WebsiteBaker Community Forum
General Community => Off-Topic => Topic started by: kriskd on October 04, 2007, 11:32:52 AM
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I would love more than anything to quit my full time job in order to stay home and maintain the house for my husband and earn a little money on the side designing sites with WSB having just completed my first project. I can't do anything terribly fancy, but can design a "clean" site for small organizations would probably be the best way to market myself.
Do any of you do this? Is there a demand for it or is the market saturated with designers like me who aren't programmers and can just do the basics?
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No, but there is demand for web page designers! :-)
It's usually a lot of work, but some people are good at sales and delivery. If you can do that, you can sell web pages - not WB. You have to sell yourself basically, and having a portfolio of work you've done is basically mandatory unless its for a friend who trusts you already.
Using WB is a good selling point. A lot of people would like to be able to edit the pages themselves, so WB is good for them. And even if they don't want to do it themselves, it makes it easier for you too.
One of my clients had a CMS already but found it incomprehensible. Loved WB.
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Hello!
Well, making "really much money" (as a real full-time job) is very hard. But to make a "little money" with it is of course possible. I have designed some sites in the last month, and it is quite cool.
I say of my personal experience (not much right know, but a little as a student) what you have to know:
- What is "up to date". Know what the others are doing, and know how (or how it looks so for the customer). Valid CSS/XHTML and the section 508 I say are more and more customers looking for.
- SEO (Search engine optimization). That's a really big field, and there are also really much different opinions. But you should know, how (theoretically, practically it's of course different) to get a site under a keyword to Top10 in Google. The best site and programm I think is IBP (http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/optimize/seo-ebook.htm), but it's too expensive for the start. read their book and test a bit there programm (you can at least test it free, don't buy it, it's too much for a starting webdesigner) and read their ebook included.
- HTML, PHP and MYSQL, but not very much of it. At least how to modify a given template. Unfortunately the best site for that is only in German and French (selfhtml), look at our bookmarks. (http://help.WebsiteBaker.org/pages/en/bookmarks.php) But you don't have to be a programmer to do that. There are also some good books out there. It's quite hard to say which are good and which not.
My favourite english are:
"Don't make my think" from Steve Krug. It's really a fantastic and easy to understand book about how to make "good websites" and make them easy and accessable. Many pictures (some where eye-openers for me). But it doesn't say much about programm languages, it's more psychological.
"Eric Meyer" and "Jakob Nielsen" books. They are the gurus of webdesign and programming you can say.
".....For Dummies" books. They are available now for everything, some are quite good, but not all I think. Look around, amazon.com e.g. has all (and read the commentars).
More specialised books and websites... There are many out there, most are "read and throw away". I wouldn't buy or read too much different ones- look in the bookmarks above, there are some good tutorials and sites. But I would recommend (no, I don't get money for it :D ) very much the "Don't make me think" as a book that not only teaches you how to make a website regarding the non-technical aspects but also teaches you the way of thinking of web-programmers.
Now what you should have:
- Good programming/design tools. I don't know which you have, and there are extremely much out there, from opensource to thousands of euros. To keep costs low of course OpenSource or Freeware would be best. i would recommend Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) as the standard editor for PHP, CSS, text and everything there. But the best pure PHP editor I think is Maguma Workbench, there is also a free version available. For CSS I would recommend (if you design much) TopStyle, but it's quite expensive (80$). You know, there is so many out there... And you should know what you are doing. Also photo programs are a must-have, but I think you have there your own preference.
- A local LAMP. You should have a test server on your PC. It saves much time, and you can test really everything (and also can access the php.ini of course). The best one, preconfigred and ready-to-use is XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html). I use it with many web softwares (also WB) and it works really good.
- Own server. Well, that's now a bit more expensive. But if you want really doing webdesign, you should care of the hosting. For 5-10 pages you don't need an own server. But if you really want to make something "bigger" you should think of having an own server. But please do NEVER buy the cheapest one. I don't know much about English webhosters, but in Germany a good server you never get less then 50€ per months. And I think it's quite the same in the whole world.
- References. DGEC is right, you must have references, and the best one should be your own site. Many informations, cool pictures (you should know how to photograph!), cool design. How to get references? Look in your neighbourhood, local, smaller companies, smaller associations, friends... Often there are outdated websites. Ask if you could make them fresh - but don't expect much money for it. Then others will come.
