We’ve been talking about the IT part of the Web Development generally, but we never mentioned actual, practical application of these concepts. Today, i want to talk about the steps to take in order to find your place in the web development freelancing word, and have your freelancing career skyrocket from mogul to entrepeneur. You might have heard the ones that we mentioned here, but we also added not so common ones, that some might find even controversial, but they do work. And if it works, why not do it? 🙂

The freelancing web development is dominated by countries from the developing world like India,Pakistan, most East European (including mine, Romania), where the people in these countries opted to do freelancing to bring food to their table, and not to play around. They are aware of the competition and will do everything to leave their competition behind.

So how to succeed you might ask?

1 – Put applicable experience under your belt

I want you to open go read documentation on these languages:

– PHP,MySQL,SQLite,JavaScript,Jquery,Ajax and Jquery Ajax (get a good grip on XMLHTTPRequest, it is needed these days)

– HTML5 and CSS3 (There might be clients who ask for dynamic webpages)

– JavaScript Frameworks: Node.JS,Angular.JS,Backbone.JS

– CMS Modification, Plugin Writing, and Styling (WordPress,Joomla,Drupal etc.)

– E-commerce plugin writing and Styling (eCommerce,WooCommerce for WordPress etc.)

2 – Start with low rates

There will always be jobs for the bottom. Start with bottom jobs like 5$ for an article, 10$ for a CMS modification, 50$ for a simple plugin etc. Just start working for god’s sake. Your portofolio will be filled with all this stuff, and then you can start pressing for higher rates. You will have a portofolio filled with the past work you have done in the past, and if it becomes impressive enough,  you’ll have clients coming after you and you won’t look for them.

3- Mix Professionalism with Sociableness

This is what you might call “client seduction” that is, being professional and polite (never show anger, talk with your client in a professional way, this means no sarcastic comments, no derailing from the topic) but also make sure that you’re not totally stuck up. If you know a joke that has a success rate, say it. If your client starts opening up to you, do the same. One of my best clients became very good friends of mine, and be sure to always have these qualities:

– Sociable

– Polite

– Hard-Working

– Client-appeasing (Always make your client happy)

– Helping (Provide support)

4 – If you can do it, it ain’t bragging

Like all fields in life, if you are competent, it isn’t bragging. It isn’t bragging to sell yourself to your client, because your client has no way of knowing your competences. For example, my oDesk description goes like:

“5 stars from each client given after i’ve worked for them. Hire me and see it yourself.”

That day i got 30 Interviews, which i couldn’t accept them all because i would have no time for all of them. It was a huge confidence rush and motivated to get skilled even harder. And this creates a loop:

Work -> Client Satisfaction -> Ambition -> More Work

That’s it! Now go become a great freelancer, my student! 🙂