Finally I have some work.

I have some work finally. After the long dry spell I expanded my search to people I know who have their own business. I am doing a website for a martial arts school I attend, and I'm doing it as a pro-bono exercise to build my portfolio.
The client doesn't know much about the web but knows he needs a web site to keep up with his peers in the industry. So far, I've made some graphics, converted his logo to something that can be used on the web, and started a template.
I need to make sure I don't dilly dally on this and put something professional together soon and get it up and running so he doesn't lose interest in the project.

That's it for now.

Huge dry spell.

I'm still having no luck landing a new project. That one failed project seems to be haunting me, and the lack of examples seems to be a theme as well. I've put up a temporary website with some of my work but that hasn't helped. I think I need to take a step back, finish my website and perhaps even making it permanent before continuing. I need to focus on one thing right now, as time seems to be coming at a premium.

Creating my own graphics.

I am not an artist. My talent for creating good looking pictures is almost non-existent. Add to that the fact that good graphics programs are supposed to be expensive and hard to figure out and creating your own web graphics/logos/banners can seem like a daunting task for someone like me.

That was until I discovered Paint .Net. Let me start out by saying that I am becoming a big fan of Open Source software. I've played around with Linux, Open Office, GIMP, and a few other open source software products. Mostly my experience has been one of great surprise as I have found quality software that rivals the big software companies products in quality and usability and well supported due to a large user following who like to share their knowledge.

Paint .Net is one of these programs, the software is easy to use, has a great forum with guru's posting answers and challenging each other to come up with new ways to out do each other in plug ins and tutorials. Using the software and the additional knowledge from the forums I have been able to come up with some pretty decent graphics to use on my site. I'm still not a graphic designer, but I can complete some simple tasks that help make a drab web page look a lot better.

Breaking through the start up barrier.

I find myself bumping into a wall a lot with my bids. I am currently using Rentacoder.com to find work, and the more I post my bids there, the more I realize that getting off the starting block is difficult.
Most of the project requestors want to see examples of your work, and a lot of those want to see 3-5 actual websites coded and in production. It's the catch 22 of freelancing. To build a portfolio you need to bid on projects and produce websites, but to win projects you need completed work to show as an example.
I found a website yesterday that addresses this issue at a rudimentary level. You can find it here.
The advice here is mostly information I either figured out myself or had read in other places but have not acted on entirely yet. I've been working on my own site for a few weeks now, but I haven't gotten very far with it as I keep changing the design. I guess I'm too picky. I've finally settled on a design and completed the template, now I just need to put some content together and get the domain name registered and choose a host.
After I get that setup, I think I'll work on an example site, something that will showcase my abilities to potential clients.

What this is.

I'm starting this blog to record my experiences/struggles of breaking into the online freelance market. As you may or may not know there are a several websites that allow people to post projects that they need done but don't have the know how/time/resources to complete so other people who do have the time/know how/resources can bid on and complete for them at a cost.
I have started frequenting these web sites and posting bids on projects that I think I can complete. I have completed one job successfully and have had one job in which the user was not happy with my work due to my lack of hardware to test. (I'll explain that on a different post).
So hang out with me and see how this process evolves. Will I become successful? Will I fail miserably? Who knows.