So here we are with the results of our first ever Newsletter Only Giveaway!
This was a giveaway that ONLY Subscribers to the newsletter got a chance to participate in, if you missed it, don’t worry, there are more giveaways and great special offers coming your way – but to get access you need to sign up! (Quickly!) Here is a convenient signup form, how did that get here??
nuSchool’s “The Pricing Class”
I had the opportunity to try out the “The Designer’s Pricing Class” by the guys at NuSchool – this isn’t a promotion or anything, I gain nothing from telling you this, I just was really impressed with the class they put together and wanted to share it with you guys – but they sweetened the pot and gave me ONE FREE PASS to the class (valued at $200) – which is what I gave away to one of you lucky guys :D. We are about to get to that, but first here is an awesome video explaining the class, what to expect, and some more info about it.
It is basically a really nicely designed course in a nice video course system, they give you 50 Videos arranged into 5 video courses – not only are they informative and easy to follow but they are FUNNY – way funnier than I expected, and it made it enjoyable to go through the whole thing. Plus you get access to all of the resources, and it keeps track of the videos you’ve seen – if you are like me you can watch them while you workout or doing some other passive activity, just auto play through the lessons, worked really well just a few minutes a day. You also get cool perks like online tools and calculators – so is it worth $200? If you are a freelancer looking to earn more money in 2015 (who isn’t) then yes, it is a worthwhile investment to have the confidence to price your projects correctly.
Who Won the Free Course?
So what were the rules? They were simple
All subscribers to the newsletter had to do to enter was just hit reply on the newsletter email and tell me their freelance story – “how long have you been freelancing? Or maybe you are just starting, or WANT to start – tell me about it”.
I got lots of great responses from you guys, but one stood out above the rest, so without further ado, here is our Winner
GIVEAWAY WINNER – DANIEL BOSWELL
Here is his story
“I’ve been doing freelance web design since 2007. My first gig was a trade of service to a local videographer who filmed my wedding. He filmed the wedding and I built his website. I had just started learning WordPress and I had the opportunity to put what I’d learned to the test. I’d say the website turned out pretty good and I still show it in my portfolio of work.
I did small freelance jobs for the next couple of years until at the end of 2009 I was laid off from my full time web design job and knew I had to do something quick to make up the income. As a Christian, I’d always grown up being taught to trust God in the difficult times and this was the first big “through the valley” time as a man with a family. However, God did provide and right at the same time, a friend of my wife’s was asking on Facebook if anyone knew of a web designer who could build her husbands website. My wife quickly replied and I was able to set up a meeting with this person. I’m happy to say I’ve been their web designer for over 5 years now and they are one of my top clients.
My next step in my freelance journey came a few months later as I had just found another salary job as a web and graphic designer. A person on the staff told me they had a business friend in need of a part time freelance worker for building websites. I got in contact with this person and we started working together. I worked with them up until 2013 and that work got me connected to another company based out of Tenessee where I have been doing part time freelance work ever since 2013.
In June of 2012 I was let go from my salaried position due to lack of business and decided I was going to try to make it on my own. At this point, I’d acquired about 4 or 5 freelance clients and I was making a decent amount of money off of monthly work. It wasn’t enough to live on so I took on a paper delivery job in the early mornings to compensate while I built up my business.
I maintained those clients and the paper route for the next 2 years while also working to gain new clients. In August of 2014, I decided not to renew my paper route contract and decided to go with full time web design. God works in mysterious ways because shortly before leaving the paper route, I was contacted by my former employer and we were able to come to an agreement where I would perform contacted web and graphic design work for 10 hours a week. I’m now making as much money doing that as I was working 15 – 20 hours a week delivering newspapers and now my income is completely based on web design work! I’ve also gained a few new clients in the last 6 months, and my current clients have even more work for me now.
2015 is poised to become my best year yet as I continue to grow my web design business!
Now I just need to make time to get my own website and marketing efforts in order. My goal is to develop a way to generate recurring revenue while opening up more free time for me to spend with my family. I also want to focus more on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) so I can improve the ROI of my clients websites.”
Thanks for entering Daniel, Really great story! Congrats on the success and good luck in 2015!!!
If you guys found this story interesting, and want to find out more about Daniel, check out his Website The CMS Guy for more info!
Did you guys enjoy this? Want to see more Freelance readers stories? Want to share your own? Share with the class in the comments below! Thanks for Reading!
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