I think there are steps to learning web design.

You learn a lot, but understand very little
You learn a lot, and things start to click
You learn a lot, and you understand a little bit more

Yeah that’s right there’s no 4th “YOU MASTER HTML” because frankly, I don’t think it’s possible. Even if you learn HTML fluently, [...]

While reading the Sitepoint forums, I came across a really great question/response that I wanted to share:

If finding questions with a lot of different answers made me money, this question would be a goldmine. It seems every freelancer has their own formula for determining how much to charge. Rightly so – as your price can make quite an impact on your business. If you charge too much you’ll be less competitive, and if you charge too little you aren’t going to make money. Most freelancers charge their clients by either an hourly rate or a fixed “per project” or “per item” rate. Regardless of which method works better for you, it’s a good idea to establish an hourly rate that is going to keep your head above the water. You can then use this rate as a basis to establish fixed-rate prices.

It’s happened to us all at one point. You toil over the design of your newest website project, cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s and finally complete that mockup for submission to the client. The client is overjoyed! You hit it right on! Oh but wait, he’d like a small change. He has this cute little animated gif of a butterfly that he thinks would look perfect right next to his horizontal menu. Oh and that nice neutral color you chose, he wants it bright yellow.

I read an awesome article this morning that really made me happy to be a freelancer:

A guide on how freelancers can compete against large design studios

Customer service is so absolutely important in the freelancing business. I’d rather lose time and money than have a single unhappy customer any day.

I recently had a client who told me he wanted all of his images “protected” from being downloaded. My answer was simple: “It’s not worth your time to persue that goal”. If someone who knows what he or she is doing wants an image, they’re going to get it by either examining your code, checking their cache or utilizing their print screen button.

A few years ago I started offering web design services to those in need of a web site. Ever since, It’s been a constant learning experience. When I advanced from website coding to directly interacting with clients, I was taking a pretty big step. It was hard enough trying to understand this crazy markup language, and now I had to learn how to interact with clients? Sheesh. Thanks to trial and error, I’ve come to understand a few things about establishing and maintaining the best possible relationship with my clients.

It’s one of the oldest questions in the book: what browser size should I design my website for? Do I cater to people running lower resolutions such as 800×600, do I think my visitors want a wider layout like 1024×768, or do I think my visitors surf on a movie screen? Well, they probably aren’t going to be surfing on a movie screen, and chances are that they’re running something higher than 800×600. How about I stop with these generalizations and give you some useful info? How about a pretty chart?

In the last few months I’ve been seeing a common occurrence. It’s either a freelancer complaining about a client or a client complaining about a freelancer. I suppose a little friction isn’t all that uncommon, especially if the people involved don’t have a good understanding with each other. Most of the time, the problem can be traced to a simple fact: The client and the freelancer do not have a contract, or have an incomplete one.