Seth Hall

HTML5 and CSS3

Seth — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:05:08 +0000

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but it’s for good reasons. The first month of 2012 I have already started bringing in large projects, in fact I landed my two largest projects this month since beginning on Elance back in August . These projects have allowed me to five more into HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery Mobile to develop UI’s and app like projects using new products like Silverstripe CMS. I’ll be happy when HTML5 is the standard and more browsers begin supporting it in it’s entirety as it can be a pain at times especially with mobile devices to detect older Androids and BlackBerrys that don’t support HTML5. I’ve found a few workarounds though using PHP and able to serve up different pages or views for those devices.

With HTML5 I definitely feel it’s that true “write once, run anywhere” mindset just because of the magnitude of items it can replicate and replace like Flash and Silverlight in terms of animation design. Using server-side languages along with frameworks like PhoneGap and Titanium allow apps to be made for any device and usable without a 3rd party plugin or support needing to be installed on the device. They can be ran from Linux, Windows, Mac, laptop, desktop, mobile, really any device and they operate the same through them all.

As the world progresses more to go mobile, languages like HTML5 and frameworks like PhoneGap those skills will be more in demand. So as I mentioned last time about one of my resolutions be to learn another language I’ve added another one to include HTML5.

2012, my freelance career and resolutions

Seth — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:30:31 +0000

I’m a bit late on this but better late than never eh? We’re just two weeks into 2012 and already it’s setup to be a great year both personally and professionally. I have setup a couple resolutions that will benefit me and my career in positive ways and am adamant about achieving. The first of which is to move more into Mobile App development and not so much web. I still plan on doing mobile web development but have picked up a few Java tutorials and plan on making native apps for Android to start out with. I want to become a more rounded developer and able to take on multiple projects to stay competitive and able to market myself and my skills to the max. I’ve signed up for the Codeacademy and already through the first JavaScript lesson and had no trouble with it so anxious to continue on and learn more and how to use it. Right now my JS is kind of basic so I think Codeacademy will be a huge help.

My second resolution is to save more both for the business and myself. I currently have no bills each month besides hosting and cellphone and groceries, the necessities basically. I don’t have a car or insurance payment, I also don’t have a house payment or rent. Because of these it has allowed me to save and I’ve vowed not to buy anything that isn’t needed until I’ve built up a nice savings in my personal account and have some stored back for business expenses as well. I’m hoping my tax return will help with this so I guess we’ll see.

My third main resolution has to been pay for all debt and start knocking down student loans. As for the 10th of this month I’ve paid off $800 of debt. I’ve gotten rid of Credit Cards and paying off the ones that cost the most and working my way down to only student loan debt.

I have a few more but these three were the basic ones. I’m hoping to stick with them and not stop in a couple months like most resolutions for people go.

Freelancing and taking vacations

Seth — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:38:34 +0000

With most students taking off for Christmas break and getting ready for the holidays and regular employees are able to take vacations as a freelancer you don’t always get that liberty. Even as a freelancer you still need to make sure you’re able to take time off, especially if you’re busy and during the holidays. I had a instance with a client who had contacted me the day for Thanksgiving to do a project for them and I agreed because it wasn’t that big of a project but I still made myself available to them. When Christmas came I promised I wouldn’t do that and would take a few days off and this year I was able to. The week before Christmas I had 4 on-going projects mostly Mobile sites and WordPress/Kentico development and I didn’t want to have to work on them to meet the deadlines. I guess I could have taken into account the holidays when giving the client a time frame but I wasn’t thinking and gave them my regular 1 week which made a couple deadlines fall on Christmas Eve.

Because of this most of last week was spent working on 4 projects from 8am to 2-3am the next morning. I was extremely tired and still had to find time to do my school work because since I go online I don’t really get a break like everyone else. Luckily I got everything completed and was able to take off Friday, Saturday Sunday and Monday to do absolutely no work and just hang out. Of course I also started using a Project Management tool called Collabtive which so far is by far the best project management tool I’ve found and will probably be using it for some time. It allowed me to set all communication tasks, milestones and make changes and mark them off as they were complete. I was also able to finally get all my invoicing setup through Freshbooks which since I get most of my projects through Elance I might not be using it as much but it’s still nice to have when I do need to send invoices.

With the time off I took I was able to not have to worry about work, left my phone in my room and just spent time with my family which was refreshing. When I came back I had been contacted about 3 more projects and was able to secure them all which is nice. I also gave them a bigger time frame since New Years is coming up and I don’t want to have to rush through everything and risk messing up or forgetting something.

