Need money but I only know web design, any ideas? Outsourcing killed my income

Hey everyone! Right now I'm in a predicament. I've enjoyed doing my own projects for some time now but it doesn't really generate much income. Sure, I could sit down and focus on a what might be a "killer-app" but that takes months of planning and let's not even get into the resources it takes to build something like that and the high risk it poses since these kind of projects are never, ever a guarantee.

But I need money by January, a lot of it. I tried going on craigslist and finding clients, they all go with the lowest bidder which is less than minimum wage (thanks India/Philippines!). I go to these project hunting sites, but again -- they usually go with the lowest bidder. Of course, outsourcing is prevalent and is killing the industry for those that are trying to make a living off of it in the US.

Going door to door like a salesman is pretty much the only option left but I am terrible at sales because people don't believe that I'm almost 30, they all think I'm 14. When I approach them I immediately get turned away. I used to go to meetings when I was full-time in the industry and it was not a problem because they were already on-board with the project. But these days now that I'm alone, my looks really are deceiving to them. So when I do get a offer, it's usually about $200 or $500 for a project that lasts about 2-3 weeks. Usually that's a few thousand dollars, at least where I would work at before. I don't have the swagger to go around and take names unfortunately and as much as I try, people just think I'm a cute kid wanting to freelance like it's a paper route.

I've looked into temp jobs because having a full-time permanent job for just a few months and then leaving isn't a good idea. I mean, I have a kind heart and I don't want to waste their time if they expect a full-time employee for years to come, and I don't want to look like a douche to my next employer.

And so it has come to this. I'm running out of ideas on where to find leads. I can build games, websites, and software (but not very much on mobile platforms just yet), can even design like any other pro but my goodness is it ever hard to find clients on your own as a freelancer. People tend to prefer to do businesses with other businesses and there's a lot on my portfolio that I can't just show because I had signed contracts that I would only state that I worked for the company but cannot showcase what I've made in my portfolio (which was stupid of me, I know).

I'm at the point of either doing a kickstarter game and hoping people will jump in on it or go the shady route of applying for a full-time position somewhere and quitting in January when I move. I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum to post, but I hope someone feels my pain. But I am willing to add a few things to my portfolio even if it's for free but I can't take too many requests. I won't link to my work right here because ATS isn't the kind of site I want the NSA to link to my true self if you know what I mean, but PM's are ideal.

If anyone has suggestions, please let me know. Unless I were living in a third world country, outsource payments aren't enough to live off of. Thank you for your time!

EDIT: Before anyone suggests this... No, I will NOT whore myself out to 100 fat chicks.

reply to post by Em2013


I don't know if this is shady or not, but whatever, it's an idea for you since you don't feel comfortable going door to door rounding up business.

I assume you have a resume that lists all of your web design skills and certificates? Print a butt load of them up. Go to every business that is hiring, or not hiring, whichever. Go to the pest control, A/C places, auto mechanic places, restaurants, and ask for the managers to look at your resume. The first thing they will notice is that you aren't an auto mechanic, or pest control technician, etc. They might question your experience and simply explain to them that all you know is web development. AH HAH. Now they know you are a web designer at least.

You might potentially get hired for a job that can train you, or better yet, as a web developer! Tell these places that if they don't hire you for your lack of skills, to keep you in mind if they ever need a website to call you!

Use your resume as a tool to round up business.

Do you know anything about SEO or getting local web sites boosted to the front page of Google quickly (i.e. through YouTube tricks, speedy backlinking, etc)?

If you do, one "trick" that can get you some cash into the bank quickly, at least, is to build local sites that are generic in nature (such as for Fort Worth Dentists, Tampa DUI Lawyer, etc) and get them to the front page.

Pick out someone's business that doesn't appear to have a web site yet (or has one on the third or more page of Google) and start sending the people that visit the page to their business.

After a couple of weeks, call the business and ask them if they have enjoyed having customers sent their way and if it has helped their business at all. When they say yes (inevitable), tell them that you wish to sell them the website and will hand all of the backend over to them for X price (you can figure out a good price based on the type of business they are).

