How to Find Your First Web Development Client (or Become a FREELANCER)

-

How to Find Your First Web Development Client (or Become a FREELANCER)

Just because you have the skill doesn’t mean people will just fork over money to you. You need to do a little bit of work and sell yourself. You also need to put yourself in the right places to get opportunities.
Now, as a web developer you have two choices. You can 1) try to land a full-time, on-site job with a company or 2) go the route of freelancing, and look for online gigs.
I recommend freelancing. While it doesn’t afford the same guaranteed paycheck that a full-time job does, there are 3 huge benefits:
  • Freedom: No more clocking in and clocking out. You might still work the same hours (or more), but your schedule, location, and living circumstances are completely up to you. (Plus, no commuting, which saves your hours of time every week.)
  • Money: Once you become a good freelancer, you’ll have a better shot at making more money (than waiting for a measly 3% raise each year).
  • Prestige: Over time, you’ll have the opportunity to build your own personal work and brand to a point that eventually guarantees you a steady influx of new clients (without even have to look for them).
In this section, we’ll focus on how to get your first freelancing gig as a web developer…

1. Get on Job Boards

Most freelancers hit job boards to find their first web development gigs. They can be great for accumulating experience, but you probably don’t want to use them as a long-term strategy.
The quality of clients can be very hit-or-miss. Some might be great. Others less so.
Many times they attract people who are inexperienced with hiring, which can create a lot of problems when you’re trying to work with them. Many times job boards will also attract people with unrealistic time frames and budgets.
Over-relying on job boards (for too long) won’t give you the opportunity (or free time) to start building your own brand. Attracting ‘inbound’ attention for your work will ultimately land you the best (and highest paying) clients at the end of the day.
But like I said, it’s not a bad option to get started and gain experience.
Just understand that every gig you get on a job board (while it may not pay extremely well) will help you to gain experience and get more future work.
It’s also quite easy to get started on job boards…
Below is a picture of the results from a quick search on UpWork:
(As you can see, there are tons of job opportunities for web developers!)
Here are some job boards where you can find web development gigs:

2. Put Together a Portfolio Site

To make it easy to get more clients (and for clients to find you), you should create a portfolio site. This is where you’ll show off your latest projects, show testimonials from happy clients, provide potential clients with an easy place to contact you, and also show of your web development capabilities.
Here are some tips for creating your web development portfolio site:
  • Use testimonials from past and current clients. This will assure visitors that you do great work and that others were happy to work with you. (Make it habit of asking for testimonials whenever you finish a project.)
  • Infuse your personality. What’s great about working with you, and what makes you stand out? When you infuse personality into your portfolio site, you’ll automatically set yourself apart.
  • Include the right elements – your name, the short version of your story of how/why you became a web developer, your contact details, your recent work, and your skills.
  • Answer the “What’s in it for me?” question. Basically, let them know the main benefit of working with you, i.e. what clients will get from working with you.
Most of all, you should make sure your portfolio site looks awesome. You want potential clients to see it and think, “Wow! I want something like that for my website too!” That way, they’ll be a lot more interested in working with you.
Here are a few examples of great web developer portfolio sites to use as inspiration:
  • MattFarley.ca
  • Caferati.me (Speaking of infusing personality, this developer does it in a big way on his site. Go to homepage and you’ll see what I mean!)
  • Pierre.io
And here are some resources to help you build your web development portfolio site:

3. Start Networking

Don’t just spend all your time scouring online job boards. If you want to get great opportunities, you have to get out into the real world too.
So, make it a point to attend at least 2-3 relevant networking events each month. Assuming you live in or within an hour or two of a big city, it shouldn’t be difficult to find these kinds of events.
Start by searching for meetups on Meetup.com and Eventbrite. On these two platforms alone you should find tons of relevant events.
Aim for events that draw entrepreneurs, as these people will be the most likely to want to build a new website. As you connect and network with more of these people (and let it be known that you’re a web developer), you’ll expose yourself to more and better gigs than those you’d find on job boards. You’ll also start to grow your personal brand.
Here’s another great resource to help you find and choose which events to go to:

Conclusion

The job market is getting tougher and tough, and more traditional jobs are phased out every day. So, why not learn a skill that will keep you employed (and possibly wealthy) for the foreseeable future?
That’s the big advantage of web development. And the great part is, you don’t need a fancy expensive degree to get into the field. Simply by following the steps we’ve listed out here, you can start down the path of becoming a web developer.
To recap, here are the basics steps to becoming a web developer:
  1. Learn the Basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript
  2. Go Through WordPress Tutorials
  3. Learn the Basics of UI and UX
  4. Learn SQL and PHP
  5. Learn the Basics of SEO
  6. Make Sure Your Site is Responsive
And here are the basic steps to find your first web development gig:
  1. Get on Job Boards
  2. Put Together a Portfolio Site
  3. Start Networking

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

wifi-pumkin create a wrog access point

-
Image
Now that we’ve learnt about social engineering , let’s put our new knowledge to work. In this tutorial, we’ll create a phishing page that’ll be served from a rogue Wi-Fi access point. If a victim then enters their details in this page, they will be delivered directly to you. We’re going to be using WiFi-Pumpkin and Kali (You can also use ParrotSec or even plain Ubuntu). We’ll also need an external Wi-Fi adapter. Why is that? Say you’re trying to set up this phishing page in a McDonald’s or a Starbucks. Your laptop’s internal network controller will be connected to McDonald’s Wi-Fi and your external Wi-Fi adapter will be turned into a rogue access point. The external adapter will be our man in the middle and will actually serve the phishing page into which our victim’s can then enter their details. (I strongly recommend the WN722N . It’s small and powerful, practically tailor-made for hacking and it supports every kind of WiFi attack that we’ll learn about in the next...
Read more

Get Anyone's Wi-Fi Password Without Cracking Using Wifiphisher

-
Image
Do you need to get a Wi-Fi password but don't have the time to  crack it ? In previous tutorials, I have shown how to crack  WEP ,  WPA2 , and  WPS , but some people have complained that cracking WPA2 takes too long and that not all access points have WPS enabled (even though quite a few do). To help out in these situations, I present to you an almost surefire way to get a Wi-Fi password without cracking— Wifiphisher . Steps in the Wifiphisher Strategy The idea here is to create an  evil twin AP , then de-authenticate or DoS the user from their real AP. When they re-authenticate to your fake AP with the same SSID, they will see a legitimate-looking webpage that requests their password because of a "firmware upgrade." When they provide their password, you capture it and then allow them to use the evil twin as their AP, so they don't suspect a thing. Brilliant! To sum up, Wifiphisher takes the following steps: De-authenticate the user from their legiti...
Read more