Fox's 2019 Make $100k Starting Web Design from Scratch Challenge

[srodrigo]

I didn't have a lot of bad experience with fixed-price type projects. They were quite small with not too much that can go wrong and those parts were estimated accordingly (average between smooth and completely wrong). Still had a project that took ~180 hours instead of ~120 estimated and a single task that took 40 instead of 4 (and that was one line of code bug fix in an open source project lol). There was also quite the opposite sometimes, like a project done in ~60 hours that was estimated 200+.

Doesn't sound too bad. I don't know what are your margins though, but I've seen here some people charging over 10k for static websites; those take a few weeks to build, so you can imagine the large margins we are talking about. That's why I say the risk of Type 2 projects doesn't pay off to me, given the extra amount of work (which implies a price increase) and the technical risks. But there might be people who still keep good margins with this kind of projects. It's just not what I've seen personally.

We thought of focusing on the team-as-service model. So dedicated developers that the client needs to complete/support his project. But prospects that can afford this are quite big businesses/funded startups with long-term projects. Those are even harder to find and usually requires a small fixed-price project to evaluate our team.

They are hard, but they exist. In some European cities they aren't even hard to find. You need top quality developers though that make a big impact.

I mean that they don't take a big part in the client's decision making. The clients decide what? and why? the developers how?.
Example tasks from the client:

• Add those fields there, here are the formulas.
• Integrate XXX feed for news
• Make a window that would do XX

And the developers sometimes don't even know why would a client want that and what value that would add to him or his users. So there's an opportunity of adding more value here too, but that would require some expertise in the client's business/domain.

The whole point of software development is not building stuff as someone else commands, but understanding the business and domain, so you can not only build the features better, but suggest improvements. There is no other way to really add value and get paid accordingly.

There are even strategies to make more impact in the decisions, like providing less technical roles like business analysts, than can work closer with stakeholders (often, developers can't when clients are big).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WillHurtDontCare]

Worth noting: get as much of the content that you need from your client up front at the beginning to minimize delays from slow response time. I have an Upwork project that should have taken 3 days stretch into over 2 weeks because the client takes a day to respond to every email.

Or more generally, have a comprehensive action plan so that you aren't simply winging it from paragraph to paragraph.

 

[Fox]

Haven't updated in a while. Most recent video just went up today...

Really happy with this video (and the business progress). Was great to get up to Canada for a week and work with this client in person.

Tried to show best as possible in the video above the steps I take for preparing to build a website (before I ever start coding).

 

[Fox]

Great video. Really I seriously have been working on getting a web design biz going since like sept of last year (which is why I found you and am here), so what I really need to see are all the little details no one talks about, and really see how running a biz like this is day to day, so I really appreciate content like this. I can't wait to see your actual first real sale. I don't think you should be able to use your personal network though, I feel you should use only tactics everyone else can use. I honestly don't have a personal network, although I guess I should be making one once I have some good portfolio projects under my belt.

Thanks, Ill make a video on personal networks soon cause I think people misunderstand what I mean by that.

My network is everyone I meet. It doesn't mean I have some friends who just hand me projects - I connect with people and the time and go out of my way to meet new people whenever possible.

Case in point - by flying to this last web project I was able to be involved in two high-end food events. I stayed back after hours helping to wash dishes so I could network with the people involved. Turns out the owner of the venue is best friends with someone who made 300 million plus selling their business to Microsoft a few years back. Was able to sit down with them (the owner) for 2 hours and chat business and life.

Its all about putting yourself out there and building connections through value, not just spamming your services on FB and hoping a buddy buys (not directed at OP).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WillHurtDontCare]

Mistakes made thus far:

1. Did not ask client up from if he had his own hosting & domain figured out (he did not, and he wanted free solutions).
2. Spent a few hours trying to rebuild HTML code to fit in WordPress; gave up because I just don't know enough about WordPress to actually deliver that product. I repeated the same process with Weebly, with the same result.
3. Realized that I know nothing about web hosting or domain names.
   1. I saw that GoDaddy has $1 plans, but that only includes one website. I don't know if one website means www.onewebsite.com & www.onewebsite.com/about_us means 2 websites.

More mistakes on the way. I'll post them as I reflect on them.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

Just had a 25 minute interview with a client about a one page landing site job that could be high exposure. Think the interview went well (almost a 30 minute call), though there are no guarantees. Useful experience, plus more than I expected from a random Craig's List posting that I responded to.

