Hi All,

 

This is a bit of a doom and gloom post today, sorry.

 

The last year I have found it very hard as a freelance web designer, the most annoying things is the amount of people who come to me with a £300 pound or similar budget to build a website.

 

With most small businesses on their knees Im not finding clients willing to pay for quality work, and this is making me consider leaving web design altogether.

 

Im noticing more and more competition from abroad, especially on freelance websites, it seems many would be very happy with £300 for a web design job, thats great when you live in india, but we arent as lucky to be able to quote so low here in the UK, lets face it I can earn well over £300 in a week painting and decorating, but it would take me two weeks to bang out a web site i was happy with.

 

Of course I can whack out a crap website in a day, but I dont like doing crap work, I cant bring myself to do crap work either.

 

This is making me wonder whether i want to continue in this industry, it seems to be getting harder to find clients and earn semi decent money.

 

Im not a brilliant web designer its true, but I reckon I do ok with the self taught skills i have, problem is being self taught I have no qualifications, and this also means Im a jack of all trades master of none.

 

Yes, I could start studying more im 32 years of age, but Im starting to wonder if I should do something else.

 

The last year I have worked very hard indeed yet only earnt around £5000 as a freelancer, Im constantly being bugged by clients for odd jobs here and there which they never want to pay for.

 

To summarise, Im wondering if things are going to get worse, how it is for you as a freelancer, and if things arent looking to rosey for us, should I do something else, something where Im not sat infront of a computer screen all day.

 

Whats your thoughts?

 

Tobes

Sorry to hear it's not working out for you.

 

Those £300 sites you keep getting offered, sometimes you can't afford to turn them down in the early days. Sure it's not much money but one trick is to start out with a few "cheapies" then gradually start bumping up your prices by £50 or £100 per site. The idea is that the more you do the more word of mouth will bring you in more enquiries. After 6 or 7 sites and a bit of luck that £300 might have turned into £600. Of course you won't be building the next Amazon for that sort of money but for sites that you can put togteher in a reasonable amount of time it's wotrth a go.

 

And wacking out crap sites, bite the bullet my man! I've built up a ton of naff looking sites that have been "designed" by someone else, all I do is code them up (all valid code of course) and hand them over for whatever budget is being offered. Sure I'd never put them in my portfolio but if you do a good job the chances are the original designer may come back for more. The point is that it's regular work no matter how shoddy the site may look if you know you've coded it up well who cares? That's really between the designer and his client.

 

At the end of the day it is very hard to get a foothold. As you say there's a lot of competition from overseas for the cheaper end of the market. Alas that's just how it is.

 

Of course there's nothing stopping you doing web stuff part time and finding another part time job to fill in the gaps?

How about exploring how you can make sites that make money for you? In the down times invest in yourself and your own skills. Look at branching out in e-commerce or consultancy. There are a lot of companies that have no idea how the web can help them. Go talk to them and see how what you know can save them money / make their lives easier.

 

This makes for interesting reading for all small businesses (regardless of what you think of the man)

 

http://www.facebook.com/notes/lord-sugar/my-message-to-small-businesses-for-2011/179399492080555

 

Good luck

 

Andy

Hey Guys,

 

Thanks for the positive words, and also cheers for the article.

 

The reason I have earnt so little the last year is I was living abroad in Bulgaria, and unfortunately for me, I moved out there in the winter of 2007 which was pretty much when the whole worlds economy died on us, and finding businesses with money seems to be about as easy as getting blood out of a stone.

 

Going back to these £300 jobs, dont get me wrong, I dont turn them down, but they p*** me off royally, I honestly cant believe what people think they can get from you when they know your struggling as much as them, but for me to do cheap **** work is against my ethics, so instead I end up working nearly as much as I would on lets say a £600 website, and that means in a week I could earn £150.

 

One thing I notice about clients with high expectations and low budgets, they seem to be the worst clients, very demanding indeed.

 

How can anyone think this is fair to try and employ professionals £300 to £150 a week, no wonder I am thinking of changing jobs.

