symptic

I think his viewpoint is a tad pretentious, and what we’re seeing here is really a company who is afraid to put itself in a new position, be it out of fear or some sort of analytical paralysis that says if it’s new, it might not work. I think good ‘taste’ comes from a willingness to change--rather, an insistence on change for the better leads to what comes across as tasteful.

These guys, as horrible as most of their content is, know how to sell ebooks very well: http://www.warriorforum.com/

Looks big enough to hold 2-3 people, which brings the cost to $18/night.

Spend the money and get your Aeron, or something of equal quality. I use the Steelcase Think. Your chair is one of the biggest factors in how many hours you are able to work, how well or poorly your back is aligned, and how comfortable you feel. Do -not- skimp on your chair; trim down spending on building your computer or on that second display if you need to.

If you're serious about your work, spending as much on a good chair as you do on your computer (usually less; a quarter as much for me) isn't begging too much. you can make the money back with the longer hours it lets you sit comfortably for and in the hospital bills you'll avoid from having a properly aligned back. It's also important to lift weights daily if you're going to be sitting in a chair all day working. It'll fix any adverse effects sitting from extended periods has and give you energy.

If you have trouble finding the money to afford the necessities for your work, I am always asked by clients to refer them to coders, and there are many freelance gigs floating around out there if you look.

The LP's I do take roughly 60-90 minutes. When I'm not focusing on school, I can log on to IRC or AIM and find a day's work within 30 minutes if I don't have any lined up before. $175 in that time frame adds up. I fill my role well.

I should clarify how I go about introducing the idea to a client. I don't say anything about it at all or even mention it in email. There is simply space on the invoice labeled for any additional bonus if they would like to. Some people bite, some don't.

My niche is very fast-paced. Many clients come to me needing a quick project done within 3-4 hours of the point of contact, so I think it's within reason to charge a competitive rate (though still very reasonable on my part) and also let them the chance to give a reward for being ready and able to take their work on such a quick turnaround. It's a fast-paced niche, and it's not the most attractive, but it works.

The whole bonus concept might only work for someone with my personality and it could very well be that it is best (or only) suited for work that is not long term, but I figured I'd share it because I know there are plenty of similar designers and freelancers out there.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but what freelancer isn't freelancing for the money? From my experience, most (not necessarily all) are freelancing as a transitional period from working full time to self-employment in a startup or in between full-time jobs. It's a very tedious thing to make your life-long career, so why not optimize?

I charge a healthy rate considering the difficulty of my work, and it is less strict on my performance. Meaning, if I don't provide a perfect product every time, it's okay, because the client is paying a competitive rate, but if I do well, as I strive for with every project, they know the option to pay for the delivered excellence is there.

You'd be surprised how many clients spring for keeping their designer happy in return for promise of future results.

Regarding the arrogance, I think having a healthy dose of self-confidence is an asset to your career. It lets you realize you can say no to a client, turn a bad client down, and it creates a certain level of mutual respect I find a lot of designers oft complain about not having.

There is a large difference between arrogance and self-confidence. Arrogance is asserting, confidence is suggesting.

It's the equivalent of 'shut up and get it done.' I partially agree. It's great to think things through, but things have a habit of happening when you are in the act of doing rather than thinking of what to do.

I disagree with the "nearly impossible to obtain" concept. That's suggesting they're something special or inhuman that your average person can't obtain, while it's quite the contrary. 37S is a great example f what busting your ass can accomplish; which I've found is the key to most cases of success. A good idea helps, but until you really take it to heart and live with the devotion it takes to succeed, you won't get very far with any product, no matter how revolutionary.

VCs are looking more for people that are worth investing in rather than ideas. Good people can execute on any idea. Sorry to be blunt.

$20 says it was an employee's final farewell to Comcast.

I'm not sure his test is statistically significant, but I can't blame him for not testing as thoroughly as I'd like, or even knowing to. :P

If his is literally invisible he's got it made. I can't see anyone wanting to have translucent images and shapes on their windows.

