- you are not 18. The stereotype of irresponsible shkoloty is nothing to destroy
- vKontakte you name is Vasya, on the stock exchange Peter, and webmoney will betray that you are Masha. Few people think at the very beginning of their journey about their virtual profile, but in vain, then nothing will change. Think not only about the reliability of the input data, but also about their "purity". If the user under your nickname is on the phpclub forum to ask to teach him how to program, then be prepared for suddenly lost clients.
- give the future customer a maximum of information about yourself: phone, skype, ICQ, wallet and account numbers.
- pay attention to social networks. Nothing compromises a performer like a VKontakte page containing a mat, Padona expressions, and so on.
- put yourself in the place of the customer and check all this information through search engines for purity and consistency
- try to write without errors and typos. I don’t even think about talking about the mother in communication with the customer.
First order
So, we coped with the registration. Next you need to try to get an order. Frankly speaking, for the first 2 years the cost of an hour of my work was striving towards 0. There are lots of options for a programmer to earn money on the exchange. It is important to make the right choice. You obviously cannot see big orders, you need experience and feedback. Therefore, the choice is approximately as follows:- Small hacks and modules to popular cms systems. This work is very good, you can quickly gather around you loyal customers who need to support sites. But the disadvantage is the lack of growth. CMS for housewives do not differ in the quality of coding, which means that you expect constant communication with the cattle-code and the generation of it. This will slow down your professional growth. In any work mistakes are made, even in small ones. The second drawback is the accumulation and difficulty of identifying errors in your work. You can choke on this. After all, you do not disappear after receiving the money, but honestly and free of charge correct the mistakes made in the code. Yes, and apologize to the client for each of them. The third drawback of minor coding is the contingent in need of it. You will have to get used to, that you will be overcome with stupid questions and requests. The fourth drawback is the high rotation of customers. In other words - a lot of talk, but little money.
- Parsing. Almost perfect job, despite the moral motivation. She is a lot, she dominates among orders. Currently you can easily find up to 20 offers per day on the Russian-language exchanges. Huge opportunities for work automation. It all depends on you. Learn curl, sockets, parsing libraries for html, and of course regular expressions. It is advisable not to dwell on php. Before my eyes there are many examples of freelancers who in fine parsing earn no less than Moscow office programmers who like to talk about patterns at interviews.
- Small scripts. Forms, small databases and other routine for the price less than $ 100. The worst possible direction. The risk of running into an inadequate customer in this category is very high. And all because most orders are generated by "housewives", the very ones who stamp everything from business cards to WordPress and Joomla stores. Having crammed their creation with everything that one can get in open access, they run to the stock exchange to order the missing functionality. The trouble is that their work is not much appreciated, so for a couple of dollars they will be ready for you to endure all the brains. Also, the disadvantages include the inability to accumulate and improve ready-made solutions, your professional growth will initially strive upwards by leaps and bounds, knowledge will be required from a variety of areas, but this entry-level knowledge and therefore ultimately you will stop somewhere in the middle. this slag from shit-code concocted for $ 10 in haste.
Start earning
- Turnkey websites or the development of modules on open-source engines. In this segment there are designers who need a programmer to implement projects. Also, poor web studios to the detriment of their reputation are asked to create saytik using Joomla, pulling the design and finishing it a bit. I am absolutely not familiar with this direction, so
how I avoided it like a fire. Therefore, I will express my opinion based on logic, not experience. Learn the popular engines: see how to work with which of them gives you pleasure and dare.
If you are professional in your responsibilities, customers will gather around you. - Writing small engines. If you are not looking for easy ways, then this is your choice. You have to get used to the idea that you will not be able to get quick returns. As your professional growth progresses, your views on the architecture and implementation of web applications will change. And for each change of opinion you will have to pay your time or money, which, incidentally, is synonymous with freelancing. It is best to work with intermediaries - small web companies that will merge your orders from $ 200 with non-standard functionality. The mediator takes on communication with the client, the preparation of TK and is often a more obligatory and stable partner.
