Running a freelance business requires a strong blend of marketing and technical skills.

Since you were or have been a Microsoft .NET Programmer, I won’t worry you about the technical skills.

In terms of the marketing skills

1. Start with a professional looking website. Since your primary means of communication is going to be the phone, email and your website, make sure that you have a professional website

2. Invest in a hands-free set: bluetooth enabled earphones, handsfree cell phones, etc. That way, you can multi-task while talking to the customer or making calls. Also make sure that you have a professional sounding voicemail and a fax number

3. Create a portfolio for yourself. Your most important / convincing asset will be the portfolio of websites you have worked on. You may jumpstart that by building websites for influential organizations in your neighborhood

4. Market like crazy. Your marketing or lack of it, will make or break your business. So, create a daily schedule for cold calls and a schedule for contacting employers through jobs sites

5. Keep an eye on new or emerging technologies. These are areas where there are fewer skilled people and employers are more willing to pay.

Your success as a freelance .net programmer depends on how positive and determined you are … and on how consistent and effective you are at marketing your skills

I have been a .NEt developer for nearly 5 yrs.

I had to take a break when my kids were born. Now I would like to enter the IT field. But I prefer to do work from home.

I am ready to study before my career entry. Can you please advise me .

I have been a technical person and ready to learn new technologies.

You will need to be highly skilled in PHP, MySQL, WordPress, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, JQuery as a freelancer

You will also need to spend a lot of your time sourcing for jobs on Job Boards like Dice.com, Monster.com and CraigsList

Becoming a freelance computer programmer requires a lot of work, perhaps more work than being a full-time computer programmer.

In some instances, you will even earn less though you work harder

After a gap of about 10yrs I have aquired knowledge of html xml and php.

Now my circumstances do not allow me to work 9-5.

What sort of work can I persue in the IT industry from home?

How can I get jobs?

Do I need to learn anything more?

Please guide me.

I would be glad to help you with your goals of becoming a Freelancer and supporting paying for your higher education.

• First identify the skills that are most in-demand for freelance jobs. These skills include ASP.NET, C#, PHP, MYSQL, SQL SERVER, JQUERY, WORDPRESS, CSS.

  Download a list of the 100 most in-demand freelance skills here …

• Become an Expert at those skills that you choose.

  You cannot be a successful freelancer without taking the time to master or excel at the skills that you use on a daily basis.

• Bid for freelance jobs on popular freelance websites like ODesk and ELance.

  Stick to doing a high quality job and then build your clientele over time by establishing a reputation as a premier provider of service.

Start your freelancing career from the most basic skills and then move on to the more complex skills.

The easiest skills for you to start freelancing with is … guess what?

CSS, HTML/XHTML. YOu can actually start freelancing with those skills and then from there move into MySQL/SQL Server, PHP/ASP.NET

Follow the steps above to become a successful freelancer programmer while earning enough income to pay for your higher education!

Best of Luck!

We have participants from some African Countries and from several other countries outside the Western Hemisphere.

However, we do not control the “Payment Process” since we use the two (2) Major Credit Card Processors. If you have a valid Credit Card, one of those Payment Processors should work for you on your checkout. You just have ti be careful with filling in the right credit card information just like you will do with any online purchase.

Basically, if your credit card works on a website like Amazon.com it should also work on our Shopping Cart.

In the most extreme situation, you may arrange with a trusted co-worker or colleague or friend who has a valid credit card that can be used or has been used in online, international payments.

Just ask that person to make the payment for you and then reimburse the person using whatever means is appropriate for the two of you.

I am sure that there is someone local to your area who can make the payment for you and then give you the registration information.

Some of our International participants have also used that method because it was easier to work with someone local with a valid international credit card.

Just follow the steps in this e-mail and work with someone you can absolutely trust, OK?

Thanks … I will be looking forward to seeing you at the “Software Developers Boot Camp”

Have a great life

I know Nigeria has credit card scam history, but we are not all bad guys here. I would appreciate if there is another alternative for me to register for this online training.

Thank you.

I want to become a freelancer. I am a beginner. I had a work experience of about 3yrs in IT field (dotnet platform).

But now i want to pursue my higher education so i want to quit my current IT job and work as a freelancer (part-time) so that i can earn my own bucks without depending on others.

Please guide me on how to proceed or how to take up the projects.

Thanks
Rasna

Your skills and interests are leaning to the PHP vs. the .NET franmework world .. am I right?

1. Don’t worry about your age because there is nothing that you can do about it. Worry about what is within your control which is to be the most competent developer you can be!

2. Yes, some shops are biased against older developers. If you come across these shops, focus on proving how competent or smart you are. If they are open-minded, then they will engage further with you.

3. To be successful at Freelance Software Development, you need to be good at Getting Requirements, Managing Customer Expectations, Managing your Time / Sub-Contractors / Partners, Managing Cashflow, Marketing your Business, Accounting & Book-keeping and Solving Technical problems.

4. To be successful at Full-Time Software Development, you need to be good at a smaller set of skills … mainly being good at your coding.

What you do depends on what you are caapble of doing because … if you can’t market or sell very well as well as accomplsih all the other freelance duties then you may be better off earning a consistent full-time paycheck and building up towards your retirement.

If on the other hand, you are a competent business savvy individual, then the payoff of running your own freelance computer programing firm is huge!

My background is mostly in Visual Basic, SQL-Server, ASP(traditional), VBA, MS-Access and some ASP.Net/VB.Net and I find .Net to be very cumbersome.

I really like web development with the open source technologies and I’m good at AJAX and Javascript, etc.

I’m learning JQuery and I guess that I should learn some other frameworks and object oriented PHP and Javascript.

My question is; in my position – also I’m 57 yrs old – do you have any advice regarding job search strategies, including, perhaps, what type of jobs should I be seeking?

I’m a very creative problem solver and I’m good at interfacing with clients and gathering requirements in addition to my front and back end programming skills.

The best job, for me would be with a web/e-commerce development company, because I like to work on a variety of different projects and I’m always learning new skills.

Am I wasting my time looking for a job in the corporate area?

Should I concentrate on free-lance, or maybe try some smaller web-design companies?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you,

With any freelance idea, you have to work hard to market it.

So the first part of your planning should cover learning data analysis and reporting tools like SQL Server Reporting Services or Crystal Reports.

The second part of your planning should include a building and executing a marketing plan that gets your name out there … in front of potential clients.

This is important because you may be a good reporting analyst … but unless you market your freelance portfolio, no one would notice that you are in business.

I am new to freelancing and i am seriously thinking about starting my own freelance IT services. I do hold 6 to 7 yrs work experience in IT but have failed to build a specialist portfolio which makes me less attractive to the IT market.

I am aiming to position myself as data / Reporting analyst which is my better skill’s portfolio. So where do i start as far as the freelancing business is considerd ?

regards