1. As an individual who started his freelance career more than 10 years ago, what is your experience with this type of work? What does freelancing look like today compared to the past? Has digitalization had a positive effect on improving remote-earning opportunities?
As an individual, I have always preferred to work for myself, from home or anywhere else (that is one of the advantages of freelancers). But working in this way over the years as my skills and knowledge improved, my desire grew, and my clients demanded of me to be part of big projects that if I did them alone would take me more time. So somehow, 4 years ago I decided to assemble my own team and have our “headquarters” which today is called Webpigment.
Digitalization has definitely had a positive impact, and after two great years in office, we spent the past two years with the same enthusiasm as a fully remote company.
2. Your area of expertise is WordPress. What are the opportunities for freelancers who want to start working with this platform? Is WordPress booming? What are the benefits compared to other methods of creating a website?
According to the latest statistics, WordPress owns 60% of the websites that use the so-called Content Management Platforms (CMS). This means that at least every second freelance platform project has something connected with WordPress. The main reason for this is that it is Open Source and is free to use and resell.
3. As the founder of WebPigment, which specializes in creating websites through WordPress, how did your freelance influence the network of clients that the company owns today? Where do many customers come from?
Webpigment is a story that started because of my clients as a freelancer, to this day, we work on joint projects with many of them, and with some of them it has grown into cooperation, for example a longtime client from the UK is now part of my team as a project manager.
4. What are your expectations and recommendations for freelance in Macedonia? What can be improved or introduced?
There are many opportunities and enough work for everyone, a freelancer by definition works on its own dynamics and needs, that it dictates itself. Having a community is a very important moment even for those who prefer to work alone. Or I will say especially about them, my WordPress community and the wider acquaintances with the Balkan communities brought me friendships and collaborations with like-minded people, and it was a motive to organize WCSKP 2018 and WCSKP 2019 and numerous local meet-ups.
Mitko is part of our network of freelance mentors that will guide future freelancers in the Republic of North Macedonia. Through his expertise freelancers will learn many crucial skills, effectively increasing their income and the freelance community.
If you want to learn about WordPress from Mitko and become successful in freelancing, apply to become a mentee on the following LINK.
This activity is supported by the RECONOMY program.
RECONOMY is a regional inclusive and green economic development program of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in partnership with Impact Foundation and others in the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkans.