It is better to avoid private customers, otherwise you will become an investigator, and your work will turn into continuous conversations and making TK. For all the time of my work, I met a meager share of customers who knew what they wanted, the rest flew in the clouds. A new client is always a risk of running into an inadequate person or a fraudster. Recognize them will only help your own communication experience. - Frameworks In recent years, this area is constantly growing. After studying one or more popular frameworks, you will not only get professional growth, but also the opportunity to work as a team on a large project. However, you should never forget that you are programming in a language, not in a framework. Another danger of frameworks - you solve problems that will become irrelevant with the retirement of this framework. Do not repeat the mistakes of jquery programmers who have not seen a clean code in their life and connect the library to write something like
$ (". btn"). css ("display", "none");
Communication with the client
So. You have created a virtual working image for yourself and decided on the front of future work, what next?- Evaluation of work. Freelancers are surprisingly fond of round numbers. You give him a task, and he gives you $ 1000 with an intelligent look in an hour. The likelihood that a freelancer is a bummer and called the price from the ceiling is extremely high and personally I have such amounts immediately suspect. Therefore, an important point of freelancing is job evaluation. Mostly evaluate the hours of operation. The cost of an hour usually ranges from $ 3 to $ 35, depending on experience and greed. The number of hours is calculated on the basis of TK. Only your own experience can help you here. I break the project into pages and blocks. For each block, I put the estimated execution time in minutes (this is where we see the real need for any time managers to apply). To the amount received, I add some hours to talking with the client and debugging the project. The resulting amount is multiplied by the cost of one hour of work and the result is given to the client. To complete the picture, you can still reset his estimate. Even if the price is more than the client expected, he will hardly argue. At best, it will offer to trim some of the functionality.
- Prepay. Without prepayment can not work. The more experience you have, the more you ask for prepayment. Ideally, you need to immediately demand all the money for the project. already. This will save you from unnecessary communication with the customer on the topic of finance. You are a creative person and you don’t need to bother with financial routine. At the dawn of my work, I worked without prepayment, proudly announced this to customers, and this certainly helped me find orders. The project was divided into parts and after the implementation of each of them, the client was supposed to transfer part of the money. But the trouble is, you did the first part of the project, sat for a week at the monitor from 8 am to 10 pm, shipped the result to the client for testing and ... and that's it. Day of silence, another. The customer is your man busy and greedy. One quality of his character does not allow him to pay for work without checking, and the other to allocate time for this very check. And like any cynic, he wanted to spit on you from the high bell tower and he does not care about the delay. Will you start the next part of the project? No ... Realizing that a hole is starting to form in the budget, you will take on another project. And this in turn is fraught with the waste of a huge amount of extra time. After all, your greedy client is not a cheater and in a week he will check the project anyway and maybe even pay it, but he will surely cut the amount, noticing errors. And you have to do the project further, and all thoughts for a week of inactivity have disappeared from my head, and you have to spend time to restore memory. Worse, you don’t have time, at the other end of the country another client is waiting for the results of your work. Such customers are quite common. Therefore, at any convenient opportunity, demand prepayment and as much as possible.
- Estimate of time. I notice that many people, and programmers in particular, suffer from a reassessment of their strength. You look at the TK, and in your head “What is there to do, a trifle” turns around and you call it without thinking about the time or worse, you take one job, another, a third and you don’t understand that the collapse of time is close. It seems that everything is about to ruin. And then, at best, you have to apologize to the customer. To avoid this, you need to keep a clear log of work. You should be aware of: how much you are able to spend hours a day, a week. What is your potential at force majeure? It is very important to be able to correctly estimate the amount of work, this also comes with experience. Record how much was spent on this or that work, then analyze and draw conclusions.
- Timing. Freelancers often forget to specify a deadline for the adoption of the project. It's a paradox, but 50% of my clients take projects longer than I do them. There are no problems until you break the project into parts with payment for each of the executed parts. A freelancer is not considered as a person, because it is not protected by the COAPOM, therefore, as practice shows, it is useless to appeal to human conscience. People do not want to understand that they are delaying your salary. Although I think many people understand everything and just enjoy it.
- Choosing a customer. Know how to program? This is not enough. Learn more to communicate with people. I studied for a long time, more than 4 years. And after abandoned this ungrateful business. As I wrote above, it is more convenient and safer to work with intermediaries. A freelancer can be saved from cheating only by his experience. Do not be careless and naive. Do not work on the client server. Do not work without prepayment. I am now writing this phrase, but I myself know that at first I will have to work without prepayment.
- TK. They often argue whether TK is necessary or not. It's pretty simple - TK is an extra expense. But this rule is valid only with old, proven, adequate clients who are confident in you, and you are confident in them. If we talk about new employers, the lack of TK is a failed project. You hand it over to chance. If you think that TK is the answer to all questions, then you are mistaken. TK simply allows you to save time by getting rid of heaps of erroneous steps. But from an inadequate customer who changes his desires every day it will not save you. Sticking his nose in the TZ, you get arrogance and blackmail. It’s unprofitable for you to argue over trifles, so you’ll have to swallow a grudge and continue to work to your own detriment or waste unpaid time on disputes. Also, you can easily be faced with a choice: continue to work to the customer’s tune or go through the forest. In this case, the time spent will not pay you. Even worse, they will write a complaint to you. A negative review in a freelancer portfolio is like death. Few customers understand how much time and effort is invested in this profile. Rating earned over the years, and spoils in a jiffy. I sense that you write a negative review, if you are written out of the principle of nastiness in response and it does not matter that they write the truth or lie. Therefore, enter into a contract. Every freelance site allows it. Let the site act as an intermediary in your contract.
