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I'm a contract full-stack web developer. I've been "laid off" in that my last remaining client, who was already behind on her bills, told me to stop all work an

I'm a contract full-stack web developer. I've been "laid off" in that my last remaining client, who was already behind on her bills, told me to stop all work and she has no idea if/when she'll be able to pay her outstanding bills. I have no idea where next month's rent is going to come from. If anybody needs some contract web dev done, check out my info at https://albright.pro/ https://albright.pro/ and reach out ASAP. I will cut you one hell of a deal if you can at least help keep a roof over my head.

Peretus 7y ago
I'm so sorry to hear that happened. Good luck, and I'll send folks your way if I come across anything.
aerovistae 7y ago
So sorry to hear this. Wish I had work to hire people for but I'm just another solo dev too. Good luck.
Kwantuum 7y ago
Sorry to say, your online presence is dreadfully low for a web developer.
- Cyberdog 7y ago
  What do you mean by that?
  - itake 7y ago
    For what it is worth, I think your online presence is above the average.
  - incog_nit0 7y ago
    Not the OP and I like your profile page. If you do find you want to mess with your profile page I personally had good luck with this theme: http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ Available here: https://themeforest.net/item/leadx-landing-page-marketing-wordpress-theme/17840700 https://themeforest.net/item/leadx-landing-page-marketing-wo... I didn’t make it nor am I affiliated with it - but it was a quick and easy way of generating a polished freelancer page for myself. Good ways to find gigs as a freelancer are toptal, moonlight, yunojuno, bark, stack overflow (get a good score by answering questions). Bit of advice a friend gave and I have yet to try out: If you want to find local clients go to meetups, networking stuff where you would likely be the only software developer and people will likely be interested (obviously one for after this crisis has passed). Good luck!
    - Cyberdog 7y ago
      > http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ Sites that fade and pan in content as I scroll down the page can die in the hottest of hellfires. I do appreciate there are less harmful "modern" design cues I can take for the new version of my site, though. > Good ways to find gigs as a freelancer are toptal, moonlight, yunojuno, bark, stack overflow (get a good score by answering questions). I recall trying Moonlight a couple years ago and finding they could do absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps it's time to give them another look. I do have a SO presence, but their job board doesn't let me filter by contract positions. I will check out those other sites, though. > Bit of advice a friend gave and I have yet to try out: If you want to find local clients go to meetups, networking stuff where you would likely be the only software developer and people will likely be interested (obviously one for after this crisis has passed). That's a good tip. I used to be active in a couple groups around here but it got disrupted by some family stuff. I should get back into it again once this all blows over.
- staticvar 7y ago
  I used to think I needed an amazing online presence in order to sustain a freelance career. In hindsight, that time would have been better spent reaching out on job boards and building relationships with real people.
- aliswe 7y ago
  As a freelancer I've had zero online presence, not even LinkedIn. I have almost only ever got assignments through connections and reaching out to businesses myself. Garret, just emailed you.
  - cyberpunk 7y ago
    Seconding this; you don't need to pimp yourself out with a showcase, website, or linkedin (although linkedin does help you connect with a lot of recruiters and many of them will have contracts that are probably suitable). Until a month ago, there was plenty of work for everyone. We will see what happens now, but don't waste time building a fancy website; go to some meetups (oh wait.. maybe don't) or speak with some recruiters and I'm sure the snowball will start to form :)
- alecbenzer 7y ago
