Freelance vs Employment, Part 2: Jumping In…Pinky Toe First.

I had my first meeting with my new clients about 2 weeks ago. I got some basic information, company name, domain, the logo file, etc. It was productive. And I got a check.

And immediately I walked out thinking…

How am I going to layout the site? Should I use a framework like Bootstrap or code manually? Should I use a CMS like Joomla or even WordPress? Do I have any imagery? Where am I going to get this imagery? Armed with a single logo, how the hell am I going to build an entire website? What have I gotten myself into?!

However with money in pocket and these being family friends of mine, I had no choice but to proceed.

As with all things in my life, I jumped in…in slow-mo.

That was MLK weekend. And instead of starting on the foundational work, I think I spent the rest of the weekend playing Planetside 2 and contemplating buying H1Z1. I ended up buying H1Z1.

But I did keep this project always at the back of my mind, even when spreading Vanu’s will on Auraxis* or killing zombies on the streets Pleasant Valley**.

What tools do I need for this? Bootstrap seemed like a logical choice since that’s what I had used at work. It was, and is, still fresh in my mind and would help further my nascent Bootstrap skills. Bootstrap is also excellent for quickly prototyping and turning out slick, responsive sites. On my first Bootstrap mini-site, I completed it in two weeks using only base components and little-to-no additional styling. And it looked great compared to what we were putting out only a couple of months earlier.

It also helped that my clients weren’t planning on doing a lot of edits to this website, at least in the near-to-mid term. So implementing a complex CMS wasn’t necessary. When that bridge comes, we/they can cross it. But for now, when the goal is to just have a web property, no point in being overly complex. Alright, mark platform choice off the list!

As with all things in my life, I jumped in…in slow-mo.

Hosting was another hurdle. While at work we use Network Solutions and GoDaddy (sigh), I knew these were expensive and shady, respectively. Luckily, I kept up the banter between other devs and designers when it came to hosting and domain registering. Reddit’s /r/webdev and /r/webdesign subreddits are excellent communities, even if lurking, to keep up-to-date with current problems and solutions facing the industry. One name that kept popping up was Namecheap. I had never used them, but I’m glad I did. I spent about $20 for a year of registering the domain and hosting the site. It was easy, I didn’t feel like I was misled or constantly being up-sold.

At this time, Google Domains was also being rolled-out. However, there seemed to be some hesitancy, at least among some in the community, on using a new Google product. While Google likes to tout “Do No Evil,” sometimes the evil is simply shutting down a non-performing service, even if popular. And that’s not a possibility I’d like my clients to have to deal with. Domains and hosting are so basic that you shouldn’t have to think about it until its time to renew.

Let others be the guinea pigs. This is my first foray into freelancing in years. Why complicate the project further?

So with those two things out-of-the-way, the real challenge was about to begin. How should this thing look?

*Auraxis is the planet in Planetside 2 where players battles it out. Vanu is one of 3 factions. I wear purple spandex and shoot pew pew’s.

** Pleasant Valley is a place in the new Alpha-status zombie survival game H1Z1. 

Freelance vs Employment, Part 1: Where’s My Designer?!

I’m actually employed as a web designer/front-end developer/website manager/web generalist. And occasional tech-support guru. That’s what happens when you know more about computers than everyone else…and have solid Google-fu skills. But that’s neither here nor there. So it’s rare for me to actually take on any freelance work. In the over 9 years I’ve been employed, I’ve (attempted) to take on only 3 freelance side jobs.

It’s rare for me to actually take on any freelance work.

This is mostly because I don’t trust in my ability, especially as a designer. I say I’m a “Web Designer,” but really I’m more of an HTML/CSS coder. I’ve always worked this way. One of my first personal sites working with CSS was of a mono-chrome, minimalistic design that I made myself (See part of here: Chaotic Reflections…Yeah, I was an “edgy” young teen). Looking at it now, I guess it might be considered ahead of its time.

Back then, my “designer” was my younger brother. He was into the Counter Strike world (and still is), and was always trying to make clan/team websites. So he’d make a mockup in Photoshop or even MS Paint, and then I’d slice it up and start coding everything. And the sites actually looked alright and functioned properly. I don’t have any examples unfortunately.

Our conference website in 2014, that I “designed.”

But left to my own devices or little guidance…

To the left is a screenshot of my work’s conference site for last year, 2014. Nothing too impressive. Small-sized font and packed text. Ooh, two-column use! An embedded video! Looks more like a newsletter than a webpage, really.

Not a lot of “design” going on here.

Surprisingly, this is actually better than our previous conference websites.

Jumping to the present at work, I’ve been lucky that for the past year I’ve had a designer. With her providing the layout, and with me and Bootstrap — I finally took the dive and Bootstrap is paying off — we’ve been able to create excellent sites.

The conference site for 2015, using Bootstrap and modern design.

In 6-8 months, the quality of work I’ve put out, again for work, has jumped forward by light years. We’re finally using modern design paradigms, responsive elements, and just overall prettier, fancier things.

But, again, it’s because someone can give me artistic direction.

Which brings to the whole freelance situation. 

I recently took on a small job for family friends. They — a father and son — are taking over a small business and asked me make a website for them. Yeah OK, sure. I’ll take some extra money. And with 2 Bootstrap sites completed at work in as many months, I was feeling confident.

It’s just me though. No designer. No copy writer, either. This is becoming quite a challenge. How am I going to this?