RyanSMcFadyen

Regardless of what the system is written in, its critical that you put a stop to this immediately. Change requests, do nothing but lead to scope creep, which leads to delayed projects and a lot of frustration.
 
You need to remind the client to what they agreed upon within the signed contract that they signed off against.
 
Say no immediately, not later.
 
You MUST be firm.

This makes an Xbox360 a business expense!

You need a certain number of likes before it lets you choose a vanity URL for pages.
 
Facebook -> Use Facebook as [Your Business Page] -> Edit Page -> Update Info -> Basic Information -> Username

You are trying to insert 8 values into a table with 7 columns. $lastname being the missing one.
 
$sql_register = "insert into users (user_id, email, first_name, password, level, activationkey, status) values (
'', <-- 1
'".$email."', <-- 2
'".$firstname."', <-- 3
'".$lastname."', <-- 4
'".$password."', <-- 5
'0', <-- 6
'".$activationKey."', <-- 7
'verify' <-- 8

Best internet double-entendre EVER!

You are trying to insert 8 values into a table with 7 columns. $lastname being the missing one.
 
$sql_register = "insert into users (user_id, email, first_name, password, level, activationkey, status) values (
'', <-- 1
'".$email."', <-- 2
'".$firstname."', <-- 3
'".$lastname."', <-- 4
'".$password."', <-- 5
'0', <-- 6
'".$activationKey."', <-- 7
'verify' <-- 8

Hmmm this is an interesting post. Let's dissect it line by line.
 
Renaissance, does run a successful business, and so do I. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging here, but work pretty much does fall into my lap. Posting on this forum is pretty much the sum of my marketing activity at the moment.
 
If you design a proposal for a client and they check back at your site, you can bet yo' ass they're going to let that influence their decision. It happens to me all the time. Usually in a good way, fortunately. In fact, it's not uncommon for a client to say to me "I like the style of your own site, can you do similar for me"
 
How does it work in your world? When did Renaissance become your buddy, and why do you think he has issues? Are you psychic? How can you tell he's married, and why is it sad if he isn't? Is it because your psychic powers are then broken?
 
Some points are valid, but other are non-constructive. Please elaborate.
 
So your tagline isn't part of your design or layout. You really are a man of mystery DreamSynk. You could do with brushing up on your grammar, too, old bean.

I'm going to ignore your ad hominem attack, but I will still try to help you:.
 
 
I've been a full-time freelancer for the past 2 years, and I'm still in business. You won't be in business for very long if you do creative spec work before you've signed a contract and taken a deposit. Spec work is damaging to the design profession as a whole, because it's hastily thrown together and ill-informed - how are you going to do the research necessary to create a thoughtful, well-informed design if you're doing it in the hope of landing the project?
If you do all the research and discovery before you're under contract, you're committing a substantial portion of your time to something without any guarantee of payment.
If you don't do the research and discovery, you're trying to land the project on the basis of visuals that may well need to be thrown out and replaced with something adequately-researched once the project actually kicks off.

Either way you're wasting your most finite resource: your time. Your client should already have enough confidence in you based on your initial approach, your own site and your portfolio of past work to sign on the dotted line and commit to a professional relationship.
 
Here are some resources that might be useful to you:
 
Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro, available from A Book Apart
Design Professionalism by Andy Rutledge

Ugh fine I'll say it then. DreamSynk, You're an arsehole for making it personal.

Ugh fine I'll say it then. DreamSynk, You're an arsehole for making it personal.

I agree on the Freakin' Awesome point !banksy makes.
 
Essentially what you are saying (Or atleast what a reasonably large selection of people will read it as you saying..) is "I'm ******* awesome and I build ******* awesome websites" which is deeply unprofessional.
 
Also, I'm taking counseling for that bouncing browser.

Nobody cares. Especially not your clients. They care about boring stuff like metrics and target markets. They care that you can warp perceptions in their favour and to do that you need to understand the original perception. The point raised here was that tagline has a negative effect on the way you are perceived by a fairly large portion of your potential client base. Your response was one of apathy.. so if you don't care how your clients might see you (IE the important men in business suits wandering around just looking for someone to give money to) why should they trust you to sell their useless tat to people who probably don't already want it?
 
Disagreeing with the point is fine. Not caring about it is just offensive.

It's design, everything is personal taste and I was hardly going to give you constructive criticism before I knew what I was criticising.
 