 

Ive been back in the UK for only one month, and in honesty I havent been in one place long enough the last 5 years to really try and build a business here, I have considered doing an open university degree, but Im worried the web design industry is going to keep getting cheaper and cheaper until 50% of us in the Uk have lost our jobs to foreign companies.

 

To sum up my post, Im still pretty confused as to what to do with my life right now, but it is true you guys and this forum is inspiring me to keep pushing on, its just a shame that after ten years building web sites I havent really learnt any one topic brilliantly which has left me far behind graduates with little experience.

 

If anyone else has ideas or thoughts, maybe great OU courses or similar I can get a grant for I would love to hear them as it is helping me to look forward and not just think sod it its time to jack this in.

 

Thanks

 

Tobes

your porftolio site is pretty good dam good though... why dont you pay like a grand to get on the number page of google, then im sure ur get alot more jobs

why not just offer a £300 or so package???

 

this is worrying, i have quit my job to just jump into freelancing... hmm (but my circumstances made is risk free and now or never..)

Alot of freelance web designers in UK arent earning alot of finding it hard to get jobs... my pal who made http://www.killerweedthemovie.com/ has recently stoped freelance to try get work with a company because there is just not the customers!! and seruisly check that site hes got some crazy skills :/ will make other people wonder...

your porftolio site is pretty good dam good though... why dont you pay like a grand to get on the number page of google, then im sure ur get alot more jobs

 

Thanks, I appreciate that a lot.

 

Im not sure about paying for SEO though, can companies really guarantee to get you on the first page for key words like web design, seems to me like these will be really hard keywords to get to the top of google for with so many web designers understanding SEO and also wanting to be No1 in their area for the same key words.

 

@ Ste Hughes: you could have a point, but the problem is, I normally charge £200 just for preliminary designs on websites (of course the £200 is deducted if they decide to take the job on)

 

So in a way I see your point, but still I cant justify designing a website for this cost, I can not physically do this kind of work at these prices, I spend far too long building and desiging, for example I spent 3 weeks on this website http://www.bootcampsbulgaria.com/

 

I have been helping a few clients out at these crazy prices but its whats making me think of packing this all in, the amount of people recently who have come up with these crazy budgets is depressing me.

 

Thanks again for everyones comments

 

Tobes

buy some templates then? It may go against all your principles but if they are paying peanuts they should get peanuts in return.

also you mention you have maid 5k and been between two countries every few weeks?

 

name 1 other line of work where you could have made 5k by moving around like that, maybe a pilot or something...

also you mention you have maid 5k and been between two countries every few weeks?

 

name 1 other line of work where you could have made 5k by moving around like that, maybe a pilot or something...

 

I think he made £5000 in total last year.

The problem is this is still a field where "haggling" is a viable option. If a plumber fixes your pipes and quotes you £100, you don't turn around and say "how about £50?", it just isn't accepted etiquette, whereas with web design, evidently it is.

 

People who go for the cheapest, often foreign-based deals, quite often end up with a shoddy website (not always, but I have seen plenty of this) that will not work for them the way they would like it too. This is thier loss, and if they are really serious about thier business performing well on the web they will soon be back on the market trying to find a more appropriate, and needless to say, expensive, solution.

 

Alas, often you do end up having to work for less money just to get any income at all, this is the nature of the work. Perhaps offer a £200/£300 website package, built on an easily editable (for you) template, with all the basics in place. This would then offer those less monetary inclined clients a price point more in line with thier expectations, and provide you with a way of putting the site together in a realistic (for the money) timeframe. This might not be ideal for you mate, but you gotta be flexible in this trade

 

Your work looks really nice too, maybe try going for a part-time web designer job. At least this would bring in a guarenteed amount of money each month, which you can supplement with your freelance work.

 

 

Kyle

exactly what he said ^

 

if your going to accept jobs from broke ass people, make a broke ass package! a standard template of some kind where you just move things around or change a colour or two and add some images!

 

otherwise these broke as clients will get there broke ass friends to ask you for a £300 website! you could make a lot more per hour offering maybe 5 pages 'designed' by you (home, about, services, testimonials/portfolio and contact) for £300 on a standard template. obviously not in any CMS or anything, no frills.

