A freelance programmer can restrict themselves to one type of site in order to manage this complexity, however, when you’re making this your livelihood generally more flexibility is required. And hence each site is potentially a learning curve. In addition the necessity to be able to create code quickly and efficiently to keep productivity up and costs down is an ever present concern. But more on that later.

Another factor is the amount of input the people offering the job want to put in. From wanting to specify how the database should be organised, to requiring random additional components, to specific looks this all adds to the interest factor in accepting a particular piece of work. I just pray that all these factors are expressed up front. So that endless redevelopment cycles are not required. Limiting the work to a reasonable amount is definitely a skill in a freelancer’s negotiation skills once the job has been accepted.

Four sites that I have worked on that ranged through variations on this theme are
http://www.newryparkcottage.com.au/ to add the farm stays and book now widgets.
http://www.tuningmaestro.com/sell.php to add the sell subsystem, still iterating through look and final version.
http://www.findjewishbusinesses.com/ various maintenance tasks for a lovely client.
http://www.onlinemediasupport.com/stickler/ one day we will agree with what the site should actually be.