- Learn to refuse. If something does not suit you in the client, then it is better to refuse. This is not so easy to do. Refuse clearly and politely. Finally give some banal advice. Often, the client is not morally ready to refuse and starts dumping the dialogue to the level of sracha. You should not get involved in the dialogue, anyway, you won’t get an understanding, but your mood and working mood will deteriorate. You do not care that the last word is not yours, you must be above it. Do not try to explain to the client the reasons. An adequate person will simply say goodbye and leave, in the worst case in English.
Greetings, friends! Do your fears disturb you? How many opportunities have you missed by allowing uncertainty to take over? Have you ever felt hurt to watch others turn out to embody that which you lack courage?
However, here is a list of articles that can help in your productivity. Another thing that can help you be more productive is a notebook. Of course, you have noticed that innovative business ideas come to you when you are on the move or walking in the street. Do not worry, it is quite common. However, the problem is that most people lose these ideas just because they have nowhere to write them.
However, they do not use these thoughts, and later will spend time looking for inspiration, when in fact they had it a few days ago. Imagine an idea coming to me. If you release it, the next day you will spend half an hour looking for the title of the article.
If you have never experienced such feelings, then you are a unique case, a man-rock. If you constantly experience them, but it has become a familiar state and does not prevent you from living, I can hardly help you. Today my article is for those who are scared, but who are willing to take a chance and take a step towards their desires. I will tell you how to become a freelancer from scratch.
You only have a true sense of discipline, which is necessary if you start your business. All this time, management, customers or budgets, forces enormous willpower. At first it even exists, the more difficult it becomes even when work begins to accumulate, and the terms become shorter. As a businessman, you need to have a good discipline. It is important to be able to say “no” when it should be, and to know how to surrender, only when it is strictly necessary.
See the best way to publish your work.
For three months, try to work on a personal project on Saturday and Sunday, while during the week you do your usual activities. Set the time to get up, the amount of work and other things. In this way, you can have more or less the reality of managing your business, without yielding to another temptation. One way to improve performance in terms of information disclosure is to distribute it correctly. This may be correct, but only if it is used very well.
In the previous article, we analyzed. Now I want to tell you where to start and where to go to become a successful freelancer.
Equipment setup
I would not talk about obvious things if they did not help to tune in to the desired wave. The most difficult thing is to make a decision and take the first step. Let these simple actions become a kind of dedication to freelancers:
Imagine that I have a sports betting site. There is not much logic in spreading my work in a common newspaper. But if you do it in a football magazine, he may have more logic. It doesn’t matter if you are online or offline, it’s important that you do it with your target audience. However, I still have a “concern” when it comes to investing in offline publications with online projects.
Give something to your future customers.
One of them was the fact that you were recognized for it. This has a very simple reason. Have you seen how many TV and newspaper ads you see every day? Tell me one thing: how much is in your head? This is because the experience that you have is just visual.
- Prepare a computer with Internet access. This is the main tool of freelancer, moreover - this is his office. Turn on the installation, that from now on your laptop is your job, opened it - came to work, closed - left work. In front of the monitor screen you are a cool specialist and a point. This should become a habit, and even better to become a reflex.
- Get e-wallets. This method of payment services is very common in the world of remote work. And how it motivates to further action!
We restore the facade
To communicate with customers, you will use all possible ways: email, pages on social networks, Skype, phone, Viber, WhatsApp - what is more convenient for the client. The more contacts the better!
To stand out from your competitors, you must provide your customers with some physical experience. This can only be done by providing products or services. This is undoubtedly the best way "Capture" your perspective. Make him addicted to your product, and if he likes it, he will most likely tell his friend, who will tell his friend, and so on. Word of mouth begins to work.
Maintain a balance between personal and professional life
Undoubtedly, this moment is true, but this is also happening because professionals allow it. Setting a balance between personal and professional life is a goal that few people have in mind, preferring to increase profits, acquire customers, or buy this new computer.
All profiles and names should look official and adequate. Would you agree to give the order to the artist with the nickname 4elovek muxa666 and the corresponding avatar? Creative, but a rich imagination is better to demonstrate differently.
