1 00:00:00,810 --> 00:00:07,980 Let's talk about finding jobs and pricing your services as a freelance developer, as an engineer, 2 00:00:07,980 --> 00:00:12,530 programmer, developer, etc. It won't be difficult for you to find jobs online. 3 00:00:12,540 --> 00:00:18,930 There are a ton of resources out there and the two main ways to find opportunities are firstly on freelance 4 00:00:18,930 --> 00:00:19,980 sites like Upwork. 5 00:00:20,730 --> 00:00:25,880 Now in this course, I walk you through setting up your Upwork profile and finding jobs on there. 6 00:00:25,890 --> 00:00:32,550 However, I do want to stress that it's very important for you to understand you can use this same strategy 7 00:00:32,550 --> 00:00:38,370 wherever you find jobs online, because at the end of the day, a client has a problem and you as the 8 00:00:38,370 --> 00:00:40,050 freelancer are there to solve it. 9 00:00:40,790 --> 00:00:46,220 The second place you can find and apply to jobs is on job board websites. 10 00:00:46,670 --> 00:00:49,580 One of those job board websites is Hacker News. 11 00:00:49,610 --> 00:00:55,760 Hacker News is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship, and they also 12 00:00:55,760 --> 00:01:01,520 have an extremely simple job board with different development and engineer positions that are open. 13 00:01:02,270 --> 00:01:08,000 Next is We Work Remotely, which claims to be the largest remote work community in the world. 14 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,110 You can find and apply for remote jobs easily and quickly on this platform. 15 00:01:12,110 --> 00:01:15,140 Here are some of the top remote job searches. 16 00:01:15,380 --> 00:01:21,860 You can see 100% remote jobs, remote WordPress jobs, remote Python jobs, remote PHP jobs, remote 17 00:01:21,860 --> 00:01:28,160 react jobs, JavaScript, Java, etc. And within there you can click it, you can open it, and then 18 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:33,830 you can begin to go see every single job position that is open based on the skill set that you have 19 00:01:33,830 --> 00:01:34,340 chosen. 20 00:01:34,340 --> 00:01:37,100 And this is also trusted by the world's leading companies. 21 00:01:37,100 --> 00:01:42,320 You have Google, Amazon, etc. that are listing jobs on the We Work Remotely website. 22 00:01:42,320 --> 00:01:44,510 So this is a great website to check out. 23 00:01:45,940 --> 00:01:52,870 In addition, Design Modo is a website designed for hiring remote and full time web designers and developers, 24 00:01:52,870 --> 00:02:01,480 and they boast over 800,000 monthly viewers, over 550,000 social followers in over 143,000 email subscribers. 25 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:07,360 So this is a website that is designed specifically for remote and full time jobs for web designers and 26 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:07,990 developers. 27 00:02:07,990 --> 00:02:13,390 So if you fall into that category, this is a great website to check out for any open job positions 28 00:02:13,390 --> 00:02:15,610 that may suit your specific liking. 29 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:22,940 Next is Remote OC, which is a website that promotes the motto Work Anywhere, Live Anywhere. 30 00:02:22,970 --> 00:02:28,520 They also claim to be one of the number one remote job boards where you can find developer and engineer 31 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:29,300 jobs. 32 00:02:30,670 --> 00:02:37,270 Lastly is Angel List Talent, which is a massive startup community which you can find remote tech company 33 00:02:37,270 --> 00:02:38,240 opportunities. 34 00:02:38,260 --> 00:02:43,480 They claim to be the number one startup community specialized in remote and local technical talent and 35 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:44,430 opportunities. 36 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:49,630 So different startups that are looking for talent come to the Angel List talent, and this is where 37 00:02:49,630 --> 00:02:52,930 they can find different developers and engineers that are in the community. 38 00:02:52,930 --> 00:02:58,600 And that is also where you can either go to find a job or as a client they can go on this website to 39 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,380 find talent to fit the specific role that they need to hire for. 40 00:03:02,950 --> 00:03:07,510 Now, let's talk about pricing your services as a developer or an engineer. 41 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:12,370 The first step is to truly understand the requirements and the scope of work. 42 00:03:12,370 --> 00:03:17,950 Scope is an important consideration for any development project, and it's one that can quickly spiral 43 00:03:17,950 --> 00:03:23,830 out of control if your original estimation and budget is not accurate. 44 00:03:23,980 --> 00:03:29,890 A single page website generally takes much less time to build compared to a massive enterprise level 45 00:03:29,890 --> 00:03:31,960 customized web based application. 46 00:03:32,710 --> 00:03:38,710 You can also reduce the cost of a project by requesting a minimum viable product, also known as an 47 00:03:38,710 --> 00:03:39,700 MVP. 48 00:03:39,730 --> 00:03:45,370 This type of project includes the very minimum amount of features and design needed for you to test 49 00:03:45,370 --> 00:03:46,360 it in the market. 50 00:03:46,390 --> 00:03:52,150 This will help reduce your scope and you can always expand the MVP should the project be successful. 