Interview

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Finding a Partner to Get You Web Development Jobs

If I had to pinpoint the most important step in my freelance career, it would be finding individuals to partner with that had no coding abilities.

When I got started, I didn’t know anyone who had design/development work. I began answering ads in my local classifieds and through that, met some people who worked as consultants to businesses. These were people who were experts in marketing or business development, who do not code websites. After getting to know these individuals, we often sparked up a friendship and made a deal that they would pass along my name to companies or individuals with website needs, and I would give them a percentage of the deals made (generally 10-15%). This isn’t as direct as bidding on projects from a freelancer site, but it can potentially result in very lucrative projects.

Sometimes these relationships fade, but it might be a good idea to put something in writing. You don’t have to get a lawyer involved, but a simple agreement with the project percentage breakdown may spark your contact to be proactive.

Finding your rainmaker is a tough task, and often takes time, but here are some ways to start.

Friends and Family

Start with the people you know. If it’s not direct family members, then move on to friends. Talk about how you are looking for web work and that if someone could give you a lead on a new client, you would pay for that lead. Most people don’t even realize that this kind of partnership could be had, so they may be more interested in working with you if this kind of plan is laid out.

The people you want to make this sort of deal with may not have a website themselves, but are well connected with other business owners that do. Offer them a percentage of a project, and it may spark their interest. The idea of making money just by giving an introduction may be attractive for them.

Classified Ads

This should be part of your strategy anyway. Everyone has a local newspaper, but it’s more important to turn to websites. Most importantly: Craigslist. No matter where you live, there are certain rules to follow when manipulating Craigslist, and this is covered later on.

Occasionally through Craigslist you won’t be dealing directly with the client in question; it will be a consultant. Work with that consultant well on the first project, and you can develop a relationship. You may not get another project out of that consultant quickly, but when a new project does arise, you will be at the top of their list.

Overall, maintaining relationships is important. Do good work, communicate well and be easy to work with, and people will want to work with you again or recommend you.

Smaller Clients

One of the dirty secrets of working with clients is that in many cases, they won’t want to recommend you to others. This is out of pure selfishness, as they will want you to be available when they need you.

However, if you have worked on a project for someone and it’s pretty clear that there will not be a lot more work available in the future, have a conversation about referrals. Again, offer him something, such as 10% of referred projects. If the person had a good experience with you, they will see it as a no-brainer to make some money by referring others to you.

Cultivate relationships

There is no easy way out here. You need to develop and cultivate relationships in the same way you develop and cultivate websites.

This is a long process, but the “you” in two years will really appreciate it. If you want a long-lasting and healthy freelance career, treat people well and do not burn bridges. Treat each client like he or she is your direct boss, and make sure you complete each project on time and to budget. If a client has long-term value to you and it is a very difficult working process, suck it up and get it done right. You will make up for the time you lost later.

Most importantly, if you agreed on a budget, stick to it. Unless you feel that the client is being extremely unreasonable, you should never ask for more money. The relationship and good feelings you acquire are worth a lot.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Replace Your Job With A Website

At the end of the day, it all comes down to the fact that you are just trying to make a living by doing web design or development. Sometimes, if your skills are too specific or you are getting frustrated by a lack of clients, you may want to supplement some of your time with your own project. Your skills are valuable, so put them to use. Whether it is a blog, code snippets, or just tutorials.

While you wait for paying work, consider producing your own themes for CMS or other coding platforms. A content website with tutorials, lists of tools and resources, or news. Either way, if you spend half of your day chasing down clients, use the other half constructively. Even a mediocre site can monetize well, especially if you leverage your social media following.

I would only recommend this route if you are looking to supplement your current client project workload. It is a long process to create a website or app from scratch and have it be able to pay your bills. Generally it’s about 18-24 months (though some do much better) before a content website can begin to pay off from ads or other methods. And you will have to produce a lot of smart, targeted content in order to come up organically in Google.

If you have an ecommerce site or are creating themes, expect to wait about 12-18 months before you begin to see any traction. Partnerships and other relationships can help speed up the process.

Ultimately, your own site can be a nice supplement to what you do with clients, but don’t expect too much. You can also build websites and try to flip them on wholesale sites like Flippa.com, but again, most sales are under $1,000.

