Freelancer Web Software Developer where to find new work

[rsshep]

A bit of history, I have been a freelancer web/software developer since 2006, so 13 years. Initially I started off building small sites for businesses, but later moved into providing my services to a number of marketing agencies who didn't have their own developers in house. This worked fine for a while until eventually they started employing their own developers.

I moved away from websites and into web applications, and then more recently I still focus on web applications, intranets, reporting tools etc, but also I've been building web services for mobile applications for a mobile app development agency.

My problem is, gradually from each client work dries up, they either hire in-house or they begin to target a different audience and have no need for my services.

Last year an old client approached me and I began doing some Drupal work for their clients, essentially I've been outsourcing it to someone else (my client knows) and I've been doing the elements of the project I'm comfortable with.

In order to improve myself, I started studying towards a Master Degree in Computing, following a software engineering route (I finish this next year). The aim was to distance myself away from web designers/developers and more into web software and software engineering, specially as the competition for cheap website is just too much, and I never really enjoyed the website side of things, marketing etc.

So, going forward, my aim is to focus on helping businesses solve problems, design and build web applications as well as web services.

So far I'd say I've been really lucky with work, I've not had a bad year and always earned more freelancing than I believe I could working for someone else, the problem is looking forward to 2019 I'm struggling to see where my work is going to come from. I'm doing a lot of Drupal work for a client, which I hate doing, who is looking to hire a developer in house. I did a lot of work over the past 5 years for a mobile app agency who now do most of their web services in-house, and I stopped working for a local marketing agency as I didn't like or enjoy the work.

In the past, most of my clients have been long term relationships, and new clients usually come from word of mouth from my existing clients. This is drying up now and I'm starting to stress about my future.

I'm essentially asking for any advice or tips for finding direction or new work. I'm tempted to send a mail out to loads of mobile app agencies, but I know when I get this type of email I delete it without even reading it. I've also avoided freelance job sites in the past, I'm not sure they'd work, especially since I'd be competition with people who charge £10 an hour, which is way less than I've been charging.

I'm afraid I've become a little stuck.

I have had a website for 13 years, and in that time it has landed me maybe two jobs. I've tried networking, but frankly found it a complete waste of time, and I do very little with social networking.

 

[fisicx]

People aren't looking for developers. They are looking for solutions to their problem. So they will go onto google or freelancers sites or forums or ask their friends of they know anyone who can do X or fix Y or build Z.

As an example. Same day and short term loans are very popular around the world. As is WordPress. But combining the two wasn't simple because there weren't many plugins that do this. So I built one. This has become popular and a number of people have now asked me to build a custom version for their business.

The problem was calculating the value and repayment on loans. I provided the solution and this led to a lot of lucrative work.

Find your niche and exploit it.

 

[rsshep]

That makes sense.

I did have a niche, I developed a content management system, and my marketing client were all using it on their clients websites. The problem was, many business owners were specifically asking for their sites to be built in Wordpress, and eventually there become no need for the content management system I built.

Finding a niche is difficult. I don't want to solve one specific problem, but to help businesses solve their specific problem, help them determine the problem and be part of creating the solution.

 

[fisicx]

Right, so you need to identify a problem that needs fixing and offer a solution. So when they search Google they find your website and pick up the phone.

Here's an example. People want to take payments online but don't want a full ecommerce thing. And they want to take payments using CC, BACS, PayPal, Stripe and so on. Build a WordPress plugin that does all this and market it in all the places people look for help.

Or build a decent and simple booking system. There are loads already but they are almost all complete pants.

WordPress plugins are very lucrative. They pay all my bills.

 

[rsshep]

Whilst I’m sure Wordpress is great for some. I have no interest in it.

I have looked at my own work and tried to find problems that need solving with the aim of building an app. But most problems I have can be solved by purchasing existing software. The only potential tool I have been interested in building is a ticket / task based system that allows a team to be built up of people from different companies and countries without exposing the indicual or their location. Great for outsourced teams where you want freelancers to communicate directly with clients without exposing their true identity or location. I’ve had this in mind for ages, but it would take time to develop around existing work... if I have any!

