Freelance Freedom
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Archive for December, 2007
Need for a better Drupal Review Module
Sunday, December 30th, 2007I am a Joomla lover. Been working a lot on Joomla and really love it. Although it may not be as flexible as Drupal (in terms of coding/programming,as I heard) but it surely is a winner when it comes to no. of quality themes, components, and modules, the community provides.
Today, I was trying to work on one of my personal Drupal project with a user based review engine. Like I do with Joomla projects, I started searching for Review Modules for Drupal. Will, I did find some of them but they are all very basic and nothing in comparison to what Joomla’s review components such as JReviews, xtdratings, etc has to offer. Ok, I understand that these Joomla components arent Free but common, I was expecting a lot from Drupal. I found some simple modules and some very simple modules. I am not sure how happy I will be using them but I know they doesn’t have the necessary features I am looking for, yet. Anyways, I just started working with Drupal so I suppose it would take considerable time for me to get to know the software properly before proceeding. But as said earlier, better be commercial but there is need for a better Drupal Review Module.
PS: You can checkout NodeReview and UserReview Modules for Drupal.
End Child Labor Website
Thursday, December 27th, 2007Well this is not exactly a business idea but something we should all think about.
End Child Labor: A unique way of stopping child labor and educating parents who cant afford to pay school bills. The site will allow people across the globe to donate money which will go to various foundations that are working hard to stop child labor. One of the major cause of child labor is money. Where the poor is unable to pay school bills and education fees of his children. They instead lead the kids to labor in order to make family living.
If a website can collect money from around the world for End-Child-Labor foundations in poor countries, things will be a lot different.
Website Interface: A simple layout displaying how one can help a family educate, end child labor and promote world peace.
Money or Fame?
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007What’s more important to you? Money or Fame?
Well, as long as both co-exists, theres no problem. But what is that we should look for when starting a business? No matter what business you start, you need to hit the fame part of your business first.
My old boring story: At first I used to think about making money… quick.. real freaking quick, but just like all others, I feel in traps of things that I can’t do, and never made a penny, infact I lost most of wealth. I tried being a sales guy for an impossible selling product, I tried to be a cheater at Google Adsense, I bought stupid ebooks that say “Stupid people like you and me can make money sitting at home doing nothing!”.. well, If only I read some books on motivation, business ethics and philosophy, I would have never invested my time and money.
What am I talking about?: What I have learned is something we all know but never applied. Theres no way to earn money without an idea, seriousness and zeal towards being successful. I only wished I could spend all the time I lost in building something valuable. Something that would build a brand, that would be recognized among few.
But hey!: It ain’t over yet! It ain’t over neither for me nor for you! Its time to apply some basics and learn how to build a right empire. I am starting to offer exceptional service at low costs for my clients and provide excellent support to all my services. This will help me build good and quality clients which will trust me and my work. Once I gain their trust I can be referred to their friends and be networked. Thats all is needed. So, if you happen to be stuck like me, come up with a plan, lower your service rates, increase your quality and see how things will change.
Do you social?
Thursday, December 20th, 2007I mean, do you socialize?
Although small sized but most of the clients I’ve got are through referrals. Not client referrals but referrals from my friends and family. You have no idea how I was referred. Once, I spoke to a client who was referred by my very old forgotten friend’s elder brother’s wife. For a long time, I din’t even recognize whom was he talking about.
Well, this post isn’t really about how I got clients being little social, but my new plans of getting more clients being more social (this funda is also called “business networking”). Have you ever been to any local meets? Where people with common interest meet, learn, or share ideas? I dint. But I’ve always wanted to be a part of a usergroup that has small business owner gatherings. Although these were difficult to maintain at old times, new feature rich websites like meetup.com are helping people like us get access to gatherings of interest. Imagine the possibilities: (more…)
Sample Thank You Letter
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007Here is a sample thank you letter I used after my visit to the client’s office.
Hi Client,
It was wonderful having the opportunity to meet you, and get to know you a little better. I can see how much value you bring to your company and how much you would like to see it succeed. I’d like to thank you for the chance to show you and your company what we can do for you to help you in your goals.
I am very excited to be a part of your growing business as my company steps into xyz industry. By all means my company will provide topnotch quality service and creativity for your online portal.
As per our discussion, I will have the required documents ready for you by the end of this week and we can move forward from there.
Once again, thank you for selecting Company Name for this project. If there are any additional questions I can answer for you, don’t hesitate to call.
Cheers,
Your Name.
Deal Closed!
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007This post is a continuation of last post titled: Meeting a client
Surprisingly the meeting went really good. I was not only able to sell web design services but also convinced the client to go for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I was right on time, and everything went according to the plan. Some of the key takeaways of this visit were as follows: (more…)
Meeting a client
Saturday, December 15th, 2007For the first time, I would be visiting a client, one hour drive from my place, to understand his requirements and propose a solution. I am a little nervous at the same time excited to learn from this visit. Surely, this will be awesome experience. Until now, I have never been to any of my client’s office to discuss the project. I have only done business online and mostly with clients who stay far away from my city. In fact until now, I hardly considered talking on them phone. Only emails. But as I know, things need to change, I need to go out and win trust in order to get better and happier clients. So how do I prepare myself for the visit? Here it goes… (more…)
1-800-Number for your company
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Yesterday, I got call on my stupid cell phone from one of my potential clients. While I was talking to him, I was wondering what would I say if he asks my office number (FYI: I dont have an office phone) or what if he gets a stupid busy message when I cant pick up the call sometime?. Well it could be very easy to just get a new phone and dedicate it for the freelancing business I do, but I was also interested in going one step further than typical local numbers. I researched a little bit about 1-800-numbers and I was amazed how affordable they are these days. With packages starting at just $9.99 a month (only $4.99 at Office Depot), I went on spending couple of hours on proper research for a reliable 1-800 provider.
Joomla site menu translation
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007While working on one of my client’s website, I was required to create various translations not for the content but just the menu items. At first, I was suspicious if one can easily do that, but at the end it turned out pretty easy. A well know component for language translations Joomfish was the real hero. It was pretty easy, after installing the component and required language files from Joomla Repository, I went ahead creating translations for just the menu items leaving the content as it is. I later enabled the ‘language selector’ module that came with Joomfish and poof! The new languages for menu items were ready to go!