  Whether this is true or not, there's much better ways to phrase this. > Your online presence is dreadfully low for a web developer. Just dropping "Sorry to say" makes it sound less condescending. > Your online presence is really low for a web developer. Dreadfully -> really. Could argue that this changes the meaning somewhat, but I think the change is more in tone (again, less pretentious/condescending sounding) than in actual meaning. > Your online presence is really low for a web developer, you should consider expanding it to increase your exposure/get more interviews Explicitly making a suggestion is more constructive and makes the tone more friendly.
  - bosie 7y ago
    Not op but I appreciate the detailed rewrite. I do find your notes confusing though. The claim that your last sentence is more constructive seems a bit weak. what is constructive about it, you basically just derived a logical consequence that touching the website yields a result? Also, what does 'expanding' even mean in this context? At no point did you give any constructive feedback (what should be improved, why is it low, why is it 'really low' etc). on the note of 'really'. i find 'dreadfully' much more useful than 'really'. much stronger, gives a clearer indication of how bad it really is. 'really' doesn't do anything in this context, let alone be less pretentious.
    - alecbenzer 7y ago
      > you basically just derived a logical consequence that touching the website yields a result? The suggestion was pretty implicit in the original comment but I think making it explicit makes the tone of the comment friendlier. It shifts the focus away from just pointing out the bad to also focusing on how to be better. > Also, what does 'expanding' even mean in this context? At no point did you give any constructive feedback (what should be improved, why is it low, why is it 'really low' etc). Well sure, if I was the one actually giving the feedback, expanding even more would be even better. Even just the gestural focus on how to be better still does help the tone I think, though. > on the note of 'really'. i find 'dreadfully' much more useful than 'really'. much stronger, gives a clearer indication of how bad it really is. "dreadfully" is stronger than "really" but that doesn't make it clearer or more useful. "This is 5.6 bad points" is stronger than "this is 3.2 bad points", but without having any standard for what a "bad point" is, it doesn't really communicate any meaningful information. I think "dreadfully" similarly shifts the tone of the comment to being more negative without adding any real content. > let alone be less pretentious The pretentious-ness isn't as strong, but I think there's a hint of it that comes from using a "fancier" word without adding much actual content.
pletsch 7y ago
Are all your clients technical? If not, might want to consider a revamp of your site, make it more what your work will do for them (online presence) than your specific skill set (PHP, Drupal).
- generatorguy 7y ago
  and remove the comment about sneaking an easter egg in to drupal core. If I were looking to hire a web developer I wouldn't want a sneaky one.
  - iamleppert 7y ago
    Can't stand sneaky developers! They'll try to pull a fast one on you for sure!
  - ptero 7y ago
    This. Also, I would not worry about making your site high-tech. Plain HTML is fine. A wall of text is fine. But I would focus more on explaining what you can do ("build a website supporting X", "integrate Facebook, cell phone, IoT alerts"; whatever), not the tools or languages you use. For extra credit, link to a few small examples to showcase some of the cool features you can do. My 2c. Good luck!
- Cyberdog 7y ago
  With all the time I have now, I'm certainly planning on sprucing up the site (which is currently just a flat HTML file) in the near future. When I had client work, it was sort of a "the cobbler's children have no shoes" sort of thing - I couldn't justify spending much free time on it. Perhaps that was faulty reasoning in hindsight.
  - whitehouse3 7y ago
    Maybe I’m not the target market but I think it’s refreshing. No marketing BS. Just facts and some personality.
  - miloszkowal 7y ago
puzzledobserver 7y ago
I am sorry to hear this. Would freelancing websites like Upwork be able to help? I hope things work out soon!
ArtDev 7y ago
Hey I am also a Drupal developer. Check out drupalcontractors.com. They got me a really good long-term contract at my dream Drupal job a few months ago. Good luck!
Allower 7y ago
brilliant decision choosing to live paycheck to paycheck..