Web services and micro services are huge these days and becoming more important. I’ve wanted to specialise in the design and development of web services, but I’m unsure who my target audience is here.

Lots going on in my head, but no concrete answers yet.

 

[CornerShopDev]

Thanks guys this is really interesting from my persiective as I'm a retailer business owner trying to get in to software development, I literally have a commercial building ready to fill with potentially staff but finding the work and clients seems to be impossible unless its a small random project here and there via word of mouth and friend referrals.

 

[fisicx]

Whilst I’m sure Wordpress is great for some. I have no interest in it.

But it pays the bills and that's what matters. And once the bills have been paid you can then indulge in your pet projects (like I do).

The only potential tool I have been interested in building is a ticket / task based system that allows a team to be built up of people from different companies and countries without exposing the indicual or their location.

Great, and do you have the deep pockets needed to market such a system? There are loads of team management solutions already on the market with big support networks, why do you think anyone will want to buy yours? Built this in your spare time but find something to pay the bills first.

 

[rsshep]

But it pays the bills and that's what matters. And once the bills have been paid you can then indulge in your pet projects (like I do).

Great, and do you have the deep pockets needed to market such a system? There are loads of team management solutions already on the market with big support networks, why do you think anyone will want to buy yours? Built this in your spare time but find something to pay the bills first.

This is exactly the point. I’m terrible at marketing, so anything I built myself would be wasted too.

Let’s give an example of the type of thing I’m interested in work wise. I was approached a few year back, a recruitment agency wanted an intrant. They also wanted to put up large TVs around their building to provide performance related information to staff with the aim of it encouraging them to push themselves. My job was to look at their recruitment software, find a way to integrate with it, build an intranet with loads of custom reports they could run and build software to run on the TVs. This client wanted a solution, but didn’t understand what was possible or how to do it, and that’s where I came in. I continue to get regular work from this client and they love what I’ve done.

Another client, a manufacturer of automotive parts such as airbags and reversing cameras. Wanted a tool that would parse data produced by each robot on the production line and put this information into a visual report which would be displayed on TVs to staff on the production line. It’s currently being tested but potentially will be rolled out globally in all of their factories. With this project I’m the sole developer employed freelance by an agency.

Those two examples are some of the types of work I would prefer to take on longer term.

 

[mattk]

Have you considered contracting? If you do proper web-based application development (not Wordpress/Drupal) using something like c#, then you should be looking at around £500 a day, depending on your location.

If you want to specialise in designing and building web services, have a look at solution/technical architect roles.

I don't know how that compared to your freelance income, but contracting is usually a bit more predictable (3 to 6 month contracts are the norm) and it you generally work for larger companies which helps you build a decent portfolio of clients.

 

[rsshep]

Salary wise, including benefits such as car etc I’ve been getting between 35-50k depending on how good a year it’s been.

I’ve thought about contracting, but I like the flexibility of working from home. We specifically extended our home to incorporate and office.

C# would require some learning on my part too. I’ve done it in the past, and I know it’s very similar to Java, but I would need to freshen up.

 

[CornerShopDev]

Personally, I am very biased as I used to be a data analyst but don't rule out data science jobs either, its a huge growing market and if you skilled enough to learn R and Pyhthon, in theory you already have the SQL knowledge and there are some 70K-90K jobs out there in data science because of all the machine learning sectors that are due to explode over the next couple of years and create a new type of 9-5 for some people. Especially Finance sector.

 

[mattk]

c# was just an example and there are plenty of opportunities to work from home. What were you using to build web services and mirco services?

Take a look at jobserve.com which has the bulk of contracting roles.

 

[billybob99]

I have can be solved by purchasing existing software. The only potential tool I have been interested in building is a ticket / task based system that allows a team to be built up of people from different companies and countries without exposing the indicual or their location. Great for outsourced teams where you want freelancers to communicate directly with clients without exposing their true identity or location.

You mean like Trello or Basecamp? The latter is pricey but been using it for yonks and my developers can talk to my client freely without any issues, and everything stays in one place.

 

[rsshep]

c# was just an example and there are plenty of opportunities to work from home. What were you using to build web services and mirco services?

Take a look at jobserve.com which has the bulk of contracting roles.