Your profiles must have your name and your face. Well-groomed and combed. What would you look like if you were going to offline business negotiations?
You can think of something normal, because if these difficulties are not overcome in the short term, they will bring big problems for the freelancer. However, as professionals, we should not have such a short vision to think only about the morning. The absence of this harmony will bring us some damage in a very short time. Lack of balance leads to a lack of stable relationships or good health. Professional success should be among your priorities and never be your only priority.
In remote work, the same laws apply - they are met according to clothing. Take a high-quality photo where you look presentable, and let it become your calling card. Let the heroes know in person.
Very important is the design of your pages in social networks. When making this or that entry, placing this or that photo, remember that one day someone who wants to give you a job will come to your page. What will he see? What conclusions will he draw? In your hands to create any image that will work for you or against you.
Here are some tips to combat this increasingly common problem in recent years. Enjoy.
- Disconnection from work on weekends.
- Pay attention to your health.
- Avoid negative or pessimistic people.
- Save time for your relationship.
- Get other knowledge.
Choosing a profession
If you already know what exactly you want to do as a freelancer, this is just fine. If you have no idea which end to approach, I recommend you read the book. "7 professions for quick money on the Internet". After reading it, you won’t have any questions how to start working remotely. You can get the book absolutely free.
Here are some tips for creating a portfolio. The more options you give to your client, the better. Bet on image quality. Fill in correctly, without forgetting the client's name and date. Split into several tabs.
- It is useless to show all that you have done.
- Focus only on the most relevant works.
- Lots of variety.
- You have one web version and one print version.
We grow and develop
You have taken the first step and decided on a profession - the most difficult thing behind! From now on, your development should be your usual state. Read, look, listen - in a word, absorb everything that one way or another can contribute to your professional growth and inspire new ideas.
Become active in the writers community. There are literary groups and associations of writers in several countries, and it would be nice to be theirs, to meet with other specialists, to receive information and advice, and to set your skills as a writer. Do an online search and you should quickly find organizations located in your region or country. Look for a group that organizes meetings, workshops, where speakers are encouraged to give advice on all aspects of writing, including publishing and marketing, as well as how to create networks with publishers and promote networking.
From my own experience I will say that a great start is online courses in the chosen direction. You get into the environment of like-minded people and get a professional mentors. Such courses help avoid so many bumps that self-taught beginners fill.
I foresee objections that such training is usually paid. To pay for your education or not, the choice is yours. But any business requires investment. If you decide to learn a new profession from scratch, then the business project is now you. And for your development we need investments: time, energy, intellectual resource.
Many of these groups also sometimes have an excellent resource for job offers, so participation in this type of organization will soon be beneficial in terms of contacts with publishers and job offers. Attend conferences and conferences that relate only to written, written and freelance writing. In these cases, you can meet professionals from the field, as well as be able to communicate with other freelancers. Select a record type. Currently, there are two types of writing, namely: print editorial and online writing.
Financial investments will help speed up events and in a short time you will receive information that you will be collecting for yourself much longer, and in the work of a freelancer time is money. Learn to plan it effectively.
We create a portfolio
We read movie reviews before we go to the movies. My girlfriend will not go for a manicure without first reading the works of the master. I will not order her a bouquet without viewing the catalog of the selected florist. Reviews for everything and everyone make life easier, save time and money.
You can do both, even if you probably feel tense trying to hold on. Even in the world of online writing, there are various possibilities, including writing for a blog, writing articles about guest blogs, specialized websites, content farms and others.
Keep in mind that many print publications, such as newsletters and trade journals, are produced at home or outsourced by a written company, in which case it would be better for you to consult the records of the company that belongs to you. available to allow you to work as a freelancer on various topics using your contacts. Start looking for opportunities to write opportunities for creating your portfolio. First of all, it is important to establish your links as well as a portfolio.
Needless to say, when choosing a performer, any customer will want to familiarize himself with his work in order to assess the level of professionalism. That is why a great trump when searching for orders will be the presence of a portfolio and feedback from satisfied employers.
In order to make it, you need to work for free. Tell your friends and acquaintances what you are doing now, surely among them there will be those who need your services right now. Especially for free. To reach a larger audience, you can place such an announcement on your pages on social networks. Believe me, the first orders will not be long in coming.
The easiest way is to start writing for small sites and volunteer publications. Having written articles for small publications, you will get experience, get to know each other and get many articles in your name that you can show to your clients and employers. You need this portfolio for well-established employers to take you seriously and attract you.
