Everyone has to start somewhere, right? I know I started markup programming since I was 14 years old. Now, I think I have the skills and knowledge to make money from it. Well, actually, I knew months back that I could start making money with my work but I really do not know where to start. One major thing that stopped me was my lack of skills in image manipulation and design — I just do my XHTML really good. And since I thought possible customers were more into design than markup, I stopped a while until I have the skills — the skills that I still do not have that much even right now.
Then I have encountered XHTMLized. There I saw an opportunity that I could just make the XHTML out of the customers’ designs that they can’t turn into beautiful markup. I have done this for a volunteer work with TomWeb on the UST Nursing website and with my friends’ blogs, and now I know I could do this for a fee.
XHTMLized starts their service at $149 — that is PhP7600 on the average! Wow! I can not make that money even with my 4 months’ allowance! Now I am definitely starting my career!
Well, I still won’t stop volunteer work for my school [TomWeb] and for my college [ESC WebTeam] and for my close friends, but for other people that need me: I am going to think about how much it would cost first. 🙂
I know I’ve done free service a lot in the past few years but please consider that I am in dire need of finances right now. And, if I am not going to start making this as a career, I may not be able to start making this as one in the future. I need support for this from you [my friends and readers], maybe you could refer me to anyone who wants to build a business out of a website [those are usually the ones willing to pay for good design and markup] or someone who has just a lot of money and wants a good XHTML+CSS design.
Here are my specifications about my work that may be of interest to those who are thinking of availing my services:
- I use XHTML 1.0 Strict, unless the design restricts me to do so then I’d use the Transitional DTD.
- I use XHTML purely for content, using CSS for design.
- I would accept designs in almost any image format [JPEG, GIF, PNG, preferably PSD for Adobe Photoshop].
- I would also accept designs in HTML or XHTML that the owner wants to be cleaned up for better Search Engine Optimization and accessibility [for text-only browsers and screen readers].
- I would make the XHTML look similar [there is no same in rendering between different browsers] in major browsers — Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Mozilla Suite, Netscape Browser; and if possible, Camino and Safari.
I do not intend to compete with those people at XHTMLized. I just want to start my career. Besides, I’ve linked them twice already — my thank-you’s for giving me the idea.
Here are my details if ever you wanted to contact me privately; or just post a comment below if you don’t mind telling it in public.
Thank you!
— Aja Lorenzo Lapus, freelance programmer.
Comments
12 responses to “On Freelancing”
Pakner tayo Enzo! Ako mag leleyout sa PS ng webpage tas ikaw mag lalagay ng XchuvanessHTML ha?! ha?!
Para may pang bili ako ng outfit ko pang date! nyahahahahahahahaha!
Well, sure! Sa private na lang tayo mag-usap ng hatian. Bukas ko na i-re-revise ‘tong entry para masama ka bilang layout artist! Cross-post mo kaya sa blog mo?
Surely! Pero mamaya na! *cough*hangover*cough*
nako. maganda yan sa mga big companies. kasi sa mga bloggers lang talaga wala nang pakealam kung di ayos ang codes eh. hehe. goodluck! 🙂
Ehehe … Un nga eh, kahit nga actually sa small companies. Since most of the big ones have their own webdev team na siya naring nagm-maintain ng site.
Good luck sakin! Ehehe …
naks! buti nde ka pa nagpapasingil nung tinulungan mo ako sa links section ko.. na up to now ay di pa rin up pero andun naman… nde ko palang nabas2an kasi kulang pa sa design ahehe.. 😛
minsan problemado din ako sa kakulangan ng skills sa pagphotoshop pero nadag2an pa ng kakulangan sa mas madaming kakulangan ng mark-up.. buti nagkawebsite pako… hehe
amp ang luphet. =) Haha. Though di ko maintindihan most of the terms aforementioned. =) Haha. Anyway. Good luck Aja! You’re starting it right! And well. Grabe ang galing mo ah. Keep it up.
Don’t worry! Sige refer kita if ever meron nangangailangan ahaa.
Oh well.. ako kaya customer mo? Gusto ko ng blog sa Wp(mangarap ba daw) hahaha =) Pero di nga, I can pay you good money. Pero dapat may consideration. (as your friend, and as a not yet earning student) (Duh me, companies nga eh, diba? My bad. ) hahaha.
Take care!
@arvin: Praktis lang ng praktis. Maayos naman ang layout mo eh [though I haven’t seen your source code yet].
@audrey: Well, I don’t mind bloggers requesting a layout for a fee. I don’t do only companies’ websites like what I’ve said in the post. It’s just that they are most likely the ones who would be my clients. Maybe we could talk about that WordPress layout you’re talking about … Ehehe 😛
naunahan ako! magooffer sana akong maglayout sa PS eh! haha.
Pwede naman ding ikaw yung maglayout, ‘di ba? Para marami-rami tayong magawa kung sakali. At mas flexible din sa time kung iisipin. Buo na tayo ng team! 😀
hahaha! sureness! :p
Tinatapos ko lang ‘yung bago kong design at structure para sa Web site na ‘to. Isasama ko na kayo ni Andy sa Webdev page nuon. Ok, ok? 🙂