How can I best get started freelancing as a web developer and/or telecommute as a web developer?

The key is to start slow, find a way to track your productivity, and make sure your boss is comfortable with it. Here are 8 bite-sized steps to help you get there: Imagine yourself working remotely. If you had an accident that made you immobile for four weeks as you recovered (touch wood), how would you work remotely from home for those four weeks? You need to first convince yourself that this is possible, before you can convince anyone else that you can do it. Think about how you would go about in such a situation, what tools you will need, and how you will communicate with the rest of your team. Pretend you are the boss. Before you move along, put yourself in your boss’s shoes too. What would he think of you working remotely? How would he react? Would he be indifferent, approving, or worried? Can he trust you to work outside of the office? If the answer is negative, then stop, and work on it. What is it that he is against? Why would he resist remote work? Find the root of the problem, and attack it. Practice working remotely. Start small. Take 2 hours a week, and work from a cafe near your workplace. Start small and start near, so that whenever your boss calls for you, you can immediately get back to the office and have a face to face meeting. (This is important, because your boss should, at this point of time, have no idea about what you’re attempting, and thus you need to still be available at all times) The key is to get used to it, and to be comfortable with it. This is like a ‘test trial’ for yourself, to know that you will enjoy working outside of your office, and to prove to yourself that you can get things done independently of the environment you are in. Quantify your productivity. Find a way to measure your own work productivity. Tasks completed; number of customers acquired; sales generated; lines of code written; revenue earned. Document it. Even office workers need to know how to quantify their productivity, so they can use it for promotions. However, this is especially important for someone hoping to work remotely, because that is going to be the proof that you can work remotely, and would also be the ongoing measure of you maintaining your productivity when you successfully get approval to work remotely. Create opportunity to work remotely. Now that you know you can work remotely, and you can measure your productivity, create that opportunity to prove it to your boss. It could be just half a day or a day that you need to be away from the office, but show that the time away does not affect your productivity at all. Use the method in step 4 to quantify your productivity while being away, and show your boss that you did well regardless of where you were physically. Practice facing rejection. Proposing remote work to your boss may not be easy, especially if it is something completely new to him or the company (or both). There is a high chance that the reply will be a straight ‘no’ the first time you try, so you need to know how to respond. One rejection doesn’t mean everything. Learn how to question the decision, learn how to receive rejection, and learn how to bounce back for a second proposal. Practice this at every opportunity you have — propose absurd things to your friends. Then try it with people less close. Negotiate prices at flea markets. Request for upgrades and special treatment wherever you go. The tougher the situations you put yourself into, the better you will be at the art of proposal. Propose to your boss working remotely for just one day a week. Now that you are ready to propose and negotiate with your boss, go for it! Start small, start infrequent. Ask to work remotely half to one day a week. Be strategic. Choose a time that is least busy, and has the highest chance of him agreeing. (and use Margaret Neale’s tips to negotiation — see video below) Extend each successful trial period. As you successfully work remotely, and prove to your boss that it doesn’t affect your productivity, slowly extend that to 2 days. 3 days. 2 week stretches. And finally, you’re working remotely full time!! All the best! http://vorkspace.com/blog/index.php/8-steps-to-propose-working-remotely-to-your-boss/

Being freelancing for the last 2 years and living from that only, I would suggest that you look for freelancers in your area (try on Upwork https://www.upwork.com/). Explain that you want to learn and join their team. Stick to hourly projects where the senior developer will decide what you can handle from a bigger project. As time goes by, you will handle more complex stuff and you might decide you get jobs on your own.

Connections are key. You can always look for a job that's telecommute, but if you're wanting to go the freelance route, take initiative to meet as many professionals as you can and look for markets that are growing. I first started freelancing in MI and it was a struggle everyday to bring in work.. then I moved to Boulder, CO and now I have more work than I can handle. I've made connections by going to meetups, conferences, connecting with professionals on LinkedIn, etc. Take no shame in promoting yourself and giving your business cards out to everyone.. if you're talented, the work will find you.

Build some web application on your own . it may be not functionally rich but not trivial either. have your own website on the lines of the the one in url(not affiliated). start offline marketing(networking) and online marketing now. rank your own website to get freelance gigs and try in elance as well(tough). http://www.codegravity.com

The first place to start is reaching out to web design/development agencies in your area and introducing yourself. That's how I got started for the most part. While doing that I also created a website for myself and when I would hear of people needing help with web design or development projects, I would send them to my site. Fortunately it's an industry that is in demand, so if you put yourself out there a bit, people will start biting. After you get a few projects under your belt, more referrals will come in and things will start to snowball a bit. Good luck!

Figure out what kind of products you can make in web development using your skills. Learn those skills if it takes you to get there. Make a portfolio of your sample work and show that link to prospective clients. There are countless online sources to learn web development skills. Please search them and learn what suits you. Next part is, "how to get clients?" This is tricky as there is not defined method. As Seth Godin says "there is no road map to success", figure out what works best for you. A lot of freelancers feel that bidding at freelancing websites gets them more work. Freelancers like me are more dependent on their network of contacts. This may seem tough but the turn up rate is way higher than the freelancing websites. If you are a group of guys then you may think of starting a startup. Try out what works best for you. Please understand, freelancing is also equivalent to running a business. Both are not so different Best wishes

I started by signing up on  https://www.upwork.com/ It took some effort to get my first job, but after I landed my first couple of jobs and jot good reviews I have been able to keep a set of steady clients. The key is to demonstrate in your cover letters that you understand the clients need and that you have the skills and experience to meet that need

For getting freelancing works you should be complete in your knowledge to full do the work. By saying this i mean you should have all the knowledge with all the things needed to complete your freelancing work. For example you get the work from client to complete a 5 page personal WordPress website for him.  In this case you will need to know all these below things - 1. WordPress theme development knowledge. This will require you the HTML and CSS knowlege.2. Adding 5 pages from WordPress.3. Making a menu and including these 5 pages in the menu.4. Adding customer logo.5. Installing WordPress in the domain of the customer. 6. Making the website live. This is one of the simplest jobs in web development area. Tasks can be much more complex but it is the starting point.

The   best advice I got while doing part-time freelancing in writing was to   approach start-ups as they most require people on project basis as  funds  are limited. In fact, http://www.bayt.com/en/research-report-17143/. The blog http://blog.bayt.com/2013/06/how-to-make-more-money-as-a-freelancer/ is useful.