All Questions
211
questions
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 ...
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 ...
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....
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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.
...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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),...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 $...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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?
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 ...
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 ...