When Do I Know I'm Good Enough To Start Freelancing Web Development?

[Elie101]

I studied aspDotnet for a couple of months starting from Sep last year and finished two projects and revised it after and feel very comfortable with the MVC pattern and added some features using RESTful APIs. Then I studied some HTML,CSS, and JS but no framework like react or angular. Do I need to study one of those before I start freelancing or do I just go right ahead with what I have now?

 

[nifras]

don't wait just do it and offer what you can do. get the project get some good review keep learn and expand.

 

[ptekspy]

Yeah build a portfolio and sell the services that you can do.

"What you can do" will soon grow into a very large list. At the same time you will hopefully gain some reputation doing smaller jobs etc

Your skills and your client base improve at the same time .... Hopefully. Good luck

 

[Stuffedegg]

Personally, I know very little about what you have written, but in my experience, you may never feel "ready" or "good enough." Not until you have the first satisfied customer, anyway.

My advise:

Find one client, give them as many revisions as you are comfortable with, make a note of what they want, what they change, etc. Then you can move onto the next after either seeing that you are good enough, or learning what you didn't know for the first customer.

What I would not suggest, is to get more than one client, and then they both want something that you do not know how to do. Then you are screwed.

Start slow, learn what customers want, be prepared to pay someone to help you out if needs be. You may surprise yourself and realize that you are good enough.

 

[hakann]

If you know basics you are good enough and ready.
As others suggested you can take projects your qualified
for at first, but dont hasitate to take a step further and
accept projecs that partially need you to learn something
new while you work on sollution.

Perfect example is working with APIs. You know basics
of how it all functions, but for every new project you might
need to learn or dig in documentation for some API details
of site involved, since each site has its own api with its own
set of functions and possibilities.

Same is with angular or react, after all its just javascript
with its own set of functions and structure to follow.

To conclude, you are good enough right now.
Go for it.

 

[Magic555]

If you know you can build what the market demand is from freelance projects just go for it. To longer you wait the more you will miss out on real experience.

 

[MDubbs]

I studied aspDotnet for a couple of months starting from Sep last year and finished two projects and revised it after and feel very comfortable with the MVC pattern and added some features using RESTful APIs. Then I studied some HTML,CSS, and JS but no framework like react or angular. Do I need to study one of those before I start freelancing or do I just go right ahead with what I have now?

Programming has a large learning curve, but I'd recommend trying to tackle a large web application such as a clone of Reddit or youtube. Something like this will show potential employers you have enough technical ability and perseverance to deliver on a large project versus smaller web apps.

 

[0xlhr]

As others have pointed out, just going for it will give you a lot of great personal and professional experience. You don't need to learn any specific thing to begin freelance work (e.g., learning React first), because any gigs you target will naturally be related to what you already know. Of course, this means you have to be self-aware enough to pick and choose what projects to take on, and which ones to avoid. But even if you did theoretically end up in a scenario where you said to yourself "Crap, I'm not ready, I can't do this," then you'll face it, deal with it, and come out with understandings that make you better prepared the next time around. It's a win-win, really.

Since you mentioned React/Angular, you don't need them to get started on things. But they would be a great asset nonetheless, and probably make it much easier for you to develop single-page websites.

 

[dkv023]

As others have pointed out, just going for it will give you a lot of great personal and professional experience. You don't need to learn any specific thing to begin freelance work (e.g., learning React first), because any gigs you target will naturally be related to what you already know. Of course, this means you have to be self-aware enough to pick and choose what projects to take on, and which ones to avoid. But even if you did theoretically end up in a scenario where you said to yourself "Crap, I'm not ready, I can't do this," then you'll face it, deal with it, and come out with understandings that make you better prepared the next time around. It's a win-win, really.

Since you mentioned React/Angular, you don't need them to get started on things. But they would be a great asset nonetheless, and probably make it much easier for you to develop single-page websites.

How to avoid if I see offer which has less description and something like to made website. I can create website by wordpress+theme or by coding creating new CMS like wordpres? For example, I don't know PHP but I can create website by putting theme on wordpress and installing few plugins.

 

[dkv023]

Is there difference between web-development and web-design? I think these two things are the same.

 

[Yee]

Depends if you’re hustler, you could start yesterday if you wish to become a backend developer better study
basic computer science algorithms.

 

[Yee]

Is there difference between web-development and web-design? I think these two things are the same.

maybe switching both words makes it clear:
development-web
design-web

 

[michiosha1]

I always thought that:
web-design = graphics, psd, maybe html, ...
web-development = code that does something either in browser or on server (django, javascript, php etc)

 

[Matheus Moreira]

Can you get a full project done in a timely manner?

Yes -> go for it!
No -> git gud noob!

Angular/react/vue or whatever are only necessary if required on the project scope. Otherwise html/css/js is fine... and some server-side language to control the database - if needed.

 

[contrawho]

I believe that it will all depend on what technologies you will be using.

If you are doing frontend, you will be ready when you can sort of implement designs by using HTML, CSS, and make it dynamic with a bit of JS.

There are many libraries and frameworks that will leverage a lot of the hard work that is required, but without a solid understanding of the core frontend technologies, you will struggle a lot.

 

[diamondhands]

Start hustling, get your hands dirty, and keep yourself with a routine on making things, finding new clients, and improving yourself. It's sooooo tough at the start (to fight that procrastination thing), but very rewarding once you get some things done and not being in that "always learning" loop.

 

[dkv023]

Isn't the freelance market a little over-saturated nowadays?

 

[ViceCaz]

Isn't the freelance market a little over-saturated nowadays?

There hasn't been a time with as much freelancer as today, sure.

Likewise, there hasn't been a time in history with that big of demand regarding e-commerce, website design and development

For those talented enough and skilled in self-marketing, they won't need to worry about work availability

 

[dkv023]

I think it's still hard to find offers even if you are a good programmer, because of a lot of competitions on the market.

 

[tubeboost]

Maybe it's worth to develop a HTML framework and sell them on sites like themeforest.net.