51 00:03:52,150 --> 00:03:57,850 And you can also consider creating your application in different phases so that you can build on your 52 00:03:57,850 --> 00:04:04,180 software slowly, testing it thoroughly, and then build revenue as each phase is being coded and you 53 00:04:04,180 --> 00:04:05,200 charge the client. 54 00:04:05,770 --> 00:04:10,530 It also depends on the platform slash the coding language you are offering services in. 55 00:04:10,540 --> 00:04:15,730 So web projects typically run on one of two different platforms, either Linux or Windows. 56 00:04:15,730 --> 00:04:20,640 Now Linux is an open source operating system, whereas Windows OS is commercial. 57 00:04:20,650 --> 00:04:25,990 Now Windows hosting can be more expensive than Linux because Windows charges for licenses. 58 00:04:25,990 --> 00:04:30,040 However, Linux platforms makes money through support contracts. 59 00:04:30,990 --> 00:04:35,460 Other aspects of platforms can affect the cost of a development project as well. 60 00:04:35,490 --> 00:04:41,340 Most web projects require a database and Windows platforms include the SQL Server. 61 00:04:41,370 --> 00:04:47,610 The SQL Server is much more expensive than hosting my SQL, which is usually the go to database for 62 00:04:47,610 --> 00:04:48,780 Linux developers. 63 00:04:49,380 --> 00:04:54,530 Many enterprise platforms run on Windows though, so take this factor into consideration. 64 00:04:54,540 --> 00:05:00,300 Many host providers give you a discount if you pay a yearly contract upfront, so this can also lower 65 00:05:00,300 --> 00:05:01,260 your cost a bit. 66 00:05:01,290 --> 00:05:04,890 Now, if you use Linux hosting, your hosting costs could be cheaper. 67 00:05:04,890 --> 00:05:10,220 Even with cheaper programming costs, you still need a client who is looking to work within your language, 68 00:05:10,230 --> 00:05:10,950 of course. 69 00:05:11,700 --> 00:05:16,320 For the most part, programming ranges are similar for web development languages. 70 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:20,010 But here's a general idea of what rates freelancers charge. 71 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,100 A basic one page site, just a one page of coding. 72 00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:30,150 A basic lead gen page or landing page is an average hourly rate of $15 to $40 plus per hour. 73 00:05:30,570 --> 00:05:32,940 Next is CMS code customization. 74 00:05:32,940 --> 00:05:39,030 So basic customization of a themes code or general functionalities of a common CMS platform. 75 00:05:39,060 --> 00:05:44,310 Average hourly rates for that are between $30 to $75 plus per hour. 76 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,610 Next is full custom site code. 77 00:05:47,620 --> 00:05:53,080 Building a design from scratch with custom code and design elements is obviously going to be much more 78 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:59,530 labor intensive and is usually a large project that requires coding from the ground up for this specific 79 00:05:59,530 --> 00:06:00,500 type of project. 80 00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:06,010 The average hourly rates are anywhere from $75 an hour to $100 plus. 81 00:06:06,820 --> 00:06:11,590 At the end of the day, it's important to make sure you communicate and understand exactly what the 82 00:06:11,590 --> 00:06:17,920 client is looking for so that you can give them the best and most accurate price estimate for your services. 83 00:06:18,070 --> 00:06:24,220 Most development times are slightly above or below an estimate because long coding projects are difficult 84 00:06:24,220 --> 00:06:26,590 to accurately estimate from the start. 85 00:06:26,830 --> 00:06:31,930 However, the more detail you have and the more you understand the scope of work based on the questions 86 00:06:31,930 --> 00:06:37,450 you are asking, the closer you can come to estimating an accurate price for your services. 87 00:06:38,500 --> 00:06:41,020 Now let's talk about getting to the truth. 88 00:06:41,020 --> 00:06:48,370 And as a freelance developer, one of the most important and challenging parts of your role is to ensure 89 00:06:48,370 --> 00:06:52,540 that you understand exactly what the client actually wants produced. 90 00:06:52,570 --> 00:06:57,820 A lot of times this is different than what the client thinks they want produced or what they include 91 00:06:57,820 --> 00:06:59,140 in the job description. 92 00:06:59,140 --> 00:07:04,480 So it's up to you to get to the truth of the matter so you can deliver the best work so the client's 93 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:09,430 happy and then you can get good reviews, which will help propel your career forward. 94 00:07:09,460 --> 00:07:15,040 This means it's up to you to get the truth out of what the client is looking to achieve, as well as 95 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:20,200 getting the truth across of what it will take to get them there all the way from the different tools 96 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:24,730 you will have to use to the rate you will need to charge them based on what their goals are. 97 00:07:25,630 --> 00:07:30,640 Since projects can be difficult to estimate an exact price for when you're just starting out freelancing 98 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:35,920 as a developer, I do suggest that you begin charging on an hourly basis. 99 00:07:36,010 --> 00:07:41,200 Eventually, you can move to a retainer based project basis down the line when you are more comfortable 100 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:46,450 with your scope of work price estimates and you have more experience delivering the type of work that 101 00:07:46,450 --> 00:07:48,190 you are doing as a freelancer.