Read the whole lesson, here (for free!): http://freelancewp.com/lesson/how-to-integrate-3rd-party-services-with-wordpress-sites/

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Read the new lesson here: http://freelancewp.com/lesson/what-does-wordpress-freelancing-actually-involve-day-to-day/

The post New lesson: What does WordPress freelancing actually involve, day-to-day? appeared first on FreelanceWP.

Read the full post here: http://freelancewp.com/lesson/what-is-a-successful-wordpress-freelancer/

The post New lesson: What is a successful WordPress freelancer? appeared first on FreelanceWP.

He told me that he’d just had a really frustrating weekend. He’d delivered a site (based on an off-the-shelf theme) for a client a few months’ back, delivered some handover training and the project was completed successfully as far as he (and the client) were concerned. But the client got in touch and said that there was a problem with the site and asked Joe to fix it.

Joe takes pride in his work and cares about his clients, so he wanted to make sure that the website was working as it should. So, he set a bit of time aside the next weekend to diagnose and fix the problem.

It took him 6 hours.

He found the problem. It was a mixture between a badly-coded commercial theme and user error on the client’s part. Basically, the theme broke if an image was uploaded that had capital letters in the file name. Joe had spotted that issue at the time of the build and had advised the client during training to always use lower-case file names.

But fixing the issue took 6 hours. It’s true to say with developing that until you’ve actually fixed the issue, you can rarely predict how long that fix is going to take. You can have a guess at the issue’s cause, sure, and you might even be able to guess how long it will take to fix that cause. But you won’t KNOW that you’ve found the ultimate cause until it’s actually fixed. So, in this case, Joe’s now spent 6 hours to find out that he’s not to blame.

Most freelancers will come across this scenario in their career. So, how could Joe have avoided doing all that work for potentially no money?

• Use a solid proposal/scope that clearly states what is and isn’t your responsibility both during the build and afterwards (especially with regards to code you haven’t written like plugins and themes)
• Always ask for pre-authorisation to undertake any work that is potentially billable
• Explain the situation and process to the client as follows…

Generally, I’d approach the situation like this (assuming I’m protected by a solid scope/proposal by this point).

1. When you’re asked to ‘fix’ something, have a look. If it’s an obvious error that you’re sure is 100% your fault, go fix it.
2. In any other situation, explain that you’re very happy to look into the problem but that if the issue turns out not to be your fault, the time will be billable.
3. Make sure to explain what counts as billable time and not (and why) and give the client your best-guess estimate on the time required.
4. Explain before you start that you can’t give a fixed-cost estimate for the fix because there could be several underlying factors, acting in series or parallel. Tell your client that if you reach the end of the time they’ve authorised without a fix, you’ll ask them to authorise more time and be happy to report what you’ve found so far.
5. Once you’ve fixed the issue, let the client know what time was taken, whether that’s billable (it may be that some is and some isn’t) and what the cause was. Suggest ways to mitigate or avoid the problem in the future (like user training, code patches, workflow processes).

Can you relate to Joe’s story? Did you learn some or all of these lessons the hard (unpaid) way? Do you have anything to add to further protect your time?

The post Joe’s story – a weekend bug hunt appeared first on FreelanceWP.

• Want to work with one of Brighton’s brightest Tech Start-up’s?
• Want to help revolutionise the way that WordPress freelancers work?
• Want to swap your excellent design skills for a great website?
• Got some big ideas and want the opportunity to try them out?

Then we just might have the answer

We’re on a mission is to help people become successful WordPress freelancers. Our aim is to provide unique, quality advice, tools and services to help freelancers be more efficient, make fewer mistakes and achieve the lifestyle they aspire to faster and more profitable.

For the last 18 months we’ve been busy tucked away developing and fine tuning the secret ingredients of a new software program but it is now time to tell the world. This is where you come in.

We’re now looking to expand the team and bring in a designer to make the site reflect the professional and disruptive solution that we’re offering.

Your remit will be to produce a contemporary, slick and responsive web design that takes into account the site’s content requirements and our competitive landscape.

About Us

We’re a young,  small, friendly team with big ideas.  Based at the Skiff in the heart of the North Laines in Brighton, surrounded by some of the nicest and most talented creatives around.

About You

If you understand user experience design, responsive web technologies and can bring a distinctive and shrewd design eye to bear, we want to hear from you

What we can offer:

• The opportunity to work on an exciting startup collaborating with some of the best designers, developers and PR gurus in Brighton.
• An exciting commercial environment in great relaxed office space in central Brighton where your ideas will be listen and incorporated in the work.
• You will get to pick our brains, decades worth of experience and work on a very cool piece of software, that we will be happy to loudly sing your praises on as testimonials.  (Beats a paper cv hands down!)
• Get a real hands on design experience and no stamps to lick.
• We’ll even keep you fed and watered with a delicious lunch

How to apply

Send us a link to your blog/and or twitter profile if you have one. Tell us in 140 characters or a 100 words or less who you are and why we should buy you lunch. Oh and if you have one of those CV things then attach that as well. Answer to us at jobs@freelancewp.com

The post FreelanceWP Design Intern appeared first on FreelanceWP.