 

[Solid Snake]

do you use any metrics when pitching to companies?

"i can increase your sales conversion (or revenue) rate by xyz%" etc

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WillHurtDontCare]

do you use any metrics when pitching to companies?

"i can increase your sales conversion (or revenue) rate by xyz%" etc

I would if I had previous clients. Can't promise what I haven't delivered on.

 

[Solid Snake]

I would if I had previous clients. Can't promise what I haven't delivered on.

Sorry, I meant @Fox

 

[Ninjakid]

Sorry, I meant @Fox

Did you just come to Fox's thread to track Gray Fox?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Fox]

I love that video game ha.

I don’t ever promise results - I point to past jobs and use that as social proof/evidence I have delivered in the past.

Saying I can do “X %” is going to seem like total BS given the amount of factors involved in a business. I’m skeptical of anyone throwing around promises like that and so will most business owners.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

Does anyone have advice on how to isolate which lines of code in a pre-built HTML theme cause what output on the website? The brute force method of checking all CSS assigned to a class is taking a while and does not always work.

 

[yaponchik]

Web design is getting harder and harder to be viable unless they need something really unique. Wordpress, Squarespace, etc.. make it incredibly easy to avoid the $3000+ for a unique site design.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WillHurtDontCare]

Web design is getting harder and harder to be viable unless they need something really unique. Wordpress, Squarespace, etc.. make it incredibly easy to avoid the $3000+ for a unique site design.

A well designed website is a means, not an end. If you know how to assemble the right content (pictures & stories) you can bring in far more value than something canned from WordPress.

It's not about the website, it's about what the website gets you.

 

[Samera]

A well designed website is a means, not an end. If you know how to assemble the right content (pictures & stories) you can bring in far more value than something canned from WordPress.

It's not about the website, it's about what the website gets you.

Think this is what I like the most about @Fox content, he make's it clear that as much as having a "pretty" website is great, the most important thing is improving on weak points and getting results. As you say, it's all about value! A SquareSpace website may be cheap/simple but can it return the same value as something tailored to a business as means to truly increase revenue and improve customer rapport? Hell no!

 

[Samera]

Does anyone have advice on how to isolate which lines of code in a pre-built HTML theme cause what output on the website? The brute force method of checking all CSS assigned to a class is taking a while and does not always work.

You're looking for "inspect element", essentially just right click on highlighted material on any website and hit "inspect element" and you'll see a developer box pop-up. You may want to give this page at Google a look over: Inspect and Edit Pages and Styles  |  Tools for Web Developers  |  Google Developers

Hope that helps a bit mate

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WillHurtDontCare]

SSL notes that I took earlier on setting up SSL Certificate / Forcing HTTPS with SiteGround. Note that this should work for any platform that uses cPanel.

How to Force SSL with .htaccess on Siteground

How to Install a Free SiteGround SSL Certificate

SiteGround offers free SSL

Any host with cPanel offers SSL (45 seconds in)

• Go to my account
• Select cPanel
• Scroll down to the security section
• Click “Let’s Encrypt"
• Let’s Encrypt Wildcard SSL
• View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYJ00ktFeWk
  
  • Allows you to encrypt your website and all of its subdomains simultaneously
  • Before Wildcard, you would have to install all of these domains simultaneously
• Under Manage Encrypt SSL, select action, & select HTTPS Settings
  • Toggle on HTTPS Enforce
    • This means that if someone tries to use the http (non-secure version) that they will get redirected to the https version instead
  • Toggle on External Links Rewriter
    • If you use external links that use http, this feature will attempt to rewrite those urls to point to https versions

How to Force SSL with .htaccess on Siteground

• How to force SSL with .htaccess

Create a .htaccess file in your public_html folder if that file does not already exist there (you will have to display hidden files)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
The .htaccess file needs to be located inside the site's document root folder. If your website is in a sub folder, then the .htaccess should be placed in the corresponding sub folder.
You can create or edit the .htaccess file either via FTP, or using with the File Manager available in cPanel.

 

[BrettOMC]

Web design is getting harder and harder to be viable unless they need something really unique. Wordpress, Squarespace, etc.. make it incredibly easy to avoid the $3000+ for a unique site design.

Yes, you're right but I'm finding that a lot of people get stuck in these builders. Also frustrated with trying to customise or even dealing with things like domain registration. I've started to focus on the DIFM type clients. Lots of them out there. They value a professional doing the work for them and definitely don't mind paying for it to get their time back.

