Hit Subscribe Freelancer Q&A

If you're a new or aspiring freelancer, this is probably one of your worst nightmares. What do you do when a client won't pay? What options do you have and what recourse?

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• This offering from Tricentis that provides ServiceNow test automation

In this video, I field a specific question about how to structure pricing for an offering around legacy code remediation. But because that's very specific, I lead up to it, spending most of the video talking about the different pricing models and options available to you as a freelancer.

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• This comprehensive guide to building Slack workflows.

As a freelancer, winding up with bad clients can be the bane of your existence or even drive you back to the salaried world. So what can you do to avoid having bad clients? I walk you through my tactics to help toward this goal.

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• This new offering from RequestMetrics, around user experience monitoring.

How do you go about building an audience to help with your marketing efforts for your business or freelance practice?  I'll go through all sorts of things that you can do in general, but the most powerful thing you can do is find a niche and be specific about what you offer.

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• This post, from Architect, summarizing CI/CD best practices.

How do you go about closing the deal as a freelancer? Do you agree to interviews? Do you have some kind of sales that you do? And, in either case, how does negotiation work during the process?

In this video I walk you through how all of that good stuff works.

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• This post, teaching you to use Google forms to implement a ticketing system.

Have you historically been a salaried employee, but are curious about dipping your toes in the water of freelancing? In this video I take on a "compare and contrast" of freelancing and salaried employment, and how to figure out which makes the most sense for you.

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• RequestMetrics has this cool tool that's an HTTP cache checker.

It's near universal to wonder whether and how to incorporate when you start a freelance practice. In this installment of the freelancer Q&A Facebook Lives, I walk through the options that you have, and weigh in on what I'd recommend, base on my experience (starting 4 different business entities of 3 different varieties over the years).

This video walks you though how things work in the US, but some of this might apply in other countries. Caveat emptor, outside of the US, though.

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• This post from Architect, about production environments.

Another episode from our Q&A series, where I take on Q&A about business and freelancing from authors in our author pool.

If you're going to moonlight or go into business for yourself freelancing, should you use Upwork or sites like it? I think there are certain specific situations make this a good fit for you, but generally and on a long timeline, I'd avoid sites like this.

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• Jonathan Stark, The One and Only

If you're going to freelance, do you need to make a website, and what should that website look like?

I actually don't think it's a super high priority for a new freelancer, and you honestly don't need one to get started. But you will need one, eventually, so I talk about when and how to make one.

Show Notes

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• Jonathan Stark Laser Focused Positioning Statement 

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• This post, from Architect, about the portability of software resonates with me.

Moonlighting is a specific flavor of working that involves working in addition to a normal, full time job. In this episode, I take on a question about how to get started with moonlighting as a freelancer, and what to consider.

Join us to learn more.

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Picks:

1. I just learned that risk-based testing was a thing, so here's a piece on risk-based testing.

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These episodes are courtesy of Hit Subscribe, a digital marketing partner in the tech space.