Tag Archives: Freelance Friday

Freelance Friday: How to not tweet like a douche

10th February, 2012 on Freelancing, Geekery No Comments

Image is only vaguely related by still awesome (from xkcd)

We’ve now moved well beyond the point where people respond with a confused look when I mention Twitter, or Twitter users get derided as people who post pointless updates about their cat. No longer the realm of geeky early-adopters, it seems like everyone is coming aboard. For half the websites I make these days clients ask me to put in a link to the Twitter feed. Every day it seems I get new follows – mostly not from actual people, just spammers and businesses bulk adding as much as they can. Most of these businesses or even individuals I don’t follow back, some because they aren’t interesting to me, but some because I dislike their way of tweeting.

Now, everyone has different ideas of online etiquette, and some of you might feel that it’s perfectly fine to do these things. But this is what constitutes douchey tweeting to me:

Douche Type 1: The Absentee

This type of douche has a Twitter account just because they thing everyone/business should have one, regardless of whether they actually want to spend time on it or not. They might have a lot of tweets, but these are entirely automated from their blog or Facebook. Don’t bother trying to interact with them – they never log in to check for replies. You’re better off subscribing to their RSS feed if you’re interested in their blog content, as there isn’t any extra value in their Twitter feed.

You can only really get away with this if your business is SO HUGE that people want regular updates more than they actually want to interact with you. This is not the case for most freelancers.

Douche Type 2: The Retweeter

Similar to the Absentee, the Retweeter doesn’t seem to have a personality or much to say at all – their entire Twitter stream is retweets or links to articles, without any commentary. Again, usually there’s no point in trying to communicate with this douche as they don’t check for replies or have little to say.

Again, this can work if you’re more of a faceless business that is so popular that people want to read whatever you’re reading. Again, this isn’t so much the case for freelancers – you’re an individual, and people want to interact with an individual.

Douche Type 3: The Reply Retweeter

Alright, some people might disagree with me and defend their position on this one. But it really, really bothers me when people have to retweet everything that they reply to, regardless of whether it makes sense out of context or is of any value to other people in their feed. I once followed someone who retweeted every single birthday tweet she got. It gets old. Fast. Don’t be this douche. Retweeting is for sharing things that you think are interesting, not for boasting about how popular you are.

Douche Type 4: The Whiner

Yes, it is hard getting up in the morning, going to work, and counting down the minutes until you’re free go go home. But if you’re whining about the same things on Twitter every single day, maybe it’s time to consider whether it really needs to be shared that often. It’s the same as complaining about the same things to the same friend every day. Douchey.

Douche Type 5: The ‘Google it’ Person

When someone asks a question on Twitter, usually it’s because they couldn’t find the answer by other means, they know some people who follow them might have a better idea, or they want to hear about a first-hand experience. Replying with “I don’t know. Google it” is not helpful. It’s douchey.

Douche Type 6: THE SHOUTER

TYPING IN CAPS IS SHOUTING. YOU DON’T NEED TO SHOUT ALL THE TIME. IF YOU’RE SHOUTING FOR MULTIPLE TWEETS IN A ROW, THAT’S DOUCHEY.

Douche Type 7: The Client Bagger

Bagging clients online is a recipe for disaster. In fact, I’d say try not to bitch too much about any individual online – talk it through with them instead, or complain privately to a friend. Besides potential hurt feelings if they ever find it, it doesn’t look good to potential clients or contacts who might stumble across a Twitter feed filled with negative things about individuals – it makes them wonder if you’ll do the same to them. Moaning about things like Internet Explorer and Comic Sans are however fair game, and you usually end up with people joining in.

So you might not agree with me in all of these things, but do keep in mind how your tweets are being received. Used properly Twitter is a great medium for meeting people, especially other freelancers and potential clients. Just avoid being a douche!

I’m going to try and write a weekly post each Friday about what it’s like to be a freelancer! This is something that I find a lot of people are curious about, and there’s a lot of incorrect assumptions out there. If you have any questions for me on freelancing, leave a comment here or on Formspring.
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Freelance Friday: On being a woman

27th January, 2012 on Freelancing No Comments

One question that people ask me (okay, no one has yet, but if they do I’ll direct them here) is “What is it like being a female freelancer, a woman in a male-dominated tech industry?”.