Now that landing pages and sale funnels are becoming a bigger thing in PPC marketing, that is another avenue to focus on.

 

[Ernie McCracken]

"I have a theory, and it's something I think a lot of experienced guys here will agree with. The $1,000-$2,000 site range could be the HARDEST to enter. This is why "bottom-up" sales will screw you. The people that will spend 1-2k on a site recognize that they're worth more than a starter site, but may not have the cashflow to commit to what they're worth. Business is hard, and when you're in the intermediate stage, it feels important to appear professional but often times the budget gets in the way. It is for this reason that I believe most people will hit a plateau.

So what's my best play as a relatively broke customer? I am one of those people who needs to get the absolute most out of a $2k website. Every dollar counts right now.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[WillHurtDontCare]

So what's my best play as a relatively broke customer? I am one of those people who needs to get the absolute most out of a $2k website. Every dollar counts right now.

So you are looking for someone to build you a website? That would put you in my price range. Though if I'm not the right fit you could ask in @Fox 's web group.

 

[BrettOMC]

So what's my best play as a relatively broke customer? I am one of those people who needs to get the absolute most out of a $2k website. Every dollar counts right now.

What kind of site are you looking for? What features do you need and what are you business requirements. I've been in the industry, working for big brands for years and I'm launching a new agency in the next 2 weeks. I've put together a productised service that gives clients the high-end agency result for an SMB price point. I'm looking to test my pricing model and you may be a good fit, if you're interested.

I am offering a website, ecommerce, funnels and landing pages with for $199/mo. I will design your website and work with you on revisions to get it where need it. No upfront design costs, just the monthly fee. With the $199/mo you get premium customer service. Additional services can include PPC marketing and email marketing.

I'm building a company that offers high-end results for SMBs with limited start up capital. If you like, we can work together and it will also help me prove the model. After this I will probably test a $2500 design fee along with the $199/mo, but since you're a Fastlane member, I won't charge you that fee. I'm at support@onlinesimply.com if you want to chat about it. I haven't launched yet, so, my pre-launch site is the only page up at the moment.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

A not-so-subtle reminder of the importance of content over beauty with web design: Words

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Anakalypsi]

Hey @Fox

1quarter of the challange time has passend.

Where are you currently standing?

Are you back in Mexico?

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

Useful video on sitemaps. They help with SEO.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtoAfUB6Ubw


Create your Google Sitemap Online - XML Sitemaps Generator

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

This will be useful to anyone using themes while still learning HTML / CSS / JS

Using two CSS classes on one element

If you have 2 classes in one element, say part-one & part-two, you can create a super class by combining the two with a period as a new variable (part-one.part-two) and coding as normal. That guarantees that your features will work on the element. I had issues where I would update one class and the updates would not go through on the element. Using this super class addressed the issue.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ItsAJackal]

I am such a dummy. I somehow forgot about this thread and kept reading the old one from 2016. Doh!

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

So I've had 4 cups of coffee and I started making cold calls to business to try to get web clients. Only 3 calls so far, 2 secretaries and 1 business owner (who said that he wasn't interested). My heart has been racing the whole time. I feel so alive.

I remain nervous about these calls, but I tend to ask myself ruthless questions to figure what I'm really about. So I ask myself "Is a life where I am too timid to call a stranger because they might say something mean worth living?" My answer is no, so I will keep picking up the phone.

AMOR FATI!

 

[From Mars]

Hi, Fox! I've read this thread (such a great challenge by you). You haven't updated for a while here, so I wonder how is it going?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Shumaher]

Great progress so far, @Fox! I love all the insight on how you approach clients and the overall workflow required in order to deliver those value-packed websites!

Over the years I've been thinking of starting freelancing myself and I think it's finally time to pull the trigger. However, I've got a few questions regarding the legal aspect of this and I hope that someone could point me to the right direction.

1. How do you handle the domain name & hosting with your clients? Do you use some sort of affiliate program for this?

2. What about the contracts? Do you take care of those or is the client responsible for this as the one "hiring" you? Any examples?

 

[Fox]

Hi, Fox! I've read this thread (such a great challenge by you). You haven't updated for a while here, so I wonder how is it going?

Hey - so I switched up the challenges.

The first challenge didn't go as well as I would have liked. People were not able to follow the progress so well and I don't think it was helping people as well as I planned.

So I switched from a "watch me do it" to a "here is how you do it" challenge.

The first video of the new challenge is here...