Web Design (or more generally digital design) tends to embody certain aspects of the digital world, because it's meant for here. There are certain things that hint towards certain types of industry and although they aren't hard and fast rules they are very difficult to overcome if what you are designing isn't for the industry it implies it is.
 
The digital world tends to be sharp edged, smooth, uniform and vibrant. It's a square 2D universe powered by light so when you try to mould in bevelled edges and soft colours you are going against environment and that tends to imply that whatever is being advertised is outside that environment.
 
Serif fonts are the easiest example. We use them when we want to harken back to the old world. Newspapers, Banks, Lawyers. They imply institution, trust, class, wealth, luxury etc.
 
Pair that with the soft purple colouring you have used, the bevelled edge and the scattered word placement it immediately brings to mind soft furnishings. You've created something in a bright uniform world that's neither bright nor uniform and like I said above, that implies something outside the environment.
 
That's not to say I think you should start from scratch. I actually like the purple colour and the word placement but I think you would be much better served by a sans-serif font and dropping the background.

It's design, everything is personal taste and I was hardly going to give you constructive criticism before I knew what I was criticising.
 
Web Design (or more generally digital design) tends to embody certain aspects of the digital world, because it's meant for here. There are certain things that hint towards certain types of industry and although they aren't hard and fast rules they are very difficult to overcome if what you are designing isn't for the industry it implies it is.
 
The digital world tends to be sharp edged, smooth, uniform and vibrant. It's a square 2D universe powered by light so when you try to mould in bevelled edges and soft colours you are going against environment and that tends to imply that whatever is being advertised is outside that environment.
 
Serif fonts are the easiest example. We use them when we want to harken back to the old world. Newspapers, Banks, Lawyers. They imply institution, trust, class, wealth, luxury etc.
 
Pair that with the soft purple colouring you have used, the bevelled edge and the scattered word placement it immediately brings to mind soft furnishings. You've created something in a bright uniform world that's neither bright nor uniform and like I said above, that implies something outside the environment.
 
That's not to say I think you should start from scratch. I actually like the purple colour and the word placement but I think you would be much better served by a sans-serif font and dropping the background.

It's design, everything is personal taste and I was hardly going to give you constructive criticism before I knew what I was criticising.
 
Web Design (or more generally digital design) tends to embody certain aspects of the digital world, because it's meant for here. There are certain things that hint towards certain types of industry and although they aren't hard and fast rules they are very difficult to overcome if what you are designing isn't for the industry it implies it is.
 
The digital world tends to be sharp edged, smooth, uniform and vibrant. It's a square 2D universe powered by light so when you try to mould in bevelled edges and soft colours you are going against environment and that tends to imply that whatever is being advertised is outside that environment.
 
Serif fonts are the easiest example. We use them when we want to harken back to the old world. Newspapers, Banks, Lawyers. They imply institution, trust, class, wealth, luxury etc.
 
Pair that with the soft purple colouring you have used, the bevelled edge and the scattered word placement it immediately brings to mind soft furnishings. You've created something in a bright uniform world that's neither bright nor uniform and like I said above, that implies something outside the environment.
 
That's not to say I think you should start from scratch. I actually like the purple colour and the word placement but I think you would be much better served by a sans-serif font and dropping the background.

It's design, everything is personal taste and I was hardly going to give you constructive criticism before I knew what I was criticising.
 
Web Design (or more generally digital design) tends to embody certain aspects of the digital world, because it's meant for here. There are certain things that hint towards certain types of industry and although they aren't hard and fast rules they are very difficult to overcome if what you are designing isn't for the industry it implies it is.
 
The digital world tends to be sharp edged, smooth, uniform and vibrant. It's a square 2D universe powered by light so when you try to mould in bevelled edges and soft colours you are going against environment and that tends to imply that whatever is being advertised is outside that environment.
 
Serif fonts are the easiest example. We use them when we want to harken back to the old world. Newspapers, Banks, Lawyers. They imply institution, trust, class, wealth, luxury etc.
 
Pair that with the soft purple colouring you have used, the bevelled edge and the scattered word placement it immediately brings to mind soft furnishings. You've created something in a bright uniform world that's neither bright nor uniform and like I said above, that implies something outside the environment.
 
That's not to say I think you should start from scratch. I actually like the purple colour and the word placement but I think you would be much better served by a sans-serif font and dropping the background.

You haven't told us what the logo is for and that makes a big difference.
 
