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At the age of 15 I started with this web design stuff. Here I am, almost 7 years later and I wish I knew a lot more about this field rather than learning just by my own mistakes. But you don’t have to pass through all of this, dear Padawan.
There are a few particularities in our field that unless you have a geek dad you would never think about… So if you are aware about what you need to do you can have a much simpler, more productive, and happier freelance life.
The crazy thing is that success is not (just) about coding skills alone. You have to build a whole environment to compensate the instability that you probably won’t face in a regular job.
Finally, here we’ll see a few tips for novice and experienced freelancers, ranging from controlling your finances to networking. And I really want to hear your advice and tips after reading this, because we always have something to share, right?
So, let’s rock!

Credits: svilen001
Last month I earned barely two-thirds than what I committed myself to earn. And it doesn’t mean that I have worked less than the plan, it’s just that I overestimated how much I could actually earn.
We tend to think that something magical will happen and we’ll go from zero to a million overnight. Just forget about it, don’t lose too much time thinking about how much you can earn in a month and put that time into getting things done!

Credits: CDJensen
One thing that just comes with time is realistic time estimates. I’ve seen myself billing 1 hour for something that took me much more than 8 hours. There are plenty of reasons to get good at estimating time, but you’ll be good with these points:

Credits: somadjinn
I’m sure you have laughed at a crazy dumb user fail. If you haven’t, you should.
But you have to keep in mind that sometimes clients are right, and you are wrong. Sometimes they actually know more about something than you.
A client of mine, for instance, taught me a lot about cool WordPress functions (crazy, huh?).
So be open-minded enough to take good advice, and expert enough to block crazy requests.

Credits: _AcE_
In other words, you are your own worst enemy. You’ll always find a cool flash (or why not, JS) game, TV show or any other excuse to keep you away from hard work. It’s human nature man, don’t be ashamed.
Once I took an Aikido class. I learned something amazing that day. The teacher said:
“Your body is lazy, kid. Your mind has to control your body. Your body will want to stay in bed for 15 more minutes, and will find all kinds of excuses to keep you away from those crazy physical exercises. But you have to control your body. You have to ignore those distractions and keep moving.” – Myiagy San from Curitiba, Brazil
The ironic fact is that I didn’t take a second class. But I took his advice.

Credits: marcos_bh
My very first web design job paid me around $175 per month for full-time work. Don’t know about you, but today it would be just impossible to live on that.
So you have to be around people who see value in what you do. Run away from small gigs, or people who think that your job is just to paste things from DOC to Dreamweaver. Be around of people who you can help, and that will help you in return.

Credits: bluegum
With all this free stuff out there it’s pretty easy to have your own garbage collection without even noticing.
Links, templates, old stuff, social media overdoses, obscure folders that you’ll never even visit again.
Unless you just want to fill a 1TB drive with psds that you’ll show to your grandkids, get rid of them all and just keep what makes your life better and is useful to your job.

Credits: kikashi
Active income is good to balance daily bills, but nobody gets rich with billable hours alone. If you don’t want to stay working 16 hours a day, every day, for the rest of your life, you’d better start thinking about passive income.
Here are a few options:

Credits: fDhooghe
What’s the price of losing all your current projects data? All your knowledge that is stored just in your files? All your family photos that make you remember that amazing trip last year?
I bet it’s less than any backup option out there.

Credits: fabioslave
It’s not just about the image or code editing software you use. It’s all about the structure that you make use of.
Relying on the big boys is a safe bet, since I really doubt you can do a better job optimizing your system for one client than they have been doing for millions. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, start working with jQuery, WordPress, Drupal or anything else that make you feel comfortable.

Credits: ryas
Besides those tools, you may be asked to use a new one. And by this time unless you know the basics of the language (or concepts of design) you’ll be in big trouble.
So try to read a good book on the roots of the language you are using every now and then , I bet it can even help you to be more productive while working with those tools!

Credits: KnowYourMeme
Don’t take it so hard. At some point you’ll screw things up, lose a client, or mess up someone’s else job.
Just stop for a moment and think about how this will affect your life in 1, 5 or even 10 years. I bet you don’t even remember what your “big trouble” was 10 years ago.
Don’t worry, all things must pass, all things must pass away..

