According to the web archives, this is the earliest version of my website.

The graphics aren’t available any more, but as you can see, the site was pretty basic.

It’s evolved over the years and today, while I like the simplicity of my site, I wish I had done things differently.

Back in 2003, WordPress wasn’t the powerhouse it is today. But if I was starting a new business today, I’d do a WordPress site.

It used to be that people thought of WordPress only for blogs. But the design is flexible enough for WordPress to be used as a full-featured site. In fact, that’s what a lot of people are doing these days.

Instead of messing around with code like I did, a WordPress blog and an appropriate theme is a better route in my mind.

I use WordPress for my site’s blogs and love how easy it is to make changes and take advantage of free plug-ins that add even more functionality. But comparing the main site with the blog, you can see the design isn’t unified.

A part of me would love to totally start over with a completely WordPress-based site. But I’m afraid it might negatively affect certain search engine rankings I’ve achieved.

So my advice today is of limited use if you’re already a freelancer and have created your own site. But if you are just starting out, or not seriously invested in a relatively new site, take a look at a WordPress-based site and the advantages it would offer for your situation.

I want to introduce you to Jeremy Tuber. I found him through Twitter and glad I did. Jeremy is a freelance graphic designer and author. I’m going to talk a bit more about him after this article. Jeremy and I did a “blog exchange” where he used one of my articles and I’m using one of his. But after today, you’re going to want to bookmark his site and follow him closely.

So more on Jeremy in a moment. For now, here’s what he has to say about why you’re not making as much money as you could…

—–

From talking with designers over the years I’ve found a direct correlation between how much they make and several undeniable factors – many of them aren’t related to their design prowess. Recently I’d see a post on another blog that listed the “Top 10 Things They Don’t Teach In Design School“, it inspired me to put this together.

If you asked 10 designers if they aren’t making the money they want to be, 9 out of the 10, or in some cases 10 out of the 10 are going to say, “No”. This got me thinking, “If they’re not happy with the money they’re making why don’t they do something about it? Do they not have the talent? Are they just lazy, or are they uncertain what to do about it?“

In this post I’ll address the later: designers that want to bring in more money but aren’t sure why they aren’t. For those designers who really (I mean really) want to start to bring in more money, the process starts with looking at what’s going on now. Here are my non talent-based reasons why designers don’t bring in the money they want:

They:

1. Weren’t taught, don’t care about or are scared how to market and sell their services. Can’t market or sell? Better learn to do something else.
2. Don’t understand that being an expert in Photoshop won’t by itself bring in business. They don’t get that clients don’t care if you’re a Photoshop expert.
3. Mistakenly feel like everything they need to know about freelancing they learned in school, can learn online for free or will just be able to figure it out themselves.
4. Invest way too many resources in “fun” things: picking up the latest Adobe CS, checking out the latest free tutorials, IMing, Twittering, etc… instead of focusing on expanding their business. They are unwilling (not unable) to invest any time, money or energy in growing their business…but they’ll spend an extraordinary amount of resources if they are being entertained.
5. Don’t have a mentor or someone that is willing and able to provide sound advice for the specific situations, challenges the freelancer runs into (no, buddies and freelancers on the chat rooms don’t count…if the chat room freelancers were that good, why aren’t they working on projects instead of wasting time in the chat rooms?)
6. Weren’t taught and don’t know how to communicate with clients in an effective, compelling way, so they end up working with the wrong clients, spending way too much time on them, not getting fairly paid for their talent and giving away free services.
7. Have difficulty understanding what clients truly want from them (it’s not “good design”), so they end up talking about things clients don’t care about…and the client decides not to hire them.
8. Fool themselves into thinking someday “it’ll just happen”. Here’s an exact copy of a tweet I pasted directly from a designer on Twitter, “Being poor sucks, but… it… builds character????? I’m a “starving artist” myself. 1 of these days I’ll be tattooed & rich!“ What do you think his chances are?
9. Bonus one here that happened after I initially wrote this entry – on the 15th I had a user (both in the figurative and literal sense of the word) systematically went through every single page of this blog trolling for free information. Not only is this a snarky thing to do, it’s really not going to help him/her become successful. In doing my own research on what’s out there I’ve just found the free information I stumbled was stuff I already knew…and overly simplified as well. If freelancers really think they’re going to find the secret to their success by rummaging the Internet for free tidbits are just fooling themselves…I should know, I tried this approach early in my career. I went through a marketing expert’s blog and copied all of his entries, thinking I hit the jackpot…in the end, I didn’t spend a lot of time on them and they didn’t do a damn thing for me.

Pretty harsh stuff I know, almost like getting a cold bucket of water tossed on you. But for those of you out there that are thinking about freelancing, just starting out or in need of a boost, I would rather be honest with you rather than try to sugar-coat it, I hope that makes sense.