They can say no, in which case you simply tell them that you understand and will go ahead and set the site up to send the referrals to their competitor.

9 out of 10 will tell you to wait before you even hang up the phone.



If you are any good at setting up sites quickly (heck you can do these types of things with a simple Wordpress setup and nice theme), you can set up a number of them over a period of a few days and just work on getting them ranked up and bringing in business for the businesses.

Could give you a LOT more ideas, as well, but see what your thoughts are with this one lol

reply to post by jomina


Of course I have plenty of skills with SEO/SEM however the problem comes from where I live. I live in the heart of Silicon Valley and there are tons and tons of web development companies. I was once a director for a pretty good one and it's not a problem to find high-profile clients or medium-sized businesses to just do business with because you're established as a business.

Unfortunately for me, I'm not established as my own business so that's where the problems come in. People see me as a freelancer and say that would rather trust a business than a freelancer or that they don't trust freelancers in general. I can't establish myself as a company because in California the taxes to establish and maintain are higher than what I would make in a month from small contracts (no joke) and it takes a good few months to establish and by then, I will have moved and I'll get taxed again because of the new year.

@Holly,
Been there done that which is explained in my previous paragraphs. As for them training me, it would probably be the other way around if I could establish a permanent job. Unfortunately that can't happen until I move and I need money before then.

Gah, this situation is irritating me. If only bounty hunting were legal, I'd either be a rich man or a dead man lol!

reply to post by Em2013


Have you tried ODesk? I found the site a couple of years ago and my daughter started working as a freelance transcriptionists. She's been there since then and makes decent money. They have all sorts
of jobs, and I know website design is one of them. Check it out. It is legit.
Good luck

virraszto
reply to post by Em2013

 

Have you tried ODesk? I found the site a couple of years ago and my daughter started working as a freelance transcriptionists. She's been there since then and makes decent money. They have all sorts
of jobs, and I know website design is one of them. Check it out. It is legit.
Good luck

That looks pretty good! I've tried similar sites but instead of the client bidding, it's the developer and usually it ends up being $2/hr or so because some Indian likes to tread on our turf. lol! I'll look more in depth with 0desk. It looks promising for a temporary gig and I hope it helps. Thank you!

reply to post by Em2013


One thing my daughter said that stuck with me and might prove beneficial to you. She said some people were asking how to get the higher paying jobs. She said they get the higher paying jobs by not accepting the low paying jobs. And if you only accept the low paying jobs, then you'll only get the low paying jobs.

I hope you find some work there. I know there is a lot to be had if you have the skills.

Hi,

I have work for you.

This site (www.acombi.co.uk) needs a total overhaul - as you can see!
It is at the limit of my design "expertise" and quite frankly looks horrible because it has been altered so many times. There is no continuity within it and no "branding" to run with.

If you are interested by the end of this; It will come with a full explanation of what it aims to do and providing you show good results there will be a permanent position; by which it'll need constant updating and kept interesting, as to not bore the potential customers who will, hopefully, return again and again.

I am in the UK by the way (as you can see from the domain). I seek the Hoorah! open minded, grab the bull by the horns attitude of an American... I know that can been seen as quite a stereotypical view but you wouldn't believe at how depressing and utterly f#ing boring English people can be.. Everything is always a problem and I cannot find anyone to step into the unknown.

Did eBay get made in America or England?
Facebook?
Twitter?
YouTube?
...You see my point?


The internationally patented selling platform that this site is built upon has been purposely designed to take on the biggest of online blue chips, both inside and outside of the UK, and it stands its ground well! If successful - you can see where a permanent position would come from.

I'll not go into what that selling platform does on here for the sake of arguing with people who just do not get what it does... I have spent years (4 to be specific) explaining it to people; friends, family and total strangers and when they regurgitate what has been explained they always get it wrong - that's not because they're stupid or I am rubbish at explaining or because it's difficult either. They all just fail to forget what they already know about other ways of selling and this confuses them because it doesn't follow the established rules they currently dictate how a business must operate. This is a mathematical, albeit very simple, way of beating the biggest and baddest companies out there in regards to; online traffic, pricing & turnover.