If it's for interior design it's good. If it's for web design, not so much.

It's design, everything is personal taste and I was hardly going to give you constructive criticism before I knew what I was criticising.
 
Web Design (or more generally digital design) tends to embody certain aspects of the digital world, because it's meant for here. There are certain things that hint towards certain types of industry and although they aren't hard and fast rules they are very difficult to overcome if what you are designing isn't for the industry it implies it is.
 
The digital world tends to be sharp edged, smooth, uniform and vibrant. It's a square 2D universe powered by light so when you try to mould in bevelled edges and soft colours you are going against environment and that tends to imply that whatever is being advertised is outside that environment.
 
Serif fonts are the easiest example. We use them when we want to harken back to the old world. Newspapers, Banks, Lawyers. They imply institution, trust, class, wealth, luxury etc.
 
Pair that with the soft purple colouring you have used, the bevelled edge and the scattered word placement it immediately brings to mind soft furnishings. You've created something in a bright uniform world that's neither bright nor uniform and like I said above, that implies something outside the environment.
 
That's not to say I think you should start from scratch. I actually like the purple colour and the word placement but I think you would be much better served by a sans-serif font and dropping the background.

I've worked with Chris before so I can vouch for his work it's awesome, he's a great guy and very professional you should do it!

Mortgage is one of those words that every internet asshole and their gran is crawling all over. It's prime real estate for those oh so useful parking pages, so you might have trouble getting any nice domains that aren't very personal.
 
HouseBuyGuru.com is available though if you want to break the mould.

^^^ My hobby. Got the funny belled hat and everything.

^^^ My hobby. Got the funny belled hat and everything.

Right away I want to apologise for the what is going to probably be quite a long post. I want to get as much of the idea/plan/thoughts down as possible so you can give me your proper opinions on it. I hope the length doesn't put anyone off but if you can't be bothered to read it just read the quote below;
 
 

 
---------------------------------
-- The idea/The Ethos/The Intention --
----------------------------------
 
The problem
The current crop of job board/outsourcing websites just.. suck. There really isn't any other way to say it. In my experience their main goal seems to be to churn through massive quantities of jobs, taking their cut along the way, rather than trying to create an environment that is conducive to good quality, legitimate work. Instead they artificially bump people to prominence based on things that bear no relation to their skill or commitment, like how easily you open your wallet.
 
Clients who post work have to base their decision on essentially 2 pieces of information. The ratings left by previous clients through the site and the bid amount. This causes a vicious downward spiral however. It incentivises bidding professionals to game the system, to low-ball and undercut just to get as many bids accepted as possible which they can then complete to a bare minimum standard that would get them positive ratings, increasing their chances of getting more bids accepted ultimately squeezing out what I would consider the good professionals. The professionals who clients might actually want to work with don't get a look in because they either maintain a higher standard or can't drop to the kind of insulting rates you see on these sites.
 
The goal
To create a site that very subtly encourages good behaviour from both the client and the professionals. To create a site where you can bid on a job knowing that although you might not get it you are competing on a level playing field with everyone else. To create a site where clients feel they can place a job and no matter who they choose can be reasonably certain they will be working with a legitimate professional who will deliver quality work and won't suddenly vanish or forget how to type after payment is received.
 
So what will tender.li do differently to make this happen?
I don't think any one thing is the killer feature. It's much more subtle than that. It's about nurturing a community with a certain shared set of ideals who encourages each other to raise their game. A community that thinks professionalism and ethics are important, who think doing the best job they can for their clients is more important than just getting the job done and moving on.
 
Firstly, there has to be some kind of fair metric by which to judge or rank professionals. Although client reviews are good for things like customer service they aren't so good at properly rating your proficiency with PHP. So you mix in their average bidding price, you mix in elements of peer review, of moderation and other secret sauce. If done right you should come up with something approaching a fair representation of that professional in relation to others.
 
Secondly, you moderate. It's a tricky line to walk and many of the digital industries being creative in nature, therefor subjective, you run the very real risk of being accused of removing good professionals simply because you don't agree with their style. Unfortunately there is really nothing much that can be done about this. To maintain the good environment the bad eggs have to be removed, there has be at least some element of elitism otherwise you get a free for all and we are back to square one.
 
Thirdly, you listen and you act on what the community has to say. You build features they might actually want to use, you encourage behaviour that benefits them and you incentivise doing good.
 
