How to work as a freelance programmer?

Hello everybody. I'm new around here and I have a quick question for all those who are willing to provide their input.

I'm wanting to get back into freelancing. I used to do it when I was younger for extra pocket money. This time around, I work two jobs and am trying to replace my day job with this. I only need to make $100/week (bare minimum). I feel like this is more than achievable.

My concern is that I'm not too artistically inclined. Given specifications and graphics, I can put together a great website and I particularly excel in back-end work. So the question is, how do others in my boat handle this situation? I don't want to turn down all the jobs that include visual design elements.

What are some ideas I could think about?

1. Find a partner who can do the things you don't, and with whom you believe you can have a good working relationship.

2. Develop a a roster of people you can suggest to your clients. You might then recommend 2 or 3 designers or firms, but leave the decision about who will be best to the client.

In any event, you should:
be straightforward with your client about what you do and don't do. There is nothing wrong with presenting yourself as a boutique rather than a department store.
make sure that you have some kind of agreement in place -- a partnership agreement, a letter of agreement or contract, a memorandum of understanding with anyone on your rosters, etc. --with anyone you contract or subcontract to.

Something to remember, especially if you plan on using freelancing websites (ie: freelancer.com, odesk.com, etc.) that you can build and online profile of your previous work to show potential clients.

Also another thing to remember is that on many of these sites you will be bidding against other programmers from foreign places (ie: India, Bangladesh, etc). They will most likely bid extremely low to do the work. So you may have to adjust your own pricing a bit as well.

I'm fine with starting out low-bidding on freelance sites, but what are some methods for finding more profitable work? Seeking local clients seems like it could be fairly profitable.

Hey

First of all welcome to TalkFreelance.com

Your goal of $100 per week is reachable and you could easily do this with a few easy steps to getting yourself known for what you're good at.

Speaking from experience, I'd say it would be good to:

1) Take on a few projects for FREE (I'll explain)
You want to take on a few free projects not just to start your portfolio but also it gives you the opportunity to deal with clients and their demands. You may have done this before, but if it was a while ago, times change and clients only get more and more demanding.

You want to take on some small projects for free and agree a free based verbal contract so they're not making you work all hours of the day and night for nothing, but you want to remain professional and show the client you're capable.

Taking on free work usually, in some cases lead to further paid work by them on that project, or another one of their projects or from somebody they have referred you to.

2) Build yourself a portfolio of work
After completing a few free projects it gives you a great step into getting started with your own portfolio. Create a basic page that shows the work you have done and the features of the work.

You say you're a programmer so outline the programming technologies used and what features the application has, even the small features. Programming takes time and effort, and if there has been effort given to the project, it will shine through in your work, writing and presentation of your website.

Make sure your portfolio really informs people what you're capable. Don't try to move too fast and make sales with this portfolio. The portfolio should act just as a portfolio of you right now and what you have done.

The portfolio will give you more chance of being noticed and be able to target people in need of programming work on forums and websites for these types of requests.

3) Start selling yourself
By the time you've built up a good portfolio you want to begin letting your website make sales for you. In conjunction with your portfolio you want to outline somewhere on the site in a separate section what you can do. List anything and everything you can do for the client, the more technologies you can integrate with what you know and making sure you're capable of doing all the latest in programming.

You may want to choose a hourly wage or quote per project, but you want to let your customers know how much they can hire your expertise and time for to develop something they cannot do. Often clients come to me who will complain because of quotes I have given them. The important rule to earning that $100 per week is not to accept small jobs for $10 which may take you half the week doing and taking on 10 at a time, but to offer your services for a price that is in competition with everybody else and that is appropriate for your talent. The client wouldn't be hiring you if they knew how to do it, had the time to do what they need you to do or weren't interested in your work.

Once you've got a site up and running and your work on display, and clients will start to mount up.

Make sure you know what you're doing per project/client and set deadlines. You may only need to work one project per month to meet your $400 goal so make sure you do work for a price you deserve.

All the best with your website

I really appreciate the responses thus far. You all have given me a much clearer idea of where I am headed. I definitely will take on a few free projects to jump-start my portfolio and website. I don't plan on really getting my company going for another few months, so this time in between will be a great opportunity to build a portfolio and website in preparation for when I do really start going at it.

Thanks again!