To be honest, from my (limited) personal experience, I don’t think it’s awfully different from being a male freelance web/graphic designer. I don’t feel marginalised, underpaid or intimidated, and I’ve never had any indication that a potential client has decided whether to hire me or not based on my gender. I don’t think I’d win more jobs or get paid more money if I had man-bits. Around half of the clients and people that I work with are female too – intelligent, driven and successful women doing pretty well for themselves in this man’s world.

That said, I do tend to be a bit oblivious to this sort of thing because I was brought up surrounded by tech and never saw any reason why I shouldn’t be as good at things as boys are. I never saw myself as being disadvantaged in any way by being female; if anything, I felt that being good at traditionally male-dominated things just made me more special. I’m also in a country and culture that’s fairly progressive in terms of women’s rights – I wouldn’t have the same opportunities if I wasn’t born into a privileged middle-class life in a Western first-world country, had less encouraging parents, or married a less awesome husband.

I’m interested to hear if anyone has had a different experience – are you like me in never experiencing any real disadvantage to being a woman, freelancing or in a male-dominated industry? Have you ever suspected a client decided whether to work with you or not based more on your gender than your skills or portfolio? If you’re a freelancing mum, how do you balance that with work? Are you ever suckered into doing more chores and errands than is fair because you ‘have more flexibility’ or are ‘always at home anyway’? Any guys out there – what’s your opinion of women starting their own businesses and working in traditionally male-dominated industries?

I have to admit my thoughts on this topic are not particularly well-formed at the moment, but I’d be really really interested in having some discussion around it!

I’m going to try and write a weekly post each Friday about what it’s like to be a freelancer! This is something that I find a lot of people are curious about, and there’s a lot of incorrect assumptions out there. If you have any questions for me on freelancing, leave a comment here or on Formspring.
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Freelance Friday: The Office

20th January, 2012 on Freelancing, Home No Comments


Working from home isn’t for everyone; for me it was enjoyable but not always very productive. For the past 7 months or so I’ve been working from a share office, collectively called Monk Studio – home to Monk Media, Cut & Paste, myself and a few others who occasionally drop by.

Current projects board

Current projects board

It’s a pretty awesome and very creative shared office space, although I can’t take any credit for it – most of the setup (including the funky wallpaper) was done by Paul of Monk Media. I did give the whole place a good clean over the holidays, so I’ll take credit for that (office of mostly boys = ‘cleaning’ is done with a leaf blower).

My desk

My setup consists of an Ikea desk, my Macbook Pro on a laptop stand, an extra monitor, keyboard and mouse, a pencil box, a small pinboard of current projects, and my needle-felted Piplup. I suppose it isn’t the most stylish of desk setups, but for my graphic design work the extra screen space is absolutely vital. I also have a foot rest because at my height I can’t have my seat at a comfortable typing position without my legs being too short to touch the floor!

There’s a bit of a library of graphic design books I’ve been meaning to flick through and some instruments which office mates and randoms play when they drop in.

Also (important for me) there’s a kettle and a collection of tea! I think the lemongrass and ginger is my favourite, although I haven’t tried the French Earl Grey yet. We all bring in random drinks and snacks to share.

What’s your office like?

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Freelance Friday: Quoting

13th January, 2012 on Freelancing 1 Comment

Pricing is one of those things which is a little scary to talk about. Am I charging too much? Too little? I’ve been told both in the past and still get told this, even though I’m pretty happy with the way I quote for things these days. This won’t work for everyone, but here’s how I do it.

1. Decide on an hourly rate

I think I’d prefer not to publish my hourly rate here, especially as I work fast and quote by project, as described below. But basically it has to be something which you’re comfortable with charging and which is going to cover your costs. The rate calculator on FreelanceSwitch is pretty helpful, if a bit in depth. You should definitely be charging more than what you would be getting paid in a full-time position, as there’s a number of expenses (office rent, software, computer gear, time spent marketing etc) that you wouldn’t otherwise have to cover, as well as the complete lack of security.

