The Internet is booming and those who take advantage of the power of the web will find lucrative business opportunities. One such business opportunity is running a freelance web developer business. The clientele is plentiful especially if you cater to small businesses that seldom can afford to have a staff web developer. Small businesses often look to freelance web developers to fulfill their web developing needs.
To succeed as a freelance web developer a person needs to be able to keep up with the latest technology. The Internet changes rapidly. New web tools are constantly being developed that can make the job of developing website easier.
A good freelance web developer knows that there is a difference between designing websites and web development. Web development is the process of building a website from scratch. A web developer must be able to do all the back end programming. A web dev eloper is a software engineer.
A web designer does the layout of a web page. It is doing the work that a web user sees. Individuals that are good at being a web developer are not necessarily good web designers.
There are many web developers so you must stay competitive by not out pricing yourself. If you charge too much you will lose jobs to other web developers. If you make the opposite mistake and undercharge for your jobs you will not be paid what you are worth. Do proper research to make sure you are pricing competitively. Price according to your skills and your experience.
Contracts are important in any freelance career. Take the time to make sure your contract protects your work, while being reasonable for your clients. Put in your contract that you demand 50% of the price of the job upfront. This prevents the client from ripping you off for the full amount. Make sure that limited revisions are built into the contract otherwise you will find yourself doing revision after revision. Any revision requests over the limit in the contract will necessitate a new contract for the additional work. Your time is valuable and must be protected by your contract.
It is important to always be promoting yourself to attract new clients. Word of mouth from satisfied clients is just one way for you to receive new clients. Always be sure to have an email signature that advertises your services. Join forums where you can showcase your services to those looking for web development services. You can look to sites like Elance, GetAFreelancer, FreshWebJobs, Guru and Coroflot for freelance jobs including web development jobs.
