On the Side

My first suggestion woudl be to contact local web design companies and ask if they are looking for subcontractors. It might be tough during these economic times to find anyone who has extra work. Keeping your rates relatively low at this point would be good. They probably won't give you super challenging work at first but that's fine, you need experience and they need someone to do the grunt work (coding HTML & CSS probably!). Some companies will eventually hire their subs full time if they can.

These forums might be another avenue for making business connections. I know some people have started to work together after meeting on this forum.

Hi Jared,

There is plenty of work out there for someone with your skills.

I would suggest trying Craigslist computer gigs and jobs - there are many clients there that prefer to work with students (mainly because a student will be cheaper, I think).

Beware the clients who are shady or who don't really know what they want (they are pretty obvious). As in any freelance gig, a contract/agreement and deposit are strongly recommended before you begin.

New York has a very active market, many clients are ok with telecommuting, you could also try your local market for clients who are looking for someone in the area.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/cpg/
http://newyork.craigslist.org/web/

Good luck and keep us posted!

There are also jobs other than Web design / development that use your skills. For example, one job that did not even exist a year ago is building apps for the iPhone. And if Adobe's AIR takes off, development of complete computer applications will utilize your skills, rather than the esoteric programming skills currently demanded.

I think you are on the right track with your skill set. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for your help... this has pointed me in the right direction. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!
-Jared

Hey guys,
I have been looking around and really can't find anyone in my area who is hiring someone with my skills... I was thinking about setting up my own site and trying to do some freelance design work for brochure sites.

With my skills (see above, please) does this seem like something I should/could do? Also, what do you do about pricing and contracts? I feel confident in my coding, but not so much in business savvy.

Thanks for all the help guys!

Well, it may not be web design, but my background in InDesign is coming in handy. I am designing a very simple flyer for a local beauty shop. May not be much (and it really isn't a lot of money), but perhaps a flyer will be good in my portfolio, and word-of-mouth is always important.

Anyway, thanks everybody.

I think you could easily earn money on the side on places like digital point, since it seems people could use your services

u can bid some projects online....like www.getmycode.com
www.freelancer.com....I did two sites from there...

May I join in? There are also freelance jobs on Elance and guru.com. Hope this helps.