I know that most freelancers that read this will ignore it – that’s cool. Over 75% of freelancing businesses don’t make it after 2-3 years…and someone has to make up those statistics. But I also know there are a few of you who will see some wisdom in this and take action.

You can listen or you can ignore, the choice is all yours, my role is just to show you where the water is…your role is to decide to drink it or not.

—–

Thanks, Jeremy.

For the rest of you, head over to Jeremy’s site, Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks.

Once you’re there, bookmark the site. Next, do I like I did and spend a few hours pouring through all of the past articles. I like that Jeremy is brutally honest about things. I appreciate straight talk. But more important than reading the information is finding ways to apply it.

There are plenty of designers out there with blogs, but not so many have content that we as direct market design freelancers can relate to. Quite a number come from designers and artists who seem to be in the word of agency work and projects that are outside the realm of some of things followers of this blog are into.

After you’ve seen Jeremy’s blog, do what I did… buy his book, his iTunes “album” and any of the other items that you feel will help you at this point. I just started reading Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks which I ordered from Amazon.com. It’s 500 pages of good information, especially if you’re totally new or relatively new and not sure what to do next.

As soon as my Kindle arrives this week, the first purchase is going to be Jeremy’s book, Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers. (You can also buy a non-Kindle version.)

OK… it’s up to you now. If you’re serious about building your freelance graphic design business, you’re going to look into what Jeremy is offering and find ways to apply his advice to your own situation.

The freelancer’s life is a great thing. It’s not that you’re totally free of problems, but compared to the typical employee’s work, the average freelancer does enjoy many more benefits.

But just a word of caution for those thinking of becoming freelancers: You are never simply “working for yourself.”

Sure, you have more control over how you structure your time and career. But unless someone is hiring you, you’re not exactly working, much less working for yourself.

So, obviously, freelancers do answer to “bosses”, known as “clients” in this case.

In fact, one could argue that traditional employees have things a little easier if they’re just having to answer to one person at work. A successful freelancer is answering to multiple bosses, all of whom have little interest in what your other bosses want or need at any given moment.

That can create some stress on your part as you try to juggle multiple projects. I experienced that first-hand late last year when I had about nine projects going at once. While it’s nice for any freelancer to be that busy and in demand, you certainly come to a clear understanding that you are working for other people.

If you want to stay a successful freelancer, you’d better know how to keep all those bosses happy. And just to keep things interesting, each boss may define “happy” a little differently.

See what I’m getting at? You’re not exactly “working for yourself” the way people think of it when say the word freelancing… you’re still working for other people.

That comes as a shock to some people who go into freelancing thinking they can do things exactly how they want without taking into account the needs and expectations of clients.

Like I said, the freelancer’s life is a great thing. Just be aware that you’re still working for other people. And those people play a big part in whether you’re successful or not.

I was talking to someone who asked about work/life balance as a freelancer. It’s something that’s usually seen as a worthwhile goal, yet people aren’t sure how to achieve it consistently, nor are they completely sure when they’ve achieved it.

Even a regular employee for a company faces this balancing act. But the challenge is usually assumed to affect freelancers more. The thought is that if you’re a freelancer working from home, you’ll have more difficulty separating your work life from your home life.

Of course, this assumes you actually want to separate it. I’m going to go against the conventional wisdom which says that, as a freelancer, you should set aside time only for work, and set aside time that is only for family or personal endeavors.

Balance is absolutely necessary. But I think some people take it a bit too far and stifle what should be one of the most important parts of being a freelancer, especially one that requires creativity like design and copywriting: flexibility.

For me, it’s more of an easy flow between the things that I do whether it’s working or spending time with my family. I might move back and forth between the two multiple times a day. That kind of goes against the usual advice of having fixed hours for your working time at home. And once you’re done for the day, you don’t come back to it until the next day.

But that’s part of the joy of freelancing… moving between work and personal life as needed and on your own terms, not putting things into fixed hours or a set schedule. That’s just a normal job where you’re an employee.

I’m not a designer for X number of hours a day and a husband/parent for another set of hours a day… I’m all those things all the time and I focus on each aspect of what I need or want to do as appropriate. For some reason, that solved any problems of chasing after some undefined goal of “work/life balance”.

I think people end up feeling too guilty (or made to feel guilty) if they can’t have their life broken down into these very clear sections of time where they’re either working or they’re not.

I’m all for saying ‘no’ and not taking on more than is reasonable when it comes to work. I’m definitely not someone who over-books himself. And if you feel you’re most productive by spending fixed time or hours handling certain tasks, by all means continue to work that way.

But as someone who works with people in different time zones or countries – and gets inspiration for projects at unexpected moments – I don’t get hung-up on thinking that I should only be a business owner at fixed times of the day or only on specific days.

As the saying goes, “Your mileage may vary.”