This is the most unorthodox way of selling you are ever likely to see in your lifetime - which obviously, automatically, has to have the most unorthodox way of earning too! - it is unbelievably simple, but at the same time - utterly confusing if you cannot let go of old ways.

Anyway - I digress. If you would like to talk further about this project and feel that you could aid in a professional, trustworthy and quality design please do give me a shout on here and I will gladly discuss with you (or anyone).

Thanks in advance,

CrzayFool

(aka Matt - to be a little more formal. Taking work from some guy calling themselves CrzayFool is not recommended).

Oh well, you try help someone who asks for help and they turn a blind eye.

I wish you good luck in your future search for other opportunities.

Offer revoked.


CrzayFool.

crzayfool
Oh well, you try help someone who asks for help and they turn a blind eye.

I wish you good luck in your future search for other opportunities.

Offer revoked.


CrzayFool.

You do realize how old this thread is right? I also said if you have something to offer you could PM me, since well -- I've been posting all over the place and have trouble keeping track of hundreds of posts. No worries though, I'm plenty occupied right now. I'm confused on what you were trying to offer, I mean Amazon already offers razor-thin margin pricing, it's practically impossible to compete unless you do something shady like penny stocks. Just my 2-cents.

crzayfool
Oh well, you try help someone who asks for help and they turn a blind eye.

I wish you good luck in your future search for other opportunities.

Offer revoked.


CrzayFool.

Let me know if you still need help. I just fired a client and I have a small window this coming week. I've been doing this stuff for 12 years. :-)

research3300

crzayfool
Oh well, you try help someone who asks for help and they turn a blind eye.

I wish you good luck in your future search for other opportunities.

Offer revoked.


CrzayFool.

Let me know if you still need help. I just fired a client and I have a small window this coming week. I've been doing this stuff for 12 years. :-)

I would avoid jumping onto his project. It doesn't sound legal or it's gray area. What he wants is probably complicated to build and he'll likely only offer part-ownership. It's one thing to build a shady website for cash but it's something entirely different to build it with the incentive of ownership. You don't know what you'll be liable for. I'm pretty confident this person has an idea but wants others to do his dirty work. It seems like your typical "I have an idea to beat facebook or amazon" thing. Just warning you is all.

Generally speaking as you get out into the world you'll find it's a cruel cold hearted place. It's completely a dog eat dog world. No one cuts you a break. It's only getting more competitive too. If you're resume isnt' perfectly tailored for the job or your dad doesn't own the company, then you don't even get an interview. If you apply at 20 places you might get 1 interview. Then if you do perhaps 50 interviews you might get a job. In regard to business you have to work your butt off just to try and scrape out a living. No one trusts you at first. You're competing against 100 other similiar sites. You have to contend with big players. It's hard to build traffic. Your offer has to be 110% perfect. Your USP better be near unbelievable. Your price has to be competitive. Your guarantee / warrantee completely risk free. Your site must look extremely professional. And the list of prerequisists just goes on and on, just to get your foot in the door. But if all the stars align and you have the perfect product or service meeting a pressing need in the market place you might start to make some sales and do some business. Then gradually you can build and try and make a living. But like I said, life is hard, cruel, it will easily kill you if you don't work your tail off. Then even if you build something you better be ultra careful as that's when the real sharks come out to try and steal and destroy what you've built. That's a guarantee. Whereever there's money that's being made that's where the sharks go to try and steal it. Any ABC agency you can think of, all designed to go steal the money off the people that have figured out how to make some (meanwhile all claiming there stealing it to somehow protect the public or to stop some criminal enterprise, talk about BS). No seriously, it's a sadistic #ed up world out there. It's no wonder so many people are living in cars, becoming freegans, wanting to learn how to live off the land, ending up using social services, the suicide rate is higher than ever, so is the divorce rate, so is the homeless rate.

