Good stuff. Also, HN is a great source of clients, but you have to be willing to advertise yourself correctly. Many freelancers here write me-too ads that fail to get them noticed. I do attention grabbing ads and them alone have made my practice grow about 500%.
1. Search my comment history. You will see all of the ads I've posted. From the ultra conservative to the crazy "code with me maybe" fiasco that got me more hate mail than Hitler, but also got me a lot of work (a lot). I'm not afraid of being different and of standing out. Though this requires a flame suit.
2. Talk about what potential clients want to read about. I always talk about how my focus is on shipping. It really is. I dont stop working until the damn thing is done and out the door. Turns out, that is not very common with programmers these days. They are too busy dreaming of perfect code and arguing with each other about how Go deals with errors. Like I said, talk about what they want to read about (most of them just want to make sure you can and will deliver).
3.Do write a good headline. My best one so far reads "I ship software." Simple. To the point. And will make them read the rest of the ad.
4. Talk rates right there in the ad. Disqualify people right from the start. You dont want to waste time with people looking to under pay you. Plus you will chase away any dreamer who will gladly give you 5% of his made up company in exchange of "just some code." The higher the rates, the less shit you have to deal with. Honestly. I currently charge $100/hour with a minimum of one week of work. Thats $4000 a week if you want to hire me. But you do get someone who delivers. I have no problem getting paid that amount.
5. Make yourself available. Skype, email, phone. Just answer and take time to talk with clients. Let them know you will listen right there on the ad, and then follow through by listening.
6. Offer them a free 30 minute consultation. This helps both sides because it will give you a good chance to feel the client out, and same for them. Chemistry is very important when doing consulting and a free consultation is a great tool to use for that.
Good luck, and get in touch with me through email (in profile) we can always bounce ideas off each other.
You seem to not realize that $100/hr is hugely underselling yourself. I am working at a startup (vesting 1% equity in lieu of higher compensation). I work 47 weeks or less, probably for 30 hours per week or less (time actually spent working). Using those numbers, my hourly is about $75. But I also have more say over the direction of the company, free health care, a weekly grocery allowance, 3% match on retirement, and they pay the 7.5% employer tax. This is my first full-time programming job, and I just finished my first year with the company.
If you do anything at all approaching good work, then 5 of your points are meaningless, and it basically boils down to "Talk rates right there in the ad, if they're as low as $100/hour."
If I decided to start freelancing, I would take the per-day strategy and charge no less than $1500 per day. I would plan to work about 200 days per year, to pay about $100,000 in taxes, about $5,000 in health care, and another $15,000 toward retirement. That leaves about $117,000 in take-home pay, which is only about 50% more than I take home now (and actually probably less than any Google engineer). Any less than that, and it just wouldn't be worth it.
You make a good point. I am undercharging for my services. But I'm not in California, my costs are very low, and live like a monk. I'd rather have a lot of work because good clients can afford me than having a few jobs here and there because most people can't pay. In a world where engineers act like superstars, being affordable, approachable and down to earth makes a huge difference.
Do you have any other sources of clients apart from HN? What percentage of work comes via HN vs Other sources?
Also, I took a quick look through your comment history. Perhaps you are being to subtle for me, or perhaps you just post to many comments, but I don't see to many ads for your services there
Since I am also looking around for (more) clients these days, I checked out orangethirty's comment history. I guess by ads he meant these posts on the monthly 'Seeking Freelancer' threads:
1. I can't do everything. But I can deliver 99% of the work needed out there.
2. I started out cheap. Current rates are at $100/hour with a set minimum.
3. Offer them a chance to get to know you for free.
4. Talk about what they want to hear.
I'm not sure I would want to attract the sort of clients he gets.
You mean you don't want to work with great people? People like Mark, who is focusing on disrupting the online payment industry. Or maybe even Robert, who is getting amazing growth through a simple Facebook statregy. I mean, of course I want to work with them. They are just amazing.
Maybe you just want to sit in your office all day, writing yet another interface class. Not me. I want to be where the action is.
Yes, I get clients through networking. I just email other hackers and get to know them. Not to get work, but because I really do believe that I can learn something from everybody. I'm always emailing people about their projects. One thing leads to another and they remember someone who had approached them about a project and they declined due to not having time or whatever.
I'd say its 40% HN and 58% networking with a 2% chance of rain.
