts, sucks the big one, and I quite enjoy being presented with regular work which I can concentrate on without visiting / calling / smelling / hearing the public. My approach to the business is extremely flexible, so I’m just going to go with the flow for the moment. Of course, there’s better money in real live clients, so I’ll still keep accepting work and see what happens.
In order to keep some semblance of order, I decided early on to pay myself a ‘wage’ from the business rather than just dip in when I need money, which could get messy. The wage is comparatively low (just over 40k) but I’ll be looking to give myself a raise before too long. I also pay myself superannuation, holidays, and sick pay to keep myself sane. There’s no point burning out, I always say.
Speaking of holidays, I’ll be taking one next week. We’re driving down to NSW to visit family as the wife’s brother has recently had a baby boy. Road trip!
Tags: designing the internets, money
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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Upon investigating a new URL for my possible whizz-bang personal website, I’m rather disappointed to discover that Australian Fishing Enterprises exists. More frustrating is the fact that an even better URL - afe.net - simply has a garbled message from ‘Ernie’.
It’s the same old story. It seems every time I try to do something worthwhile in life, Ernie comes along to screw things up. Yesterday, when I went to get my ham and avocado sandwich out of the fridge, there was a note:
“Thanks - Ernie.
P.S. don’t like wholegrain.”
I shake my fist at you, Ernie, and I spit pins in your direction.
Tags: blogging, designing the internets
Posted in Uncategorised | 1 Comment »
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
This blog was probably due for a bit of a rebirth, considering that it died somewhat of a slow and painful death over the last six months. I’ve removed my shitty template and installed something atrociously boring. I think I like it. I’ve also added a Twitter widget, cleaned up my links and got rid of the Google Ads. My revenue was about 22 cents over the last year or so. I feel so clean.
Now that I’m a super ninja web designer I’ll probably eventually leave Blogger and make a personal customised website instead, but that will take time and effort. There’s scope for a work-related blog, but I think it’s important to keep that separate. My clients don’t want to read about my bowel movements.
Blogging seems to be generally in decline, and many of my old pals have lost interest (like myself). I’ve also lost interest in Facebook. Twitter seems interesting, though.
Work-wise, I seem to be getting pulled into the web development field rather than web design lately. A couple of project opportunities have lead me to spend a great many hours reading manuals and fiddling with Apache, Drupal, CakePHP, and Wordpress recently and I’ve probably learned more in this last week than I ever knew. Being slightly more nerdy than designery, it could be a good path for me. Less client contact would also be a bonus.
Tags: blogging, designing the internets
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Didn’t you know, blogging is sooooo 2005? It’s all about Twitter or Facebook or something now. In fact, Facebook is sooooo 2006. No matter what you do, you’re behind the times. That’s why I’m just going to sit at home and eat cheese from now on. I don’t even have a touch-screen television on my fridge!
Assuming Chocolate Rain wasn’t enough information about what’s been going on in my head for the last few months, I should probably fill you in. Now that my income depends solely on freelancing through my web design business, I’ve been intermittently panicking and shaking my hands around like a little girl. Sometimes I feel superbly confident, sometimes I feel like jumping out my office window and bolting. Nonetheless, things are going reasonably well considering it’s early days. I wear ugg boots, drink tea and often don’t speak to anybody for the entire day (except the dog). Working from home is the BEE’S CHEESE.
~~ THE WORDS ENDS HERE ~~
Tags: blogging, designing the internets
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
From now on, I will blog once per month, no more. The screaming fans outside my house were getting a bit much.
What have I been up to? Let’s see.
- Our new baby doggy is growing up and behaving herself nicely. Her name is Lulu and she likes chewing things and running around in the back yard and being cute.
- I launched the brand new snazzy website for Blackbird Solutions. I am a proud father!
- This week I decided to try out this whole freelancing web design thing and work from home. Mostly that means staring at my laptop while I wear ugg boots and scratch my butt. But I also work! And they give me money. This is a good arrangement, and I think I will do this full-time soon.
- I went to a wedding and drank some beer, which tasted nice.
Right now I am very excited, because tomorrow I am going to live on a houseboat for 4 DAYS with 4 FRIENDS on the Noosa River. We are going to laugh and drink beer and catch fish and eat crabs and throw our heads back and laugh some more.
Tags: beer, designing the internets, dog, friends
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Generally speaking, I really couldn’t. Be arsed, that is. Since returning to Australia I seem to have been sucked into a vortex of busy boringness which is draining my will to write music, or write blog entries, or really do anything but fix things around the house and work on my sideline business. It’s not that I’m not enjoying life, it’s just that it seems to be going about 5 times faster than usual. This is starting to sound like one of those whingey posts that I hate reading, so feel free to lose interest and roll your eyeballs at will.
Something interesting is happening. I’ve got a month or so left on my full-time work contract, then I’m on my own. I’ve set up my own web design business, which I’m hoping to actually use to earn a living from the middle of the year. Crazy, I know. I’ve got a few jobs on the go right now, and hopefully things will heat up so I can work from home full-time eventually. With little experience in the freelancing front, it’s going to be an interesting experiment. It should be fun, and I’m not really worried. Yet. I’d better start getting serious about marketing pretty soon though.
The past few weeks have also been spent building a little doggy fence for our newest addition - a female Golden Retriever puppy we’re picking up this weekend. Trish is completely beside herself with excitement, and pretty much speaks of nothing else. Adjusting to becoming puppy parents should also be an interesting experiment.
Tags: blogging, designing the internets, dog
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
Being unemployed is depressing. I’ve been sitting in the house since Monday looking for jobs while my tiny wife goes out to bring home the bacon. Although technically, I’m still on holidays until the 15th of February, I still feel like I should be doing something right about now.
While looking for web design jobs online I’ve realised I should probably actually learn how to hand-code HTML, a skill which has evaded me thus far. But not for long, you slippery little sucker! I’ve got one whole brain to spare!
Right now HTML looks like this:
<>KJOI=2@”BLA BLA BLA@”!!%*screw you afe!!£(((((
But soon it will look like this:
<>KJOI=2@”BLA BLA BLA@”!!%*afe is the best!!£(((((
Apparently it’s forecast to snow tomorrow! Hooray! Snow means that everybody gets to stay home and drink hot chocolate, right? Therefore I don’t have to look for a job tomorrow. It’s a snow day. I’m going to spray raspberry cordial everywhere and eat raspberry snowcones ALL DAY LONG.
Tags: designing the internets, work
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Hello, I'm Afe.
