FreeLance Web Design

[Patrick Byrne]

Hi all..

Just thought I d write this post to see how other free lancers are doing in the economic mess..
For those of you that call to business's daily insearch of work and making people aware that you are open for business, what reaction do you get off people..

The biggest hurdle I m getting lately is why do I need a website when Facebook is free to join.. Everywhere I go all I get is we have a facebook page ..

What are your thoughts on this???
How difficult is it for you to find work?

 

[link8r]

Hi Patrick,

I'm not a web designer but I was MD of a web design company for 8 years.

My take on Facebook: Most Irish businesses I know have less than 10k fans on Facebook. Most businesses I know have 5k - 10k visits per month. That's worth more than 10k fans on Facebook. Loads of small Irish business have only a few hundred fans. If you get brand new people coming through to your site each month - that's marketing. Updating people who already know you isn't exactly casting the widest net possible!

To be honest, I've never seen such interest in companies developing and growing their web presence in the last 10 years. Rates even appear to be buoyant and many of the best digital agencies are very busy. Many are too busy to post on here - I've noticed some of the regulars from when I joined are off everything - twitter, IWF, everything.

Also, GIBO should be driving further interest. As soon as people see how easy it is to get and own your own domain, investing in their online asset is the next obvious stop.

Notably, people like shops and some in the trade might be shy of building a website but depending on where you're based, there should be plenty of businesses who need to upgrade.

Maintenance is a big area. We had setup a dedicated web maintenance company (just a year ago) but we had problems with the CEO.

 

[Kieran]

Agree with link8r here. You need to break down the cost of entry which is low. And Facebook is for fans / friends. I am sceptical unless you are a big brand what level of actual business it will bring to you.

I have spent a lot of time in past months working on a very clear and concise Powerpoint pack on how easy it IS to get online with a site. I will share it on slideshare at some stage....

 

[sticker]

romI'm happy to say I've been very busy for the past two years - One man show web developer. There's plenty of work out there...

My take on Facebook, if a small company wants a website to showcase their servcies or products, Facebook simply doesn't cut it. Prospective clients will run a mile if the only point of pressence is a Facebook page. From my perspective, Facebook is a great tool for SEO assistance - but not a lot more.

If you're relatively solid develoepr, you'll get work - I don't pay to advertise - referral work has me quite busy... Work on a solid portfolio and treat your clients with respect - they'll pass that message on to other associates intereted in work...

EDIT - I just had a quick look at your website and I think you need to work on it - it's quite dark and you've a lot of stretched images outside their native resolution (a hallmark of newbie developers happy to settle for that kind of look) - This lends me to believe you are still at amateur level. This would not attract new work for you.

I'd work on a cleaner design and maybe some work will come your way... As is stands, you're not standing out for a lot of other new web developers finding their feet - There's thousands of them out there...

Work on your design skills and hopfully things will improve - Food for thought anyway...

 

[Patrick Byrne]

romI'm happy to say I've been very busy for the past two years - One man show web developer. There's plenty of work out there...

My take on Facebook, if a small company wants a website to showcase their servcies or products, Facebook simply doesn't cut it. Prospective clients will run a mile if the only point of pressence is a Facebook page. From my perspective, Facebook is a great tool for SEO assistance - but not a lot more.

If you're relatively solid develoepr, you'll get work - I don't pay to advertise - referral work has me quite busy... Work on a solid portfolio and treat your clients with respect - they'll pass that message on to other associates intereted in work...

EDIT - I just had a quick look at your website and I think you need to work on it - it's quite dark and you've a lot of stretched images outside their native resolution (a hallmark of newbie developers happy to settle for that kind of look) - This lends me to believe you are still at amateur level. This would not attract new work for you.

I'd work on a cleaner design and maybe some work will come your way... As is stands, you're not standing out for a lot of other new web developers finding their feet - There's thousands of them out there...

Work on your design skills and hopfully things will improve - Food for thought anyway...

I enjoy a bit of constructive criticism.. I am currently in the process of a re-design of my site to bring out the skills I have developed over the last year.