The web design world, particularly that of the freelancing world, is one that has become absolutely over-saturated with both employers and employees. People like myself, designers, often end up having to sift through endless lists of unreasonable projects, Bangladesh-based scams, and cheapskate businesses in order to find legitimate, healthy work. As a result, on websites like GetaFreelancer and Craigslist, on any given day, you can see disgruntled service providers (that’s a fancy term for us freelancer-types) complaining at (and making fun of) businesses who simply insult the profession. This isn’t to say many of us are absolute gods at our work- but hey, most (if not all) of us can smell a problem- and we hate it.
So the question is, what makes us angry? Here’s your answer.
10. Obtuse Work Environment Demands
Most of us geeky web designers work from home on expensive computers engineered in such a way to allow us to work quickly- with repositories of code, private servers for testing, and usually a cache of music and movies to keep us entertained through long work nights. Asking us to come in to your offices and work on your 5 year old Dell computer with Microsoft Frontpage makes us work slower, more inefficiently, and ends up costing you more money overall. While many companies want this to ensure the person does the work and consult with them (rather ironic, considering how easy it would be to simply ask for screen shots or a live build or simply give them a call), this just kills any reasonable work. Let us work in our pajamas, you’d be amazed how much better the end product ends up being.
9. Data from Hell
Specifications are a gift from God. Obtuse unreasonable laundry lists of data are gifts from Satan. Unfortunately, there are some things that are impossible or just stupid- and forcing us to pop in ridiculous amounts of data (for example, having to take 300 word documents an office secretary typed up and put them into a new website) detracts from time better spent focusing on the final product. Yes, there are plenty of times when work like the aforementioned is necessary- but trust me, if it isn’t a metaphorical nuclear schematic, it’s often better to summarize, cut down what Steve Krug calls “Happy Talk”. Even PhDs in English don’t want to spend time reading reams of text on your website, nor do we want to put them there.
8. Copycat Work
Asking us to “make a website just like _______”, in most cases, is generally insulting. If the latter blank says “Facebook”, “Digg”, “MySpace”, “Amazon.com”, or “YouTube”, it’s even worse. While someone will no doubt take the project, these kinds of jobs inevitably end poorly. Facebook copies die off because of disinterest, as do many Digg copies, MySpace copies, and many a contender for the YouTube throne. Further, many designers hate having to copy things verbatim- as many clients request- as it’s not only boring, but it feels damn dirty (and could very well be illegal in some instances). Giving websites as examples is phenomenal. Telling us to copy the entire website, script, design and all, and then changing the logo is not.
7. “Internships”
Freelancers, contractors, whatever you call us- we work for money, not for a pat on the back every so often. The term “Internship” is often synonymous with “bad project we can’t afford”- the term “Paid Internship” often meaning “bad project we can barely afford”- so it’s all essentially a train wreck for any provider. On any freelancing website on the internet, you often see variations on this theme, such as companies offering “portfolio experience” or similar intangibles for free work- but it all boils down to cheapness. A good example of this with my own work came with a self-proclaimed businessperson whom requested I do a website and upkeep for 100% free- all for getting into their “sphere”, in which they would make me “popular” or something like that. You get what you pay for, period, and no amount of shady bribing will make your cheapness any less harmful to the final product. My peers often get violently angry at these things- I’m more relaxed, but obviously, the problem is still there.
6. Build-and-Promote demands
While I do a lot of PR work for a lot of people, Build-and-Promote projects even grind at my gears. These often manifest themselves in blog projects- usually, some wannabe Perez Hilton looking for someone to not only provide them a website, but also do all of their promotional heavy lifting for them, and often on top of that write their articles (generally ghost writing, but some are bold enough to let you use your own name). While a lot of these requests end up being shady advertisement scam projects, a surprising number are misguided wannabe internet millionaires- which, of course, end up being simply as bad as the shady advertisers.
5. Vague requests
This is often hard to work around. Communication regarding design is tough- as describing design stuff in general always is- but vague requests can really kill a project. For example, I’ve had requests simply asking that I make a “Community website” around real estate where people could “log in and communicate”. Of course, no further specifications were provided, and I was essentially left out in the middle of nowhere with no guidance whatsoever. A good freelancer will establish a good line of communication with their client- but hey, sometimes it doesn’t work, and it’s frustrating. This is why I always advise my clients to provide me with detailed bullet lists of demands with as much specification as possible- that way, we both know where I’m going and what the final product should look like.
4. Lofty ambitions, limited cash
Yes, I can indeed program a YouTube clone, but do you have the servers, time, and cash to do so? I cannot “magic up” a PHP-based web game on a Geocities server. A music streaming site on a server with a 5 gigs-a-month bandwidth cap will not last long. Programmers and designers can do proverbial back flips making everything work on limited resources, but some things cannot simply be done without the infrastructure behind it- and magic, frankly, doesn’t exist. This can be as little as requesting a build on a server with antiquated versions of MySQL/PHP/whatever to demanding a YouTube clone on a free hosting service- it just doesn’t work. Remember, with the size of the project comes the size of the check you have to write, and all of it isn’t going to just me.
3. Changing specifications mid-project
This is my number one source of stress in most projects. Once specifications are hammered out in a design or programming sense- once we both proverbially shake hands on the design of the website- you cannot ask for an entire re-design unless it’s my fault. While most freelancers work hard to accommodate such requests, asking for huge changes in code, feature additions, or major design changes are painful to those to whom you request them of- and it often makes development times much longer than they have to be. When you make a specification list, be specific and final as much as possible. Never ever change anything major unless it’s a game-ending error. We’ll thank you for it.
2. Not understanding the nature of contracted employees
Contract Employee != Personal Slave, nor does it imply an employee of your business. Once the terms of the contract of the freelancer is over, said job is over- and many freelancers charge for additional fixes, consulting, and other work. While there’s obviously a lot of room for elbow room, don’t expect that once your multi-million dollar web project is finished that your contract employee will be right beside you to help you make your business a success unless he’s getting paid for it and agreed to it. If you want that, just say so ahead of time- many freelancers cannot devote themselves in such a way.
1. Unreasonable Price/Work ratio
This is the number one issue that anyone- myself, my associates, and presumably, my contemporaries- have with freelancing.
At a BARE minimum, most freelancers work for around $20/hour, much like many educated in specific fields. We’re the skilled workers of the technology industry, and our experience and skill comes with a price- expecting us to work for minimum wage is not only insulting, but it is downright dangerous. Asking to pay $50 for a huge website design, in most cases, will mean that the only people who end up helping you will be those who feel they can get the job done quickly- and quickly it will be done, generally in a haphazard way. It is highly unlikely you will find a professional, extremely qualified designer for $10 an hour, no matter how tempting some of the offers you may receive will look.
Freelancers are people too. We have bills to pay and work to do- we’re educated, talented, and we do a lot of work. We often work together to ensure the market stays stable- and like a little unofficial mafia, we collectively work to avoid insulting offers and unreasonable demands. Throwing $10/hour for us for lots of work will result in universal scorn. Provide us with a reasonable wage for our services- preferably based on our skill and availability and the difficulty of the work- and we will love you forever. It’s that simple.
Tags: advertising, Design, economics, freelancing, pr, web 2.0, web design, web hosting
