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Comment by akamaka | Hacker News Reader

Great blog post, and congratulations on your success so far.

My biggest problem so far with trying to work as a freelancer has been figuring out exactly what type of work I should be pursuing. I've got a pretty broad skill set, from back-end to front-end web programming in several languages, adequate graphic design skills, and experience with native mobile platforms. While having more skills is a good thing, I feel like it makes it more difficult to market myself successfully.

Has anyone else had this problem? Did you try to focus on one area that you liked the most? Did you pursue what seemed to be in greatest demand? Or did you find a way to successfully market yourself without limiting yourself to one type of work?

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I was in the same situation. I can do back-end web programming, and some lower level things in C or mobile apps.

Right now, though, d3.js gives me 80% of my income. It's something I like, and I noticed a lot of demand, so I sort of happened naturally. Focusing in a single area has the advantage that you can become really efficient at it, much more than if you hop between completely different projects every two months.

I still have a bunch of side projects in every language under the sun, because that's what I like, and because the market won't stay the same forever, but focusing professionally on only one area (that you reasonably enjoy) for a time simplifies marketing a lot.

> Right now, though, d3.js gives me 80% of my income. It's something I like, and I noticed a lot of demand

Very interesting.

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of work are you typically doing with d3? Visualising what kind of data and for what purpose?

I mostly design small, self-contained visualizations for small businesses. The data I get and the level of "visualization design" I have to do depend a lot on the client.

I have worked among others with data on local traffic (congestion and travel times), interaction between players on a field during a game, computing performance, some internal manufacturing metrics. I think there's quite a few areas where people want dashboards that are both fancy looking and informative, either for their clients or for themselves.

Some people just have a vague notion of some data they somehow want to display, others have quite precise demands (typically: "I've seen this d3 example and I want the same with this and that specific interaction/effect added.")

Wilya, how do you find work for d3.js? What's the best way for a freelancer to market their experience in a relatively small open source library?

In my (very limited) experience I found that you should focus marketing yourself for what you do best. There'll be plenty of other stuff you can do for the same client once your foot is in the door.

Wow, this is exactly the same problem I have. I have an extremely broad skill set and often wonder how to market myself to give myself the most opportunities.

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