It is so important you keep in Contact with your former Clients. 

When I started coding I often felt that there will be always new People asking me for help. I just forgot that I am not the only Coder in the World. So I jumped from one new Client to another new Client. I got quit a good Experience to handle with different People, also after a while I wondered why I don’t here from my former Clients. But the answer is simple. I did not contacted them, another Coder offered his help and I came just forgotten.

You can be as good as you think, there are always some other freaks out there who are as good as you or even better. To be really a Top Coder and always busy with Work, you also have to come a Top Person for Relationship. Keep your Clients remembering on you in a good way. Send them a Greeting Card when they have Birthday, ask sometimes for there Needs or just say Hello.

There are many great Books about how to keep Friendship in Private and also Business. Read a little bit about and keep in mind how important it is to keep in relation with your Clients.

Its similar with your Friends when you was in School. You may be a great Guy everybody loved. Also when you hided for a while, your friends found other friends and the calls come less.

Just don’t think because you are a good Coder with amazing skills, fast, honest and whatever that your former clients always will come to you. There are other People out there, with other Ideas and make your Clients interested in their Work. Life is moving and the world do not stand still.

Also that’s very good for your own Business. There are many Clients out there who had a good Programmer and now they can not reach him, because he changed town or only his email. Now you have a great position to say “hi” and offer your Service.

Whenever you start to be a Freelancer you have to think about how much you charge for your Service. In the Time you are a Student, sleeping home at Mum and Dad, without any other Costs than your personal Desires, you may charge 5$ an Hour, have Fun on what you do and earn some Money. When you have to pay Rent, Electricity and just see your Work as a professional Business, what does not only mean Income, also Expenses, you have to calculate what you need to survive and also be successful. 

That does not mean you can charge 500$ an Hour, because you think you have to finance your new Ferarri or your Villa at the Beach. Also when the Fees are quit individual from your Location, your experience and Abilities there is a standard Range wherein you usually got paid. Just if you are very specialized in one Field you can charge more, otherwise it could also look quit unprofessional.

When you are offering your Services in Germany you may have a look to:  http://www.gulp.de/kb/tools/money.html

Here (Stand Nov. 2008) for PHP Freelancer its between 40€ and 70€ 

Other Languages variates maybe up to 85€, but to charge more it depends for sure on the Speciality and Speed of the Coder.

I am not here to advice you to charge 10$ or 100$, because how should I do, also you need the skill to sell your Price.  But if you have several Years of Experience and can show some good Testimonials you should be able to place your Bid.

Also keep in Mind, good Work, should be paid good, just to keep it fair. Also every Beginner today think he is a cool Coder and offers his Work, so it looks there are thousand of PHP Coders, there is always just a few People with the right Background and Experience. Many so called 19€ Offers for a PHP Coder looks for a Client very good and he may try to bring you down to this Price. Dont play this dirty Game, finaly when a Client understand that he may pay 5 Hours 19€ where you just need 1 Hour he will understand. Also its a good Question, why would a good Coder charge less than he is worth?

Be fair to your Client, tell him the Truth, if you are a Student or a Senior with 20 Years Experience.

Also when you are a Senior, better say you are specialised on one Topic than telling you can do everything (as we know, also when you have a lot of Experience, you can not be a Specialist in all)

My personal Experience. When you are honest in what you can and what you like, you will get the right Clients. With them you will build up a long-term Relationship and from that you gain the Profit. Just imagine you have 10 Happy Clients and each of them bring you 3 new Clients over Time. You may Busy within your Work and concentrate on that, instead of having ten unhappy Client how never bring you another one and you have to spend your Time in Advertising instead of Coding.

Are you tired from promises of self called great PHP Coders and finally they just steal your Time and destroy your Homepage. Yes that’s quit hard what I say here, also its often the truth. In my daily Work I guess nearly every second Client tell me that he was very unsatisfied with his former Coder. Just read my Testimonials and you will see what I mean.

Just yesterday I finished a new Project with a Swiss Client who paid quit a lot of Money for his CMS Homepage. But what happened. The CMS was not a System like Joomla or WordPress. It was a self-made System that looked like a CMS, but many of the CMS Functionality, like adding new Categories, was hard-coded, so the client was unable to change simple Features and needed that Coder. That’s also often happen, that a Client does not have a change to work with another Company, because his Software is so special, that mostly only the original coder does know what to do in short Time. Whatever you bought maybe very cheap in the beginning may end in a disaster when this Coders start to charge you suddenly 150€ per Hour, because no one else can do the changes in a short time.

