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http://clientsfromhell.net/

I have been doing side jobs for a long while now, and I've can't stress the parent post enough - it's a lot more work than just programming. Like, 80/20.

It means that I have to be an incredible communicator, since I'll not only be the entire technical team, I'm the analyst, tax accountant and lawyer as well. I need to distill the verbal needs into discrete requirements, estimate costs, lay out contractual obligations, and so on. It's a heap of work. It's _real_ work, same as I do in my day job, just more varieties of it in less time.

Say I'm contracted to build a website - nothing too fancy, 1 main page template, 1 subpage template with 5 variants, a sign up form, bunch of javascript, database on the back end. I can manage that in a few hours. Actual effort including changing requirements, various designs, deciphering their documentation, getting hosting/account/access, fixing the provided assets, walking through setup, helping the copywriters populate the pages etc = 40+ hours. Doing it well enough that they feel I'm not only professional but exceptional - and they're getting their money's worth - quite a bit more.

Don't get me wrong, it can be personally rewarding both financially and intellectually, but it is a job, and it's not even my primary job.

I've found that I can manage as long as I set strict limits. I have to cut off potential clients as soon as they start making demands that aren't compatible with having a separate full time job; meetings during my normal working hours, travel, iterative development, taking vacation time from my primary job to work on a contract, etc. I stress the importance of having a predictable schedule - they can have it fast, but they can't have it now - I can't count the times a client left a voicemail with something like '...and it turns out we need it by tomorrow's 8 am meeting'. I try to stick with known business contacts, and maintain my business relationship with them - which is more time spent.

In my experience, projects of smaller size end up being horrible. I avoid Rentacoder and other similar sites since they appear to be unable to pay actual market value for the many of their tasks, or focus on items of dubious use - like the old request for forum-specific email harvesting programs. Outside of certified job posting sites, I have to worry about even getting paid. (If you want a scare, read http://clientsfromhell.net./

I don't know how you could do this casually and profit. It takes dedication of time and energy. I probably spend 30-40 hours a week on my side contracts when I'm active, but I work less than every other week, on average. Everyone wants an early completion date, but they rarely have their projects lined up in a row. I also find myself scheduling breaks, days I don't work, just so I can unwind a little.

It's ironic, but it takes a lot of stress to get yourself to a point where you can relax and enjoy what you're doing.

I think that if your goal isn't money, but rather to have fun, I recommend what other posters have suggested - find an OSS project. Something you can enjoy for itself, but not something that you're contractually obligated to spend your nights and weekends on.

I've experienced this myself: I think those people are just assholes who think they can bully the poster's company into giving free support.

There's a whole website devoted to these motherfuckers. I flip through it and, jaded as I am, I still occasionally see one that has me picking my jaw up off the floor.

Should be required reading, for potential free-lancers: http://clientsfromhell.net/

http://clientsfromhell.net/post/30462016381/me-our-backup-service-is-like-cloud-hosting-you

http://clientsfromhell.net/ is good too.

that the public is a mass of morons

Well, that at least is a well-known fact. And if you never had the pleasure of working in a customer service job, and never got the chance to discover this fact for yourself..

Then have a look at http://clientsfromhell.net/ and http://notalwaysright.com/

You remind me of the client from Clients from Hell:

[I’m not a designer but the attorney hired by a designer. I’m informing the client over the phone that he’s being sued for not paying the amount specified.]

Me: “Good afternoon, my name is [xxx], representing [designer] and [company]. We’re calling about payment that has not yet been received for a project which you agreed to pay for.”

Client: “What?! Who’s suing me?! Who is this?”

Me: “As I said, my name is [xxx], representing [designer] and [company]. You have X,XXX.XX that was supposed to be paid several months ago, as agreed upon by a contract with my clients.”

Client: “Are you suing me for a website? You’re not making any damn sense!”

Me: “You owe someone a fair deal of money and you’ve made it very clear that you have no intention of paying. I have several emails from your email address responding to my clients with messages such as “sayonara, suckers” and I am calling to see if you’d like to pay your fees now, or if we need to bring this into a courtroom, which I’m sure we’re all looking to avoid.”

Client: “I don’t know who this is or what the hell you want from me but listen up: fooling someone to make you a website isn’t a crime!”

Me: “You’re actually looking at some large fines and — should this be considered a felony — jail time.”

Client: “You’re a damn lawyer, you should know websites aren’t real. A website isn’t a thing, you can’t steal it! [designer] can still look at it, it’s still kinda his!”

[Within three days time, the designer received a check with the amount listed and an additional $20.00 “for your asshole lawyer boyfriend.” The designer had to resist framing the check for the novelty.]

Based on my experiences and the experiences related in Clients From Hell, every freelancer ought to leave a hidden timebomb to be deactivated only when the client pays up. Cheapskates deserve every minute of downtime and every dollar extracted from them by cleanup crews.

You sound to me like a real designer who understands real-world requirements. I would imagine the people who use a site like 99designs are fly-by-night entrepeneurs who are going to abandon the logo after a few months anyway. I'm in IT myself, but having worked at an ad agency early in my career, and working closely with designers after moving to management and collaborating with designers on websites, etc. I understand your pain.

http://clientsfromhell.net/

Not only the average person... copied from:

Client: “I’ve sent the image. I can’t wait to see the final product.”

Me: “This image is 115px x 148px at 72dpi. Typically we need images around 1000px and higher with around 150+dpi.”

Client: “Can’t you just Enhance the images like they do in CSI.”