Originally Posted by Solax
Where/how do you market yourself to get work since, as you said, the market is pretty full up.
I don't, only word of mouth lol. I've worked only got work from people/companies I've worked for. Most people I know who freelance do the same.
I know a guy who freelance geospatial programs, which you would think would be a super locked down market, but through sheer reputation he pulls huge contracts. I guess the lack of LISP programmers means he can corner the market somewhat, but still... He makes well into 6 figures afaik.
<Faint> the rules have been stated quite clearly 3 times now from high staff
Hi I do python for a living!
I work at a consulting firm in Ohio doing a smattering of everything, but mostly I work in Django.
I wouldn't say that the market is full, but it is hard to get work without a reputation preceding you. The consulting firm I'm with markets by being prevalent in the local community (meetups, 2 of our partners are on the board of pyohio, talking at other conferences, etc) and by just being super available. Referrals are actually the vast majority of our contracts. Another shockingly effective thing is to rent co-working space. Organic networking at it's finest, haha.
I work at a consulting firm in Ohio doing a smattering of everything, but mostly I work in Django.
Originally Posted by Solax
Where/how do you market yourself to get work since, as you said, the market is pretty full up.
I wouldn't say that the market is full, but it is hard to get work without a reputation preceding you. The consulting firm I'm with markets by being prevalent in the local community (meetups, 2 of our partners are on the board of pyohio, talking at other conferences, etc) and by just being super available. Referrals are actually the vast majority of our contracts. Another shockingly effective thing is to rent co-working space. Organic networking at it's finest, haha.
<~suomynona> TITS OR ELEELETH
Originally Posted by ImmortalPig
I do some freelance webdev too, primarily in django though. What didn't you like about it?
Before that I was working at a firm that used .NET for their webapps. Comparatively I would say that django gives you a lot more power without you needing to think about it (eg automatic scheme and model generation).
Webdev is ok for money but the market is very saturated, a firm I work with from time to time charge insane fees for their websites, the charge over $200/hr for their devs time. IMO the only reason they get business at all is because they charge such fees. As freelance how do you value your time? I clock at $100/hr and then on fees where I see fit. Though sadly django is too fast to turn a profit with it alone...
It's not that I don't like django, I'm indifferent to it. I can achieve the same thing with other technologies that I'm more familiar with and it doesn't have anything remarkable for me to learn it as my go-to backend.
I usually get paid per project, not hour. And that ranges from 50$ for fixing something broken to >500$ for an entire website. I'd say I work pretty cheap and that's how I attract my clients.
How did you guys get into this business? Did you start as freelancers or you got a full time job as a junior?
