Introduction
I'm super excited to announce that I've just opened the pre-orders for my new book, The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing.
It's a book that'll be packed with proven strategies, tips, and tricks you can use to launch your freelance web development career and build a successful business from scratch.
I'm still writing the book, but I'm aiming to release it between November 2024 and January 2025. If you pre-order it, you'll get a huge discount (more details further down).
The book is available in two different packages:
-
Book (
$59$39) - Pre-order "The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing". -
Bundle (
$99$69) - Pre-order "The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing" and get instant access to "Battle Ready Laravel" and "Consuming APIs in Laravel".
Why I'm Writing This Book
I've been a freelancer since 2017 and I've learned a lot along the way. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I've also had a lot of wins!
I regularly get messages from people telling me they want to get started freelancing but they don't know where to start. They know they're a great developer, but they don't know what steps to take to start getting clients and making money.
So I decided to write this book to help web developers get started with freelancing.
It doesn't matter whether you're thinking of freelancing full-time or just want to make some extra money on the side. This book will help you get started.
What Will Be Covered in the Book
In short, you’ll learn the exact steps you can take to become a successful freelance web developer. I’ll show you how to get started, find clients (and keep them!), diversify your income, manage your projects, and much more.
Here’s a sneak peek at what’s covered in the book (please note this might change as I write the book):
Chapter 1: Introduction to Freelancing
This chapter covers some of the foundational concepts of freelancing, such as:
- ✅ What is freelancing?
- ✅ What freelancing is NOT
- ✅ Freelancing or contracting?
Chapter 2: Freelancing Mindset
This chapter helps you get into the right mindset that will set you up for freelancing success. It covers:
- ✅ Finding your "why"
- ✅ Minimising risk to make the leap
- ✅ Confidence and imposter syndrome
- ✅ Work-life balance (setting boundaries with clients)
- ✅ Keeping up to date with the industry
- ✅ Mentoring
- ✅ Asking for help
- ✅ Co-working spaces
- ✅ Strategies for taking the leap
Chapter 3: Attracting and Finding Clients
This chapter is a deep dive into finding clients. Not only will we discuss how to search for your ideal client, we'll also cover how to build a personal brand and market yourself so clients come to you. This chapter covers:
- ✅ Attracting clients to you
- ✅ Where to find clients
- ✅ Identifying your ideal client
- ✅ Landing your first client
- ✅ Building a personal brand
- ✅ Specialising or jack of all trades?
Chapter 4: Money, Money, Money!
This chapter covers how to price your services and maximise your income. It covers:
- ✅ How much you should charge
- ✅ When you should get paid
- ✅ Diversifying your income with multiple income streams
- ✅ Handling downtime between projects
- ✅ Dealing with possibly unstable cash flow
Chapter 5: Client and Project Management
This chapter covers how to manage your clients and projects effectively to keep your business running smoothly. It covers:
- ✅ How to reach out to potential leads
- ✅ How to reply to enquiries and leads
- ✅ Gathering requirements
- ✅ Setting and managing expectations
- ✅ Checking in with clients
- ✅ Documentation (contracts, statements of work, etc.)
- ✅ Invoicing
- ✅ Client retention (building long-term relationships)
- ✅ Deciding how many clients you should have
Chapter 6: Diversifying Your Income
The final chapter covers different software and tools that you should consider using to help you manage your freelance business. It covers:
- ✅ Accounting software
- ✅ Time tracking software
- ✅ Project management software
- ✅ Error monitoring
- ✅ Uptime monitoring
- ✅ Application performance monitoring (APM)
- ✅ Analytics
$190 of Included Discounts
The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing comes with up to $190 USD worth of discount codes* to help you on your freelancing journey!
Thanks to the generosity of Aaron Francis, Caleb Porzio, Inspector, Honeybadger, and Harvest, if you purchase The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing you'll get limited-edition discount codes for using with Honeybadger, Harvest, High Performance SQLite, Livewire screencasts, and Inspector!
So if you're considering buying or signing up to any of these services, you can get some huge discounts with my book.
Discounts for Honeybadger
The book includes a 20% off your first 3 months discount for the error and uptime monitoring service, Honeybadger.
Discounts for High Performance SQLite
The book includes a $25 USD discount for the High Performance SQLite video course by Aaron Francis.
Discounts for Livewire Screencasts
The book includes a 20% discount so you can learn how to master Livewire directly from it's creator, Caleb Porzio.
Discounts for Inspector
The book includes a 20% lifetime discount for the application performance monitoring (APM) service, Inspector.
Discounts for Harvest
The book includes a 15% discount on annual plans for the time-tracking and invoicing software, Harvest.
* - Based on the exchange rates at the time of writing this (25th August 2024). The actual value may be different when redeeming the discount codes.
Pre-order the Book
You can pre-order the book for $39 USD. The price will increase to $59 USD once the book is released.
For this, you'll get:
- 📖 The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing eBook (PDF and ePub formats)
Pre-order the Bundle
There's also a bundle available for $69 USD (worth $137 if books bought separately). The price will increase to $99 USD once the book is released.
For this, you'll get:
- 📖 The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing eBook (PDF and ePub formats)
You'll also get instant access to:
- 📖 Battle Ready Laravel (PDF and ePub formats)
- 📖 Consuming APIs in Laravel (PDF and ePub formats)
Free Tool: Rate Calculator
A common question I get asked is about how to price your services. Especially coming from full-time employment, it can be hard to know what hourly/daily rate to charge since you're likely used to thinking of money in a salary context.
To help with this, I've built a free, simple tool that you can use to calculate your hourly rate based on your desired salary.
It should help you to get a rough idea of what you should be charging.
👉 Use the rate calculator tool!
For example, you can use it to work from an annual salary to an hourly/daily rate:
Or you can use it to work from an hourly/daily rate to an annual salary:
Free Community: Freelance Web Dev Hub
One of the things I've noticed with freelancers is that they can often feel isolated. They don't always have a team to bounce ideas off or to ask for help when they're stuck.
So I've also started a community where freelance web developers can come together to share knowledge, ask questions, and support each other.
It's completely free to join. You just need a Discord account to join the server.
Interested in Pre-ordering?
If you've ever considered freelancing, maybe this book is for you!
You can pre-order it today for some huge savings:
Keep on building awesome stuff! 🚀