So for context, I was laid off from my job as a front end web developer a few months the ago, and I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at freelancing. I’ve been extremely blessed to have landed a few clients where I created them a hand coded website using Astro, and I think they are great.
In the expectation of potential future clients, I have been diligently building out a custom starter kit that I can use to quickly create static sites.
My delema is that I want to expand my offerings to customers while reducing my work load, so I’ve thought of incorporating a CMS, analytics dashboard, customer editor pages, and billing all built Into the start kit. I also know that a lot of website builders out there like wix, squarespace, and WordPress offer a lot of these features out of the box, and are probably more refined and user friendly to non tech customers than I could ever do. Additionally, I want to be able to easily integrate with social media so customers can make posts that are in line with their website.
I think I could do a lot of this manually, and build a system into my starterkit, but I feel like this would be very time consuming and wouldn’t be to the same quality as existing solutions. Should I just make the switch and migrate to a builder platform? Or bite the bullet and try to build many of these features into my starterkit?
When you’re hand coding websites and your competitors are utilizing builders, it’s difficult to make a living, yet you’re both vying for clients who don’t give a damn about the design of their websites.
Thus, alter the game. Develop your skills in something you truly enjoy, but keep it specific. Instead than attempting to do everything, focus on mastering that one skill, identify a vertical market for customers that would pay well, and then repeat.
Don’t be a front-end developer, for instance, who uses Framer—there are thousands of them. Become the authority on gym websites. Locate potential gym members around the nation and provide them with a link to an updated version of their website or homepage that you’ve beautifully designed in Framer.
Wondering this too as I am in the same boat. Why did you pick astro and what do you think of it? Havent tried it yet. Thinking about creating an ecommerce store for a client using next.js + shopify.
I made the opposite journey. I began using tools like Framer and Webflow but now build websites using Astro and host on Netlify.
It depends on the client but I charge a monthly fee to take care of everything - hosting, updates, blogs etc. My clients just want someone to take care of that side and don’t really care what tools you use.