Hello, I transferred to a new college after obtaining a associates in computer information systems, and am having trouble finding a part-time job since all the classes at my current college are during the day. So, I am thinking about trying some freelance web designing/development to pay for some of my personal expenses. I really don't want to go back to working at a fast-food restaurant 
So, before I go buying a business license, hosting account, cell phone, business cards, newspaper ads, software etc... I'm hoping some of the more experienced of you guys could answer a few questions.
1) What are my chances of actually finding clients? This is probably my biggest worry since I live in rural Ohio, and the local economy, which is heavily dependent on manufacturing, isn't doing very well right now. And, I don't have a portfolio of sites to show off.
2) Anybody got some tips on how to find clients?
3) Has anyone had any experiences with those freelancer sites where people bid on projects? Are they any good?
I've scoped out what would be my local competition and found two competitors in my local area. One is a freelancer that is very good at graphics design, but doesn't do any development. The other is a small IT business that does web development, but their sites have that 1999 look, lol.
Now about myself:
I've taken two web design classes at my last college, but, they weren't very good (just taught you how to use dreamweaver, and copy php and javascript out of a book). On my own, I've been messing around with coding html, css, PHP, and JavaScript by hand, which I prefer. I've also been playing around with Drupal (developing modules and theming), and working with jQuery. I'm also very familiar with SQL, relational-database design, and database application development (with Visual Basic). I'm ok at graphics design with photoshop or gimp.
So, basically I can throw together some quick web sites with dreamweaver and some javascript/jquery effects. Or can make some smaller scale web apps with Drupal or pure PHP. I'm just not sure what the market is like out there?
So, before I go buying a business license, hosting account, cell phone, business cards, newspaper ads, software etc... I'm hoping some of the more experienced of you guys could answer a few questions.1) What are my chances of actually finding clients? This is probably my biggest worry since I live in rural Ohio, and the local economy, which is heavily dependent on manufacturing, isn't doing very well right now. And, I don't have a portfolio of sites to show off.
2) Anybody got some tips on how to find clients?
3) Has anyone had any experiences with those freelancer sites where people bid on projects? Are they any good?
I've scoped out what would be my local competition and found two competitors in my local area. One is a freelancer that is very good at graphics design, but doesn't do any development. The other is a small IT business that does web development, but their sites have that 1999 look, lol.
Now about myself:
I've taken two web design classes at my last college, but, they weren't very good (just taught you how to use dreamweaver, and copy php and javascript out of a book). On my own, I've been messing around with coding html, css, PHP, and JavaScript by hand, which I prefer. I've also been playing around with Drupal (developing modules and theming), and working with jQuery. I'm also very familiar with SQL, relational-database design, and database application development (with Visual Basic). I'm ok at graphics design with photoshop or gimp.
So, basically I can throw together some quick web sites with dreamweaver and some javascript/jquery effects. Or can make some smaller scale web apps with Drupal or pure PHP. I'm just not sure what the market is like out there?
