Creating websites for friends

[MrMark]

Amazing isn't it - tell your mates you work in IT, and they assume you're a web coder and can rig up a website for them. Fair enough, I can, but my web design skills are fairly middling/mediocre, and I don't think they realise the web-hosting/maintenance is a regular chunk of time even if fairly mundane. Trouble is, it's hard to charge when web development isn't your normal skill-set. The latest one I've done is under the condition that any advertising profits will give me a big split. Problem here it's a very specialised niche, and although it's on the gambling side, I can't see the site attracting enough hits to attract lucrative (or any) advertising. It's hard being a Jack-of-all-trades..

[MarillionFan]

Amazing isn't it - tell your mates you work in IT, and they assume you're a web coder and can rig up a website for them. Fair enough, I can, but my web design skills are fairly middling/mediocre, and I don't think they realise the web-hosting/maintenance is a regular chunk of time even if fairly mundane. Trouble is, it's hard to charge when web development isn't your normal skill-set. The latest one I've done is under the condition that any advertising profits will give me a big split. Problem here it's a very specialised niche, and although it's on the gambling side, I can't see the site attracting enough hits to attract lucrative (or any) advertising. It's hard being a Jack-of-all-trades..

LOL

My nephew did the same last month. Uncle MF, I'm setting up a new online business and I've got 20000 products I can see, it's taking ages to do each page of HTML it's like 1000 pages do you think you could give me a hand!!!!!

I did his business model instead and pointed him in a different direction.

[NotAllThere]

I have solved this problem by having no friends.

[Support Monkey]

I normally only do work for people who can do me a favour in return, builders, plumbers electricians, ect

recently a freind asked me to do a website for the electrical company he worked for (only done one website before) i gave them a price but then got chatting to the boss of the company and found out they ocassionally took on apprentice electricians, my 18 year old son had just finished a course at college and was at a loose end and with the current market no hope of finding anything sensible anytime soon so he is now an apprentice electrician going to college 1 day week and will have a trade at the end of it, obviously they get their website for free and my son gets a career seems like a good exchange for a few weeks of my time to create a website

[Mich the Tester]

I am too specialised for this kind of odd job work.

[MrMark]

Could be worse I suppose. If you were a plumber or a chippie or a sparky, I'd imagine you'd be constantly asked for favours.

[Paddy]

I normally only do work for people who can do me a favour in return, builders, plumbers electricians, ect

A great idea! I’ll give the "Thai Happy Ending Massage" a call.

[xoggoth]

We all get asked to do IT things for free, just make a complete cock up of it, they'll soon stop asking.

[MrMark]

I am too specialised for this kind of odd job work.

Well yes, I can't envisage an individual asking for testing systems to be implemented. Same goes for Prime Ministers too I suppose. What could Gordon Brown do for you!

[Support Monkey]

We all get asked to do IT things for free, just make a complete cock up of it, they'll soon stop asking.

I normally make cock ups all day i don,t want to do it in the evenings as well