You’re better off treating your own website as a passion and welcomed distraction from your daily routine. Just be consistent with your updates to the site, and watch it grow.

How Many Web Projects Should You List On Your Website?

Another important issue to discuss is how you handle the projects you do get. You can get hundreds of projects in your career but still be struggling. Here is the breakdown of the number of projects you should have completed in order to be a stable freelance developer:

Large projects (over $10,000): 1-3
Medium projects ($1,000-$10,000): 5-6
Small projects (less than $1,000): 8-10

If you have completed this number of projects in the past, you should be a stable developer right now with too much demand for your services. If not, you are not treating your clients well.

By completing the number of projects above, you should have plenty of clients needing more work from you all the time. I have about a 75% conversion rate.

This means that if I complete a singular project, 75% of the time I will get more work from that client in the future. It’s common to have a 50-75% conversion rate, and if it is any lower, then you may be doing it wrong.

So, back to the above breakdown. If I have completed around 18 projects at various levels, with a 75% conversion rate I would have around 13 clients that would call on me for future work. This would be sustaining enough to form a lasting career.

It’s important to treat your clients well, and there are a few very crucial tips I am going to give you to maximize your relationships. Remember, it is far more difficult to get a new client than it is to maintain a current one.

And remember, on your website, be sure to list the technologies used for each project and your involvement in each project.

With Your Website, Be Available and Respond Quickly

Ever get an email and say to yourself, “I’ll get to that later?” With clients, respond immediately, even if you are not going to complete the task at that moment. Tell them you understand and will get back to them as soon as possible. If you are able to work on the task, respond and let them know you are on it. (If you are in a different time zone than your client, this can mean having to check your email during non-work hours.)

Too often, hirers will ask a developer about something and not get a response for days. That can be very frustrating, and they are likely losing money during that period of non-communication. Don’t be that developer who is always causing problems, and your chances of getting and maintaining clients will go.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Using Twitter To Get Web Development Clients Part 1

Here’s one idea you may have never considered. If you didn’t know this already, the vast majority of tweets are public and searchable. It used to be that you had to use a third-party website to search Twitter well, but that is not true anymore. Twitter has a very dynamic and fast search engine for its members.

Create a Dedicated Account for Design/Development

If you already have a Twitter account and you use it to talk about movies or rant about politics, get a new account and brand it specifically for the freelance work you are trying to acquire. Your feed should be full of resource links, retweets about the industry and your own thoughts about certain aspects of your field. So instead of a tweet like:

“I loved the Iron Man movies; I want to be Tony Stark.”

You should have a feed that looks like:

“I wonder if the new slider plugin from @company works on responsive sites.”

This kind of account not only helps when pitching through Twitter, but is helpful for you as a freelancer in general. If you contact a hirer, it’s pretty likely they are going to Google you. With that in mind, you’ll want them to land on a Twitter account that represents you as a web professional.

If you are off-shore, don’t be afraid to list your location. Let the conversation start first and then later you can get into location. Also, put the platforms/code you work in on your profile. This informs readers about your expertise.

Search Terms Are Key

Using Twitter to get client leads is not as straightforward as on other platforms. Most of the time, people are not actually posting jobs to Twitter; they are linking to posts elsewhere. However, potential hirers may post to Twitter asking for help on projects for which they simply do not want to create postings. So here is a list of sample search terms to use in the Twitter search box (you can, of course, make adjustments to apply to your field of expertise):

web developer needed
I need a developer to
need WordPress help
want to hire a developer
need to hire someone for help
need developer to work on my website
web developer wanted for
looking for help with Drupal module
need coding help
need to hire freelance developer
need to hire freelance web developer

You should be applying these search terms almost every day, as Twitter moves very quickly. In the search area of Twitter, there are two categories of what gets returned. One is ‘Top’ and one is ‘All’. Always click over to ‘all’. You may get more spam this way, but sticking to ‘Top’ will make you miss out on a lot of tweets.

Continue to use variations on the above search terms, and make sure you know what works best for you. But search often.

Part 2 coming soon.

