I am designing and developing free websites for startups on HN | Hacker News Reader

I am designing and developing free websites for startups on HN

21 pointsalexwyser15 comments

I am a freelance web designer, and as part of an effort to fill out my portfolio and connect with new people, as well as provide a community service of sorts, I am offering free websites for startups.

This will include a free custom design as well as development using XHTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP/MySQL. I can develop a custom CMS or use Wordpress/Joomla/Drupal based on your requirements.

Any startup that does not have a budget for a professional website can get one. For startups that do have a budget for a website need to pay. However, I won't verify this, I will just take your word for it.

To get your free website, email me at alexwyser@gmail.com

PS. You are under no obligation to pay me or provide a back-link or even place an acknowledgment on your website. But if you can do any of them, I would appreciate it.

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That basically guarantees that you will never get paid. There was an article on HN a few months ago where a freelance designer, stopped giving quotes for projects. He just did the project, and at the end, he asked the client to send him payment for whatever amount they thought it was worth. Some clients ended up paying him 5 times what he expected, others half. In the end, it ended up being higher than what he would have made normally.

You could try this approach...just build the website, and ask the client to pay whatever they think is reasonable. You may be surprised, and it is guaranteed to be greater than or equal to $0

The main purpose of this "free website offer" is to provide custom designed websites to startups who would normally not be able to afford it.

I AM asking startups with a budget to pay me, but I worded it in such a way so that it does not discourage those seeking $0 designs.

I understand that some people might take advantage of this, but I expect that number to be very low (in fact, I expect it to be zero), simply because people are in general rather honest,

I was just suggesting that you change the messaging a bit.

"Free Websites" is a lot different from "Pay What You Want"

If you want to fill out your portfolio then just create some designs/redesigns of your own. Pick a niche and redesign it, for example online banking. As admirable as it is to do free design work, it's only work if you are getting paid and you will find that many times people will just take advantage of an offer like this.

Let's not forget the headaches of having to tweak to the client's happiness. Who wants to continue working on a site when you aren't getting paid to do so?

If anything offer a 1-2 page deal for $XXX. Better to have 2 paying clients than 10 free ones that you can't keep up with. Get in the habit of charging now so you don't feel weird about it later.

I could always make designs for 'hypothetical companies' but I felt that it'd be more worthwhile if some startup could benefit from my designs at the same time.

Plus it gives me the experience of working with clients, as well as some exposure.

One technique I had success with when I was freelancing is designing on spec. Find a genre of business and look for bad websites. Restaurants and hair salons are good for this because there are usually really good ones, and really bad ones. Redesign one of the sites, using the content from the site (menus, directions, about us, etc). Then contact the business, and offer to sell them the site. Send them examples of their competitors' sites (the good ones) as leverage. If they don't go for it, you can easily swap out the content with another business in the same genre. You can repeat this several times, and when you are done, you'll have a nice portfolio, and several paying customers.

In case you're monitoring replies, you might want to remove the typo from your headline - it doesn't give a good impression.

Apart from that, good luck, and kudos.

Thanks a lot. Fixed the typo in the heading.

For the curious: It read 'anf' instead of 'and' :)

I am getting a lot of requests. Too many to handle immediately. I have replied to some and will be working on those design for the next 3-5 days.

Those who have not received a reply from me, I will design the sites for you as well, but will need some time. If your project is urgent, then send me another email with the word 'Urgent' in the subject and I'll try to get your designs done as soon as I can.

Thank you.

Hmm.

If you're going to sell your work for free... Well, imo, you're making the market of web design worse for every player of that market, which would, consequently, lower the general bar among web design in the long run

But that's a bit far fetched.

The first comment has a point, if you haven't read that article... Well, you should.

Cheers

Do you have any examples of your work so far?

http://www.alexwyser.com/webdev.php

Very impressive.

How can you be proposing free work when you have worked for huge companies?

I actually worked with numerous design agencies, and the big clients are the clients of those agencies. This is because most clients (big and small) prefer working with their local design firm, rather than a freelancer online.

So while I have worked on projects for big companies, I dont have many connections. I am trying to really break out of working as a cheap nameless designer that design firms outsource to, and become a professional freelance designer and developer.

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