All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
161 votes
10 answers
122k views

How do I get my first job at a freelancing site?

I am in the software development industry and I'm an experienced software engineer. I am new to freelancing websites. The problem is I have zero rating and I can't get any projects even if I bid the ...
zzzzz's user avatar
  • 2,183
29 votes
2 answers
3k views

How can experienced contractor survive outside Elance/oDesk/Freelancer?

This is what a friend asked me and I directed him to the similar question How to find clients beyond sites like oDesk/Guru/Freelancer? here. Then we started discussing the issue and I realize that ...
Peter MV's user avatar
  • 14.3k
28 votes
12 answers
12k views

Client wants to pay a percentage of revenue generated by website

I recently came in contact with one of my Dad's friends who is looking for a website. This guy gave my Dad a job when we first moved to California and has been a really good "family friend" ever since....
Tyler Williams's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
14k views

How to setup client ownership of domain name and hosting

I'm starting out as a small web design and development business. I'd prefer that after I launch a site for a client, they then own and be responsible for the management and recurring payment of their ...
KodeKreachor's user avatar
39 votes
6 answers
6k views

How do I calculate pay rate if I've never freelanced before?

I've been working full time in the field (software) for about 5-6 years. However, I've never done any freelancing work before and am new to this entire process. At my job, pay is easy, since it's ...
almostflan's user avatar
36 votes
3 answers
47k views

How can I start freelancing and get online projects to work on?

I have good experience in PHP and I want to start freelancing. I have opened accounts on Elance, freelancer, oDesk and have been trying to bid on projects for the last 2 months, but I still didn't get ...
Pravin Gadekar's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

Clients who don't pay their invoices what are your options?

Given the following facts regarding their agreement: - Client is past due their invoices - Freelancer is an independant contractor / consultant - Not always is there a deliverable product What ...
chrisjlee's user avatar
  • 595
15 votes
3 answers
2k views

Which is the most honest or ethical way to bill, hourly or fixed price?

I ran into an interesting discussion below this question regarding ethics in billing. Where I think hourly billing is the most transparent way to bill, the other side has written, extensively I ...
user3244085's user avatar
  • 1,629
10 votes
4 answers
928 views

From Agency to Freelance - What Should I Charge?

I have been asked back for one week at an establishment that I used to work for. In the past, whenever I worked for Establishment A, I would go through an agency, Agency B. However, Establishment A ...
SnookerFan's user avatar
35 votes
4 answers
3k views

Fixed price or per hour for a web developer?

I am a starting freelancer in the webdevelopment sector. I focus on both personal or one-man business full websites and websites for advanced users for which I write plugins or add features (but don't ...
user avatar
31 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to make the jump from normal employee to higher level freelancing

I am a professional software developer with 6+ years of full-time experience, full degree, co-op program, currently employed at a programming desk job. I would call my self at the intermediate level. ...
Bill Software Engineer's user avatar
66 votes
15 answers
5k views

Tracking hours you are working for clients

When working through the day, I may work on many different projects. Web development is one of the freelancing jobs that I'm sure many people bounce around project to project, or maybe that is just ...
bretterer's user avatar
  • 1,547
55 votes
8 answers
8k views

Hourly billing, is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?

The title is a bit confusing, but here is an issue I face occasionally, but don't know how to bill. Here is an example, and I hope you can get the general idea and apply it to a broader concept of how ...
Brian Tucker's user avatar
25 votes
4 answers
734 views

Do you fix hourly estimation or accept your mistake and do for free?

The scenario is the usual one: You are asked to make a price estimation. You analyse all features at your best knowledge, experience and logic. You event count the buffer of 20%. You then start the ...
Peter MV's user avatar
  • 14.3k
18 votes
8 answers
714 views

Staying in contact with clients when I have a different sleep-wake rhythm (being a night owl or living in a different time zone)

I’m a night owl. I’m most productive/creative at night. I go to bed in the morning and sleep until late afternoon. Being self-employed, this gives only a small timeframe for contact with clients, as ...
unor's user avatar
  • 1,491
11 votes
5 answers
3k views

Whose responsibility is to give budget for job: Freelancer or Client

I work as a part timer freelancer at oDesk. At oDesk client budget is already written on job posts. So, many times there are chances that after a successful job with client, he/she offer me an another ...
user avatar
7 votes
5 answers
481 views

Donating my work to charitable organizations without incuring legal liability?

