At the moment i'm setting myself up a website so that I can offer people web design/development and general graphics freelance work. I was wondering, how did you all start freelancing and getting decent money for it? A friend of mine suggested that i do about 10 web sites for free and hope that each of the clients for these sites gives good word-of-the-mouth advertising, but i don't wish to solely rely on the hope that this will get my name out there. How would you suggest getting myself out there? I have read up about going around to local businesses, but where I am, there is no real need for web designs for local businesses, or they already have one. (And not many adults would take a 16 year old seriously if he was to say that he has knowledge in this area, or would take my suggestions seriously)
It is usuallyy word of mouth at first - try www.elance.com - a free service for bidding on all kinds of web work - worldwide. Build up a portfolio of excellent websites you can show on your site.
Certainly free was the traditional way of doing it, though you had to be somewhat careful of who you chose to do it for as to get a return on investment you ideally wanted someone who is going to be "in" with the local business community etc so that there were the word of mouth referals. I am however are not convinced that this is the right way to go these days due to many business people now realising the potential of the web and therefore a willingness to invest proper money into the their site so as you say, they wouldnt want a 16 year old doing it any more than a 16 year old negotiating their supplier contracts or heading up building of their new shop. Freelance sites such as www.guru.com or elance.com are potentially the better route with you providing initially low bids to build up feedback. The issue is that as with this site there are a lot of people from non-western countries (dont know where you are) who are able to work for exceptionally low fees which most westerns arent. One of the key points, as with starting any business, is to make sure you have the necessary skills. Being the worlds best designer will get you no where if you dont have the skills to make the sell in the first place, time management to correctly split your time on delivering current clients projects and looking for the ones that will take their place once their finished, client management etc etc
I started at GetACoder dot com and GetAFreelancer dot com.My account name is baribuet on both site.GAC favours my luck and I got lot of works from there and in GAF I got my first work 2 days ago. Both of these sites are good to start with.If you are really passionate and give your time then you will surely be a winner
Know that even really really good site builders with great skills sometimes fall on slow times. I've heard more than once from the Crusty Old Guys Who Know Stuff here-- who really know their stuff and make wonderful sites-- that "Well, my monitor broke and it'll be at least three months before I can replace it because of finances..." or that sort of thing. As with beignning any business (since that's what you're doing), do your financial research first-- have double of all the things you're supposed to have now (for instance, instead of the 6-month cash buffer to pay for all your monthly bills for 6 months if you couldn't work, double that to about a year. It's not easy. It's definitely WORTH IT). If something happens to your eyes, do you have a plan B?? Participating on forums may help. Many coders know each other well and often if too busy to take on a job may recommend an Internet colleague instead, knowing that the other coder meets some minimum standard or really has a specialty in something (like graphics, or server-side coding, etc).
Honestly - boredom. I was 15 and had an internet connection. I stumbled upon a lot of graphic resource sites and got really interested in the workings of what it takes to create an entire site. So I opened up a site offering free templates and graphics but closed it down after about 2 years. During that time and afterwards I started to do freelance designing on the side. I taught myself HTML, CSS, PHP, and image creation/editing. Not easy work, but the more you know the more likely you'll be able to get a bigger and better job. The fact that I can make triple than a regular paycheck in one week is great, but at the same time you don't have a steady paycheck, so being self-employed is risky. I understand completely what you mean about older people doubting your work, which is why when I used to tell my clients my real age they didn't believe me or it took them out of place for a while. That's why it's important to have a portfolio of your best work online. Not only will they believe you but they can see what they're getting.