I've been thinking about doing more and more freelance work and possibly in the future going completely freelance. I'd like a little more freedom.

Do any of you freelance and how do you go about finding jobs? Do you have a pretty steady stream of work? Do you usually get paid a reasonable price?

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Eric

I've done freelance before, but it has been a while since I did my last bit of freelancing. I only tend to do it when I'm in need of the money for whatever reason.

By advice to you is to get yourself settled in a few communities - Sitepoint, DigitalPoint and possibly NamePros are 3 good communities for picking up work. NamePros probably not so good because it's more domain orientated, but it's still a nice community nonetheless.

Concerning the price, I normally charge $60 an hour. I have a fairly good reputation on the Internet in various communities and so it's quite easy, and fair, to charge that much for my time. It's entirely up to you what you charge though, but don't charge a stupidly low price just to get work otherwise you'll be swamped with it and you'll be working yourself to an early grave and not getting the financial rewards. You've got to find a sweet-spot that allows you to pick up odd bits of work, but have enough time to take a breather and treat each client like they are special.

I did, and could quite easily again, get a steady stream of work, but I did freelancing for a couple of years before I decided to work for myself, and then I did some more freelancing with Karl earlier this year and so it really got to me in the end, I needed something different to do, so I took up doing my own projects where I'm truly my own boss.

...But geez, I can't wait to move down to Cornwall now! This whole Internet stuff really gets to you after a while. That's why I wouldn't highly recommend working for peanuts, it will begin to work you down into the ground. Charge a fair amount for the work you do. Your time is precious.

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The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.

I freelance for extra cash as well. I try very hard to treat clients like GOLD - this being the case jobs pretty much find me. I don't accept every job that comes my way and in fact I only take on about 50% of the jobs that I meet with prospects about since I have a certain "type" of project that I feel my work flow works well with.

I don't try and take on every job either. I got a proposal last night to code a website of the more adult variety. I'm still deliberating if I have enough time - it'll be something a different at least.

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The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.

Well, I've never done any freelance work. I've never had a project I couldn't figure out how to code but I guess I lack the confidence to accept money for scripts. I am working on the possibility to sell access keys for some of my free scripts to remove credit links.

What is the going rate for PHP freelance work?
What kind of jobs might I expect to find?
What are the pitfalls of freelance?

I've been offered work in the past but chose to pass up the opportunity. Partially because I guess I lacked confidence and partially because I didn't know what to charge.

Looking back on one of the proposals, I guess I should have taken it since I later developed the same script for my own needs. It was to code the user/group authorization and management component of a friends content management system. More of a base system for him to build other applications on. At the time I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it or do it right but the system I later developed was pretty easy to do. :(

Any thoughts?

vujsa

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Need PHP Help? - Handy PHP

You could try Guru, www.guru.com

Excellent (safe) payment methods, and a lot of people looking for clients and jobs. I've made about $100 from them, in 2 small jobs, not bad I guess.

I'm not sure if it was someone on here, or on another forum that told me about oDesk which is cool, though I've never actually applied for jobs on it, I've filled out my profile and took some tests. At least check it out I guess.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to deadlines, that's why I don't think I'd make a good freelancer, though I'd try, just to get over it.

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Not quite a n00b...

Don't be frightened CMellor, just don't make any promises

Vendor: "So when might you have this project done by?"
You: "Hmm, not sure. Given the amount of work it could take at least a week, but I can't promise you anything :)"

wGEic:

I've been doing freelance PHP Consulting for nearly the past 5 years. It paid my way through college and now that I'm 2 months out and the degree has only spooled up my business.

I got my start by going to web design studios and giving them my business card. Sometimes I would offer free consultation for smaller projects. It's important to build lasting, healthy relationships. Once you have an established few clients, you'll never been sore for work. Studios are the ultimate place to freelance for because they're getting you the clients. My clients are rarely end customers but instead design studios. When things are slow, I develop small licensable applications which I'm able to pitch to studios.

