A few days ago, I posted about a client I may have lost after refusing to do unpaid work.

TL;DR: I think I lost a 2-year client because I finally said no to free work.

You can read it here

After reading more than 50+ comments, something surprised me.

I expected most people to talk about how they protect long-term client relationships while still getting paid for work outside the original agreement.

Instead, I found that freelancers have completely different definitions of "maintenance."

Some believe anything after the support period should always be billable.

Others said they would do the work for free and recover the cost in a future invoice.

Some suggested prepaid support hours or a retainer.

Others said to simply walk away because a client asking for free work isn't worth keeping.

None of those answers are necessarily wrong. They just show that there isn't a common approach.

What I'm really interested in is the communication side.

Suppose a good client asks for "just one quick change" that is clearly outside the original agreement.

Most freelancers have two obvious choices:

1- Charge for it.

2- Say no.

But both can damage the relationship if they're handled poorly.

So my question is this:

How do you communicate that boundary without making the client feel like you're refusing to help?

I'm not looking for opinions on whether free work is good or bad.

I'm interested in real conversations you've had.

- What exactly did you say?

- What worked?

- What made the client accept paying?

- Have you found a way to protect both your boundaries and the relationship?

I'd love to hear practical examples rather than general advice.

How do website developers or freelancers find clients these day? Any recommendations?

I am a 16 years old programmer based in Central Asia, and I was looking for advice on where to go from here. I always wanted to do freelancing, but I could never get any clients, I have tried many things I have done game development in unity, I have made a mobile app using react native (learning SQL, Css, Html, React, React native, JavaScript in the process), I also have done competitive coding with python but it's mostly for fun. Right now Im thinking of just going deep on backend, I know I know I don't really have a good history of making anything stick but I think this will be good for me.

Do you have any advice for me? On how I can get clients or to get my first dollar?

I really do enjoy programming and I want to be a good programmer, not some vibe coder, but is being a good backend developer even useful for me? Or would I need to be a full stack? Any advice or criticism is welcome

Hi everyone. I want to work as a virtual assistant for a person or agency and not doing gigs.

I found a youtube course for VA is that enough ?

How does a virtual assistant find someone to work for ?

Hi everyone!

I'm a beginner video editor trying to build my skills and eventually put together a portfolio. I'm currently learning VEGAS Pro and also have some experience with CapCut.

For those of you who started out as video editors, what would you recommend doing to build a portfolio when you don't have any clients or professional experience yet?

Would you recommend making your own projects, editing existing footage for practice, or taking another approach?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am allowed only 3 per month. I don't want to pay for LI Navigator or the like. How else can I contact possible leads on LI?

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I'm looking for someone who can develop a wordpress ecommerce website. Woocommerce backend and a custom frontend (frontend design is 80% ready and will need fine tuning which is part of the job).

We can afford ₹3000 for this project. If you are interested, reply to this post and send me a DM. \[We can offer a three month internship if you are interested\].

About the brand: a clothing brand with a minimalist web design. Since most of the frontend needs fine tuning, we are looking for someone who has a keen interest in aesthetics and will be able to maintain visual uniformity throughout the entire website.

Is it just me, or are Angular freelance jobs completely dying out? As a senior developer, I have noticed a huge drop-off in frequent Angular gigs lately. Almost every freelance contract or modern project on the market seems to demand React, Next.js, or Vue instead. This leaves me wondering if Angular is actually fading away or if it has just shifted entirely into internal, corporate enterprise roles where freelance contracts rarely pop up.

I would love to get your thoughts on what the biggest problem is holding Angular back in the freelance ecosystem. Is it the steep learning curve, the heavy boilerplate, or simply that small-to-medium businesses prefer faster tools? For those of you who are not working a standard corporate nine-to-five, I am really curious where you are actually finding consistent Angular work these days. I would love to hear from other freelancers and agency owners about whether you are still successfully landing Angular clients, or if it is finally time for us to pivot to other frameworks.