Freelancers – respect Yourself.

I would like to open up discussion about freelancing. Do You, as a freelancer or similiar value properly Your work? writing about this, because some people were discussing ob Digital Points forums about “crappy quality of work”.

I would like to rethink it myself. Well, for the most part, if I do some designs/coding or any other type of work, I try to do it as best I can. I also know, that most of things require a lot of time to do properly (for example make the design, which will be major browsers compatible,for Internet Explorer 7, Opera and Firefox it can be done pretty quick, but the real pain begins when You want to do it compatible also to Safari, Internet Explorer 6 and some minor browsers) and in the end, when You calcullate Your time spent on project, You see that it took You at least 3-4 more hours than You estimated. But hey, You’re happy knowing that Your deisgn has pretty good coding, and it won’t gonna “go crazy” in some browsers.

So, when the all is done, You want to sell Your hard work right? You post an auction on some forums, with price, that You think You deserve for Your time and then it hits You… someone will do something similiar to Your design (sometimes so similiar, that You think someone stole Your idea) for a half of price, That You want, because he “needs quick money!”. Or You enter the forum and see, that most of designs are selling for 30-40$, which in my opinion is a laughable money for 8-10 hours of good coding/designing ( this means that you worked for 5$/hour, sorry but people working in Mcdonalds makes more – no offense). You studied, and learned many things, spending a lot of time to be good and You get that kind of money for Your effort? Well, in my opinion this is wrong, and the fault for this is only OURS. We make it like that, because, competiton is so big, that some people will sell their designs for penny, “only to sell and get over with it”. This is my plea for all of You, good and reliable designers – do not lower Your prices to compete with yourself so badly.

Remember, that there are a lot of people that are willing to pay for Your work some good money. And remember, than doing something GOOD, is better, than doing it CHEAP.

In conclusion. People, who thinks, that they can buy a portal/well designed Wordpress Theme/ Web 2.0 Homesite for 50$ should be taught a lesson. If they want to buy cheap, then go ahead. Let them buy from peoples offering “Proffesional, Unique and Well coded Design for just 15$!”. Maybe they’ll understand, that You have to pay for a well done project a little more, when they notice, that project they bought for occasional price of 15$ is bugged, looks bad on older web browsers and most elements of the site looks worse after editing it with content. Some elements are missing, some are showed incorrectly and so. All in all, they will have only 2 choices: Turn to good web designer/devlopers for help or live with the fact, that something is not working as it should be.

I believe, that I’m not the best designer in the world, but at least I’m not the worst. I love to do my work good, and I’m happy when the client is satisfied with the product. But to do that i spent much time improving myself, learning different styles/ways to code etc. And I believe I should be paid a decent/good money for my work. Only then both sides (me and a customer) are really satisfied.

What Do You think? Which is more important to You? Do something good, or do something quickly and cheap?

How to start making money with Proxies having no funds?

I’ve seen much people creating their Proxies from free templates avaible all over the net and I also have heard a lot of them whinning about not getting any money from them.
I’m writing this article to give them some advices, because I also created some proxies to earn little money to start something serious and useful.

First thing – don’t expect to make 100$ in two days having no funds for advertising, hosting and domains. To earn something You have to work for it. Nothing comes free.

I think I can help You so read the rest of article and decide whether it was worth it.
Anyway, let’s begin:

1. The Domain

There are 2 options, first option – easy way – If you have like 10$ to spend You can register a domain at Hostgator, or Namecheap, that’s it. Second option gives You a little less but hey, we’re building something from nothing. And to do this we will use some free domains like www.dot.tk or www.co.cc. You just simply register the name and link it to Your site. Hey, You’ve reached an end of a first step, congratulations!

2. Webhosting

Well, for the most, this is the hardest part. Most of free hosting sites don’t allow of proxy scripts. I got my first server for proxy from a member of Digital Point Forum. He offered it as a free to use, because he was building his populatiry. My advice – do the same. Visit some forums and find someone who will let You host Your proxy site at his hosting, in return do some advertising for him. The quickest way in my opinion.

3. Template

Ah yes, the template. Most of Proxy creators think, that template doesn’t matter and are downloading some free templates from google. Bad idea, If You want to have rising popularity and more traffic on Your site remember that look of Your proxy is very important. If someone visits Your proxy and see the design diffrent than the rest, he will remember it, and maybe he will tell about Your site to his friends. You see – unique style can make You bigger traffic, bigger traffic means higher revenue from the site. So think about it and try to create unique template.
But, if You’re lack of graphic talent or simply don’t want to do a unique template I advice You to see free templates, that I offer. You can see them here and choose one You like the most.

4. Advertising

After everything is done and placed, where it supposed to be we can advertise a little. We now have a fully developed proxy with unique design and a name. The easiest way to advertise is by Yahoo groups and visiting many forums( especially college/students forums). Take some effort in writing a short description of Your proxy and why do You think it is better than other proxies and post it on forums and good groups on Yahoo. Repeat it couple of times. If You do it properly You can be sure, that Your traffic will explode in less than a week.

5. Choosing a way to monetize Your taffic

Proxy sites haven’t got much of choice. The best choice is Google Adsense( PPC system) or affiliate, that is paying for displaying 1000 impressions of his banner on Your Site (called CPM). From my experience YesAdvertising.com is the best choice. They have a good CPM rates (as high as 1.80$ for 1000 impressions) and they are able to pay directly to Your Paypal account.

So, 5 simple steps to build Your first proxy. I earned in this way 56$ in first month. Not much, but I was able to buy my own hosting account, 3 domains and some advertising. In second month (after paying for hosting) I earned about 84$. That’s how I made my first money with using a proxies sites. Wish You all the same.

Ofcourse I can’t promise You thisearning, I can only tell You, that if You’ll be patient and put some effort in it, You can earn nice sum of money(when Your network will grow) or earn enough to move on with Your ideas.