This is the best advice you could take in your entire life. We have great content coming every single day to help you. And of course we all are happy when we see you back :)
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I'm a web designer and entrepreneur from Itajubá (MG), Brasil. I love writing about obscure topics and doing some cool stuff. And also I do some FREE stuff, check it out: http://www.roch.com.br/
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 08:38
Great list,
the one we tend to forget is the passive income.
Thursday, March 8th, 2012 14:36
So true..Now i’m going freelance, i am experiencing most of it…Nice Article! ^^
Monday, February 27th, 2012 16:12
I like your article a lot but the thing that impressed me about you is that you answer back on verey comment! Great job.
Markiz
Saturday, February 18th, 2012 20:03
Rochester Oliveira you seems very mature , even you are young
i have just start freelancering
thanks for tips that make my way short
Saturday, February 18th, 2012 11:34
Congo on 7 years..!! And Thanks for sharing your experiences and all with us.. And about the last point that I do each and everyday via my desktop RSS reader (FeedDemon)..!! ;) Thanks one again, Rochester..!! :)
Friday, February 17th, 2012 20:26
hey Congrats for completing 7 years and also thank you sharing your experiences. I’ve a Q… How to be around of people who I can help?, I work in a MNC having Infosec Domain and my niche is Blogging and Inspiration. :o
Friday, February 17th, 2012 03:33
alway found something fresh and original taste every time i visited 1stwebdesigner, another great article(s) Rochester . But your last point is make me laugh – it’s about your sense of humor – i thought that was a humor Roo. That is so funny but the truth is you’re right. Visiting 1stwebdesigner every single day can make my brain more sharp :)
Friday, February 17th, 2012 02:05
Thank you a lot for this amaizing post. I made the big switch to Freelancing last November, and LIFE has NEVER been THE SAME :)
Its totally worth it, with it’s ups and downs. The thing i love the most is: i sleep whenever i want and wake up the same, just as long as i get the work done :)
Last month my server was doing routine maintenance, and i was scared to death. All my sites were down. Thank God that after couple hours everything was fine again, but still that didnt make me go for the back ups right then. I am doing a full backup now :)
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 22:41
Great article. I included it in this weeks issue of Freelancing Weekly.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 18:59
Great article! Thanks.
I have one question: can you say more about “Sell templates”? (from p.7)
Thank you again. Always glad to read you blog.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 17:44
Thanks for the tips very useful :) I will subscribe to your blog
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 07:54
Over the 29 years I’ve been programming (ok ok, ‘only’ 22 years commercially) I have learned one important lesson in actually dealing with a client: learn to think as a manager to deal with management – they are the decision makers and most of them do not understand the tech-guys technical explanations or reasons to pick this over that. If you can present a vision compatible to budgets and reporting as well as make it obvious that they will save time and money, and that they will be safe (support-wise, very important (!) long term aspect of dealing with your clients – are you there 24/7, in case something is burning or need ‘rescue’? never happens, but they want it anyways) with you and your solution, you are almost there to close the deal.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 22:24
I have to agree with you about backups. I have lost my HDD once and now I am extremely cautious about backups
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 07:58
Backup’ing data is one thing (and I agree fully – I have my raid-5 setup running daily, phew.. lost too much data in the past). Many of the bigger clients are also concerned about YOU. Especially if you are a one-man company – what happens with their product and the support of it if you get a brick on your head.. something to think about.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 19:43
This is a really awesome article—short, sweet and straight to the point! I agree with everything but even more so with points 5 and 7 :)
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 19:15
Number 11 is such a good point to reinforce.
Number 12 is a little biased, but still a good resource, none the less. ;)
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 17:49
Hi Rochester, I’m a freelance writer and a designer friend sent me a link to this site. I fell into freelancing too, and I enjoyed your post. Freelance work is gratifying but humbling! Thanks for your insight.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 16:55
Sleep and coffee are a must.. that’s for sure! great article my favorite quote was “Run away from small gigs, or people who think that your job is just to paste things from DOC to Dreamweaver” SO TRUE!!