So again your only chance is to get out 100 resumes per day. Also start working on a business. So it needs to be product or service that meets a pressing need. your website has to be impecable and ultra refined. You need to look like a multi million dollar corporation. You need a sales pitch that will make eskimos buy freezers. Then when you start making any money, dont' leave it in any banks or anywhere where anyone can get there hands on it. Convert it to precious metals and tuck it away somewhere. Plus be willing to put in 12 hr days 6 days a week. After you build your site you need to be placing 100 ads online per day for your site to build traffic. (at least). And then do that everyday for a year. (that's assuming your product is selling). This is no longer the economy of the 50's, 80's, or 2000's. Everything has gone to sheat and everyone now is desperate as hell to just try and keep there head above water. Again it's a dog eat dog world out there. no one is gonna cut you a break. no one is gonna help you. no one is gonna hire you unless you look like the cream of the crop. No one is gonna do ANYTHING for you. It's just the unfortunate reality we're in. One thing you can do though is try and lower yoru expenses to a point where your living for dirt cheap. That way at least you don't have to make tons of money to live, and anything above yoru expenses will be gravy.

ya you pretty much need to be prepared to work your tail off to get something going, weather that be a job or a website. Then when you eventually get it going (likely will take a good year), you then have to nurture it, protect your little golden goose from all the psychopathic butchers who are gonna try and find it and steal it from you. Again the world is a very cruel hard evil satanic place that wants to kill you. Thats' just the reality of life. It's dog eat dog. There is no freebees. There is little to no charity or hand outs. You got to work til your fingers bleed just to get by. But again if you just keep trying a lot of things eventually something will work out. And generally all you need is 1 business or job to make enough to cover your bills. So all you can do is not look back at the past, and just work ultra hard from this point forward. Success is spelled WORK. All you got to do is keep working, keep trying, keep experimenting, keep asking, applying, learning, and doing and eventually things will work out. But ya unless you married a millionaire, or your parents were filthy rich, then you're like the rest of us where you have to actually "earn" a living, meaning you're a slave, meaning you better put in 60 hours a week or you'll end up dead. Again life is coming to kill you. It doesn't give a rats azz about any excuses you might have. It's just gonna steam roll you if it gets the chance. So just keep trying a lot of things, keep applyign at a lot of places. And if you're lucky something will work out. Then when you get that something, work even harder to try and keep it safe, protect it from the sharks who now will want to take it from you. And never neglect it. If it's a job then you need to be the best employee in the company. If a business then it's got to be one of the leaders in yoru industry. Anyway that's how the playing field is. now get out there and have fun!

There is number of sites which provide jobs online like Odesk, Freelance and Elance some of them and earn better salary. I am also working as a free lancer and my income is more than my previous salary

reply to post by spartacus699


Not sure where that comes from but I just needed a temp job for a few months, not like I don't have one even now. I just wanted something on the side and never had issues getting hired for a full-time job. However, temp jobs are very hard to land because of outsourcing. Freelance websites are terrible because most jobs are taken by indians that know nothing about web development but they sure can use templates at a rate of a dollar per hour which is fine for cheap businesses.

The alternative for me is that I did a few websites in the past few months on the side, tutored, and did a lot of study group things (surprisingly they pay decently) and on one occasion, repaired a computer. It worked out better than expected. In the end, I made my deadline a month ahead of time and all ended well. Sometimes you just have to expand your horizon and do things that are still within your scope of work to make money, even if you feel a little dirty doing it

Oh and craigslist is a terrible place to find work. Good luck if you ever go there for work hahaha.

Em2013

research3300

crzayfool
Oh well, you try help someone who asks for help and they turn a blind eye.

I wish you good luck in your future search for other opportunities.

Offer revoked.


CrzayFool.

Let me know if you still need help. I just fired a client and I have a small window this coming week. I've been doing this stuff for 12 years. :-)

I would avoid jumping onto his project. It doesn't sound legal or it's gray area. What he wants is probably complicated to build and he'll likely only offer part-ownership. It's one thing to build a shady website for cash but it's something entirely different to build it with the incentive of ownership. You don't know what you'll be liable for. I'm pretty confident this person has an idea but wants others to do his dirty work. It seems like your typical "I have an idea to beat facebook or amazon" thing. Just warning you is all.

