It’s so silly… every last bit of graphics work I do happens in a velvety yellow chair, planted in front of two monitors. I don’t have to go anywhere. If you want to see my face to make sure I “look American” or something, why don’t we just Skype? Oh well. Also- you don’t want to know my hourly rate. Don’t ask me my hourly rate unless you want to be disappointed. I’ll give you my project rate and you’ll have to just accept that. Sure, I can quote you $15/hour like some of the other “graphic designers” on CL, but like them, that means I’m going to tell you it took me 20 hours to build your logo. Either that, or they bought/stole those graphics. Oh well. I don’t want to work with clients that want to pay me in cheese crackers (though, ironically enough, I did respond to an ad today that could pay me in MEAT… but I eat a lot of meat so…). I guess I am just feeling like I am out-growing CL. We posted an ad to see what sort of responses it would get (yeah yeah, maybe not exactly the most honest thing to do to my fellow designers)- and it was depressing to see the results. In under 2 hours there were over 20 responses… about half of which look “acceptable,” regardless of prices. I’m not sure how I can compete. It’s maddening. That being said, we do have clients, do have more websites lined up to create, and I am doing well. So maybe we just grow out of it. Who knows… this is all so new to me.
The things I did today:
- Replied to 6 CL ads and denied 6. It was an utterly depressing day on CL that filled me with a lot of negativity. It was all people who required locals for some stupid reason (to build… get this… a website. Pretty sure I just built a website for someone in MN and I’m in CA…) and people requiring me to respond with my rates. That’s FINE if you include a very detailed scope of work. Nobody does though. It is generally a sentence or two and I’m supposed to be able to glean enough information from THAT to give them a quote (and sometimes even concepts on spec). Craig’s List is the worst.
- Signed a contract with Art for the Heart and Soul to fix up their website and do monthly social media marketing. I really like working with Tina, and it will be a pleasure to help her out! They do some incredible work for women and families in need.
- Learned a bit about Magento– I realized that this is probably what someone meant to type instead of “Magneto” in a CL ad and that I embarrassed the crap outta myself by talking about comic books and fonts. Oh well. Now I know better- it is an option for “all-in-one” eCommerce websites. Still like WordPress better. Their website was wildly confusing.
- “Finished” the United Way of Mower County’s website. I have a call with their administrative assistant tomorrow to discuss. When I actually send it, I’ll link it here. I’m really proud of what I’ve created though.
- We added another TwoCanner today- Nate! He’ll be doing all of our hyper-technical IT stuff and coding for these first few sites. Eventually, we’ll likely add a few more people to this team. He has been great to work with and the TwoCan family is so happy to have him. When it is appropriate, we will announce him and make a big deal out of the whole thing.
Craig’s List Idiots
Going Global… do you mean Mental?
The grammar in this post is horrible, that goes without saying, but what I find amusing is that he is so secure in the idea that his silly reality show will not only gain local/national traction… but they are “going global with this.” I think you are a bit ahead of yourself, Mr. ‘no pay.’ And let’s count… that’s… SIX EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!! OMFG LOL ROFLCOPTOR WUT!? Yeah people, calm down and just try to be professional.
Seriously Confused CL Idiot
I thought at first that this was a troll by some dissatisfied designer or video editor. No… they’re actually serious. They are actually offering (and ONLY for an accepted video) a LinkedIn connection. Is that payment these days? Does that matter? Unless he’s some HUGELY connected CEO of some Florida Fortune 500 company… that’s not compensation. That’s the business equivalent of “I’ll add you on Facebook.” Dude is seriously stupid. He is looking for a “seriously confused production”… is that some brand or technique I’m unaware of? (of course, if it is, cool, fine, he’s slightly less an idiot) This guy literally ONLY seems to have an “idea for a logo design” but wants a whole video. For this video (that likely needs a logo… he only has an “idea”), he’s offering a connection that means nothing. Idiot. I hope he gets terrible quality and has to start all over many times, spending lots and lots of money and getting nothing. People like this… either go nowhere because they REFUSE to “get a little skin in the game,” or they go nowhere because they have terrible quality materials they paid little to nothing for.
People on CL, in general, suck. I just want to get to a point where all of my work is given to me by my existing contacts. NOT because I don’t want to do the work… I just don’t like anyone else I keep finding. It is making me a little bitter. At least today. Today I’m bitter. Let’s hope tomorrow I’m not.
A Note from TwoCan's Leigh 