From time to time I’d like to work for free for local charitable organizations. I wonder how I could/should do this? (If this depends on the country, I’m interested in Germany.) bill my work as ...
unor's user avatar
  • 1,491
46 votes
7 answers
3k views

How can we prepare for "getting hit by a bus"?

As a self-employed person working for a client (e.g. creating a website), you have a bus factor of 1: The bus factor is the total number of key developers who would need to be incapacitated (as by ...
unor's user avatar
  • 1,491
46 votes
7 answers
6k views

Where can I find good contract templates?

When a new freelancer works with a small client, neither party may have experience with contracts. This community wiki provides starting points they can use to think through the issues that should be ...
Edward Brey's user avatar
  • 1,238
40 votes
7 answers
13k views

When is it ok to ask a client for more money?

I am pretty good at estimating my time on a project. For this question, let's say it is for a simple WordPress website with a custom theme development. I have quoted and set my contract with my ...
bretterer's user avatar
  • 1,547
38 votes
8 answers
73k views

How much payment should be required up front?

When accepting a job and negotiating a price, how much of this should be required up front before starting the work, especially when you haven't dealt with the client before? Should it be a flat ...
Lars Kotthoff's user avatar
34 votes
8 answers
2k views

Best approach to finding clients in your own city?

I am working as a Software Engineer, but I want to add to my pay by freelancing. What is the best way to find clients in my own city? I am open to doing small projects (like for schools or small ...
zzzzz's user avatar
  • 2,183
15 votes
5 answers
476 views

Is it appropriate for a prospective client to require me to purchase third-party tools?

I have been approached by a prospective client for a long-term support and development contract, but they require me to purchase roughly $4000 worth of third-party controls and tools. These were used ...
jfw's user avatar
  • 153
14 votes
4 answers
476 views

Project based freelance project requiring multiple unexpected "redos" from client

I've got a project based contract to build a software app. The planned contract initially stated an aggressive 8 week release plan, and it was stated that the designs and API were at or near ...
Miro's user avatar
  • 955
12 votes
5 answers
2k views

Struggling to find work

I've been freelancing since June 2013 and haven't been able to find work in all that time. I'm very short on funds so I'm sticking to free online classifieds but I haven't had so much as a nibble ...
Ortund's user avatar
  • 221
12 votes
8 answers
679 views

Quotation not favorable (against me) to write software features

Customers always want a quotation of the amount of time it will take to write a certain feature (printing a new report, adding a new form, importing/exporting data, etc). Suppose I estimated the ...
Fil's user avatar
  • 489
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

How to determine what to charge for building custom Android applications?

How do I determine how much to charge for building Android applications? In other words, how do I tell the client how much money I want? The client is asking me to tell how much time it will take ...
Ranjit's user avatar
  • 193
7 votes
1 answer
887 views

What is the correct steps in resolving lack of payment?

I have a repeat client. However, they have fallen behind on invoices, albeit at relatively small values. They are now overdue on some by two months. I have a clear contract with them outlining that I ...
tim.baker's user avatar
  • 1,230
6 votes
1 answer
726 views

What to do with code after oDesk job completion?

I am using oDesk and I completed my first job. I have a GitHub account where I put all my open source code. I and the client are continents far. I live in India while the client lives in Texas. We ...
user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
809 views

Should I charge my client for mistakes I make?

I'm starting out as a freelance designer (not long left university), thus I'm continuously learning new techniques and general business etiquette. I've had a couple projects for clients but I've ...
Max Power's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
302 views

Should I expect a 1099

(Note that this is a US specific question) I am a single person LLC (not C or S corp) and last year I contracted with a staffing firm to perform work for a 3rd party on a 1099 basis (rather than W-2),...
Peter M's user avatar
  • 353
3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Finding freelance bloggers in specialized field

For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips & trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a ...
a20's user avatar
  • 185
2 votes
2 answers
166 views

How can I spot a talented freelance blogger?

For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips & trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a ...
a20's user avatar
  • 185
2 votes
2 answers
125 views

How do I compensate a freelance blogger that I want to hire?

