I am making a website for a friend of a friend at the moment, and I have many questions in my head.
What stops them from taking your code and not paying you? How does that whole thing work? Okay, you could say you would exchange code for the money, but how could they see the website to review it? Is there a possibility like that to show the website without showing the code? I don’t think there is.
Having my first “customer” has already taught me a lot of things even before I have finished the project. At the moment, I am more hungry for the experience for myself, and to have something to put in my portfolio. And because of that, I am biting my tongue quite a bit and telling myself that I just have to get through those first few projects to build up a mini reputation which will then let me a bit more strict with how I work and what I need to do my work properly.
Do you tag the websites you build with your name/company at the bottom?
Do you build their website once and never maintain it again?
How do you deal with the whole hosting thing? Do you manage the hosting yourself and ask them for a bit more money in return or do you make them manage the hosting? If you do make them manage it, do you just give them the login and password for the hosting website and be done with it?
I have many questions about this, but at the moment these are the biggest ones.
I should read a book on software development freelancing. Do you have any that you would recommend?