I guess the moral of this story is as a freelancer most of use work from home, don’t have strict deadlines unless set by the client and sometimes make ourselves more available than we should. It doesn’t hurt to sometimes just ignore that phone going off in the other room and take a break and just relax. For me, this week gave me break I needed and I come back more focused, ready to start working again and ready to begin a New Year and putting a full year of freelancing behind me.

Staying competitive in your market and skill set

Seth — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:17:35 +0000

I’m sure as everyone is aware that sometimes even as a freelancer finding work can be troublesome at times depending on what market you’re supporting. I myself am more IT Hardware and Networking focused, I’m working on my degree in Network Administration and all of my professional experience has been with Help Desk support. When I started freelancing, I had web development, software development and IT backgrounds but I focused mainly on IT because I enjoyed it, had certifications in it and was going to school for it. Little by little I slowly got back into web and software and now the majority of my projects come from doing web design and development. Over the last few months I’ve learned the benefit of being able to adapt, learn new things and find work because I didn’t just narrow my view to IT. As most know, I use Elance the most in getting freelance work and since starting back in August I’ve had 26 projects the majority being Mobile Web Development. Now as I said, I had a web development background when I first started getting into computers back in the 8th and 9th grade so I had some knowledge and had a CIW Web Design Specialist cert which to be honest isn’t that great but it gave me some foundation to work with and show potential clients.

Since I didnt know much about mobile web, I started studying, learning HTML5, CSS3, diving into PHP and JavaScript more and more and as I done this, I started building a portfolio, making a mobile version of my own website to show to client, doing basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP projects until I built up enough knowledge I could comfortably bid on the bigger stuff. Since starting this I’ve been able to focus mostly on just doing the Mobile Web Projects each week I bring in more and more money because of this. To learn more about mobile development, I started using tutorial sites like TheNewBoston, Nettuts+, buying books on Amazon and going through books I already had. I have to admit since I’ve started doing this I have awoken that fire I used to have for doing web stuff and forgot how good it felt to do it. I’m not and never going to be a designer, I’m not very good with colors, graphics or even layouts for that matter. However, when I can focus just on the development side, writing out the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET or whatever, actual coding I feel better about it and am able to focus more on it and knock out some CSS webkit gradients .

I’m still focused on IT, still going to school for my degree in IT but it’s made me realize that I still have a passion for more than just It or Networking. I love doing web and software development so I’m going to keep learning and expanding my knowledge on it to become more competitive, offer a more vast skill set and ultimately be able to truly offer clients more skills than having to hire individual people to separately do their IT setup, Website and custom software application.

Time Management and Priorities

Seth — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:42:54 +0000

I know we’ve all had that moment when you feel super stressed and like you’re not able to get any work done? You’ve been there right? Yea, me too and this week was a great example of being able to manage my time and prioritize my projects because I finally missed a deadline. I know it would happen eventually in the world of development something can always come up and cause you to miss a deadline. I have a test this coming Monday on the 12th and I was studying for it and doing my projects which most of these week I’ve had 4 open and the one that got away from me and I missed was a PHP Timecard Form. Of course I had everything mostly done and when I tested with the client he loved it and got all excited but then came the hammer and he said “alright, there’s just one thing”. He needed the ability to add rows and it store duplicate dates in some in case their contractors works on multiple projects each day, they could insert and save 1 record per project. Now this thing wasn’t something he had mentioned he had given me the layout and it had 7 rows and he told me he was wanting to do it by week. So it was developed to insert the selected date into the correct row and save. So I had to fix that and I’m still not done with it really. I’ve been trying to study, I’m doing a WordPress site and while I’ve contracted someone to do it I’m in charge of all the communication between the client and the developer. I’m also working on a mobile site for a Law Firm and so far that one is going great and I’ll have it done in time. However a few things I’ve realized that cause distractions and I need to overcome are: Facebook, Youtube and Miniclip. I’m sure I could of earned some extra time by disciplining myself to now view these sites until my work for the day is done but I haven’t and that one big reason why we run out of time and full behind, distractions. In the coming week, I’m vowing that I stay off any site until the end of the day when my projects are complete or I’ve done a good amount of work that has gotten me ahead of schedule. Now we all need a break every now and then so to replace these sites I’m going to go outside and walk around, maybe do some cleaning and I’m getting a dog this weekend so he will be a welcome distraction since he will be an inside pet.

This past week though really tested me and I realized that I’m no where near organized as I should be and that in order to succeed in this and still be able to do my schoolwork I need to make a schedule and stick to it instead of just working here and there or when I think of something. So this next week I’ll be using my Outlook Calendar more and am looking for a good free or open source project management application to track meetings, keep to-do lists, set priorities for each project and be able to set up how long I can expect that to take and it provide reminders as the deadline gets closer. Now I’ve done some research but I’m interested in hearing what others might use for this kind of task so leave me a comment and I’ll be reviewing some over the next week.

