So I am trying to get started creating websites, and am currently looking for someone to create art for my portfolio website in return creating a website for them, which I posted on these forums. However, I am interested as to all of your guys opinions (for after I get my portfolio website finished) as to any good ideas on where to get started finding clients who need websites.
The problem is, I am not a 5 star web developer so I do not have anything amazing to have people hire me, but I think that I have enough skills to at make some money off of it. (website I am working on to see skill level: www.warfororion.net). Do you guys have any suggestions on how to go about this, or maybe possible people or sites I could try and find clients.
The reason I ask here, is because many of you are artists, and would possibly be interested in portfolio websites, etc. . . and I am curious to hear what you guys think from your perspective, and you guys may also know of other websites/resources I could use to find clients.
I hope someone will be generous enough to give me there two cents on the matter, and give me any advice or tips to continue.
Well, to be quite honest, what you should probably do first is to find someone else in your community who is already established in the business, and who needs a little help. Sign-on as that person’s employee for at least a year or three. And if the first thing s/he has you doing is brewing the morning’s coffee, make a perfect pot every time.
More than anything else – even more than sites you could refer to – you need “people who will speak well of you,” both in terms of your technical ability and, perhaps far more ability, your experience as a professional businessman. Start, therefore, with your new employer. When someone is easy to work with, word gets around. And your own confidence will, quite rightly, grow too.
The technical elements of web-site development, software development, etc. are actually pretty standardized by now. What really makes the distinguishing difference, IMHO, are the personal qualities and the professionalism of the person, himself. Who can attest to these things? Someone who’s worked with him before … or, hired him before.
“Professional. Priceless.”
There are s-o many people out there … who … just … aren’t. :ba:
Thanks for that, I am actually glad to hear that as I am already heading down that route My current client has already connected me with a few people, but sadly. . . they aren’t in need of websites at the moment. Maybe the best thing to do then is to do some more free work, which will build my portfolio as well.
Wow! You are pulling in a lot of dependancies for a static page.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned (I code all my pages by hand), but even the home page seems (to me) to pull in a lot more than it needs. Do you use some development environment? The HTML layout seems, well, different to what I’d expect.
If I were to do the design-work for the website, I’d do things differently. What does the viewer want to know/see?
The name of the project
Enter the main site
The video
The description
Probably roughly in that order.
If I had complete design control, I’d make the logo at the top into a title rather than a logo (ie horizontally spread). Then I’d put the video. Then I’d put an ‘Enter Site’ Button. Finally I’d put the description. I’d use the ‘vh’ tag in CSS to make sure the title, video and ‘enter site’ button are visible without the viewer having to scroll.
Remember that what is initially seen is very powerful. Seeing half-a-video is a bit of a let-down (on my screen I see the title, some text (which I barely read) and a video which I want to see but have to scroll to do so.
Also, on a narrow screen, the text doesn’t flow and you have to scroll sideways.
One of my sites is actually rather similar to yours in terms of purpose: www.simplesix.sdfgeoff.space I plan to replace the image on the right with a video when I have made a good one.
Yeah, you are right, I probably need too take off a lot of the dependencies in the static page, however, I left them all in for now because it is still in development, and I am unsure what else might be used in the static page. But I agree I should remove a lot of those. And yes I use WordPress, and I don’t bother coding everything by hand, because in my opinion I basically think “don’t reinvent the wheel”, but yeah I do see some benefits to coding it all from scratch.
As for the layout of the website, the client has specific ways he wants things done, I simply created what he told me he wanted. But yes I agree with you as well about the home page, I would like the video to be shown right when they enter the url.
Thank you for your help though, it reminds me that I should really make sure to remove those dependencies and hold me to better coding practices.
To me, “the code” is not the most important consideration. The professionalism of the “so-called professional,” is. Is the person competent, quick, respectful of my budget, and otherwise attentive to my needs as a businessman? (Is s/he a businessman, himself?)
There are, frankly, far too-many people out there who (a) bite off way more than they can chew, and (b) never manage to completely swallow. They don’t survive very long, but they cause a helluva lot of damage in the process of failing.
The truly experienced professionals have all the work that they can do, but are usually quite unassuming about it. Their work speaks for itself, and their customers speak louder. Therefore, I suggest that you find someone in town who has a good, solid reputation, and go to work for that person or persons. Tear the pages off their line-printer … make their coffee … observe everything they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Become a part of a winning team, and be humble.
If you want to start working for yourself, go out and find some clients rather than waste your time on loitering on internet forums.
Create a portfolio of sites you’ve created that sells your skills.
Who are you targeting, corporate of personal. Why should I pay you to make a website for me if I can create a simple useable website very easily using nice Wordpress templates.
Be critical of your work as if I was your potential client I damn well would be if i was paying you. The website link on your first post looks like something from 10 years ago.
My current client has already connected me with a few people, but sadly. . . they aren’t in need of websites at the moment. Maybe the best thing to do then is to do some more free work, which will build my portfolio as well.