So, now I think the most fact- what you should be like.
- Friendly. Well, it seem of course a bit ridiculos. Be friendly to the people, when they write an email, mail as soon as possible detailed and personally back, only phone the people if they want it. You sell at first (look at the post from DGEC) yourself.
- Resolute. If a customer asks, and you know it's too hard for you or you can't make it, then say it. If a customer wants something, and you dislike that idea completely, say it and recommend what you would do. It doesn't bite the friendlyness, but complement it.
- In time. Make a timetable, know when your work is finished. Always remember: You are working, not laze around. ;) But the working can make fun, but don't expect that it will always be, even if webdesigning first doesn't look like that.
Well, that's it I think. And as a webdesigner you do not only design, you are an architect. A architect first speaks with the customer what he really wants, then make a plan from the structure, which materials you will use (not only WB but modules or other programms or solutions will be), built up the website, always keep contact to the customer, and if everything went good, introduce him how he will work with it, what he can do and so on.
And don't be a perfectionist - that would make yourself mad. ;)
To your question if there is demand: There is demand for good designers, but there are of course many out there. Be different, let the people think you are really good. Then people will come, like you and your work - and will recommend you.
Little example at last and then I will end:
There are many workman in our area, that have something to do, but aren't really satisfied. One of them specialised himself as an artist in smithing - he fully booked for months, was in the TV, ...
Regards Michael
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Wow... thanks for the great info, guys! I think I'm certainly on the right path because I already have a lot of points that Waldschwein and my approach is right as I slowly start to build up a portfolio by improving my existing sites (so expect to see more posts from me in Showcase over the next few months) and offer to do free work for family/friends (like the square dancing site I did for my Mom).
Also, I'm not looking to set the world on fire with income from this. Basically, I just need to bring in some small level of income to keep our heads above water. It would be a struggle to have to survive on just hubby's paycheck. :-\
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2nd here on Don't Make Me Think - that's one of the few computer books I've bought new and used in the last 10 years. I've even quoted it here :-)
About the freebies - don't do too many, just a few good ones. Otherwise, everyone will want a free one. Businesses should never expect it for free. Don't be rediculous but don't under-value your work either - you bring down the entire market rate - including your eventual rate. Research the market rate and your competitors, what they do, for how much, how long, how satisfied their customers are. That will give you a good idea of what you should focus on.
Be very clear on what is to be done by who, before you do any work. By the way, look around here, there's a few other threads on this subject.
Slight rant: web design is getting very close to photography, design and artwork in general. Nobody wants to pay for it because everybody can do it. The secretary keeps the website up to date, the accountant takes the digital pictures and uploads them... etc, etc. Artistic ability is becoming devalued because it's so easy and there's so much competition and the sheer volume is staggering. Stock photography, royalty-free, for $1 a picture? Unreal!
If you want to get paid, you have to be better than the secretary. On-time, what they wanted, fair price, etc, will still get you a good reputation though. As something I saw today said, salespeople don't sell products any more, they sell relationships (well, 20%/80%) because when something goes wrong, the smart people (on both sides) are the ones who know it will get fixed quickly.
As Michael said - RESEARCH. Look up the sites he mentioned Meyer & Neilson have great information for example. If you need quick programming help for HTML, CSS, PHP, check out the w3schools pages - good reference charts and bite-sized help when something isn't quite working. And positioniseverythin g for the IE vs FF etc issues.
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I agree with Waldschwein , the best thing is to stay on top of designing if thats what you want to do. Theres web development and web design. Web development is more for databases which from time to time I come across but sub that work out or sell it to someone else to do. I love designing, but with it comes learning new techniques all the time.
Search engine optimizing or marketing is big business now days. There are sooo many people out there that need that and just don't know where to start. Its a process just like anything else. Link exchanes, adding content, tweaking your keywords within the body of the site and title tags in which google looks at. The biggest thing that I advice is having a blog to go with your site. The blog is key because you would normally submit your blog to directories and social bookmarking. This is where you can get a lot of traffic in little time. I got 200 people in a couple of hours with social bookmarking but thats still not the key. The key is that the search engine spiders search these blog directories first before anything else because they have more often then none updated content on them then a website would. Content is king. The more you have the better off you will be.