Very much alive. We have specialised, we hold our own on price, and pretty much get by. I'm not saying we haven't had really tough months, but overall, things are looking up. I think you need to make much more effort getting the work, and sending out the right messages

how about offering some music and web package to bands?

ok i know bands are pretty skint but if you put some basic package together - and by basic i mean a framework of a good quality site that can be adapted for most SMEs/bands. cheap doesn't necessarily mean poor quality - if it's a small well produced simple package you can still hold your head high and make a small profit in a shorter time, but make more of them.

 

also logo work can be reasonably lucrative

 

btw your site takes a while to load (true i'm in finland) but you're home page is 1.4 Meg!

They always be web work and it'll continue to increase. And I wouldn't worry about cheap work from other countries, anyone who cares about their business will want more control over what they are having made then to risk it to someone they cannot see.

Why don't you ditch the client and put your work on themeforest.

 

http://themeforest.net/

 

If your good enough, you could earn ruddy good money. When you look at the wordpress section and total up how many templates one of the most popular sellers is selling since it went up.....man, you could be earning thousands. The top seller can earn 70% of each sale. I worked it out once that one designer called 'kesha' was earning around 50 - 70k a year plus whatever freelance work he gets in. Crazy!

 

OR....you could buy your templates from here for the low paying clients for as little as $15. Bloody hell...i am starting to sound like i have shares in the company...!

 

 

You seem hard working enough and honest, but perhaps you need a little inspiration to get that passion back.

 

Good luck..

Edited January 7, 201115 yr by neilp

Hey everyone,

 

Thanks for all the positivity, I appreciate it, it is giving me food for thought, and as some have said i should probably try harder at finding more clients, Im just one of those types of people who is a bit introverted hence why I love working from home on my mac all day, but this attitude isnt going to get me work in.

 

As I said before I have been living abroad for some time, and I think this hasnt helped matters, where I was, most people (expats) were there due to property investments, and for sure this has been bad times for those who had invested in such places.

 

Im not too sure making websites for bands would be that lucrative unless I can work for the really big bands because all the guys I know into music are earning peanuts thanks to music piracy, so maybe need to find another route, although you have cemented another idea I had.

 

By the way, the web page isnt anywhere near 1.4mb it must be your internet as that page isnt over 0.4mb promise check again.

 

So, my mission this year is to try and find some decent business, like all of us, all I want to do is find one decent client that can give me full time employment and I will be well happy, but finding this one client, where am I going to find them.

 

Anyway, as I said thanks again for everyones thoughts, Im going to work harder at marketing like some have said and fingers crossed this year, now Im back in the UK I can get things moving forward.

 

Have a nice day everyone.

 

Tobes

 

 

btw your site takes a while to load (true i'm in finland) but you're home page is 1.4 Meg!

oops re: page weight i was looking at the weight from y-slow with all the http requests (83) and THAT took the page from 400k to 1.4 MB (not quite sure how they work that out to be honest) but yes of course you're right it is aroudn the 400k mark still it was pretty slow for me (compared to other british/us sites i browse)

I know this is completely off topic and you didn't ask for a site critique but... The page itself isn't 1.4Mb, but when you add up all the HTTP requests its over 1Mb and thats not including the slideshow images and the rollovers, furthermore your slideshow makes a new HTTP request for every image, even if its loaded them before. So for me it was pretty slow to load, and contains invalid HTML.

 

If I was looking to hire a designer I'd be looking our for things like that and a table based layout is not very good practice these days either.

 

Basically what I'm trying to get at is if you can supply a high quality website then you should demonstrate it on your own site, practicing what you preach if you like. Then you can command higher prices.

Stop offering packages and stop charging an hourly rate.

 

Pricing: Charge a day rate instead and focus on the requirements of the client rather than the demands...

 

I have to agree with Jock as well, you current website is a bit outdated and not confidence inspiring. Hold your own site to a higher standrad than any of your clients sites.