If you are a student, write a well-designed essay for the course, and you can post it later. You can also offer your services in a written seminar and write articles for a student newspaper, literary magazine or alumni magazine. Contact the owners of sites and blogs that you like, and explain to them that you are building your wallet and want to write articles for them for free so that your name can be published in turn. If you have your own blog or website, it can help you as long as you can include a link to your name. Non-profit organizations are also great places to look for work as an editor.
- Think of this as a good training for your future freelance career.
- If you are an adult, start with reputable sites that accept articles.
Having examples of work performed in your arsenal, it will be much easier for you to build relationships with the following customers.
With each new order you will grow in your eyes and this is a very pleasant feeling. Fears will gradually recede, and they will be replaced by competence and self-reliance.
If you want to write a professional letter, think about something that you would like to write about and start contacting the right people. publishers for whom you would like to write and view your recommendations. This aspect cannot be overestimated. Submitting articles and requests that have nothing to do with the type of publication is just as dangerous as it was during an interview without first studying the company.
Online: Check bulletin boards for browsers, bloggers, web content creators and other editorial tasks. Use the request letter or email if it seems appropriate, or simply respond to the job description. For a guest blog, make sure that you read the blog and that your offer is short and interesting. Good blogs have many requests and yours should stand out, so the blogger has a desire to read it. In the case of some article publishing sites, if they ask you to submit an application as an approved author, do this and provide all the necessary background information and confirm your qualifications. For sites that require only membership, register, but do not rely on these types of platforms to make a living.
- Call in two weeks if you do not get an answer.
- Call it after six weeks if you do not receive a response.
Where to find a job as a freelancer
All job search tips for beginner freelancers are reduced to registration. The cost of orders on the stock exchanges is minimal and the one who wants to get a lot of money from the first days, there will be disappointment.
But if you look at the stock exchange as a platform for searching regular customers, then the possibilities are endless. Very often, employers place a test task for 100 - 200 rubles to find a responsible executor for voluminous work. It happened to me more than once.
If you write in a language that is not your first language, you also have a grammar resource for the dialect in which you write. You have an encyclopedia, dictionary and grammar book. . Find regular jobs or even current contracts. For physical and online writing there are lots of suggestions. The challenge will always be competition, which means that your style should always be short and interesting, so that your contact list is always detailed and that your motivation should not decrease.
Continue to improve your writing skills, read a lot, attend conversations and seminars and keep up-to-date with the latest information in the areas where you write. This last aspect is very important, especially if you are writing in a fast-paced field, such as technology and fashion.
Do not be afraid to take tasks that seem too difficult. You will not know the teeth for you or not, without trying. Challenge yourself. The exchange is a survival school for recruits. Many give up, and those who overcome obstacles go to the next level.
I have already considered the topic.
Where else to find a job
Do not limit yourself to exchanges, this is not the only opportunity to find a job. I want to convey to you the main idea: every website, every blog, every Internet project is a potential source of income for you. Realizing this, it will be much easier to get rid of fears and develop in the field of remote work and freelancing.
Here are some more ways to find work on the Internet:
1. Watch projects that interest you.. Very often, information about finding employees they place directly on the main pages. For them, this is the most effective method to find an interested specialist, for you - the most effective way to find a job for the soul.
2. Direct search - if you really want to join a project, you can contact its creators directly. Who will lose if you write a letter or message on a social network with a vivid story about yourself and your strong desire to work in this particular team?
Such an appeal will definitely not go unnoticed, because it:
- very personal;
- based on sincere interest in a particular topic.
And even if right now this employer has nothing to offer you, he will contact you when your services are needed. This also happened to me more than once.
3. Ads on job search sites. Despite the fact that most companies require relevant experience, you can always make an impression with your covering letter, performing test tasks, and suggestions for optimizing the company's work.
Keep the brand
Reputation is our everything. She must be flawless. Many freelancers have a problem - not mandatory. As a customer, I had to deal with the fact that tasks were not completed on time or were not fulfilled at all. And this is in my willingness to pay well for quality services.
It is clear that such performers are unlikely to develop a freelance career, but my time was irretrievably wasted. And my time is also money.
Your word is iron! Called the term - passed the task on time. This should be the main rule.
Customers carefully and competent specialists pass each other carefully. If you have high-quality work and an impeccable reputation over time, the need to look for orders from you will disappear, employers will come to you themselves.
As a parting word
If you want to become a freelancer and work remotely, but it seems to you that this is not for dummies without special education, carefully read on:
I am convinced that the desire and resolute attitude is not at all “from scratch”, it is more than half of success.
You need to do quite a bit - to fill the theoretical gap, if there is one at all, and then use your discipline, diligence and determination.
I wish you turn your fears into a driving force, dear readers of my blog. They can be made to work for your success.