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-Your Family Tree project link doesn't work -Maybe in your accolades section the awards can link to a better description or place where I can find out what they

-Your Family Tree project link doesn't work -Maybe in your accolades section the awards can link to a better description or place where I can find out what they mean. The short description doesn't enlighten enough. -You say you've shipped a ton of projects, but only had a few listed. Maybe have a link to see more of your projects other than the highlighted ones -The layout and graphics are very nice though! -Rate your competency in each programming skill (Maybe look at the website Elance.com for more suggestions, or even put up a profile there under the individual section. That is where I hired my last website developer) -Maybe you could put prices. I pretty much instantly move on to the next company/person if I don't see listed hourly/project rates. Also put a section about how you get paid and if you pay before, or at certain times, or at the end. This one guy had a 100% money back guarantee if I didn't like the work. I picked him over the hundred others I saw. Also he was willing to look at my code over filezilla first-nobody else was willing to give estimates so that would give you a leg up too! -Instead of email me link just put the email address so someone can copy and paste. It tried to go to outlook and I haven't used that for decades.

kijin 13y ago
The first half is good advice, but most of the second half is not. It's written completely from the point of view of the client, and a client's interests aren't always in line with yours. Sometimes you'll be desperate to get every single client, but sometimes you want to stay away from potential clients who "instantly move on" just because they don't like something on your homepage. If I were you, I wouldn't publish my prices online, not even as a starting point for negotiations. If you publish an hourly rate, clients will treat it as an all-inclusive absolute ceiling. If you publish a per-project rate, clients will try to persuade you that their highly customized online store is the same as their neighbor's cheap blog. In either case, the initial convenience that you offered to potential clients will return to haunt you in the wallet for for weeks to come. The only exception would be for kinds of work that are extremely predictable, like setting up a WordPress blog with basic Facebook/Twitter integration and $XX per additional page. Basically, if you could write a script to automate it and just plug in a design, it's safe to publish a quote. But anything that requires more than dozen lines of custom programming has the potential to cost you countless hours for no additional pay. > 100% money back guarantee if I didn't like the work Nope. No money should ever go back from you to the client. If you really want to give your clients assurance that you won't rip them off, set up a few milestones where you agree to present specific parts of the deliverable. If the client likes it, bill them for the next portion of the project. If the client doesn't like it and you can't fix it without significant overtime, terminate the contract right there, the client keeps whatever design/code they paid you to produce so far (even if they think it's shitty), but any money they paid you is nonrefundable. That way, the client only takes a small risk at a time. > he was willing to look at my code over filezilla first That would be nice, but you have to word it carefully. Offer to do "free consultations" up to a point, so that you can get a better idea about the scope of the project. But don't do any serious design/programming until the down payment is in your bank. > Instead of email me link just put the email address so someone can copy and paste. That's actually good advice. Even better, put up a contact form named "Request free consultation," "Request quote," or similar. (Do this in addition to posting the email address.) Add some sliders or checkboxes if you want to provide estimates for predictable tasks, as mentioned above, though I stand by my opinion that this is a risky thing to do. A contact form is also a nice opportunity to learn how to send emails reliably from a website (no more mail() nonsense), and how to keep all those pesky spammers away from your contact form without hindering usability.

kijin 13y ago

The first half is good advice, but most of the second half is not. It's written completely from the point of view of the client, and a client's interests aren't always in line with yours. Sometimes you'll be desperate to get every single client, but sometimes you want to stay away from potential clients who "instantly move on" just because they don't like something on your homepage. If I were you, I wouldn't publish my prices online, not even as a starting point for negotiations. If you publish an hourly rate, clients will treat it as an all-inclusive absolute ceiling. If you publish a per-project rate, clients will try to persuade you that their highly customized online store is the same as their neighbor's cheap blog. In either case, the initial convenience that you offered to potential clients will return to haunt you in the wallet for for weeks to come. The only exception would be for kinds of work that are extremely predictable, like setting up a WordPress blog with basic Facebook/Twitter integration and $XX per additional page. Basically, if you could write a script to automate it and just plug in a design, it's safe to publish a quote. But anything that requires more than dozen lines of custom programming has the potential to cost you countless hours for no additional pay. > 100% money back guarantee if I didn't like the work Nope. No money should ever go back from you to the client. If you really want to give your clients assurance that you won't rip them off, set up a few milestones where you agree to present specific parts of the deliverable. If the client likes it, bill them for the next portion of the project. If the client doesn't like it and you can't fix it without significant overtime, terminate the contract right there, the client keeps whatever design/code they paid you to produce so far (even if they think it's shitty), but any money they paid you is nonrefundable. That way, the client only takes a small risk at a time. > he was willing to look at my code over filezilla first That would be nice, but you have to word it carefully. Offer to do "free consultations" up to a point, so that you can get a better idea about the scope of the project. But don't do any serious design/programming until the down payment is in your bank. > Instead of email me link just put the email address so someone can copy and paste. That's actually good advice. Even better, put up a contact form named "Request free consultation," "Request quote," or similar. (Do this in addition to posting the email address.) Add some sliders or checkboxes if you want to provide estimates for predictable tasks, as mentioned above, though I stand by my opinion that this is a risky thing to do. A contact form is also a nice opportunity to learn how to send emails reliably from a website (no more mail() nonsense), and how to keep all those pesky spammers away from your contact form without hindering usability.