I make a pretty penny designing polls and other landing pages for my clients. Polls are mostly effective on the 'less educated' and 'younger' demographics because most people worth their weight in anything know that it's just a pre-sell on someone's service (usually a scamming affiliate deal for ring tones or acai berry diet pills--which still makes some people millionaires).

Sure, you can create a gimmick similar to this one, but eventually people will want to see the real meat that tells them you can be trusted. If you want sign-ups there are definitely better ways on a per-hour or per-dollar invested basis. But it can be fun every once in a while. Just be careful it won't cut some of your reputation as a worthwhile company away.

Anyone hoping for a drastic change withing a month or two needs to focus more on diet than exercise routine. There are so many misconceptions involving working out and weight loss & muscle definition. It's borderline depressing.

I've decided it's best to gradually increase rates, which is what I am doing. It takes longer to build up to the 'plateau' level, but there is more security, which is important because any growth I have right now would just be icing on the cake since all my core needs and growth needs are met currently.

You are definitely right though.

As a direct example: the forum I go to (while I won't say its name) is tailored for people who make money through advertising. In their IRC they talk about advertising and I went in looking to just make friends with them and to let them know I'm a designer, without asking for work. Eventually, one person came to me asking for work (and by eventually, I mean within hours) and after the work I did for him, word spread VERY fast about my capabilities and I've been booked since. The ONE important thing it to make sure you always keep your word, otherwise the reputation you've built declines.

I haven't had to market my services since January 7th (I started just a few weeks ago back on Dec 26 when realized I needed a better way to pay the bills than try and get a student loan), and I'm still booked solid. It's all been word of mouth since. Before then I posted on industry forums and hung out in the same IRC chats they did. You'd be amazed how many people hang out in IRC still these days. The real beauty is most gigs are rather small, and most clients understand my reputation as a great serviceman so they usually send me a payment and then tell me what needs to be done.

I've been a freelancer off and on for the past few years. I'm 22, in university, and have a start-up habit, so I need a way to fund myself. I found a great niche for myself in the past month that allows me to focus on delivering great work at breakneck speeds.

My main focuses are to be fast ("wicked fast", "what do you mean you're done already?", etc. from some clients since), to deliver great quality, and to deliver more than I promise, and act beyond professional--yet not quite too friendly--to clients.

The result is amazing. I'm already at a stage where I need to decline work and were I to be doing this full time I easily bring in enough requests to amount to what I've totaled as $525~ worth of work a day, which I could complete were it a full-time gig.

It's very easy: Make a dead simple portfolio that lets your work speak volumes where most people use gimmicky words (mine's at http://sicret.net ). Make your clients proud of your work (a lot of my clients love showing off their new designs, even though it's an industry that typically keeps things very private for competition's sake). I'm brutally honest with a client as well. If I am running behind because of some other mix up or I am not satisfied with a design, I will tell them, and offer them a discount or to redo.

Customer satisfaction is more important than customer acquisition. So is being truthful.

Don't be afraid to drop ineffective clients. You're in it for business, not to make everyone happy. your happiness comes first.

The most important thing I've learned: constantly charge more. Eventually you'll plateau, but until then or until your own project takes off, keep learning and keep getting better; then keep charging more. You'll be worth every penny if you give half a damn.

Glad I could help! You can find me easily if you need any more input.

With a name like MightyBrand, while I think you've got a solid design already, it just doesn't come across to me as something bold enough to sport the name 'MightyBrand'. I'd look to add bold, heavy, red coloring rather than orange. The white feels clean, but it also feels a bit too open.

Also, in terms of conversions, placing the icons with links to the social sites themselves will drive some traffic away. Instead, create case studies for each one with very bold and obvious calls to action on the pages inviting the user to get involved.

The screenshot is good, but the border is bigger around the screenshot than the 'Free 30-day Trial' button. I'd sugegst either making the button 'louder' or simply increase the border's size, or decrease that of the screenshot.

