[thelist] Doing a 'freebie'

[Erika Meyer]

>make sure that your friend knows your *freebie* limits so that if 
>necessary they can relay the information to the *powers with money 
>that be*.  you might save yourself the hassle of doing the free work 
>and get the paid work without doing anything at all.

sounds like good advice.  and I would only add: ARE YOU NUTS?

oh.  I think I've done one too many free sites.

Your friend is not going to be rich anytime soon, not if she doesn't 
have enough cash to pay for her web site.  I mean, you can dream, but 
let's be realistic.

And what do you have to lose?  Your friendship, for one thing.  It's 
hard to stay friends with a web design client, especially a cheap one 
(and if they're too cheap/poor to pay you anything, they're cheap). 
You will be frustrated by their cluelessness.  Don't be surprised if 
they think they're doing YOU a favor by letting you build their site 
for them.

If you do a mockup, plan, whatever, before building the site, then 
give them a fair estimate for the work, don't be surprised when they

a.) leave you hanging for a long period of time while they decide what to do...
then
b.) eventually decide they don't need a web site just yet...
and/or
c.) hire someone else (read: 'professional' firm with a snazzy flash 
intro that includes a techno beat, spinning text, and little 
horizontal and vertical lines running across the screen) to do the 
actual work, for far more money...

This are maybe worst-case scenarios, but I've been thru all of it, 
and I would guess most people who put the 'free' in freelance have 
been thru similar experiences.

Only build a free site if YOU are going to be getting something YOU 
really want out of it.  Otherwise, spend your 'free' time on your own 
pet projects.

Erika



erika at seastorm.com