 

Create a structured client interface procedure where you educate the client on the best way to proceed for example; content and information architecture come before design and development and if the want the job done properly they should follow your process of fact finding before prices/timelines/features are discussed. Then upsell them and blow them away with a great proposal. This will leave you in control and remember to reinforce the idea that if they pay £300 for a website then they will get a piece of **** website and they will damage their brand/business by doing so.

 

However I would advise you use your judgement and know when to turn a client down, i've had a lot of clients who bust my balls over their projects even though they are not paying a lot. Try to indentify who these clients are early on and make it clear they get what they pay for. And make sure there is a project schedule, scope and contract in place for all projects at all times so you can control your clients if they get stroppy/unreasonable.

 

If you are freelance then you have to run yourself in the same way a business would. That means sales, business development and marketing is at the top of your agenda. Also income streams need to be diversified, never rely on one income stream e.g from clients projects alone. Try to create recurring revenues from clients or products you can digitally create.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited January 8, 201115 yr by Andy Smiff

I know this is completely off topic and you didn't ask for a site critique but... The page itself isn't 1.4Mb, but when you add up all the HTTP requests its over 1Mb and thats not including the slideshow images and the rollovers, furthermore your slideshow makes a new HTTP request for every image, even if its loaded them before. So for me it was pretty slow to load, and contains invalid HTML.

 

If I was looking to hire a designer I'd be looking our for things like that and a table based layout is not very good practice these days either.

 

Basically what I'm trying to get at is if you can supply a high quality website then you should demonstrate it on your own site, practicing what you preach if you like. Then you can command higher prices.

 

Hia Jock, I got to admit at first I was a bit annoyed at your post, but I did check out some of your statements and fair do's I will try and sort some of it out.

 

You got to remember I did say at the beginning of this thread I dont proclaim to be the best web designer so just doing the best I can anyway I checked the markup and it shouldnt be too much hassle to fix, only 8 errors on the home page which was what I checked quickly, obviously I got to check the other pages too.

 

But page loading slow? Im a bit confused, you guys must be on some crazy slow internet lines, I built that site while on a 1mb connection and it loads ok to me, I dont build sites for people on dial up, I have never built sites for people on lines so slow they cant enjoy the internet experience, lets face it, if your saying my page is loading slow, I dread to think what your experience is like using youtube.

 

Anyway, Ive taken on board your comments and will do what i can to rectify it, but I dont hand code, I am self taught and use dreamweaver a lot (yes I know,, eeek) but Ive been building some pretty cool websites with dreamweaver and photoshop for years, I realise developers keep going on about divs and tables and there is a speed difference, but if the website works well and looks good, and works on all browsers, does it really matter that much, I know my clients wouldnt have a clue what a table or div is lets face it.

 

Could I ask you something, what are you using to test the HTTP connections, and how is that making a 0.4mb webpage into a 1mb page, I dont get it.

 

Thanks for the feedback, as much as your criticism annoyed me, i realise you was only trying to be helpful so once I got over my ego, and was appreciative of your comments.

 

Thanks

i'm on a 5mbs connection and as i mentioned before your site does load slowly compared to others (e.g. youtube)

 

the 1.4 comes about using yslow's page speed analysis tool http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

 

you'll see some of the problem is that the images are larger in file size than they should be.

Sorry I wasnt trying to be mean, I was just trying to say that with a better quality page you could charge higher prices or at least attract the right kind of customer. Basically what Andy said.

 

Its not the page were talking about, its the page and all of the images, scripts, stylesheets, etc. I'm using firebug, or you can use yslow like dap does http://i52.tinypic.com/2db9xzr.png

 

Despite staying in the middle of nowhere, my internet connection is fairly quick with most other sites, i have no problem with iplayer/youtube etc. I noticed your server is hosted in america which doesn't really help but I don't really want to go even further off topic.

 

@Andy Smith

 

Many thanks, that was some good advise, I will indeed ponder upon your advice a lot more

 

@dap

 

I installed that Yslow program, really cool bit of software, thanks for telling me about this it will help me in the future no doubt.