For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips & trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a ...
a20's user avatar
  • 185
1 vote
1 answer
111 views

How do I manage a remote freelance writer?

For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips & trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a ...
a20's user avatar
  • 185
1 vote
2 answers
335 views

Am I supposed to be paid even though my work isn't used?

There is a person I know that needed a logo for a game server, we talked and he found out that I have experience and have skills in Photoshop to make a decent logo, so he asked me to make a logo that ...
John Smith's user avatar
25 votes
4 answers
3k views

What's the smallest unit of time I should charge for when clients request minor changes?

If a client needs a small change made to their website (e.g. a phone number needs changing, a user profile needs to be updated in a way the site doesn't allow, etc.) I usually will not charge my ...
Django Reinhardt's user avatar
23 votes
5 answers
1k views

How can I discipline myself as a freelancer?

I have been freelancing full-time for a few years and have quiet office away from home but am easily distracted with (for example): keeping up with news in my industry staying current in my field of ...
Neil Robertson's user avatar
23 votes
6 answers
17k views

How do I put freelancing in my CV?

After I finished my CS school, I had an accident which took me far away from the industry for approximately 4 years. After that I worked on my dad's business, and I didn't do much in the way of ...
dole doug's user avatar
  • 333
19 votes
3 answers
2k views

Upwork taking 20% of my money. Alternatives

I am not very happy with Upwork now taking 20% of what I make. I have had to raise my price just to continue getting 10%. Does anybody have any suggestions for a good alternative for Upwork? I do ...
DandC's user avatar
  • 338
19 votes
3 answers
874 views

How can I measure the credibility of a Freelancing website?

On reading the reviews of Freelancer.com on SiteJabber or the reviews of Elance on Mouthshut the freelancing websites do not look convincing enough. The reviews suggest that most of them are stealers ...
Prattosaur's user avatar
19 votes
6 answers
11k views

How do I estimate the cost of building an Android app?

I am new to Android development. I have developed an app in Play Store and then I got approached by a client in Facebook to build a translation of a religious word as an app. He said he will give me $...
Wordzilla's user avatar
  • 293
18 votes
4 answers
14k views

How many hours a man day really is? (programming)

Many freelancers, including myself, calculate a man day as 8 hours of work. I've heard of stories that large companies count their work day as 6 productive hours for an individual programmer. I know ...
Peter MV's user avatar
  • 14.3k
18 votes
7 answers
3k views

How to convince the client that you'll report hours truthfully?

When you work from home or from your own office and charge by the hour, sometimes during contract negotiations a new client wants to know how they can trust that you won't add some extra hours to your ...
JJJ's user avatar
  • 700
14 votes
7 answers
8k views

How to approach local shops to offer them my service?

In my city there are many shops that don’t have a website. I’d love to explain why they should have one and offer my service to them. However, I’m unsure how to approach them. If I’m a regular ...
unor's user avatar
  • 1,491
13 votes
4 answers
6k views

Finding the first client [closed]

I am currently working full time, but interested in doing freelance work. I don't want to drop everything and jump right into it not knowing if this is what I want to do. How can I go about finding ...
almostflan's user avatar
13 votes
6 answers
4k views

How do I estimate the cost of building an mobile app?

I know that there are other similar topics but I want to ask differently and I hope you answer differently too. I developed some apps and I have some experience. I created some apps as freelancer for ...
Libor Zapletal's user avatar
13 votes
6 answers
6k views

Should I give the finished work to a client before or after they paid me?

I have a new client that I met online for whom I have been doing some photo editing. We will be using paypal for payment. Should I give the finished work to client before or after they paid me?
user5168's user avatar
  • 149
13 votes
1 answer
845 views

What are the tax issues involved with "employing" a worker in a different country?

What are the tax issues involved with "employing" a (part-time) worker in a different country? For example, I have a Virginia, USA-based Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) through which I handle ...
Jeromy French's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
3k views

Bad rating has decreased my chances of getting work - How can I recover from bad feedback?

I been in freelancing for like 2-3 years now, and earning my bread and butter via freelancing on sites like oDesk etc. Mainly I use oDesk as I had many projects and ratings too. But now, I have hit a ...
localhost's user avatar
  • 679

15 30 50 per page
1
2 3 4 5