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 23:10
Truly excellent points and by far the best freelancer reality check! I would only differ with #1 – After establishing a smart business model, the money can be more than one might imagine.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 13:06
I love the point number 10. Only strong basement helps for strong building. Similar to that, its better to have strong knowledge about the basic of the language.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 12:29
Thanks a lot for your articles! good job done! I woulld add to your list – get enough sleep to keep your mind fresh and always plan your work.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 15:23
great article, i agree with Altteam, if we sleep enough, we can fresh our mind :D
well, can someone here tell me what ‘remote project’ is ?
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 15:22
There is a typo “A some point”
Also, great tips! The best way to learn knowledge is from others who have already been through all that. Thanks for sharing you thoughts :)
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 14:20
Thanks for the tips very useful. I’ve been thinking about starting freelancing more and have been working on increasing my passive income before I take the leap.
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Paul
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 14:20
Thanks for the tips very useful. I’ve been thinking about starting freelancing more and have been working on increasing my passive income before I take the leap.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:08
Hi Paul,
That’s good! If I had a little more time to think about it, I should have built more passive incomes, it could save me much headaches during shortages.. So should you! :)
[]‘s
Pete
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 07:54
Over the 29 years I’ve been programming (ok ok, ‘only’ 22 years commercially) I have learned one important lesson in actually dealing with a client: learn to think as a manager to deal with management – they are the decision makers and most of them do not understand the tech-guys technical explanations or reasons to pick this over that. If you can present a vision compatible to budgets and reporting as well as make it obvious that they will save time and money, and that they will be safe (support-wise, very important (!) long term aspect of dealing with your clients – are you there 24/7, in case something is burning or need ‘rescue’? never happens, but they want it anyways) with you and your solution, you are almost there to close the deal.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 19:11
Hey Pete,
I’m sure you have more years programming than many our readers (including me) have in their entire life :)
About you point, yeah, we have to come up with amazing technical solutions but keep an eye on benefits, always. If you have a cool optimization technique that will improve loading by 50% it’s still meaning nothing to the client unless you say that it’ll give them 80% more conversions.
And about support.. Oh, this is a really important thing! There’s nothing worse than the felling that someone is ignoring you, and nothing better than felling important. When you give a client all your attention (even if it’s just for 5 minutes) they feel safe with you, so you’ll be their choice :)
Thanks for your great points!
[]‘s
Mike
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 22:24
I have to agree with you about backups. I have lost my HDD once and now I am extremely cautious about backups
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:26
Hi Mike,
It’s really bad, isn’t it?
You may call me dumb, but once I erased all my office’s files (actually it was a intern under my guidance :D).. And you can imagine how bad it was to recover important data like spreadsheets and client’s documents.. Just a nightmare…
Since then I keep safe copies of important things, and never trust to let them all in the same place :)
[]‘s
Pete
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 07:58
Backup’ing data is one thing (and I agree fully – I have my raid-5 setup running daily, phew.. lost too much data in the past). Many of the bigger clients are also concerned about YOU. Especially if you are a one-man company – what happens with their product and the support of it if you get a brick on your head.. something to think about.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 19:06
Nice point Pete,
Even if you are a small company (like one I’ve had before) usually if someone gets sick things can get ugly.. You can imagine how it’s like to take vacations or even simple things like sleeping or enjoying weekends :)
[]‘s
Dainis Graveris
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 20:01
Heh, ne vso panjimajet paruski, i vobse ochen strana vidit takoi komentar :) Esli ti hocesh stobi vse mogli ponimat, write in english :)
Andy
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 12:29
Thanks a lot for your articles! good job done! I woulld add to your list – get enough sleep to keep your mind fresh and always plan your work.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 04:56