Strategies To Gain U.S Based Clients

If you are a programmer from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, or any other country that is not the U.S, you may find breaking into that market difficult. If English is not your first language, or American or British English isn’t, it’s important to make sure your project bid is written in a way that shows you will be able to comprehend the work and communicate easily with your prospective client.

I will go over the pitch stage in a different post, but for now, let’s assume you are in communication with them. If you make it past the pitch stage, you’ve accomplished something. Now that you’re chatting with the hirer, there are a couple things to consider.

If you are not a native English speaker and have trouble understanding things, use a friend as your translator. This requires the friend to be available to you, but having someone who can communicate well—if it isn’t you—is important. (It’s unrealistic to think that if you can’t speak regularly with your client you will still get a complicated, long-term job. A smaller project with less communication, however, is possible.).
Be honest about what you have worked on and offer some personal information. Every person posting a project to a freelance website is leery of losing time and money to a bad developer. Be friendly and honest about your experience and how you can accomplish the tasks. If you have never done something before, be honest, but explain how you have tackled a similar issue. In many cases, the person hiring won’t expect you to have specifically done everything, but will want to know how you will complete the project and fill in any holes in your skills.
Don’t oversell. Hirers are getting pitched all the time, and this time, they are posting a project looking for help. If you fit into their needs, then you are the right choice. If you talk with the hirer and you haven’t heard from them in a while, move on. Don’t bombard them with messages; you may end up turning them away.
Don’t over-promise. It’s always tempting to offer to meet impossible timelines or to deliver a complicated project for a low bid. Don’t do that. Be aggressive, especially when you are starting out, but don’t put yourself in a position to fail.

You just need one good U.S client, and if you treat them well, they will pass you to everyone else.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Example of Interview Test For Front-End Developers

Front-end web developers is a profession that is rising in popularity. If you have skills in HTML, CSS and Javascript, chances are that you are in the market for a job as a front-end developer. Often times you will need the standard online portfolio as well as a list of job history. However, many potential employers now request that you pass a coding exam without the assistance of online browser.

The way that you code this test will be reflective of your skills and creativity. Sometimes there is no wrong answer if you at least code things in the proper structure (classes, external CSS, etc.).

Here is one of the most common challenges that they will give you.. The Dice.

The Challenge is, create this dice using HTML/CSS. So of course you can use minimal HTML and implement things like border-radius, box-shadow, and background colors. Seems simple enough, but it’s not about just getting it done. Think speed, efficient code and accuracy. For example, if your dice does not have the exact background color, then how is that useful to making sure you have a fully branded website?

Remember, your ability to code this dice is secondary to the way you code it. If you have the proper techniques down, then it should be a breeze!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

How To Prepare For A Coding Job Interview

Landing a job in the tech field can be difficult, especially if you shooting for jobs at major companies like Facebook or Google. In fact, if you are applying to Facebook, you will be put through a series of targeted coding questions on the spot. So whereas some companies may give you a coding test that you must pass in order move on to an additional round, often times you may need to answer an algorithm or syntax question without the use of Google or a cheat-sheet.

The most efficient coders are the ones who can think creatively and apply what they know quickly. That is what companies are looking for in terms of a hire. With that in mind, here are several things to think about when going for that dream coding job:

Prove you can communicate effectively.

Communication and collaboration are key. Long dead is the idea that you are a single coder in a dark room creating the next big thing. With so much already out there, hires want to be sure that you can work with their team.

Have your portfolio ready to go.

Often times, it doesn’t matter where you got your degree from, it matters what you can do. Have a concise and wide-ranging portfolio available that is all accessible online. Even if it is not client-driven, prove that you can create something that ties into what you would be doing at this particular job.

Get ready to think on your feet.

Many programmers like to refer to online cheat sheets or other websites in order to copy/paste syntax or code structure for ease of creating. But when you are in that interview chair, be ready to answer any questions related to your coding expertise.

Bend the truth just a bit if needed.

It’s not a good idea to lie in an interview, and we would not recommend it. But, if they asking, have you done ABCDEF? And you have only done ABCDE, it’s OK to feel confident about F. In that sense, explain that you know it and go home immediately to learn it. The good news is that with code, there is always something to learn.

And there you have it, good luck!