Comments on: Freelancing 101

By: Pavla Bartonova

Pavla Bartonova — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:59:57 +0000

very useful, thanks for the article Paul, nice blog

By: David

David — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:18:55 +0000

Great Tips! I appreciate you taking the time to gather your thoughts and sharing them with us.

You might also try surefirehire.com. I have heard some good things about it. Low commissions is probably the most compelling.

By: Simonas

Simonas — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:40:12 +0000

Hey! Nice tips, thanks for sharing. When dealing with clients when doing freelance there are some tips and advices that everybody seems to focus, and these are kind of natural and in a sense – familiar to us. It’s our foolishness most of the time and ignorance of the facts that seem not right in the first place, that causes us trouble.

You can tell a lot about a person from the first letter, word or chat. And though, missing a deal from a some sort of “buddy” can be possible, most of the times it’s the professionalism that gets us where we want to be.

Cheers! Thanks for the article.

By: steve

steve — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:19:39 +0000

Great tips.
I have just started Flash freelancing and so far I seem to have been lucky. I have stuck to the 50% up front – with the rest payable after presentation of a working demo (branded as a demo and encrypted to make decompilation almost impossible to achieve with less effort and sophistication than it would have taken to write the code themselves)
I have offered firm quotes with a guarantee of completion for the original quote even if I run over time (mostly smallish projects so far so not too much risk there – and I do point out that if it runs over time a voluntary additional payment, while not required, will put the client higher on my priority list if they need me again when I am busy). So far I’ve had good results – with most of my clients actually paying a respectable bonus when I’ve spent more time than estimated on a project. And so far not one “disappearing customer”.

By: diamonTearz

diamonTearz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:40:23 +0000

Great info. A lot of the advice you give rings a bell so clearly for someone who has made some of these mistakes and is still learning from them.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:39:25 +0000

I require first time clients to give a 50% upfront deposit that is non-refundable to make sure they are on the up and up. If they really want to doa project and they give you this kind of money up front it help get the project completed.

I agree with your observations.

By: Ben Israel

Ben Israel — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:03:56 +0000

Useful Tips. Thanks for sharing with us.

By: S. Ali

S. Ali — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:39:03 +0000

Nice tips, thanks for sharing.

Working online as a freelancer, I always ask for escrow before starting projects which is a great way to secure yourself from being ripped off.