 

@Jock

 

Ive tried to work on the HTMl and CSS errors, I also looked into using sprites with spriteme.com but it didnt suggest making any (only tried to fix home page up to now btw)

 

Anyway, Im getting two html errors still, the attribute "height" and the attribute "background-image" I dont suppose you guys can advise the easiest fix here, am thinking this could be a bit of a long job, as Im assuming you'll say use CSS, i did a search and these attributes and they are used a lot on the page so would take quite a long time to fix this with CSS, any other ideas?

 

...............................

 

Well I must say this has been a very inspiring thread, I really appreciate everyone's time with advice, its really picked me up and given me a lot of food for thought.

 

Cheers everyone

 

Tobes

Ha you read my mind I was just going to say use CSS

 

A short term solution for the homepage would be to use inline styles to replace the invalid attributes, e.g

 

style="height:24px; width:867px;"

and

style="background-image: url(images/topnew.png);"

etc.

Ha you read my mind I was just going to say use CSS

 

A short term solution for the homepage would be to use inline styles to replace the invalid attributes, e.g

 

style="height:24px; width:867px;"

and

style="background-image: url(images/topnew.png);"

etc.

 

yeah Ive done that originally but Im getting html errors because of the in line attributes saying this...

You are still calling the background image from the html not from css.

 <td height="221" align="center" valign="middle" background="images/topnew.png"><script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>

 

If you need to call an image here you needed to use css.

 

Also you are still using tables for the layout.

 <td height="221" align="center" valign="middle" background="images/topnew.png"><script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>

 

If you need to call an image here you needed to use css.

 

Also you are still using tables for the layout.

 

Hi WBC thanks for the help, I realise what your saying, my problem is when I did a search on the page for both the keywords "height" and "background" there was a load of them, hence it looked to be a big job to fix the html errors, and in honesty I was hoping there would be a quick fix.

 

I dont mind adding a class attribute to the background images, but the height issue would take a lot longer due to the amount used in the page, so yes this may not be the best route, but it would be great if there was a quick alternative fix, rebuilding the site to fix two html errors is not what I want to be doing right now.

 

Re: the tables yes I know what your saying, but Im not very proficient at making pages using divs, yes I agree my own fault, but its a bit like saying mac & Pc, or racing a mini or a ferrari, does it really matter that much at he end of the day?

 

Ok, before you shoot me down, I understand it isnt 100% web compliant and that if I am to be a web designer I need to work towards the best I can, and Im learning every day, but is using divs on this page going to make that much difference?

 

Tobes

Ha you read my mind I was just going to say use CSS

 

A short term solution for the homepage would be to use inline styles to replace the invalid attributes, e.g

 

style="height:24px; width:867px;"

and

style="background-image: url(images/topnew.png);"

etc.

 

oh damn, sorry just re read your post and realise I had not read it properly the first time, let me try that then and see if that resolves the issue.

 

Thanks Jock

 

Tobes

haha well I have the home page 100% compliant now, but it took a while, and I have another 12+ pages, is there anyway I can replace these errors quickly, It would take me a few days to do the whole website.

 

If there was a cool quick fix this would be a handy tip.

 

anyone?

 

TIA

 

Tobes

 

Re: the tables yes I know what your saying, but Im not very proficient at making pages using divs, yes I agree my own fault, but its a bit like saying mac & Pc, or racing a mini or a ferrari, does it really matter that much at he end of the day?

 

Ok, before you shoot me down, I understand it isnt 100% web compliant and that if I am to be a web designer I need to work towards the best I can, and Im learning every day, but is using divs on this page going to make that much difference?

 

Tobes

 

I’d just say try and get into the habit of not using tables as you go.

 

There are lots of reasons, but one that stands out in this case is the time element. If you hadn’t used tables then you’d be laughing now you could change all the heights in one file and everything linked would have changed. If you keep content and style separate, in the future when you want to change the style of you site you can do it by just changing the style sheet.

 

When you know how, it’s easier then tables, it saves time and makes your site more accessible. And accessibility is a legal matter.

 

Good luck.

Re: the tables yes I know what your saying, but Im not very proficient at making pages using divs, yes I agree my own fault, but its a bit like saying mac & Pc, or racing a mini or a ferrari, does it really matter that much at he end of the day?

