Happy 2014
I am very excited about some of the work I have been working on for the past 7 years. Let alone the fact that I have been development WordPress websites from Scratch for 10 years. Why from Scratch and not one you buy from Themeforrest.com ? WordPress themes from themeforrest are great starting point for website design. I can even customize the CSS, HTML, Images and more for you. I code mine from scratch because my websites do things not available in the Themforrest store. My prices are also not that low. I create unique websites for businesses. Each website I create is a evolution in my design process. I don’t mean evolution as in I’m learning to write code. That is not necessarily the case. I learn new languages, new techniques to create websites, and more about what customers are looking for in a website. I let photoshop be the canvas not the restriction. I will admit I have limited Photoshop skills. But if you take a look of my websites you will see I have sliced some beautiful PSD’s into fully functional WordPress Websites.
My first 100 PSD to WordPress conversions were quite tricky. That in itself was a lot to learn. I’m always up for a challenge. I’ve used a few third part tools to help expedite some processes along they way and even though they were good, they weren’t great tools. Once you learned how to use a program to accomplish a specific task, the program would change. No one would ask the people buying the program why do you think? So the program because harder to use. I’m all for new features. I’m all for new technologies. I’m not down with you changing the workflow for thousands of people who use your product, and making it harder to recommend your product to new people. So, I have to stick to the older versions of these programs. Which is fine, they do the task that they were assigned quite well.
I’m always thinking ahead. Being a WordPress Freelance in Chicago time is money.The more time I spend on one task the less time I have to spend on other parts of my business. I quickly learned that customers want their stuff done fast. Even though it takes upwards of 160 hours to put a basic website together, no one is going to pay a freelance rate for that. Which is why there is themeforrest.
Now, some of these themes are horrendous. The customer only sees the HTML/CSS or front-end side of things. I see the front and the backend. Apparently, I’m called a back-end developer because of my ability to write PHP and datadriven applications. The front-end developer is probably the guy working on these theme forest themes after they are purchased. So that makes sense to me. This would also save clients money and lower the expected hourly rate for these types of projects. So it’s win-win for everyone but me 
But see I take pride in my work. So back to the story.
The reason I don’t “start” with these themes is because you have to go through someones backend code to do what I do. I add a lot of features to my clients WordPress themes. Some of these features are really dumb things I’ve noticed over the years that are left out. Solarbluseth’s WordPress Theme Features. While I understand that if you were creating a theme for mass purchase you would want it to be attractive first and work second. Third these days is a nice administrative interface. I use a graphic designer to accomplish my first task. I partner my client with a graphic designer and they bring me back a PSD to turn into WordPress. I take it from there. My finished product gives my clients a better experience and the administrative panel is specific to their needs.
Now when you get to developing 500 websites, you realize “Where’s my money?”. I worked for an SEO company one year and produced almost three themes a week. Custom. I was worn out and making very little money. I however got to learn a lot about basic SEO. I applied my web hosting experience to the job at hand and we made some magic happen. I only worked there for a year and decided I needed a change and continued on my path of freelance WordPress Development. Since then I created another 300+ themes and took on a few clients who needed someone inhouse long term to talk about their website design. So I created a few functional, and a few beautiful websites. This allowed me to use my PHP chops to create business solutions that were complicated like a membership system for a video subscription website. I then designed a wedding website with the in house team, but at the same time had a few other sites I was working on freelance.
These freelance websites were a pain. They are a pain to land and a pain to deal with. Customers wanted dirt cheap deals and you had to compete with 200 other people in the world who needed to make money too. There was no way to stand out, even now you have to pay to stand out. That means you need money to even get a chance to try to make money. So who gets these jobs? Agencies? And who does theme? Probably people on Craigslist.org or someone in another country.
On Craigslist the freelancer life is a little bit different. You can you reply to people who are looking for experts such as yourself. You can also place advertisements for your services. Now, I have friends in the apartment rental and Realty business sectors. They tell me a lot of bad things about posting on Craigslist, so already knew what I was getting into. My issue was I was now competing against 200 other emails, in addition to all the other email someone got in that email box. Spam from Craigslist because they put their email address out there, and more. Talk about not getting noticed ? Well I finally developed my own strategy for connecting with clients on Craigslist.org. We shall see how that works out.
Now back to the freelance website. Now as a freelancer you want to manage your time. It’s one of the most important aspects of your job. Besides getting paid, and getting the job done. So you post “Hey I’d like to work on your project.”,and hope to get noticed. You get an interview “Hurray!”, then you get a project. “Congratulations.” The customer in most circumstances will always pay me a retainer fee. I don’t use my brain to think about your project without a down-payment. So the client would put a deposit down. I would send them a questionnaire. They will fill out the questionnaire and I start the design process. So a few days go by, I’m ready for a client to review the status of the project. No Response on average for two weeks. Now, who held up this project? Since it was the customer, they are ok with it. They have other things todo. That’s fine. Except for the fact that your a freelancer and need to budget your time.
Communication becomes key. That starts with communicating with your prospective client that communication is also important to you. Ask them questions like: What time zone are you in? How would you like to be contacted? Do you have any other employees that can answer questions about this project ? What is the best time of day and day of the week that is good to contact you over phone about this project? These simple but affective questions can make or break your project, and possibly prevent sticky situations down the road. This also helps you work on your calendar, and helps you manage client expectations.
After you iron out communications you realize: Who is my contract with? Well, in most situations you will be afraid to find out that most freelancers have no contracts. They are happy to have the work. They also have no way to respond to a bad client or situation. Most of these clients make you work on their stuff on their server, and one false move will cause them to lock you out and not pay you.
A majority of these clients are temperamental. A lot of of them have already had a bad experience. I try to make the experience better for any client. From web hosting to web development. But I am also not responsible for the last guys actions only my own. And if you don’t communicate and you drop the ball, you don’t get your project finished and you don’t legal rights to the code, and you don’t get your retainer back. I like to finish my projects. I take great pride in my work.
That being said, I’m excited for what’s in store in 2014. Some will be good, some will be bad. But I know I will make it through. Hopefully my clients will have some compassion for the person who is using glitter to put their website together. If your looking for a WordPress Developer I’m waiting for nice clients Bring your ideas and come get a website by Solarbluseth today.
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