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Stefan has several excellent points, which I'll echo and expand upon: Write up a contract. You don't start anything without a contract. It took me over a week to write my first contract, but that baby is as detailed and iron-clad as I could make it, and now I can slice-and-dice and adapt it to future jobs. The AIGA has a ridiculously detailed sample ...

Welcome to the World of Graphic Design... lol.. you see their mind is growing with ideas because now it's trial and error to them. You give them a time limit. You know the job takes you 10 hours to do. You tell them how long it takes without revisions, offer 2 revisions then tell them to pay per revision there after. You shouldn't have to explain why, just ...

I would highly recommend taking a look at the AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services. It is a very extensive agreement that somewhat favors the designer, so if you want to know how to cover your butt, this is probably the definitive document to read. I have read it many times over, and I don't see very much in there that is superfluous to even ...

Farray and DA01 have pretty much nailed the key points. My nickel's worth (inflation, don't y'know) speaks to the freelance vs. large firm part of the question. Larger firms tend to deal with larger clients, and should already have carefully-crafted boilerplate to cover the legalities. The sums involved and potential liabilities are often large, so the ...

If it's a stock photo available on the web, they'll find it eventually. Especially if they know it's merely a stock photo. If you can't resell it, then your choices are clear - give a link or tell them no. The bigger question is how important is the client? Especially compared to the value of the stock photo? Trying to hold on to clients with an iron grip ...

I can't speak for the differences between working at a larger firm vs freelance, but here are things that I typically specify: Product Definition What constitutes a final product? Who will own the final product? Assets Do we need any assets from the client to do our work? When must the client deliver the necessary assets? What happens if the client ...

"F*ck you, pay me." Maybe not quite in those words in all possible situations, but you need to always make sure you are in a position where if you had to, you could say exactly that, and back it up. The quote comes from the title line of a presentation given by Mike Monteiro, which EVERY independent contractor should see: ...

I think all of us who have done the small free-lance thing have had to deal with this. Most of what I was going to write has already been covered in Stefan's answer, but I have a few more thoughts... Never ever feel awful about asking for money up front. They are going to have to pay for your service, whether up front or after the fact - so why feel bad ...

You can't sell the rights but you can certainly charge them a small finder's fee in exchange for the link. I would tell them it took you about X hours to try out different photos and search for the best fit and if that's all they want that's fine but you're going to charge them for X hours of labor as the finder's fee in exchange for the link. Then charge at ...

Most freelancers hate the business side of the graphic design industry, but we all have to deal with it at some point. Yes, write up a contract. If you're just starting and want to keep things simple so not to scare off clients, here are a few points make a simple contract outlining the most important elements: how many revisions, project/per hour costs, ...