As for pay, I typically charge in the ballpark of $50-75, dependent on the scope of the project and studio size. You shouldn't charge what other people are charging just because it's what they're charging. Figure out your expenses and charge what you need to in order to turn an annual profit.

vujsa:

The jobs super diverse, but this year has been a heavy amount of community applications similar to that of MySpace and Facebook. Regardless, expect anything. The problem with being at a studio is it eventually will niche itself and you'll end up droning across the same projects. Freelance will throw you outside of the comfort zone more often it seems and that's why I do it.

The pitfalls of being freelance are dynamic and two part: 1) Pitfalls are in the eyes of the beholder, 2) In the end, you are responsible for you. Your reputation will follow you, but for better or worse it will frequently precede you. You really have to try out a project or two before you can determine for yourself what the pitfalls are. Whatever you do, don't do a project without a legal entity to work behind (I personally chose LLC).

Jay:

I don't know if you said that as sarcasm or not, but deadlines are an absolute necessity in the business world. No company will give you serious consideration in a bid if they don't have a time to hold you by. Don't feel you need to give a time estimate right when you hear about the project. Learn what you must about a project then figure out the time it'll take you and return with a Request for Proposal. Line item the features of your application so that if it goes over budget you can work with the client to allow the application and budget to meet somewhere in the middle. Don't be afraid to say no to a client.

Even though I probably sound like I praise the very idea of freelance, I'm finally calling it quits and trying to settle down at a local studio here in Florida as a full-time developer for 2008. The merits of working with a development team are vast: you get to bounce ideas and collaborate with peers--that will help anyone mature as a developer.

That's what I was thinking of doing. Contacting local design studios and letting them know I'm available for work if they need me. That way I wouldn't have to deal with the crappy rates I'd get online just to get jobs since there are so many people doing it.

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Eric

Well I took some advice and visited Guru.com. It only took a couple of days to get a job but the job was a nightmare. My fault I guess. The project was to setup a Joomla based website. Easy enough for someone with a lot of Joomla experience like myself but then the guy sends me a PSD and wants me to convert it to a Joomla template. Doing the initial configuration for a website and building a template are completely different. :(

I figured since I left room in my bid for the job and the guy offered a little more, I should take the job. I'm pretty good with PHP and HTML. rarely do I ever run into a problem I can't solve with a little research. I write extensions for Joomla so the system is pretty comfortable for me. CSS on the other hand drives me nuts. Different rules for different browsers and web standards results in so many problems for me.

Joomla uses a single master template to control the display of content. However, much of the system relies on non-template html built into the code that can throw a few curve balls. Like every content section is contained in the same div class but maybe two. So everything works great except those 2 pages...

Well, the project took 4 weeks instead of the 2 or 3 days I originally though when I bid the job but now it is done!

So, I thought I would take a few days for myself and develop some projects I have been putting off. So I got a PM on one of the forums I'm an Admin on asking about a script I wrote about 3 years ago for that website. The guy was interested in buying the script but I explained that the script wasn't able to be modified for his needs and a new script would need to be written. So he asks how much for a new script.

If I sat and coded the script in the easiest method possible, I could do it in about 2 hours so why not right! I'll probably spend about 4 hours on it since I want to optimize it and I can easily modify it for others that might ask for it later. I've have several request for the script in the past and assume that I'll get more.

So, if you get your name out there, you can get freelance work without looking. Just put some credit in your scripts so potential clients know how to find you. At the very least, place your information in an HTML comment so that it is there even if the user doesn't want it shown.

vujsa

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Need PHP Help? - Handy PHP

I'm quite well known in the freelance business, and it is fairly easy to come by work. People are forever asking me if I'm available to do work. So there's definitely plenty of opportunities out there if you go and make a name for yourself - for sure.

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The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.

I get most of my work form talkfreelance and sitepoint. Always have an ad on sitepoint, I have had clients come to my from listing I made months ago.

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Great reading in this thread. Thanks to all who've contributed!

Freelancers can post your resume at forum.td4l.org

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Codefreek's - News Letter, Tech, & some random ramblings

There's nothing like a bit of self-promotion is there, codefreek? You may as well go the whole way and make it a link. Just messing with you!

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The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.