21–30 of 41 posts
I was off to a rocky start but thanks to a blog post on gamasutra that ended up on HN I managed to reach my sales goal and I'm in the clear for the next 6 months. I guess the shrewd commenters who said this piece https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ConstantinBacioiu/20171121/3... was actually something of a subtle sales technique were pretty much spot on!
I've been freelancing remotely as a front-end web developer for over 3 years now. Here's my advice: 1. Get off of Upwork, now. You're only getting into a bidding war with low-priced overseas developers. 2. Instead, search remote job boards, Twitter, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn for freelance remote contracts related to your field. 3. Find the client's email and send them your portfolio directly. Following this strat…
Does this actually work? Where do you find Remote jobs on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn?
Various sources are scraped to find remote jobs and freelance gigs specific to front-end web development. I go through them manually after I've found them and only send the best 5 max.
I was off to a rocky start but thanks to a blog post on gamasutra that ended up on HN I managed to reach my sales goal and I'm in the clear for the next 6 months. I guess the shrewd commenters who said this piece https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ConstantinBacioiu/20171121/3... was actually something of a subtle sales technique were pretty much spot on!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does this actually work? Where do you find Remote jobs on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn?
Yes, the next email is going out in a few hours. The next one after that on Thursday morning eastern time. Various sources are scraped to find remote jobs and freelance gigs specific to front-end web development. I go through them manually after I've found them and only send the best 5 max.
Anyway, I'm a full stack developer so what about the back end stuff or mobile app development?
I'm interested in knowing where you source your leads so I might be able to find contracts in those areas.
Right now, I've only been able to find stuff through UW, so I'm curious that you've been able to find direct clients.
Get on Shapr. I just started using it and I've made quite a few connections.
When starting from scratch: post on Freelancer Seeking Freelance every month. You'll reach a groove once 120% of your referrals are word of mouth. The pendulum flips quickly between looking for clients and then getting a good rep. for doing good work and the clients flowing to you. Good work is hard to find. With that said, don't negotiate for the highest rate possible at the start. Getting a good rep. will get you b…
Does Freelancer seeking Freelancer actually work to find high paying contracts?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any tips on how to find your market average?
Global rates for software developers are roughly about $25-$100 an hour. $100/hour is more for people with specialist experience in the US time zone. There are people willing to go cheaper than $25/hour, but you'll be a blur among people who are willing to work fo $4/hour. But usually there are local rates as well based on your country. These are somewhat pegged to the international rates past a certain level of qual…
However, high-end means the focus gets drastically shifted from programming to figuring out what the client wants.
That said, you can charge 250-500 as a freelancer for a few hours of consultation. Your rates should largely depend on:
1) How many hours the client intends on spending with you 2) Urgency of work (and thus how much bandwidth you need to give to it) 3) Client's ROI
If you save your client 1000 hrs of reporting work a year by developing them a custom solution, that is easily worth well over 100,000k for that client: even if they are only paying people $50/hr to create these reports.
You can't charge 100,000k, otherwise the client will not have a great ROI. However, such a solution should take you somewhere around 100-400 hours to complete.
That works out to $125/hr in the worst-case, giving the client a good ROI after the first six months, and should give you a solid 4-6 months of work. If they need it sooner you need to charge them more, because you'll spend less time on business development.
This is a perfect world hypothetical of course ... in reality many other things come into play that will only work to drive your rates down.
Get on Shapr. I just started using it and I've made quite a few connections.
How do you make clients on Shapr? It sounds like it's more about peer networking.
I've been freelancing remotely as a front-end web developer for over 3 years now. Here's my advice: 1. Get off of Upwork, now. You're only getting into a bidding war with low-priced overseas developers. 2. Instead, search remote job boards, Twitter, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn for freelance remote contracts related to your field. 3. Find the client's email and send them your portfolio directly. Following this strat…
As an ex frequent buyer on Upwork I can confirm, that place is the pits.