Peretus 7y ago

I'm so sorry to hear that happened. Good luck, and I'll send folks your way if I come across anything.

aerovistae 7y ago

So sorry to hear this. Wish I had work to hire people for but I'm just another solo dev too. Good luck.

Kwantuum 7y ago

Sorry to say, your online presence is dreadfully low for a web developer.

Cyberdog 7y ago
What do you mean by that?
- itake 7y ago
  For what it is worth, I think your online presence is above the average.
- incog_nit0 7y ago
  Not the OP and I like your profile page. If you do find you want to mess with your profile page I personally had good luck with this theme: http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ Available here: https://themeforest.net/item/leadx-landing-page-marketing-wordpress-theme/17840700 https://themeforest.net/item/leadx-landing-page-marketing-wo... I didn’t make it nor am I affiliated with it - but it was a quick and easy way of generating a polished freelancer page for myself. Good ways to find gigs as a freelancer are toptal, moonlight, yunojuno, bark, stack overflow (get a good score by answering questions). Bit of advice a friend gave and I have yet to try out: If you want to find local clients go to meetups, networking stuff where you would likely be the only software developer and people will likely be interested (obviously one for after this crisis has passed). Good luck!
  - Cyberdog 7y ago
    > http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ http://ttleadx.wpengine.com/freelancer/ Sites that fade and pan in content as I scroll down the page can die in the hottest of hellfires. I do appreciate there are less harmful "modern" design cues I can take for the new version of my site, though. > Good ways to find gigs as a freelancer are toptal, moonlight, yunojuno, bark, stack overflow (get a good score by answering questions). I recall trying Moonlight a couple years ago and finding they could do absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps it's time to give them another look. I do have a SO presence, but their job board doesn't let me filter by contract positions. I will check out those other sites, though. > Bit of advice a friend gave and I have yet to try out: If you want to find local clients go to meetups, networking stuff where you would likely be the only software developer and people will likely be interested (obviously one for after this crisis has passed). That's a good tip. I used to be active in a couple groups around here but it got disrupted by some family stuff. I should get back into it again once this all blows over.
staticvar 7y ago
I used to think I needed an amazing online presence in order to sustain a freelance career. In hindsight, that time would have been better spent reaching out on job boards and building relationships with real people.
aliswe 7y ago
As a freelancer I've had zero online presence, not even LinkedIn. I have almost only ever got assignments through connections and reaching out to businesses myself. Garret, just emailed you.
- cyberpunk 7y ago
  Seconding this; you don't need to pimp yourself out with a showcase, website, or linkedin (although linkedin does help you connect with a lot of recruiters and many of them will have contracts that are probably suitable). Until a month ago, there was plenty of work for everyone. We will see what happens now, but don't waste time building a fancy website; go to some meetups (oh wait.. maybe don't) or speak with some recruiters and I'm sure the snowball will start to form :)
alecbenzer 7y ago
Whether this is true or not, there's much better ways to phrase this. > Your online presence is dreadfully low for a web developer. Just dropping "Sorry to say" makes it sound less condescending. > Your online presence is really low for a web developer. Dreadfully -> really. Could argue that this changes the meaning somewhat, but I think the change is more in tone (again, less pretentious/condescending sounding) than in actual meaning. > Your online presence is really low for a web developer, you should consider expanding it to increase your exposure/get more interviews Explicitly making a suggestion is more constructive and makes the tone more friendly.
- bosie 7y ago
  Not op but I appreciate the detailed rewrite. I do find your notes confusing though. The claim that your last sentence is more constructive seems a bit weak. what is constructive about it, you basically just derived a logical consequence that touching the website yields a result? Also, what does 'expanding' even mean in this context? At no point did you give any constructive feedback (what should be improved, why is it low, why is it 'really low' etc). on the note of 'really'. i find 'dreadfully' much more useful than 'really'. much stronger, gives a clearer indication of how bad it really is. 'really' doesn't do anything in this context, let alone be less pretentious.
  - alecbenzer 7y ago
    > you basically just derived a logical consequence that touching the website yields a result? The suggestion was pretty implicit in the original comment but I think making it explicit makes the tone of the comment friendlier. It shifts the focus away from just pointing out the bad to also focusing on how to be better. > Also, what does 'expanding' even mean in this context? At no point did you give any constructive feedback (what should be improved, why is it low, why is it 'really low' etc). Well sure, if I was the one actually giving the feedback, expanding even more would be even better. Even just the gestural focus on how to be better still does help the tone I think, though. > on the note of 'really'. i find 'dreadfully' much more useful than 'really'. much stronger, gives a clearer indication of how bad it really is. "dreadfully" is stronger than "really" but that doesn't make it clearer or more useful. "This is 5.6 bad points" is stronger than "this is 3.2 bad points", but without having any standard for what a "bad point" is, it doesn't really communicate any meaningful information. I think "dreadfully" similarly shifts the tone of the comment to being more negative without adding any real content. > let alone be less pretentious The pretentious-ness isn't as strong, but I think there's a hint of it that comes from using a "fancier" word without adding much actual content.

pletsch 7y ago

Are all your clients technical? If not, might want to consider a revamp of your site, make it more what your work will do for them (online presence) than your specific skill set (PHP, Drupal).

generatorguy 7y ago
and remove the comment about sneaking an easter egg in to drupal core. If I were looking to hire a web developer I wouldn't want a sneaky one.
- iamleppert 7y ago
  Can't stand sneaky developers! They'll try to pull a fast one on you for sure!
- ptero 7y ago
  This. Also, I would not worry about making your site high-tech. Plain HTML is fine. A wall of text is fine. But I would focus more on explaining what you can do ("build a website supporting X", "integrate Facebook, cell phone, IoT alerts"; whatever), not the tools or languages you use. For extra credit, link to a few small examples to showcase some of the cool features you can do. My 2c. Good luck!
Cyberdog 7y ago
With all the time I have now, I'm certainly planning on sprucing up the site (which is currently just a flat HTML file) in the near future. When I had client work, it was sort of a "the cobbler's children have no shoes" sort of thing - I couldn't justify spending much free time on it. Perhaps that was faulty reasoning in hindsight.
- whitehouse3 7y ago
  Maybe I’m not the target market but I think it’s refreshing. No marketing BS. Just facts and some personality.
- miloszkowal 7y ago

puzzledobserver 7y ago

I am sorry to hear this. Would freelancing websites like Upwork be able to help? I hope things work out soon!

ArtDev 7y ago

Hey I am also a Drupal developer. Check out drupalcontractors.com. They got me a really good long-term contract at my dream Drupal job a few months ago. Good luck!

Allower 7y ago

brilliant decision choosing to live paycheck to paycheck..