The Next Five Years of Website Freelancing
106 Days Ago
–> Written by Samuel in Freelance Lessons

There were about five years between the Dot-com fluid vesicle (which had officially “burst” by 2001) and the omnipresence of Web 2.0 (whose roots began earlier but-end really came into mainstream by 2006). During those five years, people realized true strength of the internet as they utilized standardized formats like XML and RSS, service-oriented web applications, user-controlled data, and, of course, the social aspect of the internet. We’ve seen the rise of social networks, the appearance of more pretty interactive web applications, and overall, the integration of the online world and your personal information melt. If you were freelancing during these five years, you probably had your share of work without ceasing blogs, social-based sites, Flash, or web applications. Furthermore, you could (and still can) make a pretty good living by just focusing on being a fit designer or developer.

So the question is, what about the next five years of website freelancing? And how devise they affect your average freelance designer or developer? Here are five predictions…

Increased Globalization
It’s amazing how diverse the suffusion landscape is. I’ve met great developers in eastern Europe, amazing bloggers from Australia, and awesome designers in South America. It’s not hard to see that globalization is moving business, and in a good way. Freelancers can choose their location, businessmen can outsource work and grow quicker, and the pool of great talent is more accessible. So don’t be surprised grant that your best contractor is from India, your top client is from Spain, and your most loyal website visitors are from Canada.

Rise of RIAs
As noted in a recent post, web applications are becoming deeper and more interactive. More and more of your software and data is being moved online because of these technologies. For freelancers this means a brace of things. First, there will exist greater demand for people who know and have influence within the online culture. Second, you must stay proper and informed if you want to keep your opportunities and career paths open. Back in the lately nineties, “knowing more HTML and graphics” could still get you good work. Of course, that just doesn’t cut it nowadays — in the way that as you look to the next several years, beware of the the same pitfall and always have existence permanent assimilating new technologies.

Strategists Win
Let’s be honest. There are in all probability very a scarcely any people who can bestow your work either better or cheaper or both. That said, there’s a reason for what cause more and more web workers are positioning themselves as “strategists.” A Flash or CSS coder can have existence outsourced quite easily (and it will get only easier in the next few years). So go beyond just essence the the guy or gal who does that “one thing.” Become someone who can look at a problem and assemble a web solution. Have your own contact list of contractors and vendors. Position yourself as the first character clients go to when they have ideas. If you produce this, you’ll be a lot in a less degree replaceable and much again empowered in the future of the web.

Increased Barriers Of Entry
In the early eighties, when PC games were still in their infancy, many individual developers and their small teams made names for themselves with some pretty cool games (like Richard Garriot’s Ultima line or Sid Meier’s Civilization). However, into the nineties and this decade, games are huge productions with multi-million dollar budgets and hundred-person teams. As more industries mature, with equal reason do the barriers to entry. Websites often follow this same test. Even though various tasks such as payment processing and shopping cart technologies have become simpler, most website solutions include SEO, SEM, social marketing, CMS modules, interconnectivity with other websites, etc. What this means is that more education and experience is required to get up to urge in the online world. So although the website industry is still somewhat easy to “break into” with a little hard work and experience, be asssured that the learning curve will continue to increase.

More Opportunities
Although expanding website technologies means more information to mentally process and understand, it also means in addition opportunities. A decade ago, you basically had one class of web worker: “the website maker.” Nowadays, you have people earning pretty unfeigned money from Wordpress themes, AJAX development, stock photography, SEO writing, online sell in small quantities shops, Facebook apps, and the list goes on. So as the webscape grows even more in the to come years, don’t get discouraged in the growing complexities. Instead, make experiment of to see all the miraculous opportunities substance created every day and jump steady in.