Want extra money? Start your own projects.

by christoschiotis

Web designers have a unique opportunity compared to all the other web professionals. Using all the tools that are available out there, we are capable to create working projects that can turn up into a small, yet stable income.

Our workflow, whether you work on your own or you are part of a company, is not stable. Especially if you are a freelancer. There are many times were the work load is small, some times there is not client work at all. That’s the problem with client-based projects. They have bigger income, but it’s not stable.

This client-dead period is the perfect time to start organize and create your own projects which can give you a small but more stable income. So, let’s see some of the ways, you can take advantage of these tools and your knowledge.

Small and Advertising-supported websites

First of all create an Adsense account (if you haven’t did it already).
Use your extra time to plan small advertising-supported websites. Look in Google Trends and in the whole Zeitgeist project for keywords and ideas. Use your twitter and take a closer look in what your followers ask for or talk about. Write down everything interesting to you and try to break them into small projects. Your free time is not endless so try to plan projects you can create in 3-4 hours, on a Sunday morning for example. Try projects that don’t need much of a support for content or administrative tasks. Remember they are just small bricks in your wall of achievements.

One thing that these years taught me is to put adsense ads in every possible and old website of yours. Make small changes into a customers website and exchange them with a small banner in to his website. Have ads in every possible place. But don’t stick there. This is very minor income but, it’s an income!

Go Long-Term

The opposite way is to plan long-term projects. Although this is something that requires a more dedicated work from your side, it’s something more valuable than a small advertising supported website. If you are able to create a couple of small projects and plan a big one, then you’re in a very good way.

Long-term projects need your everyday support. Organize your daytime and try to find 30-40 minutes to dedicate. The tip is to plan one website at a time. Try to stick on it. I know that there are times you have a new idea, you believe is far better than the one you’re working on. Write it down and forget it for the moment. Try to be strict on this, otherwise you will end up with a bunch of unfinished projects and nothing ready and working.

We will try to write more about long-term projects and how to organize them in a future article.

Personal Blog

One of the most common ideas of a long-term personal project is definitely your own blog. Of course blogging is quite difficult because it needs to be good in many aspects at the same time. It requires ability to write, organize your thoughts, plan your topics and the biggest one; dedication. You have to be strict to your publishing timeline and schedule. For example if you decide to publish one full article per week, you have to stick on that and also keep the same day, always. If you take a look at successful blogs out there, you will see that they have strict schedule of posting things.
If you want your visitors to be loyal, you have to be loyal to them, first.

Want to stick to your lovely clients?

If you are the kind of person who loves to have as many clients as possible, try another way. Try to take small clients work. Try to accept as many as small projects, that you can finish in a day or two. Of course these kind of projects pay less, but they have the priviledge of paying fast and can be organized in way that can give you a more steady income.

They are similar to the small websites we talked about, without the freedom of being your projects, but with a more secure payroll.

Another advantage is that these small works, can end up to a long-term relationship with a clients. They are the perfect leads to a bigger project.

The choices are many, but one is the requirement

Running your own websites is so easy to setup and have them live, but at the same time too difficult to maintain and support. Whether you choose to begin with a blog, small websites or long-term projects, you have to be dedicated and passionate with it. This is the only guarantee that this attempt will not be a fail.