• Want to work with one of Brighton’s brightest Tech Start-up’s?
• Want to help revolutionise the way that WordPress freelancers work?
• Want to learn how to develop with the latest technologies, the right way?
• Got some big ideas and want the opportunity to try them out?

Then we just might have the answer

We’re on a mission is to help people become successful WordPress freelancers. Our aim is to provide unique, quality advice, tools and services to help freelancers be more efficient, make fewer mistakes and achieve the lifestyle they aspire to faster and more profitable.

For the last 18 months we’ve been busy tucked away developing and fine tuning the secret ingredients of a new software program but it is now time to tell the world. This is where you come in.

We’re now looking to expand the team and bring in some extra developers to help speed up the dream.

You’ll be on the bleeding-edge of our development, building a github-like php wrapper for WordPress freelancers. You’ll spend your days learning how to write beautifully unit-tested PHP, RESTful web services and WordPress plugins, and get to deploy it all to our multiple virtual machines.

About Us

We’re a young,  small, friendly team with big ideas.  Based at the Skiff in the heart of the North Laines in Brighton, surrounded by some of the nicest and most talented creatives around.

About You

If you’ve got a sharp brain, and are keen to learn then that’d be a good start. Experience with mysql, PHP, git and WordPress would also be advantageous. If you combine this with a tenacity to fix awkward bugs, and a drive to code right then we would like to say hello.

What we can offer:

• The opportunity to work on an exciting startup collaborating with some of the best designers, developers and PR gurus in Brighton.
• An exciting commercial environment in great relaxed office space in central Brighton where your ideas will be listen and incorporated in the work.
• You will get to pick our brains, decades worth of experience and work on a very cool piece of software, that we will be happy to loudly sing your praises on as testimonials.  (Beats a paper cv hands down!)
• Get a real hands on development experience and no stamps to lick.
• We’ll even keep you fed and watered with a delicious lunch

How to apply

Send us a link to your blog/and or twitter profile if you have one. Tell us in 140 characters or a 100 words or less who you are and why we should buy you lunch. Oh and if you have one of those CV things then attach that as well. Answer to us at jobs@freelancewp.com

The post FreelanceWP Developer Intern appeared first on FreelanceWP.

• Want to work with one of Brighton’s brightest Tech Start-up’s?
• Want to help revolutionise the way that WordPress freelancers work?
• Want to learn how the pieces of the Digital PR puzzle fit together?
• Have some big ideas and want the opportunity to get them out there?

Then we just might have the answer.

We’re on a mission is to help people become successful WordPress freelancers. Our aim is to provide unique, quality advice, tools and services to help freelancers be more efficient, make fewer mistakes and achieve the lifestyle they aspire to faster and more profitably.

For the last 18 months we’ve been busy tucked away developing and fine tuning the secret ingredients of a new software program but it is now time to tell the world. This is where you come in.

We’re looking to expand the team and bring in some digital marketing/PR talent for a summer internship to work with our PR agency in creating and deploying a kick-ass strategy.

You’ll be on the virtual front line, representing the business and its values to a worldwide community of WordPress fans. You’ll spend your days learning how to research and romance influencers and create content that keeps them engaged, whether that be with blogs, photos, videos or good old fashioned conversations on Twitter and at live events.

About Us

We’re a young,  small, friendly team with big ideas.  Based at the Skiff in the heart of North Laine in Brighton, surrounded by some of the nicest and most talented creatives around.

About You

If you know what WordPress is then that’d be a good start, if you use it regularly to tell the world what’s on your mind in a great blog then that’s a definite advantage. If you combine it with an eye for good design and great video then we would like to say hello.

What we can offer:

• The opportunity to work on an exciting startup collaborating with some of the best designers, developers and PR gurus in Brighton.
• An exciting commercial environment in great relaxed office space in central Brighton where your ideas will be listen and incorporated in the work.
• You will get to pick our brains, decades worth of experience  and technical toolbox to create your own drop dead lovely portfolio site, that we will be happy to loudly sing your praises on as testimonials.  (Beats a paper cv hands down!)
• Get a real hands on PR experience and no stamps to lick.
• We’ll even keep you fed and watered with a delicious lunch

How to apply

Send us a link to your blog/and or twitter profile. Tell us in 140 characters or a 100 words or less who you are and why we should buy you lunch. Oh and if you have one of those CV things then attach that as well. Answer to us at jobs@freelancewp.com

The post FreelanceWP Marketing Intern appeared first on FreelanceWP.

Thanks to Cody McKibben for being a gent.

Existing followers of @FreelanceWP, don’t worry, we’ll still be posting regular, quality links about WordPress development, freelancing, opportunities and best practice

The post New Twitter account! @wp_io is now @FreelanceWP appeared first on FreelanceWP.

Check out the lesson in full, here: http://freelancewp.com/lesson/wordpress-site-change-work-what-it-is-and-why-its-good-for-your-freelance-career/

The post New lesson: WordPress site change work – what it is and why it’s good for your freelance career appeared first on FreelanceWP.

So if you feel like you’re forever stuck behind a keyboard, trying to win business with well-written proposals, maybe our guide to sales calls can make you think again! Check it out: http://freelancewp.com/lesson/sales-calls-for-wordpress-freelancers/

The post New lesson: Sales calls for WordPress freelancers appeared first on FreelanceWP.