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Ask HN: Quit my job to freelance web development. What do I do know?

1 points by RamblingLilitu ↗ HN
I'm outside of the United States. I have a computer science degree and just love programming. I worked for a company that does software development for clients all over the world. We used Scrum and tried to follow Agile practices to the best of our abilities.

I have experience in web development (mostly using C# and ASP.NET MVC, but also some PHP) and Android development. I also have experience with TDD, Ruby, Python and a range of stuff from Facebook's API to Sitecore, Brightcove and Drupal.

The point is I can code websites. I'm not the best programmer and I definitely have some weak points that I need to address in the front end department especially (css, javascript), but I'm not the worst either.

I've been looking for work in some freelance websites and haven't been able to win a bid on any of them. This is even after lots of Googling and reading extensively about experiences, tips, tricks, what to do and what not to do, etc.

The issue that I have encountered the most is that people always want to see the work you've done. I completely understand that, since I probably wouldn't hire a graphic designer (for example) that I don't know personally or somebody I trust has not recommended without first looking at some of their work.

Even though I have experience, it was all working for my previous employer and I have NDA's saying I can't disclose the work I did there and even if I could, it is not under my name.

I've decided to follow some advice I've gotten which is to build my own portfolio doing some work for either really cheap or free if they can't pay. The issue is I can't find any or don't know where to look probably. I thought it would be way simpler.

Here I am trying to offer quality work for very cheap or free if necessary and I can't find anyone interested. I say quality work not because I'm that good but because I care about my craft and building a business and it is definitely in my best interest to do a good job since I'm trying to build something I can show off later and get more clients.

I must not know where to look or have the right contacts, since I thought these days there should be lots of people looking to get some website done and I could be of help.

Where do I find somebody interested in quality web development work for a very good price?

Is this the wrong approach, what should I do instead?

8 comments

[ 135 ms ] story [ 377 ms ] thread
noahc
Have you contacted local non-profits, NGO's, clubs, etc? I'm sure they'd love to have a website developed for free/almost free.

Do five of these and you have a portfolio.

RamblingLilitu
I've contacted some local places, but haven't had much luck. Some already have a website they are "happy" with, but most others only want it if they don't have to pay a dime (since they don't feel they need one anyways) while the reality is that there are costs involved that I don't think I should cover like domain, hosting, etc. Seems dumb to me, but that has been the case.

I'm going to keep looking though. Maybe I have just approached the wrong kind of places.

noahc
Build one for them anyway. Then show it too them. If they say no it is still a portfolio piece.
technutcrack
I generally look for contractors at oDesk.com; agreed that it is tough to get work without a portfolio. You could build some "dev" sites and host it on your website. I'm currently looking for someone to build me a simple small biz website. If you are interested contact me at shravan.samhita@gmail.com
fauziassegaff
i was once similiar to you, used to be the hardworker company types, and i meet at a point where i feel that i need something more chalenge and risky. if you're with a luck of enough budget on you, i recommend that you bootstrap yourself and try to made a product, usefull for others, say contribute to open source on github and making your portfolio in there. i'm afraid that those cheap works (unleast it's for social purpose) will just make you a cheaper programmer

Best of all, within this point, i'ts fulfilling my ambitious to becoma a better and useful programmer. i'm still trying, and it's just feel great

byoung2
I did this back in 2007 to kickstart my freelance career. Find local businesses with the worst websites compared to their competition. This works great for non-chain restaurants, hair salons, small law firms, etc. Here's an example of a restaurant down the street from my house that has a terrible website: http://gwrestaurant.com/. Just go ahead and redesign it without even contacting them. The existing site will already have enough content to work with. The work will go quickly because there is no client to slow things down. Then you go into the business and talk to the manager and tell them you are a local web designer and you are building a portfolio, and you redesigned their site already (I would bring a laptop and show them over a wireless connection...now you could use an iPad). I would then offer to sell them the website for a small fee ($250-$500 + $25/mo hosting). I did this for a few dozen local businesses over a 6 month period before I started getting much bigger contracts ($5000-$8000+). Usually I could close the deal on the first try, but for businesses who don't buy, you can easily swap out the content, and sell it to a competitor.
RamblingLilitu
Thanks! I think this is a great approach. Let me see what I can find!
zachfejes
I think that byoung2 definitely has the right approach in mind. Being able to display your product for people immediately greatly adds to the wow factor of your work, and how they perceive you as an individual; self driven, motivated, and self confident in your work.

To add to the suggestions so far, I would advise that you approach local school groups (clubs and the like) and offer your services to them. They will likely appreciate the free publicity your services and websites will offer, and the schools may contract you if they like your now publicized work later on.