Forum Discussion
Freelancers -- where do you find most of your work?
I know that question is sort of like where's your favorite fishing hole. Hi, all -- I've been a freelancer for about a year and a half now, and for the first time, things are slow. I guess I'm on the famine side of the feast-famine freelancer cycle. Two questions:
1. Are there e-learning groups (besides Articulate of course) that have helped you generate leads/work?
2. How much of your work comes through cold calling? (I have an aversion to cold calling, but will pull up the big boy panties if need be.)
I'm guessing that your work comes from a little bit of everywhere (traffic to your site, repeat business and referrals from clients, cold calling, etc), but I don't really know that till I ask.
Thank you in advance for your time and input. --Daniel
- HollyMacDonaldSuper Hero
Great news Bruce - It just goes to show how important visibility (and helpfulness) is. Keep it up!
- BelenCasadoCommunity Member
Congratulations, Bruce!!
And to keep on the essence of this thread, I got my first freelance project, that it's already finished and the client was very happy with the output.
So... you can call me freelance, baby. :-)
Belen
- ColinEaglesCommunity MemberCongrats, Belen! That's awesome! I'm looking forward to a "my first freelance" experience blog post from you
Belen Casado said:
Congratulations, Bruce!!
And to keep on the essence of this thread, I got my first freelance project, that it's already finished and the client was very happy with the output.
So... you can call me freelance, baby.
Belen
- DanielBrighamCommunity Member
Congratulations, Belen on your completed contract and Bruce for the super hero status.
Colin: you have a good idea there. We learn something new with each contract. Perhaps every once in a while, freelancers just coming off a contract can share what they learned.
And so...Belen: what did you learn?
- BelenCasadoCommunity Member
Thank you, Daniel and Colin,
Well, I learnt a lot about how to do some things in Storyline that I only had saw in screenr tutorials... I also had to manage 3 projects at a time, with different time schedules (I mean, international with those strange things such as UTC -5.00, UTC +6.00,...).
But I think that there's something more important: I learnt (or remembered) that the timing is usually below the real time it takes to do something, so better adapt to what you're asked to do, instead of trying to do everything perfect. It's like the 80/20 principle... Leave the 20 till the end or you'll put an 80% of extra work to try to finish that 20%...
Hope it helps!
Now, a well deserved vacation
Belen
- JenniferStGeorgCommunity MemberNow your talkin my currency!
Bruce Graham said:
Kevin Thorn said:
@Bruce, how do you say it in your country, "The check's in the mail."
For anything under $800 I prefer cases of wine - DanielBrighamCommunity Member
Freelancers:
If any of you are in the Baltimore area, there is an Emerson Wickwire who is looking for an Articulate freelancer. You can find his post on the Freelancers where do you find work thread.
- ronwroblewskiCommunity Member
Thanks to Holly, Bruce, Daniel and all the others who contribute to this thread.
I am also a freelance consultant, and my specialty is industrial energy efficiency. I was able to put together a 90 minute course with quizzes, activities etc. with the help of a talented assistant and a professional audio engineer.
Now I need to get it "out there" - but how? Given the scale of my business and the niche I work in I would consider the course wildly successful if I sold 200 seats at $50 a pop over the course of a year. Should I
1. Buy an LMS and host it myself?
There are a dizzying number of LMS software packages available, but at my scale would it be cost effective to spend thousands more on an LMS package, shopping cart, username, login, etc. to upgrade my website to handle it all?
2. Hire a service to host it for me?
There also now seem to be quite a few providers who would host, but there is a huge range of quality, cost and capability. I have been in negotiations with some online training providers and settled on one called bizvision, but we are having difficulties actually getting the modules to run. Do you have a reliable provider you would recommend?
Any advice here on the forum or privately posted to my wall would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
- JenniferStGeorgCommunity Member
Hey Ron,
How about using a service like Open Sesame? https://www.opensesame.com/
I think they have an LMS service and are a kind of a brokerage. I haven't ever used them but might be worth a look rather than buying a LMS for one course.
Just a thought.
- SteveFlowersCommunity Member
You might also want to take a look at http://www.ruzuku.com and http://www.pathwright.com/. These are tailor made for course pathways made for folks that want to sell courses. Another cost effective option if you're comfortable configuring and hosting your own installation could be http://www.learndash.com.