Never work for free
Tags: dev, php, mysql
Published: 2018-09-23 14:15:15

---
title: Never work for free
published: true
tags: dev, php, mysql
canonical_url: https://smakosh.com/never-work-for-free
---

> This article was originally published on my personal blog [Smakosh](https://smakosh.com/blog).

It was the first time I work for free since it was my English teacher for whom I promised to make an entire dynamic website in which he would post his quotes -he thinks he invents them from scratch even though it is obvious that we cannot create something from nothing because we have no idea what nothing is to begin with- but who am I to judge what he does with his free time.

I started by making a simple logo for a short time using Adobe Illustrator (since everything was for free), I designed the wireframes on a piece of paper and then designed the UI using Adobe Photoshop which took quite some time.

This caused me to neglect revision for my exams & other clients’ work. Whilst working on the project he kept hurrying me and pestering me if I finished making it yet -which really pissed me off because it felt like he was the boss of me-.Anyways, I ended up receiving bad marks on the exams, but I at least finished the static part of the website.

I used html5/SCSS, some JQUERY & of course a framework called Materialize CSS which takes care of the responsive media queries, then I started preparing the database & started coding the backend using PHP/MYSQL, I asked for some help from my friend Anas Mazouni to help me make the like button work, make a views counter and overall make the website more secure.

The teacher paid for the domain name & the host, and I published it on my portfolio Behance: [Here](https://www.behance.net/gallery/46963503/Quotes-of-Boss-web-app) & Instagram twice : [First](https://www.instagram.com/p/BO0f_O_AhC7) & [Second](https://www.instagram.com/p/BPIBhn5gn6h).

He then asked me to add other things like social media accounts, PayPal & Patreon accounts, Google Ads & analytics, the Facebook comments box, and another page where his YouTube videos would be posted. I accepted and did as he asked.

A few weeks later he asked me to add a search bar, poems & other pages for quotes & poems in Arabic & French, but this time I informed him that what he was asking for would cost him a lot –thousands of dollars kind of a lot-, but I was ready to do it for only 200$. Mr English teacher ends up refusing my ever so generous offer, blocked me from all Social Medias and asked another student to add everything for him for free.

The student –who was a classmate of mine- backstabbed me and claimed that I downloaded everything & that I had never created anything on my own. The teacher later on came to me, insulted me & started spreading lies and rumors about me.

To conclude, if you’re good at something, never do it in free.

[![quotes UI](https://smakosh.com/static/quotesof-35cbfd32d745437b78be3ef48ce54a6a-5025c.jpeg)](/static/quotesof-35cbfd32d745437b78be3ef48ce54a6a-5025c.jpeg)

[![quotes php code](https://smakosh.com/static/quotescode-5f8fcad0665304ec1ac29d1d34f775d3-5025c.jpeg "Yep that’s the database table name, go ahead and shut it down if you’d like :D")](/static/quotescode-5f8fcad0665304ec1ac29d1d34f775d3-6f400.jpeg)