I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend in the development and design industry. No not “potential facebook-killers” though that is annoying as well. For right now I am talking about Partial Ownership and Profit Sharing opportunities.

Be a Part of the “Next Big Thing”
Now don’t get me wrong, if you get an opportunity to be part of the next big thing or to even create that thing then awesome. However, using it as a way to get free work is downright evil. I have been contacted by potential clients with a great project and of course I follow up with a timeline, quote and proposal just like you always should. Though lately those potential clients like to slip in the business proposal on the third or fourth inquiry. Its like they are feeling you out and trying to hook you on the project.

I have even seen a few instances when the potential client will try to belittle your work and talent if you don’t decide to hop on their “Million Dollar idea” as if you offended them, when in reality they are wrong. Its similar to “Bait n Switch” in a store.

As a freelancer, developer, agency or all around technology professional have you experienced this growing trend or am I simply the lucky one? Weigh in via the comments below, I am eager to hear others opinions on this topic.

Update: Before its misconstrued in the above post, I am open for new opportunities, just don’t hide the “business opportunity” portion while claiming to have a standard freelance gig. Most of all, don’t waste others time.. its not good business.

Just as soon as it began 2010 is now in the history books. Let me take a moment to reflect on some notable things that took place in 2010, both professional and personal.

It technically began in 2009 but on New Years eve I went to a Dane Cook show with my now girlfriend and what a show it was.

Fast forward to February which included a vacation to the Caribbean with family and friends where I was unaware at the time I would be doing the majority of my photography for the year. Overall the cruise was a great start to the New Year! I highly recommend you go on one at least once in your life.

The majority of Spring I spent working on various freelance projects and with awesome teams around the world. One notable project I got the opportunity to work on in the Spring was an interactive training module for an oil company, though I can’t speak any specifics on that project I can say it was fun!

Towards the start of summer I was invited to a Red Sox game where i’m almost certain no one remembers the score, but thats how you know it was a great time. As summer marched on I took a small break to Florida to see family and friends for a few days but ended up working on a bunch of projects while there.. kind of typical in the life of a freelancer.

When I returned home in late July I started officially working as a Flash developer with Litl in Boston where I had the opportunity to work on awesome Flash projects for their Litl webbook and other upcoming hardware. This was also the first time I had responded to a cold call from a talent agent, but something about Aquent (their parent) struck me right. I am still enrolled with Aquent and highly recommend them to professionals looking for new work or a new career.

In the Fall I flew out to Vegas for the annual PhotoshopWorld and got to meet a bunch of great people, including some I had spoke with via email/chat for the last few years. Rather than flying back home from Vegas I decided to make a stop in Colorado and spent some time with friends roughing it in the woods and shooting guns, two hobbies of mine.

When I finally returned home from my Vegas/Colorado travels I only had a few short weeks before I was on a plane to attend Adobe MAX for the first time in my life. Looking back I can’t believe I waited so long but I certainly picked the right MAX to attend with all the goodies given away by Google, Motorola, Adobe and even Blackberry. While in LA I also got the opportunity to speak at a mini conference on the subject of Flash mobile, which was a great time and can’t wait to speak again.

After returning home from MAX I decided to work on a few personal goals and in doing so I got my motorcycle permit, took a class and ended up receiving my motorcycle license. I also obtained (after much hoop jumping) my LTC gun permit. Don’t be concerned though, I am not running off to join a motorcycle club/gang.. I just love guns and bikes.

On a strictly personal topic I also celebrated 6 months with my girlfriend, got to spend the holidays together and even celebrated the arrival of 2011 on the Boston waterfront with friends this past weekend.

I also took a 13 day vacation to where else? Florida! I imagine one day I will move there, I guess we’ll see.

In all 2010 was a great year, I progressed my business towards bigger and better projects, checked off personal achievements and got to travel around the country. This of course only means 2011 will be even bigger and I am not wasting any time either. In early 2011 I am launching a bunch of website applications, mobile apps/updates and opening a new company with my good friend Phil whose graphics work you have seen in much of my client work for many years now.

So there you have it, how was your 2010? Lets hear it.. and on to 2011 and all it has in store for us all.

As usual a web site offer is not tested before going live. I actually called the hosting company “PixelMedia” at 10:10 and they assured me it would be back up. Who launches a project and doesn’t test or even try to determine the load their site will get? As a fellow web professional (web developer) I take extreme issue with this growing trend.

This of course wasn’t the first high profile site that offered a great savings, some of you may remember the Sparkfun “Free Day” back in January. The slight difference with Sparkfun was they did order new servers, just still must not have tested it properly.

Its of course very possible for a large web presence in a matter of minutes to be successful, just look at Adobe when they debuted CS5, Amazon whenever they run any sort of a promotion and of course news agencies when tragedy and breaking news hits.

Those examples show it is possible, so if you don’t test your work, don’t post it.. and above all, don’t give people false hope. Now all Mass Save has done is pissed off Massachusetts residents and brought bad press to their agency.

Update: I would like to mention Mass Save finally did come up for us at 11:15 EST, it seems they moved the site to a new location and got things online (slowly).