Deleted my portfolio, made $30k in my first six months
robertwilliams.wpengine.com
robertwilliams.wpengine.com
"Clean design" doesn't mean "I'll make more money in the long run than I'm spending on this engagement." Sure, better design can lead to that, but it's a proxy.
Many designers and developers can learn a lot from what he's done. Focus on those outcomes that position ourselves as investment vessels, not expenses. This means realizing that — no matter how passionate we are about our hard-earned skills — it usually means diddly squat to our clients. They just want a positive ROI at the end of the day.
So don't think of proposing to a potential client that you'll write "Ruby code." Rather, figure out how writing Ruby code can get your client more customers, more profit, decreased overhead, whatever and sell THAT.
Why would you get your website designed by someone like that, unless you know conversion very well and design and micro manage the design process?
If you're struggling to find work as a freelance designer, you should definitely be doing more to contact clients and meet their needs instead of simply showing them pretty pictures.
Then again, if you're Kerem Suer (http://kerem.co/) you don't need to do any of that because you've already established your reputation, and you can show up at any startup and they'll hire you on the spot.
Disclaimer: I'm the guy behind Folyo (http://folyo.me), the design job board mentioned in the article.
Since when did a blog post about being a barely surviving freelancer qualify for the HN front page?
Sorry for being a bit of a jerk on this, but i don't get it. Maybe he got clients by being good at gaming HN?
As an aside, my mum used to run a bookstore, and I think it was Penguin books who used to prevent overdue accounts this way: If you're not paid up by the 25th of the month, your orders are halted. Only really works if you've got a decent amount of traction, but you can guarantee that the one distributor that got paid on time every month was Penguin.
People very rarely choose freelancing for the money. If I was told I could quit my job and freelance for two thirds of what I was making, I'd probably take it.
1. He might be earning the 30K while working less than at his old job (or more, to be fair).
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2. This is his first six months. There's nothing stopping him from earning more. Salaried employees face much bigger barriers to increasing their earnings, unless they switch jobs.
Most freelancers are not profitable right out of the gate.
Through word of mouth, and repeat business he will be able reduce the time required to acquire more work. He can use the skills he has acquired to be more productive and valuable to future customers. New clients and repeat clients will also be willing to pay-up since he is now a trusted resource, with less risk.
Yes, CA has higher costs of living, particularly in the Bay Area. But 60k a year isn't bad by nearly any source you can find: http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Graphic-Designer-l-California... http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes271024.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/san-francisco-graphic-desi...
It's pretty easy to find a token side point in any post and make a dismissive comment, as you have done. On the other hand, his central point was a useful revelation to me, despite my 20+ years of startup business experience.
His post is excellent, and exactly what HN is about.
Also, I like how you say "qualify for the HN front page" like it's some sort of accomplishment.
Crap, guess it's time to delete my HN profile. :-(
A lot of scorn can be placed on HN for its echo-chamber qualities -- most of it fair -- but at the end of the day, arguing too much about JS frameworks is still a better use of one's time than animated cat pictures.
Yeah, I kid, of course. I do learn a lot from my time on HN, both from reading the articles and from the ensuing discussions. I have days when I spend too much time on here though. Sometimes it doesn't matter, because I'm stuck on a client site for my $DAYJOB and they don't have anything for me to do, and there's little I could be doing to advance my goals while sitting there, so I wind up goofing around on HN.
Other days, I spend time where when I should be working (like right now!) but nobody can just work, work, work all the time, so I don't mind the occasional "goof off on HN" day here and there. And, like you said, the discourse here is writing practice, and learning to write well is always a good investment.
but at the end of the day, arguing too much about JS frameworks is still a better use of one's time than animated cat pictures.
Very true.
Prospect: I need a designer
... Why?
Prospect: Because my website is ugly and I want it to look beautiful.
... Why?
Prospect: Because a beautiful website give me more credibility with my customers/audience
... Why? Why do you want credibility?
Prospect: With more credibility, I can close more customers and charge each client more.
... Why? Why would you want to charge your clients more?
Prospect: Duhh, so I can make more money.
...There it is!
The saying goes that after you ask 5 why's you'll get to the root or the core reason why your client wants what you're offering.
If you can show that what you're selling will satisfy this often unspoken desire, then you'll make the sale.
The 5 why's is a good way to find out what this desire is.