It can take a while to feel out the right rate as well as the right clients for you – don’t be disheartened if you get a couple of potential clients disappear once they get their quote, as long as you have some work. If you have people commenting that your rates are very low or clients insisting that you quote more, then maybe it’s time to raise the rates.

2. Break the project down into tasks

How granular you go is up to you I suppose – the point is to get it to a point that you can accurately estimate the time it will take you to complete each task. Most of my jobs are website design and development ones, so my task list generally looks like this:

  • Homepage design, with up to 2 rounds of revisions
  • Secondary page design
  • Installation of WordPress and basic plugins
  • Development of approved design
  • Add-ons (blog, gallery, illustration, any dynamic features)
  • Training for the client, if necessary

3. Estimate the time required for each of the tasks

This takes a while to get the hang of, and even then some projects still surprise me. It helps to keep records of the time it takes to projects, broken down into tasks as above, for all projects – it’s a lot easier to see if you’re coming in under the time budget or not.

Some things are straightforward enough that I can predict pretty accurately how long it will take (installing WordPress, or coding simple templates). Other things, like design, can easily get really time-consuming. I usually try to estimate towards the longer end of what I think it will take me, as sometimes you need that extra time to give the client what they want and really get a design right. If the client has a very specific look in mind that cuts down the time needed considerably, since I can usually get the design right in an initial concept with some tweaking after feedback, so I charge much less for these. Asking the right questions or getting a detailed quote helps immensely with this.

Quoting for things I haven’t done before, but can figure out (like a lot of the jQuery stuff which is becoming so popular) is pretty tricky, and usually I end up losing out on those. On the plus side, the next time I have to do the same thing I know exactly what to do.

4. Multiply time estimates by the hourly rate

Pretty straightforward! If any of the figures look a bit out of whack, I double check that my time estimates look right.

5. Adjust as necessary

This is also a bit tricky to get the hang of, and I can’t say I’ve mastered it. After a while I’ve gotten fairly fast at what I do, so sometimes the amount I come up with from my hourly rate multiplied by my estimate of how long it will take me looks a bit low. At that point you also have to look at what it’s worth to the client, and how your estimate compares to others in the industry. Other factors to consider are whether you’re including the rights to what you’ve created (such as design work, templates or logos for example) which are worth more than just the time you spend on them, how desirable the work is, how busy you are, whether the client is picky or laid back, how soon the deadline is. It might not sound ‘fair’, but remember that there’s always going to be someone charging more than you – I can guarantee that design agencies pitching for big name clients aren’t just quoting $100 for a logo, no matter how little time it takes them. The quality of work is what makes it worth more than the time it took them to create it.

It’s also worth considering what the client expects to pay – certain types will go for what they consider a mid-range option over bargain-basement. Others will say upfront that they have a limited budget, and you have to decide if you’re able to work within that or not.

5. Put it into a formal quote

I use Billings for quoting and invoicing these days (more on that in another post), but I used to just use a Word template to put together quotes. I keep the quote itemised into tasks (grouped if they got too granular in the process) so that the client can see how much they’re spending on each aspect of the project. I put down the final cost estimate for each task, without the hours estimate. People seem to react badly to hearing a freelancer’s preferred hourly rate, because they compare it to what they earn per hour – usually in their secure, full-time-with-paid-leave jobs, which are completely different. Fixed prices always seem to get a better response.

A few extra notes

  • When putting down the tasks in a fixed quote, it’s a good idea to be fairly specific – that way if the client requests extra things during the process, an additional quote can be made for the extra work. If it’s unclear to begin with you can end up doing extra work beyond what you thought was the original scope without getting paid for it.
  • Some projects can be a bit hard to estimate accurately, so I end up giving a rough estimate of time along with an hourly rate to the client instead of a fixed quote. I try to stick with fixed quotes where I can though.
  • I usually try to also let the client know that I require a 50% deposit upfront when sending the quote, so they have all the information they need to decide whether to work with me or not. I suppose I’ll write more about invoicing in another post.
  • People who have no idea about your work might be severely misinformed about what you should be charging, so try not to take their comments to heart. I have a feeling a lot of my friends still think a complete website is worth just a couple hundred dollars (it is not!).
  • On the other hand, if your quotes are all unsuccessful it’s time to look at whether you’re charging correctly for your services and skill level, or whether you’re just pitching to the wrong sort of client.

