Hi,

I am considering offering my services as an internet consultant to help me pay all my bills :D

What do you think of this kind of temporary (part time?) job?

Is it easy to find or am I loosing my time?

Consulting can eventually become very lucrative, but you need to be prepared to put in the time to build a client base first.

Again it goes back to one of the fundamentals of business : network like crazy locally. Go to your local business meetings, introduce yourself given the opportunity and explain what you can do for another's business.

Make it clear on your business cards (essential if you do consulting) that you do consulting in certain areas.

Use your current client base (e.g. hosting base) through a one-off mailing (for example, or another, possibly better way to do it) explaining that you offer consulting services now. Word-of-mouth is the best way to build up your client base.

Finally, use your local newspapers to advertise. Do a trial run for a few weeks and see who you get, then decide to continue the ad campaign if it's successful.

I hope this helps.

Also, going to web boards like this one, as well as other's and news groups, etc. and offer people good advice and help for free, let's people know some of what you're qualified for and people trust you more and you start getting work. With the right people, you can end up having a lot of people contacting you asking for freelance and contract work for a variety of things, which a good amount can pay very well for.

Originally posted by Tim_Greer
Also, going to web boards like this one, as well as other's and news groups, etc. and offer people good advice and help for free, let's people know some of what you're qualified for and people trust you more and you start getting work. With the right people, you can end up having a lot of people contacting you asking for freelance and contract work for a variety of things, which a good amount can pay very well for.

Been there, done that :D

I will think and see if I should do it.

Originally posted by Félix C.Courtemanche
What do you think of this kind of temporary (part time?) job?

Is it easy to find or am I loosing my time? I wouldn't say that it's especially easy to find, but certainly not impossible. Much like any kind of consulting, you'll be much more successful finding a few clients if you have a market or area of expertise in which you're recognized and can do some networking. When that's the case, I've found it suprisingly easy to get consulting gigs in a few different technical areas over the years.

Of course there are industries/classes of business that are accustomed to paying for "professional" guidance and those that aren't. I wouldn't think there'd be a strong market for general internet consulting to general small businesses, for example, for two reasons: many people think they can do it themselves, and many people will offer their help for next to nothing. Find a niche market where consulting is a fact of life and you have a personal contact or two, and you're in business.

It can be done, Felix, although I question whether the effort might be better spent elsewhere. I think Jay hit on the biggest obstacles and I'll elaborate on them momentarily.

We know from your debut here last year that you listen well and seek to improve. That's smart and can serve you well on most anything. Understanding any potential client's priorities and why they are priorities is important, even if it is necessary to educate them and show why they may want to reprioritize.

Aside from the title "Internet Consultant", you'd need to be specific as to what type of service you offer. Many people do not think much in the abstract and would need specific examples of what you could do for them.

They very likely would want to see specific results and proof of what you could do for them, as well as references from customers.

Starting from scratch, I would suggest picking a site that needs improvement and offer to do it for them if they will serve as a reference. Keep a copy of the original site, document its condition, including screen shots of the search engine rankings if that is one of the areas you seek to improve.

Then go to work. You may have to press your client to write a testimonial when you are done. I have found that no matter how happy they are with one's services and results from those services, they are usually too busy with their own businesses to take the time to say something about yours. They sure find the time to complain, though. (That's one of the reasons I like to balance things by giving praise where it is due).

When you have results, document them as well, and keep a before and afer copy of the web site (if relevant and you have permission to show it).

Then go to town finding customers. This is where BC's advice comes in handy. Network, build up your client base, do what you can to get some customers.

I've done some consultant work. Some of it got from helping others on the support forum for a program I use. I'm well acquainted with the program, have done some hacks for it, and have helped considerably in its advancement. What was easy for me was difficult for others. While I helped for no other reason than to help, I have been asked by some if they could hire me for more.

On other occasions, I've helped by showing how a web site could be improved. There are some dreadful web sites out there, and I mean business ones, where looks, content and function are more important. This has been less fruitful, even where help was sorely needed.

This is where Jay's words of caution come into play. I can add a few of my own from practical experience and observations. He said "many people think they can do it themselves, and many people will offer their help for next to nothing. " There are even more pitfalls. You may communicate with someone who wants to do it themselves and takes pride in how much they have learned. They may be resistant to change, unless they make the changes. They may also feel like they would lose control.

Unless you speak (on the telephone) with the person in charge, often the business owner or manager, you can't be sure that any efforts won't be wasted.

I'll give you one example that happened to me. I saw a site for a company in my field that had some technical problems. The front page was especially poorly done, with huge verical spaces requiring inordinate amounts of scrolling to enter the site. I fixed it and a couple of others and sent it to them, along with a description of what I do. I received a polite "thank you" and a "maybe we'll get back to you".

I found out why much later, over a year in fact. Their untalented webmaster had intercepted the e-mails and made sure the company president never saw either the pages I improved on or my e-mail messages. I found out later they were paying $750. a month for their site out of a $10.95 reseller account. To say their webmaster lacked ethics is an understatement. In speaking wth the company president (whose name appeared on the e-mails I had received), he told me that he had never gotten any messages from me.

Even in situations where you deal with the right person, they may have a relationship with their present webmaster that they don't want to upset.

There are other obstacles as well. You can overcome many of them, though not all of them, at least not all the time. With work and perseverance, you can carve out a niche for yourself. I simply suggest that you consider if it is worth your time and effort and if you might not find some other area more productive.

Felix,
You might also try some sites like arzoo.com (http://www.arzoo.com) (the new venture started by sabeer bhatia, the hotmail.com guy) where you bid for consultancy and problems posted by other ppl. They might help too.

Wing.