Bob already knows what his clients desire... Can the same be said of you?
Go on, ask one more "why"...
...
All jokes aside I'll ask 5 or 6 why's so I can get to the core motivations, but I wont go deeper than the 3rd or 4th why in my marketing otherwise you'll risk making your prospect sceptical and weary of your motivations.
"Lets bullet-proof your project in 7 days or less. Get started for free right now."
"Lets" should be "Let's" (it's a contraction).
I find that really off putting. I guess I shouldn't, but I do.
Super-impressed that it's been fixed so fast. I hate it when people nitpick, but occasionally I feel like it's relevant/worth it. That said, I still feel a bit dirty now.
I hate it when I see professional signwriters duly painting an incorrect apostrophe - if you're being paid for the job, you should know what to write, and if you don't, look it up. Likewise, I'll forgive a restaurant using one in a homemade menu, but a menu that's been touched by a designer? Loses any class that was applied by having a designer in the first place.
The other options for finding freelancing clients are not very good - I've tried advertising on Google, and found that I pay a high CPC, get a low click-through rate, and despite my ad being clearly worded about providing services, most of the people come through on searches looking for jobs themselves, so it hasn't proved profitable (i.e. my cost to acquire a customer seems to be extremely high through that method).
I have had success with ODesk but it is hard to get clients without spending a lot of time first, even with the highest possible rating, and so effective rates there are very low, and ODesk demands a 10% cut, with contractual terms that mean that you can't do any work for the client without going through ODesk unless you wait two years without doing any work.
It is unfortunate that it is so hard for non-spammy consultants to get in touch with potential clients.
Perhaps cold calling companies might prove to be a more cost effective strategy to acquire customers.
https://news.layervault.com/stories/4266-deleted-my-portfoli...
Sure, Robert may have put a particular website in a bad light, isn't earning $1M, and maybe tried to find some value in some lessons from online courses (omg), but the point was clear: the competition was homogenous and he wanted to stand out (good). The best marketing strategy is to speak to your audience's needs, not necessarily your industry's ideals. I'm making a broad assumption here, but I feel like most business clients (those likely to hire an agency or a freelance designer) are more concerned with making themselves more money (through effective design) than "looking pretty". I think Robert was accurate in that observation.
Robert had some experience, found some stuff that worked for him, and is trying to share it with the community to help others learn where he maybe didn't have access to learn. I think that's admirable. I don't know why people on Designer News are shitting all over on him. Geez.
I will never again post on your site, no worries.
Why would anyone want to submit stuff to a site if there's a risk they could get banned if people on the site don't like the item? That's what voting and/or flagging are for. Banning should be for abusive behavior, not poor submissions.
His New York Times best selling book "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" is one of the best personal finance books I've read. It is especially useful for young people with a high income potential like many of us on Hacker News.
The comments sure are interesting but the only thing I checked out from reading it was the designer's site that got dissed.
Note: The post could have been edited by the time I read it.
Do you think that he didn't do what he said or that he is maybe getting some consideration from Ramith Sethi or something?
To my naive eye they guy seems to have written a post about a course of action that he is happy with and has given him some success. Is that so hard to believe? It doesn't that deleting your portfolio is the best course of action, it's just what he did.
Or is it the emphasis on revenue that rubs you the wrong way?
I'm asking all these questions because I just can't wrap my head around the negative reaction.
I wonder if the DN mods would be so quick to ban the post if he had mentioned the name of a book he found useful, rather than the name of an online course.
Perhaps it is because he has the audacity to be motivated by money, rather than a pure love for design, and this upsets the DN team?
Kerem is an amazing designer and in very high demand-I would know. He probably makes 2-3X more than this guy. So not sure why he is dissing him.
To be honest 30K in six months is not that great. I'm guessing ultimately he wants to make big money like Kerem one day.
There are trends and a lot of designers follow them, because that's what's currently in demand. It doesn't mean they aren't creative or execute poorly, which would've been indeed an insult.
On the other hand there are good reasons to be a part of a company. The reason I work for a company that gets contracted for web application projects is because I don't like thinking about business, and I'm not good at selling. If you have a head for those things, that's awesome for you - I wish I did. But not having to think about those things too much lets me focus on what I can do and still get a decent salary and benefits.
In Boston at least, new-grad salaries at companies-I'd-work-at are $80K and up.