Happy quoting!

I’m going to try and write a weekly post each Friday about what it’s like to be a freelancer! This is something that I find a lot of people are curious about, and there’s a lot of incorrect assumptions out there. If you have any questions for me on freelancing, leave a comment here or on Formspring.
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Freelance Friday: Looking Forward

6th January, 2012 on Freelancing No Comments

2012 is officially my fourth year as a full-time freelancer! It definitely hasn’t always been easy, but I think I’ve gotten the hang of things in general. I also have a bit more of an idea of how I want to brand myself and my business, and the kind of work I want to do:

More of this:

  • Logo designs! Logos are very challenging and (for me at least) don’t pay extremely well, but they’re good fun to design and very rewarding to get right. I think I’ve started getting pretty good at them, so hoping to do plenty more this year.
  • Complete websites – from design to development, the whole process. I love both aspects of creating websites so having a balance of both is always nice. I also have my process nicely streamlined, so things usually go fairly smoothly.
  • WordPress websites – it does have its faults and limitations, but overall I’m definitely a WordPress groupie. It’s come a long way from being just a blogging platform, and for most of my clients it’s just right as a CMS. I have my favourite plugins and base templates sorted so again it’s a nice, streamlined process.
  • Flash to WordPress conversions – lately there seems to be a lot of people moving from websites that are completely or partially dependent on Flash to a CMS based, i-device compatible system. These are usually mostly straightforward with a bit of jQuery for the dynamic element to spice the project up a bit.
  • jQuery/Ajax/dynamic stuff – it’s the way of the future, and I’m definitely on board with it. I have a bit more experimenting to do to get a good streamlined process going, but the learning is always fun.
  • Illustration – I love drawing, especially cute designs and fun characters. I haven’t pushed this aspect of my business much in the past, and it’s something I really want to promote more this year.
  • Photography – I’m still learning, but hoping to second or assist with shoots and weddings over this year to get a bit more experience.
  • Stock design/templates/illustrations – I’d really like to get a passive income set up, even if it is just a trickle to begin with. This is something I’m going to start working on when things are a bit slow with paid work.

Less of this:

  • E-commerce websites – these were a major cause of woe and unpaid work for me in 2011, so I’m taking a break from e-commerce websites until I can find a system I know inside out and can really stand behind. Related – don’t use the WP E-commerce plugin unless you want lots of woe.
  • Print work – I like doing simple things like business cards, but complex stuff just isn’t my thing.
  • Content Management Systems I dislike – I’m going to focus on WordPress wherever possible, which I think is going to serve me well enough. Trying to deal with foreign CMSs is a major learning curve, and for me it never seems to be a profitable one even in the long term. So goodbye Drupal, goodbye Joomla. We won’t be playing anymore.
  • Flash – iDevices seem to have killed Flash for the web. I can’t really claim that I liked it much to begin with.
  • Stuff I just don’t know how to do – unless it’s something that looks easy enough to figure out or will be very useful in future (like Jquery stuff), I’m going to just turn down or pass on things which are completely out of my comfort zone this year. Usually I can figure things out, but often it takes much, much too long.
  • Subcontracted/overflow work – I’m still a little on the fence about this one, as it does give a nice supplement of work to the clients I get myself. Then again, I charge less and don’t get to use the work in self-promotion, so in busier times it’s less worth it. Going to have to play things as they come.

Hopefully it’s going to be a good year! What kind of work are you hoping to do more of this year?

I’m going to try and write a weekly post each Friday about what it’s like to be a freelancer! This is something that I find a lot of people are curious about, and there’s a lot of incorrect assumptions out there. If you have any questions for me on freelancing, leave a comment here or on Formspring.
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