Ask HN: Freelance web dev best practices...

Freelance web dev is a wide open landscape (and getting wider all the time with the addition of things like mobile apps, platforms such as Facebook, etc.) Couldn't even begin to tell you unless you were to be more specific. I suggest you focus on front end or back end. Take a look at the work out there and decide where you want to go. Sometimes the decisions are made for you (looking for a Wordpress developer and sometimes you have full decision making power.)

Get really good at the basics first, HTML, CSS and Javascript, those are a must. Then choose a back end language, php, python, ruby, etc, and learn them very well. Identify what your best area of development is, back end, front end. Focus on one area and try to delegate the other part. It also really depends on the type of person that you are (creative, technical..etc), what kind of programming do you like to do the most?. What is your ideal situation as a programmer, what would you like to be doing the most. Master a couple of languages and get jobs on that area. If you're gonna go for WordPress get really good at it, don't just customize themes, get to build plugins, filters, hooks, etc.

Hey, Oldmanstan.

I do freelance web development, project management, and (some) design. Here's a few thoughts I have on my process. These are things I'm doing to stay fast and efficient. Best of luck to you in your work.

# Optimize for Efficiency

When you have a chose of a tool (platform, application, business practice), optimize to the tool that takes you less time to use. If you're thinking about how to develop sites and you're debating between using a CMS like Wordpress or maintaining static HTML files, I default to picking the tool that will save me more time in the long run. In my case, I use Wordpress for 99.9% of my projects because I know it saves me time in building, deploying, and maintaining websites for customers. There was invested time up front, but now I don't have to worry about how much time it will take to add 1 link to the navigation on a 30 page site coded in static HTML. (Hint: Too long.)

The same holds for business practices. If you're thinking about how to market yourself, pick something that has the highest return on your time. A few months ago I was debating marketing strategies to find my next paying customer. I narrowed the list down to:

* Launch a website * Email Chamber of Commerce Members * Go to Networking Events * Call up prospects

I then estimated how much time each activity would take and the expected number of customers I could expect to acquire. I chose to focus on the strategy that I felt would have the biggest probability of success: directly calling up prospects.

# Tools

Here's a few tools that I recommend. They help me stay fast and efficient on the projects I do:

* Basecamp

Cloud based project management software. I just started using this a few weeks ago on a new project and I'm immensely happy. It's removed all the friction of multiple emails and forgotten todos on the client's side. Basecamp acts as a one-stop repository on what needs to be done, the project status, and any resources that you need to take note of.

Do yourself the favor of registering for their free plan and playing around with it. By no means do you have to use this, but keep it in mind if you ever end up with a 57 email chain in Gmail with a client over todos they need to take care of.

* CloudApp

Simple file, image, and link sharing. I use CloudApp to manage sharing screenshots and files with clients. Take a screenshot in OSX, the screenshot is uploaded to cloud's web server and a URL is placed in your clipboard. Simply paste the URL into an email and - boom - your client doesn't have to worry about downloading an attachment. Better yet? Analytics show you when the URL was clicked. Best yet? Just drag files or links to the CloudApp menubar icon and it gives you a short url to send to a client for the client to access the files.

* SimpleNote

Super-awesome cloud based notepad. Syncs to iPhone / iPad devices. Great for jotting down notes or reminders and syncing information across multiple computers / devices. This is my preferred digital scratch pad.

* Wordpress and Wordpress Themes

I love Wordpress because it's powerful enough to do what I want and simple enough so clients don't get confused. I have 5 standard Wordpress themes that I use for 99% of my development work - offering clients a choice between 5 different themes makes it easy to have a balanced discussion about what they want and - bonus - is more efficient.

Ask a client what they want and you get a confusing, hand-wavy response. Show a client 5 example themes, ask questions to isolate what they need / want (what their explicit problem is), and build on the existing themes and you'll save yourself a lot of headache.

One of my first projects was an RFP for the University. The spec and design I submitted won the contract, but the time it took to get on the same page with the client killed my per-hour. Now, when working with clients, we can start with a concrete base design and build up.

* DropBox

I always introduce Dropbox to my non-technical friends as a backup / storage mechanism. Simply put, save the files...

Planning.

http://versastudio.com/guide/ycombinator