 

Ok, before you shoot me down, I understand it isnt 100% web compliant and that if I am to be a web designer I need to work towards the best I can, and Im learning every day, but is using divs on this page going to make that much difference?

 

Tobes

 

Heres a link concerning why CSS is superior to table based layouts;

 

http://www.chromaticsites.com/blog/13-reasons-why-css-is-superior-to-tables-in-website-design/

 

At the end of the day, using tables to lay out your site is an outdated way of doing it. Web design is a fast moving industry, and you gotta keep at the forefront if you want to get ahead. Sometimes this does fall by the way side slightly (ie, I haven't looked into HTML 5 much yet which is something I need to do) but theres not really any valid excuse for using still tables for site layouts. Its a difficult step to take, I know, but an important one. Once you start getting to grips with divs and CSS you'll wonder how you ever managed with table layouts, seriously

 

 

Kyle

People buy people

 

the last 4 jobs I booked (this year) were all people I have had discussions with online over the last few weeks/months

 

here is some advice

 

- know waht you do, and know it well - can you answer any question anyone flings at you about what you are selling. If you cant, do you know how to deal with it professionally

- know what you do, and tell people what you do. Example - We are pretty specialist at: Magento, Joomla, Wordpress, Gallery2, Virtuemart... In terms of customers we are very specialist with artists/photographers, Opticians, anything wedding related> We have years of real B&M retail experience, so can talk retail, stock, logiistics, epos, staff untill the cows come home. You need to be like this - learn a package, learn it well. Think about the industries and sectors you allready have inside knowledge on

- Dont worry about what you dont know, just tell the customer - i.e. I havent a clue about selling insurance, but I have done 3/4 insurance websites - use the 2 ears one mouth approach, get the clinet to fill you n on the bits you dont understand

- selling is about dialoge, not portfolios. Being backed up with an excellent portfolio is a must, but the selling bit happens before that

- know where to find customers. Put yourself in a customers shoes - where will they look, who will they ask - be there before they are

- customers buy on price, and a website costs as mucha s a car, and i aint driving a £300 car - many customers will feel the same, and ignore you

- review your pricing. Think about how much you need - My car costs £80 to fill up, £50 a month to insure, £160 every 6 months to tax. This week I spent £130 in sainsburies, I paid £160 council tax, I brought 3/4 a tank of heating oil for £700, we both joined the Gym - £90.00. House insurance needs renewing £350... the point I am making is that £300 buys about 1 days worth of my time, I cant live on £300 a job. think about it.. it takes 1 day to sell the job, faff with FTP, passwords, emails, discussing the site. I sell Magento sites for £2500 upwards, I sell Joomla sites for £3500 upwards, I sell wordpress sites for about a grand. I need to - If I am charging the right amount - I can put mytime and heart and soul into the job, not worrying about making a total loss or feeling cold or hungry

- break down boundaries - you need to give up being introverted, and know that you are an expert and get talking to people

 

Privatally I am a shy quiet inwards introvert. In business I am a open talkative expert - learn from that

Just try to inspire with some good designs. Pay some time for tutorials.

Usually I got new customers when trying to explore something new

Goodluck

Hi All,

 

This is a bit of a doom and gloom post today, sorry.

 

The last year I have found it very hard as a freelance web designer, the most annoying things is the amount of people who come to me with a £300 pound or similar budget to build a website.

 

With most small businesses on their knees Im not finding clients willing to pay for quality work, and this is making me consider leaving web design altogether.

 

Im noticing more and more competition from abroad, especially on freelance websites, it seems many would be very happy with £300 for a web design job, thats great when you live in india, but we arent as lucky to be able to quote so low here in the UK, lets face it I can earn well over £300 in a week painting and decorating, but it would take me two weeks to bang out a web site i was happy with.

 

Of course I can whack out a crap website in a day, but I dont like doing crap work, I cant bring myself to do crap work either.

 

This is making me wonder whether i want to continue in this industry, it seems to be getting harder to find clients and earn semi decent money.

 

Im not a brilliant web designer its true, but I reckon I do ok with the self taught skills i have, problem is being self taught I have no qualifications, and this also means Im a jack of all trades master of none.