You have absolutely no idea...

Please do not jump to conclusions and pretend you have even the first clue, as you will only make my life more difficult when trying to find good people who can help. If others read your assuming and troublesome posts my search becomes harder because they think that I may be similar to Madbid, Swoopo, Quibids, Wonga, Quickquid, Alibaba and/or any other Lottery or scamming/counterfeit site.

I am genuinely out to make the things everyone wants cheaper; Xbox Ones, PS4's, iPad's/other tablets, Smartphones, TV's, Sound Systems and every other gadget and gizmo or home/mobile entertainment; In short- if millions of people want one and it's the latest must have - I'll sell it cheaper There is no argument with that - YOU just need to learn how I do it and get it out there.

There is no grey area, nothing dodgy, crooked, unfair, un-ethical, illegal or shady in what I'm doing and if you would only take the time to ask about what I'm doing instead of just treating me like some sort criminal you would find that you could too become part of something that may one day be great.


I don't have an "idea" that can beat Facebook or Amazon... I have a work in progress online selling platform that has taken a good few years to piece together and careful calculate. This "system" which is as basic as adding can wipe the floor with ANY company that currently exists no matter how large their buying power. A few billion you say, Amazon or Play.com? Meh - that's child's play because you use the same traditional way of making profit, I do not and you cannot match me! There simply isn't a company on the high-street or on the internet that can compete.


I would give my right arm to get it off the floor and negotiating ownership with a potential partner would favor them greatly as I've already spent a few years working on this and cannot find anyone with a mind open enough to understand where I am headed and anyway - 1% of £1bn is a lot of money... try at least 10% and depending what you bring to the table it'll only go up.

Anyone else on ATS: Got some money backing you and have a PR / Marketing background or a design company and want to try some random concept that could fire your life, bank account or business into stratosphere... reply on here and ask all you want. I am the only person who can answer all of them about this specific project - I am its inventor.

(The CMS has already been built for the site, probably needs a few tweaks here and there and the functionality is all there. It's linked to a registered business account and Ltd company. Distribution for all products, so far, is in place - all legal all registered all above board... blah blah blah... all that needs doing is a full website design overhaul a strong marketing strategy (because I'm rubbish at both of them).

research3300

crzayfool
Oh well, you try help someone who asks for help and they turn a blind eye.

I wish you good luck in your future search for other opportunities.

Offer revoked.


CrzayFool.

Let me know if you still need help. I just fired a client and I have a small window this coming week. I've been doing this stuff for 12 years. :-)

I know this is late but if you are still available drop me a PM and I'll gladly talk with you.

Keep an eye on this thread too because hopefully the OP will respond with some questions so I can prove my worth as an entrepreneur in the big bad world.

Who knows maybe we can all work on it together and keep this thread as a journal of how some radom people became billionaires via a conspiracy site.

reply to post by Em2013


you need to move if you want to make money doing web design. I can say that in my area, there is a huge need for such a business. If you are good, and don't think you are made of golden goodness, then you could make quite a bit of cash here. Around here, everyone can "do web sites" until you ask them to show you their work. Then it's three BS sites that a high school kid would be ashamed of. If you got skilz, look into it.

Why not create your own website and fill it up with your portfolio and feedback from your previous clients? It also looks like there's a lot of competition where you are located so working online may be your best bet. There are several hiring platforms online where you could establish yourself. Work for a minimum hourly rate first, while building up your feedback score. A few months will do. You may be able to ask for a higher rate as you go along. This outsourcing article is ideal for a client's perspective but you may find this helpful as well. getnerdio.com...

Best of luck!

Some years ago I began as a web-development freelancer at Odesk (present UpWork) and found there several ongoing projects which I still run. It's more than 3 years past from topic started. Interesting, how the topicstarters story ended...