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The freelancer's guide to good jobs and great pay
- gambiting 12y agoThis has a horrible vibe of all of these guides on how to get rich quickly, that a company would mail you for $19.99. Everything, beginning from having to supply an email address to be sent the first lesson,to cheesy "testimonials" like "now I can pay my bills 3 months in advance!" reeks of some sort of scam. At the very top "A FREE EMAIL COURSE FROM THE CREATIVE CLASS" And at the very bottom: "FULL DISCLOSURE: THERE'S A PAID COURSE ABOUT FREELANCING OFFERED AT THE END OF THIS COURSE."
- frandroid 12y agoIt's not a scam, it's the freemium model.
- ExpiredLink 12y agoFreemium is scam.
- 3stripe 12y agoYeah, it's like all those famous chefs who give their recipes away for free, and then charge money for a printed and bound collection of them... SCANDALOUS
- gambiting 12y agoNo one is giving you free recipes saying that they will make you a successful and rich chef. He is giving a free course saying it will make you a good freelancer...but if the free course achieves that, what more can a paid version teach you?
- ihackedmyself 12y agoGuess what. People who are really going to be successful are out there working their asses off instead of reading "programmer's self-help" ebooks.
- chrisked 12y agoInteresting claim. Do you mind elaborating on your thought process?
- johnward 12y agoAt the very top "A FREE EMAIL COURSE FROM THE CREATIVE CLASS" And at the very bottom: "FULL DISCLOSURE: THERE'S A PAID COURSE ABOUT FREELANCING OFFERED AT THE END OF THIS COURSE." I fail to see anything wrong with that. They are giving away something for free in hopes they can sell something else. Nothing wrong with that at all. They are even disclosing that before you join the list, which most people don't. I guess you may not see that before joining but I see no harm.
- collyw 12y agoYes, its way better than Linkedin's "free" premium trial, which despite being free wanted my credit card details.
- onion2k 12y agoThe free course cannot work. There is a particularly good reason why the free course in how to be a successful freelancer won't teach you how to be a successful freelancer: If it did then there'd be no reason to buy the paid course. They ought to be more clear that you're about to spend time on something that they know won't do what it says it does.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- pauljarvis 12y agoIf you learn what you need to on the free course, I'm fine with you not buying the paid course (I've told many people not to buy the course if I don't think it's right for them). The free version still has a ton of great information that's already helped the beta testers.
- johnward 12y agoForget what HN is telling you. They are complaining about your list yet they are the first ones to sign up for the next ruby/angular/whatever JS thingy is popular this week ebook mailing list.
- bmazza 12y agoHow would you go about selling an online course? Specifics would be great.
- gambiting 12y agoWell, I would start by telling my customers that I have this great course and it's going to cost X dollars. I would also say what this paid course entails, what the chapters are, what I am going to learn etc. Instead, he is offering a "free email course" and only at the very bottom of the page, in gray font, he does say that there will be an option to buy a paid version at the end. No price, no details, absolutely nothing. That's something that I wouldn't do.
- bdunn 12y agoThose who might consider your paid course would only have the persuasiveness of your sales site to go off of. By offering a free email course, you're able to figure out whether Paul's capable of providing you value. If he is, he'll have a call-to-action that upsells you on his paid course which provides even more value. There's nothing at all wrong with this formula, and IMO it's much "safer" for the buyer.
- zrail 12y agoThere's a big ol' "Brought To You By" link at the bottom of the page that links to exactly the type of page you're describing, complete with a very well done explainer video. It's almost as if this course isn't for you, and you've self-selected your way out of wanting it. Fancy that.
- abhianet 12y agoThe footer also says "BROUGHT TO YOU BUY" Not sure it was intentional or not, but surely reduces the trustworthiness by a lot and then some
- collyw 12y agoThere are plenty of businesses using the same model. No one complains too much about them.
- subpixel 12y agoHorrible might be overstating it, but I did get the feeling you're referring to. "This person is purporting to want to help me, but is probably actually buttering me up to sell me something." Like it or not, this approach is popular and effective, b/c email is the killer app.
- rfrey 12y ago"34% of North American workers now consider themselves freelancers" That is a very surprising claim. I'd have appreciated if they told us where they got the information.
- pauljarvis 12y agoThat's a very good point, I'll update with sources (as they are via studies done in the last few years), that was my bad for not including.
- tomek_zemla 12y agoActually the number does not surprise me, but the source would be great. My informal observations show that great number of knowledge workers freelance on the side of their day jobs, so I suspect that the number of full-time freelancers and part-time freelancers is different. Also, the studies might indicated breakdown by profession and how it changed over time... Programmers, graphic designers, writers, etc.
