7) Do you have an IM account? No.
I might give it out if it's to a person I can trust during an intensive project, but as a general policy, I tell clients that it's my general policy not to. The reason here is obvious -- you have a life and other clients beyond them. Many clients see you as an on-call employee, and this is bad. This is why you quit your day job...
8) Can I just pay the whole amount when it's done? No.
I require 50% up front (unless it's a huge job -- then maybe 33%). I need that assurance that they have "bought in" on this project, and that I can plan on the income, pay bills, and eat. People who want to pay at the end are much more likely to back out after you've done tons of work.
9) Is there any way you could get this done tonight or this weekend? No.
Once they know that you helped them out one time, they will expect it in the future. Now you might choose to get extra done at night (I do all the time), but don't start making promises about getting things done at night or on the weekends/vacation. I know a lot of freelancers that charge night/weekend hours as well, so that might be a possible route to take. Because the reason you freelance is for the freedom, right? Right?
10) Can I be sure you won't use this work in anything else? No.
This is a very sensitive subject because most clients misunderstand it (intellectual property is a tricky subject anyways). In my Terms and Conditions that I require all new clients to sign, I make sure they know that (1) their code has utilized code from other projects which I haven't charged them for, and (2) I will probably use code from their project on other projects, and (3) they own the code and implementation of the project (finished website), but not the actual code pieces (login system, image uploader, etc.). I pride myself in productivity and speed, and I need to use other code all the time to accomplish this. Not to mention that I sell stock Flash which I may need old code to help build. They're not paying you to create code that they in turn will sell, so make sure they know that it's the implementation and not the coding that's theirs.
There are others I'm sure. Feel free to add your own and remember, it's the opportunities you avoid that will define your success just as much as the ones you take...
Note: I've gotten a good deal of traffic and comments on this post the last few days. Now that you've finished, keep this in mind: this post is by no means a systematic, all-inclusive look at the relationship of freelancers and clients. In fact, I am much more likely to work all night for a client just because I love the client and/or project; however, such observations are moot in a post that is defining the negatives of freelancing. So don't think that this list is a holistic philosophy, but merely a guide that has helped me avoid some pitfalls I myself have fallen into.
我第一次做自由职业者的时候还在上大学，那时我急于做任何网站，会对任何事情都说“可以”，完全没考虑自己的技术能力或者可能牵涉的时间。刚开始的时候很好，因为有人叫我做一件技术活。但不幸的是，我很快就发现我要在工作上花费我所有的时间，经常吃泡面，而且不能够出去外面享受我美好的大学生活。更惨的是，这些人经常把我的联系方式告诉有类似要求的其他客户（比如，有一位女士一直考虑在网上卖小狗穿的羊毛外套，打算用100美金的预算建立一个电子商务网站，印刷1000本用户手册，并要保证她的客户在Google上搜索“狗”，“羊毛衫”和“爱”的时候这个网站能够在搜寻结果中排第一名）。
好吧，无论如何，现在已经是4年后，我的环境以及我在财务上的成绩已经充分的允许我回答“不”。对于下面这10个问题，本人几乎总是回答“不”：
1）你能先做出一个demo来让我们比较一下再选择合适的设计师/研发人员吗？不！
我被这个问题搞过一次，当时我很傻，很天真。最终我没有拿到钱又浪费了很多时间。不要在还没拿到钱时就开始干活——这一条真理在任何其他行业都适用，网站设计就该不同么？如果你妥协的话，最好的情况（虽然比较罕见）是你的客户知道如果必要，可以让你免费的工作（译注：正常情况还是会给你发薪）。而最坏的情况是，他们不付给你钱但仍使用你创造出的成果，而且明知道你无法正当的争取自己的权益。可能性最大的情况是，你将什么也得不到，只是在浪费时间。