Internally, one thing I notice is very wide columns for your content. This makes the text a burden to read. Make them more narrow. it looks like the line-height is good, but it may need to be bigger. A lot of the text is bold when it shouldn't be. You want a larger contrast between the content and the headers.

The Pricing page is a good start, but it's too bland right now. Spice it up by adding short descriptions of each benefit under the price chart. Add background colors to the chart items themselves. make the most important item larger and in the center. The little blurb underneath could do with some shortening I think. "Special Request? Contact us." As it is, it's too much text for something so simple. You can have more text on the contact page if need be.

I don't know about you guys, but this is called Hacker -News-, not Hacker 'Ignore the News'. Just like you said, he'll be in office for a while, so things will die down. Until then embrace the articles and discuss them. Otherwise, introduce other articles and posts that you think are more important.

Proof that success (at least in whatever past-life he came from) and wealth do not equate to good taste. I like the library though.

I'm a student and I live in an apartment near the University of Texas campus, working just a few feet from my bed. Freelancing to pay the bills, and my start-up stuff to exhaust whatever surplus I have, which is--thankfully--a lot more lately thanks to my new niche. Noise is high (especially Thursday through Saturday nights due to parties) but I like having noise going on most of the time. If I want some quiet, I can just wake up earlier.

Rent is high, but I see it as an opportunity to find a great way to work that will provide even more surplus/tangible income when I move to somewhere cheaper after school.

I focus on speed of production and finding several small gigs a day. As a designer, it's a lot easier than being a programmer in this regard; lately demand has been at $400 a day but I am only willing to supply $200-300. I don't keep a backlog either, so my rates still have room to grow. This lets me cover my bills and still keep my main focus on my startup (an iPhone app currently, but I have several projects in line, such as http://www.epictee.com).

Here's my setup. My bed is immediately behind my chair: http://i40.tinypic.com/e69085.jpg

An app that tracks your forum activity and displays all your private messages, thread subscriptions, etc. all in one app.

Oh look, more ads.

French.

Congrats on the progress so far. However, I think you really need to focus on making the purchase page more structured towards helping the buyer make a proper decision. Right now it's a sea of text and a row of prices. I'm inclined to ignore the text and choose the lowest price, even if it's not in my best interest.

This post at 37 Signals is a great reference for you: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-decisions-the...

I'm another student / designer / entrepreneur. Maybe it'd be worth talking? My portfolio: http://sicret.net

My email is in my profile.

And on a side note: ALWAYS take the blame when something goes wrong, even if it's not your fault. A good client will appreciate that you have the balls to claim the fault is yours which will actually improve your relationship, and bad clients will show their true colors and give you an opportunity to send them to someone more desperate for work.

Find one client at a low rate and please the hell out of them. Then find another client, but increase your rates. Do the same; do anything it takes to get the job done ahead of schedule and to make the client as impressed as possible.

Eventually you'll find the ceiling in terms of how much you can charge per hour, but you'll have an entire mountain of reputation built by being fast, dedicated, and reliable.

I'm a student and due to a family lawsuit (dad's business partners ran off with the company's bonding money, fitting him with the bill) I can't get student loans so I freelance to pay my bills and to fund my own projects. My main philosophy when I'm working with a client (and I tell them this) is "the sooner I get in and out with this project, the sooner you do too" and I then sit down with them if they are available and work on it until it is done. It's not as feasible for programming as it is for designing, but the same focus on speed is killer as a freelancer.

I'm still finding work at $100/hr as a 22 year old freelancer, so soon I can finally begin leveraging my personal brand equity and my time to creating more passive sources of income, (i.e.: services and products).

Hope this helped a bit.

It depends if he wants to focus on a more broad market or specifically at people looking to get bigger and weigh more. Overt-raining is a great way to build muscle fast without the use of drugs, focusing on a small amount of reps that make you over-exert yourself, lifting to "failure" on your last 2 sets.