Comments on: Solo Freelancers With Agency-Level Effectiveness? Here’s How

By: Freelancer’s Guide: Fortune 500 Gigs | Make Design, Not War

Freelancer’s Guide: Fortune 500 Gigs | Make Design, Not War — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:37:37 +0000

[…] about freelancing here. Freelance Switch - A great posting of articles to help freelancers succeed. Here’s just one. clients, design, fortune 500, freelance, […]

By: Gale

Gale — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:07:09 +0000

Great article!
Especially part about the content. I had a client who was writing her content for a year and she never finished. It somehow didn’t bother her that her website was not finished either!

By: Craig Templet

Craig Templet — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:03:44 +0000

Why of why is it so hard to get content out of clients? Even when they are so enthusiastic about their new web site, getting content from them is like drawing blood from a stone! Excellent article once again.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:01:04 +0000

@Seven and Patrick: Thanks for the in-depth answer to my question! My contract did state in responsibilities that he was obligated to provide me with content in a timely matter… though the only repercussion I gave for not doing so was that it would affect my own deadline. I want to be firm with him, but (apart from this problem) he has actually been the nicest client to work with. Always cares how my other business is going and what not. And I don’t feel he’s flaky, just… forgetful or something. I’m not entirely worried about the loss of money, cause it’s not too much, but if there’s some way I can kindly get that last 25%, my wallet won’t complain.

By: Ryan Imel

Ryan Imel — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:38:35 +0000

First of all, I second J’s comment up there a bit about your name. Rock on.

Second, I agree with almost everything in this post. And my disagreement is slight. I’ve been dealing with clients on my own for about two years now, and have gone through a few different methods of working/communicating with them. For a while I used email templates, which I kept on a Backpack page and would copy+paste into an email to send to clients. I probably had a dozen or so different ones, all written for different sorts of emails.

This year I decided to stop doing that. I found that by refusing to create templates and to write out emails every time I need to send them (proposal emails, first contact emails, things like that) I feel much more involved with the client, and for some reason a bit more genuine. Plus, since I’m used to writing a lot of the same stuff over again (Hi, my name’s Ryan and blah blah blah) I find that I am more articulate when it comes to actually talking about what I do and giving info about my work.

Other than that, which may just be a personal preference, awesome post. The swimming instructor analogy is a good one.

By: Marty Romero

Marty Romero — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:12:38 +0000

Thanks for the tips. Its great to have forums/blogs with all these resources. The problem I have is getting my clients to embrace them. Particularly I have a client who insists on making design decisions in the middle of the development phase of a project. He runs a marketing studio and I wish he would understand the importance of some of the points on this post. In particular the concept of having content up front.

By: Rachel Kaufman

Rachel Kaufman — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:51:14 +0000

So? What do these update templates look like? I’d love to see one.

By: Cristi

Cristi — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:29:06 +0000

Content is king…and a real pain for a web developer. I know it takes time and effort to write good content but it’s not impossible, so a friend of mine actually suggested to offer the content for free upfront . This could actually be a life saver for certain projects of mine.

By: Stu Collett

Stu Collett — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:50:44 +0000

Great article & advice. Thanks very much Seven.

Stu.

By: Set Sail - Patrick

Set Sail - Patrick — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:51:40 +0000

Great article, lots of worthwhile information here! Thanks very much for sharing, Seven!

@Sean, without a signed contract stipulating payment terms, you’re going to be at a disadvantage. But because you’ve rendered your services, depending upon what your contract says, that might be enough to fulfill your obligation and require payment. Either way after SIX MONTHS I would give the client an ultimatum and a firm deadline. “I have fulfilled my obligation in this project, and must have from you no later than August the 26th (two weeks from today) the copy and content for this web site. Payment is due, in full, on or before September the 10th (four weeks from today) regardless of whether your obligation to provide content has been fulfilled.” Sometimes it’s best to cut the cord and move on, which you’ll undoubtedly learn the hard way. I’ve had to let go several clients this year for consuming my time and effort without providing compensation for those efforts… I tried to stay on board for several months, hoping that there was an end of scope creep in sight and in hopes that my payment would be forthcoming. Neither were, and dropping them like a bad habit was the best career move I’ve made in 08.