I set up a cheapo hosting service with Fantastico for some hands-on action..depends how you want to work but I find just getting out there and trying the things out is the most effective way..at least then you can put them on your CV pretty much immediately :D
(obviously you'll need to hone your skills if you intend on going for jobs that require them though!!)
Hi.. I’m new here.. been freelancing for a while and consistently I’ve come up against the same question: How to charge for my services?
A lot of clients, especially the non-savvy, seem to expect to ‘buy’ a website off the shelf and walk off with it. In my experience this just isn’t how it works though.
A website needs to be maintained, upgraded, SEO’d… the list goes on. Then there’s hosting per year. Many clients are surprised by these charges, and the usual response I get is that they’ll arrange their own hosting and save some cash thank you very much. Which leads to my next issue.
If you’re coding to high standards, this means you’re writing re-usable code. The sites I’ve made, while bespoke to an extent, all use the same core set of functions/modules I’ve written. In fact it’s more than that, it’s a mini-CMS. So when I make a site for someone, I include all that code. But this is code I’m going to re-use, it’s not strictly ‘theirs’, it’s my livelihood, and I don’t want them walking off with it.
Charging a one-off fee and nothing more isn’t very sustainable as a career model, but I find setting up some sort of ‘lease’ or monthly/annual fee puts people right off. I guess it all boils down to contracts and making people understand what they’re buying, what they own and what to expect from me.
