It was more a “put your toe in the water” kind of thing for me with Designtopia.net. Designtopia was supposed to be an easy way for me to freelance my web design skills to anyone that needed my services, but it turned out to be more of a headache than a financial relief.
Trying to design websites for people is like pulling teeth, it makes you stupid after a while. One guy wanted blinking letters that scroll from right to the left of the browser, another wanted a bunch of Under Construction graphics ala 1994 on pages he wanted me to put up, but not have any information on. Another one wanted to use specific colors that looked so horrible, it gave me an eyesore just looking at it.
A lot of these people didn’t want my advice, my expertise, my skills, they wanted to control me like a puppet and treat me like I’m merely an extension of their superior web design skills that doesn’t exist. They didn’t care about accessibility, usability guidelines, or proper semantics. One guy even wanted me to spam his website to millions of emails from an email list that he purchased for “an amazingly low price of $500.” The vast majority won’t communicate with you, and don’t even have enough content to fill a website with useful information. For every serious client that had a plan, asked for my advice, and let me do what I do best, there were 20 more that wasted your time.
Live and learn, as they say.
You mean you have serious clients with plans?
Nakijo Harukan on Nov 10th, 2004
That’s a shame Matt but unfortunately the world is populated with idiots and I’m sorry that they got to you.
I still think you should soldier on but be picky about who you work for. You’re bloody good at web design so don’t let ‘em get to you. Alternatively put the crap together for them, take the money and run like hell.;)
horai on Nov 12th, 2004
Aw, man. I just read this and feel the news like a kick in the gut.
You’re my go-to guy. You have more practically cool ideas about website design (which is far more interesting than theoretically cool) than anybody I know.
I’m with brother horai – keep working but make it clear that you choose who you work with and you won’t put out stuff that doesn’t make sense.
3dgpu.com is a daily advertisement for the brilliance of your skills (and I don’t throw around that kind of praise lightly).
Hang tough, Matt.
Phy on Nov 14th, 2004
I’ll still be into web design, I just won’t be advertising it to a bunch of people who aren’t serious, or just want a puppet on a string to get 1994-like webpages. I’ll be the underground freelancer now, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the serious people that truly want my skills. :)
Matt Burris on Nov 14th, 2004