Expanding the business(just a little, but it still counts)

Seth — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:13:10 +0000

It seems every blog I try to start goes the same way. I’ll install WordPress, set it all up and make 1 or 2 posts then forget about them for months. I really do try to do stuff with them, to make content for whoever may be reading this but sometimes trying to manage a business and school is very time consuming so I hope to get better at this. It’s been a couple months since I’ve even logged in here and there are been several changes. I’m still doing the business, still in school and started back the 1st of November after a short term break. I changed my degree to Network Administration and feel more comfortable with that and am enjoying being back in school and focused on getting it done.

As for business, it is growing steadily. I’ve expanded my service offering, doing a lot more self study on top of everything else to become a more competitive choice among providers and so far it’s paying off. Since August 22, I’ve successfully received 21 projects, currently have 2 going on and in talks with several others. I’ve started offering Mobile Website development and really enjoy it. I’m still not a designer but development with PHP, jQuery, CSS, etc I’m loving it and always looking for new projects. I recently expanded a support contract with a company in New Zealand doing overflow support tickets and really looking forward to get more experience and projects through there. I’m currently talking to a guy in the UK who is also a startup doing Social Media and Marketing with three clients wanting a mobile site so we’re talking about doing those and then marketing to other companies and seeing what we can come up with so really excited about that and where it could lead. I’ve had to contract some work out simply because of the amount of projects I’ve been having to do along with everything else and so far it’s working out great. They’ve both been WordPress developers and so far it’s been a simple WordPress Mobile site and a more advanced custom system for a Real Estate company.

This year has had it’s hills and slopes and sometimes I’ve found it hard or didn’t know what to do but it’s picking up here at the end and hopefully it’ll continue to pick up. I’m still focusing on 100% remote support and so far have done support for clients in the US, UK, Dubai, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil so hoping it’ll continue. I’m still learning both about business and new skills I can use to hopefully I don’t slip up with anything and able to continue this and don’t look back. I’m currently also working with PhoneGap to build some Mobile applications. I’ve had several ideas over the last couple years which so far no one has picked up and I definitely think they’d have a large interest and maybe generate some income so I’m working with it to develop for the iPhone and Android first so we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading and I guess I’ll see you in a couple months when I post again. Just kidding, but seriously 2 people probably read this but I’ll try to post more.

- Seth Hall

How to deal with bad clients

Seth — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:53:53 +0000

As most freelancers, I got into it because I could choose my own hours while picking and choosing the work I decide to take on. That part is great but sometimes you deal with people of different backgrounds, different areas and different definitions of what freelancing is. I’ve been freelancing close to month now and in that time have taken projects from Malaysia, Australia, the US and New Zealand. I hadn’t had any issues as far as project scope, payments or communication, nothing at all. The other day I took a job from a guy in Las Vegas for some PHP fixes on his website. We talked for a good 30 minutes to ensure everything was understood and it was my responsibility to resolve his PHP issues which in reality turned out he had changed hosts and didn’t re-upload everything correctly. After I accepted the project he refused to fund the escrow account but I had begun fixing some of his errors. He got very rude and thought I was just messing his site up more because he then began getting MySQL errors. After trying again and again to tell him that my bid wasn’t for setting up a MySQL database he began calling me a crook and even filed a dispute with the service we used. He just kept trying to squeeze whatever he could out of the fee I had bid for the PHP issues. We eventually got it resolved amongst ourselves and didn’t have to use the service or an arbitrator to resolve it for us.

The lesson I learned from this is always, ALWAYS have your payment agreements lined out. The service I use allows buyers to add their escrow funds immediately after the freelancer accepts the project but this was definitely a wake up call and depending on the amount a project is, escrow will be funded and released at certain milestones in the project after the client approves it. The second lesson is to not let anyone take advantage of you. I fixed his PHP issues and uploaded his new website but you have to have a point where you say no to a client. The client I worked with expected me to do the PHP code fixes, upload his site, setup new MySQL databases and setup a payment gateway so he could accept Credit Cards on his site. Sometimes even if a client is threatening with negative feedback or filing a dispute be sure you have everything in writing and agreed upon before starting. Otherwise as in my case you’ll be taken for a ride and the frustration of working with someone like that won’t be worth it.

Thanks for visiting!

Seth — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:09:07 +0000

Please bear with me. I’m currently in the process of getting everything setup 100% with content and getting everything functional. We should be ready to go in a week or so and will hope to add new content daily or as much as Im able.