Hi Allteam!
Nice point indeed, sometimes it’s more productive to sleep well and wake up earlier than trying to work overnight!
Thanks!
[]‘s
Bayu
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 15:23
great article, i agree with Altteam, if we sleep enough, we can fresh our mind :D
well, can someone here tell me what ‘remote project’ is ?
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:13
Hi Bayu,
So do I!
Remote project is a project that is not local, and I guess almost every web design freelancer works this way :)
[]‘s
Bayu
Friday, February 17th, 2012 05:13
thanks for answer my question,
then, where i can learn about it ?
how to get started ?
Gustavs Jurisons
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 15:22
There is a typo “A some point”
Also, great tips! The best way to learn knowledge is from others who have already been through all that. Thanks for sharing you thoughts :)
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:09
Hi Gustavs,
I’ll let our editor know about it! Thanks for pointing it out!
And I’m glad you liked! :)
[]‘s
Tessa
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 13:06
I love the point number 10. Only strong basement helps for strong building. Similar to that, its better to have strong knowledge about the basic of the language.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:00
Hi Tessa!
That’s the point, you can always find better solutions if you dig a little deeper on what you’re doing.. And again, it can save you a lot of time don’t reinventing the wheel using costly solutions for problems solved easily with your language :)
[]‘s
Christopher
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 23:10
Truly excellent points and by far the best freelancer reality check! I would only differ with #1 – After establishing a smart business model, the money can be more than one might imagine.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:31
Hi Christopher!
Wow, thanks a lot :)
And about #1, I guess I haven’t explained it well enough.. I’m not saying that you’ll never get money (actually you’ll do, for real) I mean, at first we all imagine that we’ll just close all deals in no time and receive all the money by next month, but it’s just not gonna happen..
Thanks!
[]‘s
Dorothy
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 19:43
This is a really awesome article—short, sweet and straight to the point! I agree with everything but even more so with points 5 and 7 :)
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:22
Hi Dorothy!
Thanks a lot!
I’m still working on #7 but I guess I’m really good with #5.. I just keep in touch with people who help me to get better and better :)
How are you doing with this ones?
[]‘s
Bret Juliano
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 19:15
Number 11 is such a good point to reinforce.
Number 12 is a little biased, but still a good resource, none the less. ;)
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:20
Hi Bret!
#11 is my personal mantra.. I wake up everyday singing “Don’t worry.. about a thing.. tchu tchurururuu rururu” haha! But really, how worrying about every bad thing would help us, right?
#12 is biased, indeed :) But is just because I believe on this, and I read this blog more than any other out there! But the general idea is, get just the best resources you find, and let the trash go :)
[]‘s
Christie
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 16:55
Sleep and coffee are a must.. that’s for sure! great article my favorite quote was “Run away from small gigs, or people who think that your job is just to paste things from DOC to Dreamweaver” SO TRUE!!
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:14
Hi Christie,
Damn, how could I miss coffee? And good music (Beatles is the best for me :D) helps a lot too!
Thanks for commenting!
[]‘s
Sara
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 17:49
Hi Rochester, I’m a freelance writer and a designer friend sent me a link to this site. I fell into freelancing too, and I enjoyed your post. Freelance work is gratifying but humbling! Thanks for your insight.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 05:16
Hi Sara!
Thanks for your comment. Also I’m a programmer while I’m not writing, so it’ll really fit for you, huh?
And I just can’t describe how happy I am with what I do. All these comments, a good project done.. well, what else would I want?
:)
[]‘s
Dainis Graveris
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 16:48
Thank you Rochester for writing this! It feels like I know you a bit better already! Glad to have you in our team and as my personal friend! Such a great story full with such a good tips!
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 19:14
Hey Dainis!
I’m glad to see you here :)
Thanks a lot.. Hope to keep this amazing work that we’re done for a long time! ;)
[]‘s
cmsbuffet
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 08:38
Great list,
the one we tend to forget is the passive income.
winskey
Thursday, March 8th, 2012 14:36
So true..Now i’m going freelance, i am experiencing most of it…Nice Article! ^^
Markiz
