Journal Entry 3: Revising My Freelance Web Development Service Packages
From my freelancing experience so far, I've noticed that there are a lot of different types of clients in need of a website out there. This ranges from those who wants to be cheap, and those that realize that quality will cost money.
To eliminate cheap clients, I've decided to instead of making specific freelance web development services which I had advertised on my personal website's services page, I revised it so it is modeled after 3-4 different packages instead. The pricing of each service will vary to match each client for their individual needs so that I get paid what I deserve, and they get the value they desire.
Competitive Research
First off, I did some competitive research to see what other freelancers out there go about pricing their services. From what I've seen so far, the more popular and successful ones usually go by a web package system like what I just recently changed to.
I decided to go with a 3 tier freelance web package model plus a 4th tier which is geared towards more customized solution.
- Starter Web Package
- Standard Web Package
- Professional Web Package
- Custom Web Package
The first 3 tiers are geared towards a large majority of small businesses or people who are starting out who don't necessarily need a crazy website. This can range from a simple landing page to a customized dynamic Wordpress website. As for the 4th tier, which the geeky side of me looks forward to the most, involves creating a webapp from scratch using a Full Stack framework setup.
To Include SEO or To Not Include SEO
One of the questions I asked myself was should I include a basic SEO package or charge it as a low cost separate add-on?
I decided that in order for me to compete on value, and to not play a game of a race to the lowest priced services, I decided to include a basic SEO package with all my web development services FREE of charge.
Getting Clients Outside of Upwork and Fiverr
So far, I haven't gotten too much luck with Upwork or Fiverr in terms of getting lots of web development gigs as those two sites are filled with clients who are looking for the lowest price. Not only that, the immense amount of competition that exists on there on the freelancer side is insane. Now, this doesn't mean I will quit using the platform altogether, it just means that I will have to find other ways to find clients. I do have a strategy or two left in mind that I have yet to try. Normally, one would start off with friends, family members, and close relatives, but sadly none of them have any need for a website. I've already exhausted that. Not to mention, I have to figure out which niche or industry I want to focus on creating websites for. Hmm...
Conclusion
So yeah. I updated my website yesterday to reflect these new changes. All I have to do now is market myself, find clients, and hopefully make a few sales. As of now, I am now down to $2,700 in the bank. The road to becoming a successful entrepreneur is a long and tough one, but I'm not giving up.