Or also what happened sometimes is that you go to a new Coder and give him all the Rights of your System and he play around like a Kid in the Kindergarten. Maybe he fixed something and destroyed on the other side two other things. Please, I don’t like to make you worry, but what I really like to make you understand with this article is, Your Homepage, and especially when you like to make Money with, is your COMPANY. Would you give a Person all Documents and Data of a real Company, the Right to buy and sell your Houses and make new Constructions and destroy part of them. NO, you would not. You would consult an Architect and a Notar to make things secure. Also Fact and actual Situation in the World of Homepages is, that Owner often gives ALL Rights to a new Webdesigner and than this Person can play with your whole System. 

Maybe you think its already crashed and he can not destroy more. Beware of that. Maybe he tell you to transfer your Domain to a new Provider, because of some Hosting Features or Speed or whatever. That’s all legitim, also I had several Clients telling me Horror-stories, that there Domains come captured or were unable to each for MONTHES. And than, wohhh, just imagine your whole System is not available, you can nearly shutdown your Business. All the Work you have done to come searched in Searchengines is wasted, also when you have another new Domain, it does need Monthes to be out of the Sandbox from serious Searchengine and be listed again. Another Client told me that his former Coder came crazy and asked him to pay 500$ per Hour (I was shocked to hear that and laughing, but I heard that from a very good client and have no reason do doubt on what he say)

If you like to change your Coder or Webmaster, than really take your Time to think about with whom you work. There are several trusty Partners in the Net, also it is quit hard to differencate them. Some of them have such great designed Homepages you think its a big and professional Company and the truth is there is a Student with some small Experience in Coding behind, but with a good Taste of Advertising. He maybe just copied a cool Design and made it fit to his needs. So a normal User don’t see whats behind.

How to check out trusty Partners. 

• Look into the Imprint (don’t trust just a simple email)
• Give him a Call just one time (it may cost your 5$ for 5 Mins Talking), but you get a real Feeling
• Contact one of his Testimonials.
• You may look on WHO.IS if this Testimonials are all from one
• Person or if its really different People around the World.
• Start to give him a very small Test Project
• Install a limited FTP Account if you can where he can play, dont give him full rights
• Trust your Feeling. If you have the Feeling this Person is just interested in your Money, you may right.
• If you check his Homepage, look for Originality, if he give you some personal Details or just show up as a big pro Company (and isn’t)

Maybe you remember the old Sentence, the Shoemaker itself often have the most bad Shoes.

What does mean, a good Coder often does not have time to profile himself so much, but he can do great Work for his clients. So don’t come blended just by design. Also for sure if his own Homepage just is filled with Advertising Banners and Animated Gifts, it is also not the best Sign.

Think about when you do a new House you need an Architect to get a good Plan. In the Net you find many People with great Ideas and call themself WebMaster. When you than need to code your Page or do changes on it, forget about this Architect People, they often have no Idea about realizing it. Its like the same with your House, to build it up you need a Craftsmen. Many Webmasters are just Designers and can blend you with nice Designs, but when you need to implement new Features, Database and all that, a normal also professional Designer can not help you there, that is coding Stuff, that is not so much creativity, instead it needs 100% logic and is more a Craftsmen Job than work for a Architect. You need a professional Coder.

Finaly if you are lucky and find a honest Coder you may save a lot of money. Just think logical a big Company need to pay its team for Advertising and Sales, the Internal Team with Accounting and Project Manager and all that. The Coder itself often just 20% of what you pay for. For sure also this person have to make Advertising, Accounting, paying Rent and all that, but you pay one Person and not 10.

What I like to say, TAKE YOUR TIME. Just don’t take any cool Offer, just because you feel in Pressure to make a Change on your Homepage. Your Page may messed up in One Day where you worked already one Year on it or you pay 10 Times more than you should have to do.

I wrote this Article because I thought its Time to tell from my daily Experience, sometimes even frustration what I hear from my Clients. If you still don’t believe me, let me know and I can connect you with some of my Clients who are willed to tell you there Story.

Also for now, don’t worry, the World is not just bad There are many great People around, no matter if they are young, old, from India or Germany. Just open your Eyes and think clear as you would do when you advice your best Friend.