- pauljarvis 12y agoI updated with sources - here are the direct links to the studys: http://fu-web-storage-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/content/filer_public/c2/06/c2065a8a-7f00-46db-915a-2122965df7d9/fu_freelancinginamericareport_v3-rgb.pdf http://fu-web-storage-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/content/filer_pu... http://www.ipse.co.uk/sites/default/files//media/documents/RESOURCES/Future_Working_Summary.pdf http://www.ipse.co.uk/sites/default/files//media/documents/R...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- bhayden 12y agoThere was an article a week or so back talking about the most common jobs by state. Overwhelmingly it was truck driving, where I would guess it is common to technically be "freelance". I would imagine blue collar stuff like that is the majority of the 34%.
- alandarev 12y agoAre the courses suitable for the professionals who want to become freelancers? Thank you for sharing, I have signed in.
- pauljarvis 12y agoIt would give you a framework for starting to work on gigs with clients, yes.
- sheraz 12y agoDamn, that was a good pitch video. Nice work, Mr. Jarvis. Definitely one of the best I've seen. Clear, concise, relatable, human, and funny. I wonder if the classes are like the pitch video?
- pauljarvis 12y agoThank you! The classes/lessons are slideshows - as I've found people retain more of what I'm talking about if there are words on the screen. It's all the same stunning personality though, haha...
- EC1 12y agoI bought this out of desperation. Quit my job a few days ago and I only have runway for at MOST 3 months. Going to try the freelance thing again. I mostly got inspired by this site + http://ivomynttinen.com/blog/freelance-business-report-2014/ http://ivomynttinen.com/blog/freelance-business-report-2014/. Ivo is a fucking beast freelancer.
- porker 12y agoI have seen Paul Jarvis' site before, and coupled with the teaser for this course, have come away feeling I've missed something. Great writing, good work, and obviously talented. But... "bringing in more than $20K a month for over a decade" "I started freelancing in the ‘90s and [...] had a full client roster and a multi-month waiting list since I started freelancing." What - not even one month without work set up for the following month/month-after-next? Or one month in 120+ months where income has dropped below $20k? [A decade ago, $20k was worth even more than now] Now I've freelanced for over a decade, and my best months have been ~$18K - but my average is a lot lower than that. Short of Mr Jarvis having some advantage -- contacts and a foot in the door, ninja networking skills, or a magnetic personality: how are the above two true? I'm especially curious as his website doesn't show him as an expert in one topic (per @bdunn et al's advice), but more of a generalist like myself. And generalists aren't supposed to make such money. [Edit: Redid the currency conversion and upped my best months]
- aantix 12y ago"And generalists aren't supposed to make such money." If generalist don't make much money, and the best you've done isn't to your liking (because more is always better)... Why would you keep labeling yourself a generalist? Your best month isn't that great. And if you've been at it for over 10 years, you probably have a lot of experience to share. Ever thought about re-assessing yourself, giving yourself the credit you deserve and creating a better pitch for your services?
- collyw 12y agoI think there is a difference labeling yourself a generalist here on HN, and with a respective client.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- porker 12y ago> Why would you keep labeling yourself a generalist? Because variety and new challenges are the spice of life? All jesting aside, if I had deep passion/believed deeply in something, I would be the specialist for that ("Appointment reminder systems for equine vets") -- but I don't. This is the best quote I've seen on the subject. Haven't made the transition, and still trying to see what to define myself a specialist as: "The generalist is drawn to the problem he has not yet solved. His curiosity trumps all else. He feels no discomfort in operating outside of his area of expertise because such an area is broad, shallow and loosely defined. He pursues with passion the new and the different. When the transition is made however, and he becomes used to the benefits of deep expertise—when the client ceding control to someone deserving of such control becomes the norm—he will not be easily enticed back to operating from the powerless position of the generalist. "
- seandhi 12y agoThe site owner may want to put a timeout on the font loading. I had to manually remove the `wf-loading` class from the `html` tag to get the page to appear.
- avinassh 12y ago'YOU'LL GET ONE EMAIL FOR 8 DAYS AND THAT'S IT.' I believe you don't want to/would not send any more emails, ads, any of your product spams etc (since you make clear by saying "that's it") then why not give whole thing at once and without asking for emails? At the end of content, you could include an extra chapter explaining about paid course. By giving at once, without requirement of email, a lot of people would download the course.
- malenm 12y agoI think there's a better chance of people reading it if delivered in small chunks. He also gets to deliver 8 ads (or whatever marketing opp) instead of just one.