Java mainly.l and some PHP.

I did some c# back in the days of web forms and recently built a small web service is c# using .NET Core

 

[rsshep]

You mean like Trello or Basecamp? The latter is pricey but been using it for yonks and my developers can talk to my client freely without any issues, and everything stays in one place.

It's been a long time since I used Basecamp, so I'm not sure on it's features these days. But yes, like Basecamp, but was more based around an individual owning a project (like Github), and other follow the project. The idea is that full names are never published on system, so lets say you outsource work to India, your developer in india can follow the system and the end client has no idea that you're outsourcing the work. I've worked with a number of clients who tell their clients they have a team of people, but don't tell them that the team is made up of freelancers who each have their own emails address.

Anyway, it was only an idea, and to be honest, one I wouldn't be following through anyway.

 

[sherbetdipdab]

It's been a long time since I used Basecamp, so I'm not sure on it's features these days. But yes, like Basecamp, but was more based around an individual owning a project (like Github), and other follow the project. The idea is that full names are never published on system, so lets say you outsource work to India, your developer in india can follow the system and the end client has no idea that you're outsourcing the work. I've worked with a number of clients who tell their clients they have a team of people, but don't tell them that the team is made up of freelancers who each have their own emails address.

Anyway, it was only an idea, and to be honest, one I wouldn't be following through anyway.

I think this is a great idea. Could be used for agencies or companies to manage outsourcing. So many freelancers doing bits for businesses now. Sometimes you just want the designer to speak to the developer direct. So this could put them together.

 

[rsshep]

I think this is a great idea. Could be used for agencies or companies to manage outsourcing. So many freelancers doing bits for businesses now. Sometimes you just want the designer to speak to the developer direct. So this could put them together.

Thanks.

The idea came about because I have email accounts setup in my email client for 5 different clients, and it's a pig to manage everything. I thought this type of system would allow me to see everything in one place providing all clients used the system. I thought initially it would solve my problems, but then maybe other have the same issue to.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

Thanks.

The idea came about because I have email accounts setup in my email client for 5 different clients, and it's a pig to manage everything. I thought this type of system would allow me to see everything in one place providing all clients used the system. I thought initially it would solve my problems, but then maybe other have the same issue to.

Simple enough solution. Use forwarders to a single email account. And aliases to reply.

 

[sherbetdipdab]

Simple enough solution. Use forwarders to a single email account. And aliases to reply.

Used to be a nightmare, logging into different gmails in different brower types (firefox, chrome etc). But then chrome introduced different g accounts option. It's at the top right where you Google + image is. You can then still use chrome but have different inboxes. The forwarders and aliases is an option but a bit messy and wouldn't say the simplest compared to the above.

 

[rsshep]

Used to be a nightmare, logging into different gmails in different brower types (firefox, chrome etc). But then chrome introduced different g accounts option. It's at the top right where you Google + image is. You can then still use chrome but have different inboxes. The forwarders and aliases is an option but a bit messy and wouldn't say the simplest compared to the above.

This, most of my clients use exchange rather than Gmail.

Another problem I have is each of my clients use different project management tools. I have one using Trello, one using Asana, another using Jira. Each of this I'm registered both using my own email address and using an email address supplied by my client. Some clients use the same tool so I have to keep logging in and logging out, makes tracking stuff a bit of a pain.

It's a shame there isn't a tool that talks to the API of each of the tools listed above and shows you everything in one place.

 

[sherbetdipdab]

It's a shame there isn't a tool that talks to the API of each of the tools listed above and shows you everything in one place.

Yeah, that would be a beast though. Then you've got to keep up to date with the next tool... monday.com, notion etc etc. Hey, wouldn't it be nice if you had your own tool and told your clients that's what they need to use. Ha, I know it doesn't work like that.

 

[arnydnxluk]

Another problem I have is each of my clients use different project management tools. I have one using Trello, one using Asana, another using Jira. Each of this I'm registered both using my own email address and using an email address supplied by my client. Some clients use the same tool so I have to keep logging in and logging out, makes tracking stuff a bit of a pain.

Sounds like a problem for Firefox Containers (or multiple users in Chrome if you can handle checking different windows).