This is exactly what I’ve been doing this past month and its been a huge relief from all the frustration of doing algorithms without any real real world application (yet).
On another note, Drupal seems interesting for learning later on - I might consider it.
Hopefully in time my feeling of JavaScript will be more comfortable by then - I’ve taken a break from the algorithms this past month and it has done wonders. I’m looking to come back to the intermediate algorithms fresh and with new eagerness.
Probably the scariest thing about freelancing - Now you’ve give me some thought on how to price future clients. Perhaps a 33/33/33 split?
This is my preferred choice of learning - The idea of pursuing the learning seems more worthwhile when you’re put on the spot doing a real thing that someone else will actually use. The feeling I have with algorithms in general is unless I know it is 100% going to be put to use in some way for a real application / website, its not really worth racking my brain only to get frustrated for nothing.
Although your WordPress isn’t your be all end all I would love to have at least half of the experience you’ve had! It would sure teach me a thing or two!
This. 100%. There are companies and small businesses out there in our local areas simply not willing ot hire someone from the other side of the world. Could be communication problems, lack of trust in getting the project done the way the client wants.
Its reassuring to know that there are clients wanting to hire from their homeground.
If this is where the money is at, then hell yeah!
There was a time when that was my goal too. I stopped FCC and dove into WP. I learned that freelancing is more about marketing yourself and running a business than coding or design. Some people still seem to support themselves as WP freelancers. I wasn’t able to figure that trick out.
They say demand is still high. I wonder how long until SquareSpace really nails it and only the best designers and programmers who can build complicated, fully custom sites are in demand.
Every project was like a new framework and not in a good way. There are lots of theme developers out there doing “WordPress” themes there own way. Doing anything custom in the “hand holdy” themes built for non technical people was usually much more difficult. I missed out on one “WordPress” job because I didn’t know Timber. So many different plugins for doing the same thing. Learning them wasnt hard, but there was very little repition that allows you to build the next site faster. Clients often had free, sometimes quirky plugins too. Im going to stop because this is becoming too negative. Lets finish on a positive note. The WP community is super friendly and overflowing with terrific people!
Hopefully things with be different for you starting from scratch instead of adding additions to existing sites. I just wanted to share my experience.
mmmm yeah what he said!
currently working with a business that came from the old YAHOO builder (can anyone say stone knives and bear skins?)
now they are on WP with a nice site ranked #3 in the nation in a very competitive keyword
the old site 5 views a day… now on wp weve upgraded hosting 2x even tho pics are optimized…
long story short now they are telling me not to color correct or correctly size the images their ammy photographer sends…
and i havent been paid in over a month so yeah…
I like wp i just wish the clients didn’t spend all their time shooting themselves in the foot
When I was learning web development I ignored WordPress and that was one of the biggest mistake I did given the fact that more than 30% of the whole net is WordPress.
WordPress is a great platform to work with. Currently I am learning how to create custom themes and widgets.