Monday, February 27th, 2012 16:12
I like your article a lot but the thing that impressed me about you is that you answer back on verey comment! Great job.
Markiz
Rochester Oliveira
Monday, February 27th, 2012 19:29
Hi Markiz,
If you spend your time to drop a line, I should at least spend a few minutes replying too, right? :) I guess it’s a win-win, I don’t miss a single comment, and you guys know that it’ll be always someone to at least read what you said!
Thanks!
[]‘s
Hamed
Saturday, February 18th, 2012 20:03
Rochester Oliveira you seems very mature , even you are young
i have just start freelancering
thanks for tips that make my way short
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 04:50
Hi!
Thanks :)
And if you need more tips, just keep coming, we have a lot of them every day :)
[]‘s
vodoleq
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 17:44
Thanks for the tips very useful :) I will subscribe to your blog
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 19:16
Hi vodoleq!
Yeah, you do that! And keep coming because we have great content twice a day :)
[]‘s
Eugene
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 18:59
Great article! Thanks.
I have one question: can you say more about “Sell templates”? (from p.7)
Thank you again. Always glad to read you blog.
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 19:18
Hi Eugene!
There is basically 3 ways of doing so:
1 – You can act as affiliate and sell other people’s templates in your own site (e.g. wordpress themes from theme trust, which gives you 30% of the earnings)
2 – Write and sell your own templates in your own site (so you keep al incomes for yourself :D )
3 – Write your template and use someone else to sell it, like code canyon
Hope it helps!
[]‘s
Eugene
Saturday, February 18th, 2012 23:41
Thank you :) It’s very helpful.
Can you tell more links to web sites same as “code canyon”? code canyon – amazing place, but maybe is more places for selling templates? :) or it’s the best and other not important?
Dainis Graveris
Sunday, February 19th, 2012 15:44
CodeCanyon, ThemeForest are the biggest, but then there is also http://mojo-themes.com/
Saket Jajodia
Saturday, February 18th, 2012 11:34
Congo on 7 years..!! And Thanks for sharing your experiences and all with us.. And about the last point that I do each and everyday via my desktop RSS reader (FeedDemon)..!! ;) Thanks one again, Rochester..!! :)
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 04:46
Hi Saket,
I’ve never used a desktop RSS reader, just GReader. How does it works for you?
And keep coming once a while to comment, we really enjoy this interaction :)
[]‘s
Pratik
Friday, February 17th, 2012 20:26
hey Congrats for completing 7 years and also thank you sharing your experiences. I’ve a Q… How to be around of people who I can help?, I work in a MNC having Infosec Domain and my niche is Blogging and Inspiration. :o
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 04:37
Hi Pratik,
There’s always good people out there that you can share experiences with. For instance, I live in a really small town, with around 90k habitants. So my network is all spread around the world (Latvia, USA, JP…). I think you could do the same :)
Don’t draw your boundaries thinking about “physical” world, don’t forget that with the Internet you can be anywhere, with anyone.
[]‘s
Sishim
Friday, February 17th, 2012 03:33
alway found something fresh and original taste every time i visited 1stwebdesigner, another great article(s) Rochester . But your last point is make me laugh – it’s about your sense of humor – i thought that was a humor Roo. That is so funny but the truth is you’re right. Visiting 1stwebdesigner every single day can make my brain more sharp :)
Rochester Oliveira
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 04:30
Hi sishim4ru,
I’m glad we have at least one reader happy here haha Sorry about my bad jokes, I just can’t help it!
[]‘s
Jeff Schoolcraft
Thursday, February 16th, 2012 22:41
Great article. I included it in this weeks issue of Freelancing Weekly.
Rochester Oliveira
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 21:58
Hi Jeff,
I’m glad you liked and linked it :)
Keep coming, we have much more great content to go!
[]‘s
Elvin Xhimitiku
Friday, February 17th, 2012 02:05
Thank you a lot for this amaizing post. I made the big switch to Freelancing last November, and LIFE has NEVER been THE SAME :)
Its totally worth it, with it’s ups and downs. The thing i love the most is: i sleep whenever i want and wake up the same, just as long as i get the work done :)
Last month my server was doing routine maintenance, and i was scared to death. All my sites were down. Thank God that after couple hours everything was fine again, but still that didnt make me go for the back ups right then. I am doing a full backup now :)
Rochester Oliveira
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 22:07
Hi Elvin,
I know exactly how you feel. And it’s pretty amazing indeed.
And about your routine, I get same thing here. But it’s tricky sometimes, you need to control your distractions better so you don’t screw up things with your clients.
Nice point about backups :)
[]‘s