So what features have you got that make this happen?
1.) There is no pay-to-get-ahead feature. You don't get a bigger profile, put to the top of the list or any features at-all for opening your wallet. Every single person is treated exactly the same, has access to the same opportunities and the same data. It's down to you to convince the client you are better than everyone else. The same is true for clients, you make your pitch and it's shown to everyone. That's it. Nice and simple, nice and fair.
 
2.) There is no 'escrow' system. It's not a monetary middle man, it doesn't take a cut. It's your business, it's your contract. It simply facilitates the introduction and initial agreement of two parties. After that it's all on you, it becomes just a normal client/professional relationship and you have them sign your contracts, go on your books etc. Then when it's done you both come back and tell us how it went.
 
3.) There is a site wide automatic flagging of 'bad' behaviour. I won't go into too much detail, because that would make it less effective.. but things are flagged up and queued for moderators to check if they don't meet certain standards, standards that will be constantly evolving with community feedback and expectations. Flagged content still appears, it doesn't get hidden or anything.. it just points a mod towards it to have a look.
 
4.) Optional Detail Verification. Again to encourage a certain level of legitimacy you can have your profile details checked by a moderator. If they are satisfied you are being truthful you get 'verified' status. This effectively locks your account, in that any changes made to your profile after then removes the verification.
 
 
----------------
-- The Progress --
----------------
 
That's the general overarching idea, why I'm making this and how I plan to make something you might actually want to use dealt with. So let's move on to actually defining where I am in this process, what's not finished, what I'd like you to do etc.
 
Right now I would consider it in alpha. There are 3 fundamental functions that have to be in and working for the site to have any kind of purpose and being able to put it into a beta you guys can play with. I'd say I am roughly about 40% of the way there right now.
 

User system (90% complete - Only lacks changing of password & deleting account)
Tender system (40% complete)
Discussion/Messaging system (0% complete)

 
I have a very long list of other features but those 3 things are core to to the functionality of site.
 
----------------------------
-- What I would like you to do --
----------------------------
 
1.) If you like the concept and want to register your interest then head to tender.li and give me your email address. This help me properly see how many people are at least intrigued.
 
2.) Follow the twitter account @tenderdotli
 
3.) Ask me questions
 
4.) Suggest features
 
5.) Tell me what you don't like about current freelance/job board sites
 
5.) Give me your thoughts of the following specific things that I'm not entirely certain on.
 
First, a metric to rank users based on lots of useful criteria. I'm pretty positive this is a good idea to be used internally, a way to give some kind of indication to moderators what users aren't providing the standard we want to upkeep. However part of me is interested in the idea of making it public. The problem I see for a lot of freelancers is one of reputation, there is no real way to prove it..so why can't tender.li serve as a kind of defacto professional standards body? Why not let people embed their 'tender.li score' on their own websites as a way to show that they are approved of by people who know about that sort of thing.
 
The two drawbacks I have come with for this idea is that A) It would encourage people to game it rather than just accepting it as a passive reflection of their actions and B it hinges on both being able to produce a metric that is legitimately fair. C) it artificially punishes people who don't use the site at-all (but shouldn't punish less active users if it's done right and takes that into consideration).
 
 
Secondly. Moderators. They'll have access to much more information than regular professionals but they will probably be professionals themselves, competing for tenders. Would you prefer this was out in the open (Professionals who moderate are flagged as such and their actions made public) or would you prefer separate moderator accounts who's actions are still made public but perhaps you wouldn't know if they have professional accounts on the site too?
 
 
..... That's me done, I think. Oh damn it did turn out pretty long. Sorry

A few things.
 
Never do anything without a contract, don't even entertain the notion. It protects you from just this sort of thing, as well as many other issues than can occur.
 
Charge the tax internally to yourself. No point going through the process of tax deductions with a potential client, they don't want to hear it. The benefits of the price 'looking' cheaper are soon ruined by bringing the word tax in to it and no client wants what on the face of it looks more confusing.
 
Your charges are way to small. Any company looking to get things done that cheap are going to end up taking the p***, that's what bargain hunters do.
 
As for the title of the thread 'To quit or not to quit", this is your first client and you're already asking yourself that question. My answer to you would be quit then. Because it gets a lot more difficult from here on in and you need to stick to it. If you're already thinking "Quit" then i doubt you'll last.
 
sorry for the reality.

Find a child, give them the phone, tell them the nice man wants to hear a story.