Via the Smashing Magazine Twitter Feed, I came across this list of 10 Absolute “Nos!” for Freelancers. It is a good summary of the common wisdom that pervades the experienced freelancer’s mindset: client requests to which you must say no if you want to maintain any sense of sanity. What’s particularly interesting is that there are several “No!” points in this article that I’m deliberately trying to convert to “Yes”.

Being a freelance web designer who isn’t “known” in some way is a tough gig. You can either decide you want to reduce the amount of pain you’re going to get, or you can decide to somehow deal with it in exchange for something else. If you want to avoid pain, by all means you should take the List of 10 Nos right to heart. You’ll be happy you did. You’ll also have to harden your heart against the pleas of people who really aren’t evil and need a break.

The way I’m trying to crack the barrier is to create a service offering that is based on microtransactions for microproduct. In other words, you pay $25, you get something in return, and that’s it. You don’t get a lifetime subscription to free technical support. You pay per incident. And that’s what I am going to try to stand firm on. Right now it’s tougher because I’m also figuring out the system, but that’s the goal.