The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Back to feedPost
I’ve spent the last year doing what a developer is supposed to do:
💻 Build.
🧪 Experiment.
📱 Create responsive experiences.
🛠️ Build real workflows.
📈 Improve.
And yet, there’s one number I’m still trying to change:
Freelance clients: 0.
I’m a full-stack developer focused heavily on real-estate experiences.
Over time, I’ve built:
🏠 10+ real-estate websites
🎯 Premium landing pages
🏢 Property listing platforms
📊 Admin dashboards
⚙️ Full-stack web applications
📱 Mobile-responsive experiences
🔐 Lovable + Supabase applications
🚀 React / Next.js experiences
These aren't just static mockups.
I’ve been building complete experiences with real workflows, interactions, responsive layouts and functional product flows.
I’ve also been consistently putting the work out there.
📂 Portfolio updates
🧩 Workflow demonstrations
🎥 Product demos
📝 Posts and build updates
🌐 Social presence
🤝 Networking
📨 Direct outreach
📄 Freelance applications
And still…
0 closed clients.
That’s honestly one of the strangest parts of freelancing for me.
Because I know I can build.
I can demonstrate it.
I can show the work.
I can explain the process.
I can create the product.
But turning:
Capability → Visibility → Trust → Conversation → Client
has been much harder than I expected.
And that's taught me something important:
💡 Being a good developer and being a successful freelancer are two different skill sets.
The first is about building great products.
The second is about getting the right people to notice, trust and eventually work with you.
I'm still figuring out that second part.
And I'm not going to pretend I have the perfect formula.
I'm continuing to build, publish, experiment and reach out until I understand what actually moves the needle.
🎯 I'm currently open to working with real-estate agents, brokers, builders, developers, investors and agencies looking for premium websites, property platforms, landing pages or full-stack web applications.
And if you're another independent developer or freelancer who has already made the jump from:
“I have the skills.”
to
“I have paying clients.”
I'd genuinely like to know:
What actually changed for you?
Not the generic advice.
Not the polished success story.
The thing that actually worked.
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Related posts
Check the Live Sitemap Before Signing Off the Release
A sitemap can export correctly while the live website still serves an older URL list. The task needs a check at the public sitemap address after deployment.
That check should compare the published file with the pages the team agreed to include.
Imagine an export containing 200 URLs. The public sitemap also contains 200, but it still lists a retired service page and omits the new replacement. The totals match. The contents do not.
Before closing the task, check:
• The production sitemap address returns the expected XML.
• Its complete URL list matches the agreed inventory.
• Each intended page type is represented, including a newly published page.
• Deliberately excluded pages remain absent.
• Someone owns the process that keeps the file current.
Start with the sitemap already on the site. It may be an index pointing to several smaller files. Include those files in the comparison so a working index does not hide an outdated section underneath it.
Keep the inventory decision explicit: which service pages, locations, articles or products belong in this release? A crawler's export tells you what it discovered. Compare that list with the pages the site was supposed to publish.
Open a sample of the listed URLs as well. Check that they reach the intended production pages and use the preferred addresses. If the sitemap includes modification dates, those dates should reflect significant page updates; exporting the file again does not make every page newly updated.
For a site that publishes regularly, document how new pages enter the sitemap and how retired pages leave it. An automated generator still needs clear inclusion rules and a check when those rules change.
Keep the public address, inventory comparison and update owner in the release notes. Make the sitemap discoverable through Search Console or robots.txt, and check for retrieval or processing errors. Submission does not guarantee that every listed page will be crawled or indexed.
I put together the generation, export and publishing steps in the full guide on Technical SEO Notes:
https://technicalseonotes.org/how-to-generate-and-export-an-xml-sitemap/
Projects and client work: NikoCodes
https://nikocodes.com/
Solid checklist. I'd add lastmod: if every release stamps today's date on every URL, Google learns to ignore it. It should only change when the page content changes. Also worth confirming every sitemap URL returns a direct 200, not a redirect.
Landing page for an AI-native terminal platform
Scroll → a camera flies through a watch gallery → zooms into the dial → you pick a dial colour → add to cart.
That's the homepage of AUREL, a luxury watch store I designed and built as a portfolio project. ⌚
Under the hood:
• 3D scroll story with React Three Fiber, GSAP and custom shaders
• Full shop flow: filters, product variants, cart, 4-step checkout
• Mobile CSS 3D fallback + reduced-motion layout
• Accessible, fast, and ready to plug into Shopify
Stack: React, Vite, Tailwind, Three.js, GSAP, Zustand
I'm a web developer (React · WordPress · PHP, 6+ years) looking for remote frontend or WordPress roles. Recruiters and hiring managers, my DMs are open.
#ReactJS #FrontendDeveloper #ThreeJS #OpenToWork #WebDevelopment
This is nice