You thought I had forgotten about you, didn't you!?
I've not been active on the forums for well over a year now. Save an update I made a few months back just checking in.
I have been busy though so all of your kind previous efforts to educate me in your ways were not in vain!
I now have a business partner. For those that don't know i started on these forums 3/4 years ago now with little knowledge about anything really and took up web development. I got my first few gigs on here and that still often comes up in conversation and i still talk to one or two members occasionally.
I ended up setting up as a freelancer and it is hard work! I am now a competent front end / wordpress developer but I still found myself severely over stretching myself to make ends meet. I think the problem is that companies that have a decent budget for a website will typically look for an agency and going out and just finding work as i was often leads to lower than average rate of pay. Either way its hard out there. Another massive downside is that I have discovered that I am very poor at time management and such like. As a freelancer I can make a wage and it was getting better as I was getting more monthly retainers and stuff but I am just not cut out for it. Too much pressure and on top of that you are using your hard earned skills to make other people rich so - not for me.
The lesson I have learned in all of this is - it takes 2. I teamed up with my new business partner and since then things have really started to move more for me. My partner has no real IM / Web dev experience though he does have offline marketing experience and a solid business sense. The point is that two heads are better than one and for anyone out there on their own I would highly recommend finding someone like minded and getting busy. I wont go in to the advantages, you get the idea.
WHERE I AM AT NOW -
In the time since I have been away there have been 3 significant achievements in my career.
1. I landed a contract job at one of the biggest digital agencies in the North of England. It was only two weeks but it was an invaluable experience (and they paid £300 / 489$ a day). I am now looking in to honing my front end skills and pursuing more temporary contracts.
2. I started a Social Media Agency with my business partner (still going OK).
3. We started an e-commerce website.
The e-commerce website is showing the most promise. The main traffic was / is traffic is via social media though we are branching out now in to PPC and SEO. Here is a snapshot of the sales:
that recent spike is £450 in one day (profit margins are good as we are selling our own products - t-shirts etc) That was a new record since we started in August. That is 733 USD. Not quite a $1000 day but hot on the tail of it..
So yeah - my freelancing business is going to shit basically because i cant find decent caliber clients and when I do get them i suck at time management. The agency and the website on the other hand are showing good signs of promise. So now I am looking to move away from the constant mountain of freelance work and start looking at my own websites and getting back in to your kind of thing.
Just wanted to come back and check in and say hi and give you all an update. I am hoping to get more involved again and start trying a few things out now that I have a bit more time and income.
Looks like I can finally call myself an IM - only took me 4 years!
Thanks and let me know what you think ans whats going on ; )
p.s. sorry for selling out hope u understand!
I've not been active on the forums for well over a year now. Save an update I made a few months back just checking in.
I have been busy though so all of your kind previous efforts to educate me in your ways were not in vain!
I now have a business partner. For those that don't know i started on these forums 3/4 years ago now with little knowledge about anything really and took up web development. I got my first few gigs on here and that still often comes up in conversation and i still talk to one or two members occasionally.
I ended up setting up as a freelancer and it is hard work! I am now a competent front end / wordpress developer but I still found myself severely over stretching myself to make ends meet. I think the problem is that companies that have a decent budget for a website will typically look for an agency and going out and just finding work as i was often leads to lower than average rate of pay. Either way its hard out there. Another massive downside is that I have discovered that I am very poor at time management and such like. As a freelancer I can make a wage and it was getting better as I was getting more monthly retainers and stuff but I am just not cut out for it. Too much pressure and on top of that you are using your hard earned skills to make other people rich so - not for me.
The lesson I have learned in all of this is - it takes 2. I teamed up with my new business partner and since then things have really started to move more for me. My partner has no real IM / Web dev experience though he does have offline marketing experience and a solid business sense. The point is that two heads are better than one and for anyone out there on their own I would highly recommend finding someone like minded and getting busy. I wont go in to the advantages, you get the idea.
WHERE I AM AT NOW -
In the time since I have been away there have been 3 significant achievements in my career.
1. I landed a contract job at one of the biggest digital agencies in the North of England. It was only two weeks but it was an invaluable experience (and they paid £300 / 489$ a day). I am now looking in to honing my front end skills and pursuing more temporary contracts.
2. I started a Social Media Agency with my business partner (still going OK).
3. We started an e-commerce website.
The e-commerce website is showing the most promise. The main traffic was / is traffic is via social media though we are branching out now in to PPC and SEO. Here is a snapshot of the sales:
that recent spike is £450 in one day (profit margins are good as we are selling our own products - t-shirts etc) That was a new record since we started in August. That is 733 USD. Not quite a $1000 day but hot on the tail of it..
So yeah - my freelancing business is going to shit basically because i cant find decent caliber clients and when I do get them i suck at time management. The agency and the website on the other hand are showing good signs of promise. So now I am looking to move away from the constant mountain of freelance work and start looking at my own websites and getting back in to your kind of thing.
Just wanted to come back and check in and say hi and give you all an update. I am hoping to get more involved again and start trying a few things out now that I have a bit more time and income.
Looks like I can finally call myself an IM - only took me 4 years!
Thanks and let me know what you think ans whats going on ; )
p.s. sorry for selling out hope u understand!
