As a side project, I've been helping out a friend build a website for free.

friend: I need more of your commitment for this project. We're about to get a huge client!

Me: Yeah you've been saying that for a year. Dude, I just don't have time to waste in projects that are not givine me any money.

friend: HOW DARE YOU! ARE YOU BLACKMAILING ME?!?!

ugh... not my friend anymore

The first time I ever developed something for a friend for free also happened to be the last time I ever did that and resulted in the end of that friendship. I'm glad I learned that lesson early, while I was still in school.

If he doesn't know making websites why does he have clients?

@theabbie Maybe because his business model isn't selling websites? E.g. a plumber who also wants some sort of online presence?

@Fast-Nop Then OP should have recommended him a sweet and simple Website builder, where you drag-and-drop stuff and fill info, Website designers should not waste time on non-functional websites, especially when not getting paid.

@theabbie These website builders are actually quite shitty, and non-tech people won't be able to use them anyway. Outside the dev bubble, people aren't computer literate. Interesting read: https://nngroup.com/articles/...

But yeah, doing website development for free is a major mistake. Not only that it sucks, but if the "client" doesn't pay, there's nothing that would stop him from requesting endless changes instead of thinking it over beforehand.

Send invoice for previous work 🤷‍♀️

Yup, been there.
Never do something for free.
And never expect some respect for saying no to doing things for free...

@theabbie @Fast-Nop i t was a webapp

@bittersweet professional and brutal, I love it.

No good deed goes unpunished.