- johnward 12y agoBecause drip email content like this works as a marketing tool.
- urda 12y ago> then why not give whole thing at once and without asking for emails? Well it makes for easy ad revenue, but makes it sound SO scammy.
- ProAm 12y agoWow that whole site doesn't render with Ghostery blocking Typekit by Adobe.
- bhaumik 12y agoSeems like great content but I wish they offered a preview (the first lesson) before requiring an email address. On a related note, a Thinkful alum and I just launched on a guide together highlighting the same process but direct towards the client. As the intro paragraph states, we're hoping to help the client understand the hiring process without any frustration and uncertainty. All feedback welcome. http://www.thinkful.com/learn/how-to-hire-a-freelance-developer/ http://www.thinkful.com/learn/how-to-hire-a-freelance-develo...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- imaginenore 12y ago$20K/month is not an impressive claim for something that has "great pay" in the title. You can make that much on a W2.
- bsder 12y agoSeriously, this is the kind of garbage that makes me long for a downvote button.
- amelius 12y agoAnybody here successful with the strategy of hiring somebody to find good jobs for you?
- scarecrowbob 12y agoYeah, but bosses at jobs don't like it when I think about our situation like that.
- white-flame 12y agoThere's a word for that: Sales.
- white-flame 12y agoIn particular, view your freelancing as a service organization and partner/contract/hire a salesperson to generate and/or convert leads. Offer a commission on your revenue. We've done that before with a few jobs, and have gotten opportunities we likely couldn't score on our own.
- andy_adams 12y agoThe hostility towards the freemium model with content is ridiculous. If you don't get something out of the email course, then don't buy the paid course. If you do buy the paid course, there's a money-back guarantee (http://thecreativeclass.io/ http://thecreativeclass.io/). It's zero-risk, free information that can likely help you level up your freelancing. It's the same thing as a blog or other free resource, just packaged in an email course.
- bequanna 12y agoFYI Paul: I get a black page when using Ghostery on Mac Chrome 40.0.2214.115 (64-bit)
- drtse4 12y agoThe problem is caused by Typekit, that appears to be blocked by default. Providing an alternative font could be a partial "fix" for those using ghostery (many).
- pauljarvis 12y agoI've changed the way typekit serves fonts (no longer async, but at least it loads the fallback).
- drtse4 12y agoI can confirm it works :)
- Procrastes 12y agoI'd love to read a blow-by-blow on how you put together the site, course and explainer video. How much did you do yourself, how much did you contract out, did you use any firms as opposed to individual freelancers, how did you decide, and where did you find your team?
- pauljarvis 12y agoI wrote the course myself, I hired a local freelancer that I know to film the video. I also programmed the site and design it myself. I hired a freelance editor too (who I've worked with for 10+ years). So the videographer was a recommendation from a freelance friend. My editor I've worked with in collaboration on many client projects, so I know her work is amazing. The site runs on WordPress, payment through memberful.com, emails go out through MailChimp.
- cubano 12y agoThis is probably just me, but the fact that the page does not even load with Ghostery running is kinda a red flag, and makes me infer that the author is much more worried about his experience than mine.
- pauljarvis 12y agoTo be honest, I hadn't heard of Ghostery - I've tweaked the code to work with it (just installed and tested it). Cheers!
- getdavidhiggins 12y agoThere's a book which offers an alternative to freelancing as a serious career choice: http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Thinking-Like-Freelancer-Evolution-ebook/dp/B00PJIDO9C http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Thinking-Like-Freelancer-Evolutio... I wrote an article recently which concerns this, called Stop thinking like a freelancer http://blog.higg.im/2014/12/06/freelancing-financial-freedom/ http://blog.higg.im/2014/12/06/freelancing-financial-freedom... Basically I was sick of all the drama that came with freelancing. I exclusively do agency work now...
- iends 12y agoThanks for the book recommendation.
- sockgrant 12y agoPaul -- I'm sorry there's so much hate in the comments. Thanks for posting this and thanks for sharing what you've learned :)
- bigzz 12y agoThere are many sites from where you can offer consultant services quoting hourly rate. For instance www.fiverr.com and http://hourlyconsultant.com http://hourlyconsultant.com. The key is fixing the right rate taking into consideration all the factors that define your work profile.
- bigzz 12y agoThere are many sites from where you can offer consultant services quoting hourly rate. For instance www.fiverr.com and http://hourlyconsultant.com http://hourlyconsultant.com. The key is fixing the right rate taking into consideration all the factors that define your work profile.