 

Yes, I could start studying more im 32 years of age, but Im starting to wonder if I should do something else.

 

The last year I have worked very hard indeed yet only earnt around £5000 as a freelancer, Im constantly being bugged by clients for odd jobs here and there which they never want to pay for.

 

To summarise, Im wondering if things are going to get worse, how it is for you as a freelancer, and if things arent looking to rosey for us, should I do something else, something where Im not sat infront of a computer screen all day.

 

Whats your thoughts?

 

Tobes

 

I would take your pricing off your website. People will look at it and think that is the price. When I get an enquiry i ask the customer a few breif questions and provide them an approximate price. Once you have them you can then reel them in.

 

I would also learn how to develop a content management system if you cannot already do this. You can then build a site they can update. 99% of my clients want to update but do not want to pay for it. Therefore quality will lack. Build to what they ask for keep to the time allowed. Anything outside scope charge them for.

I'm still in the early days of freelancing full time, and you just have to take on the small jobs. If someone approaches you with £300, make sure they know they won't be getting everything they're looking for. A brochure site of a few pages that takes a max of 3 days to complete is all you can realistically offer for that money. If someone comes to you with £300 looking for an ebay clone, you're going to have to turn them down.

 

While I empathise with wanting to do your best work and spend plenty of time on each project, it's simply not realistic when clients have modest budgets. A balance must be struck between quality and cost. As Rob says, if the site begins to pay for itself, it will generally lead to more work.

 

To be honest, I think it's only the designers who sit at the top of the pile that get the really interesting, well paid projects. I know I'm not one of them yet, but that's ok. I get better with each site I make, and I'm taking on a lot more related work too - lots of copywriting's coming my way now. Don't be afraid to expand sideways to increase your revenue.

 

Freelancing may not be for you, but if you really want to make it work, you need to do just that: make it work. If someone comes to you with an offer, figure out what you can give them for their budget, and sell it to them.

 

Good luck.

... What most people don't realise is that that £300 site can turn into more. I lot clients are cluess about the web but soon start too see how it can benenfit them when they start to get a few enquiries from their site. When customer start to realise a website will bring them enquiries they soon want to add extra things.

 

As a result, they usually come back to us to have additions to the site and some SEO. For example, a fairly typical update would be a few hours of SEO and a simple wordpress blog integrated into their design. This alone will come close to £300. It's also fairly common for a client to start asking questions about why competitor x is higfher in the SERPs than themselves - at this stage I'd usually put them on a kind of SEO maintainance plan on monthly basis - again ongoing income. There's also the hosting for the site/domnain renewals.

 

So as you can see, an initial £300 site can turn into much more than it first seems, especially if you get a client on an ongoing SEO plan

 

 

This is a very good post and spot on, i've had countless clients return with bigger and better plans.

My main example of this is a site i done for a friend for gratis as a return favour. The site wasn't great but it didn't need to be but then gradually he started to pay me for updates and additions and eventually for a whole re-build. It's been at least four version since the first site and each one has come in with a healthy budget now that the client knows the industry and knows he gets what he pays for

 

Regarding the state of the UK freelance scene... get out there, the work is there and just needs finding. Consider hooking up with some people that offer complimentary services. You'd be surprised how much work i get from an illustrator friend of mine.

 

 

If you keep getting offered 300 pound jobs, maybe you are targeting the wrong type of clientèle. The trick is to pre qualify your clients first, and target clients who are willing to spend the kind of money you require. I've found one of the best ways of getting high quality clients is via face to face networking and word of mouth. They're too busy making money to be online. Also if the client is a business that has been running for a few years, it's safe to assume that they can spend a lot more, but they just don't understand the difference between a 300 pound website designer and a 3,000 pound one. The best way to over come this is by educating the client - letting them know the process designers go through to create a website, writing blog posts and having face to face meetings with them. Also you need to be persistent, and always be aiming to push your design skills to the next level.

 

I always used to worry about finding jobs, but since I started focusing on being the best designer I can be, the amount and quality of clients has increased immensely.