Starting Web Design

[MRTG]

Hey i'm looking into starting off as a freelance web designer. I'm 15 now and i've been using photoshop since I was around 9, and I started coding at the start of this year, atm I really only know HTML. Could you give me some tips on starting? How should I do it, should I create 'dummy' websites to show off what I can do first? Is there anything crucial I should find out and research? so on and so forth

[CalRouge]

Well, first off. Creating dummy website is a great way to add to your portfolio, something that is greatly needed in the freelance web design world if you're to be taken as a professional. However, I'll leave the more technical advice to people who know what their talking about.

[klaja26]

Create as many websites as you can. You will never get a good job if you dont have a portfolio. In my 7 years of making websites i think i only ever got 1 job which paid more then $200 where i didnt have to show my portfolio.

Never make false promises and dont take on a job thats too big for you. Dont say you are able to do something if you arent sure. When i was first starting out with web development i told people that i could make them a fully functional website with a huge php backend and by the end of it i had to get outside help which cost me money so in the end it wasnt worth it.

If you are going to be serious then your prices should be serious. Dont charge $5 for a full days worth of work. As you are starting out you can have low prices but as you get more experience then raise your rates. A good indication of what you should charge is decide how much you would like to earn an hour (be reasonable) and then double it and then double it again. Now work out how long it will take you to do the job and there is your rate. The great thing about earning 4x more then you want is that if the person wants to bargin with you then you can give them a 25% discount and you are still earning 3x the amount you would want to earn.

Freelance websites can be good but good luck trying to get any serious money from those people. Most people who post on a freelance website are looking for the cheapest work they can get. Now its just a fact of life that there is always someone out there thats better then you that will work for cheaper.

The best way to get clients is to look for them yourself. Make phone calls, flyers, emails and any other way you can to contact businesses. When i was 16 i was a bit too scared to go around asking businesses but i decided to start sending out emails to all the local businesses that had an email address. 100 emails sent, 1 client received and i earnt $400 from that client for about 6 hours worth of work. Most businesses dont know about cheap freelancers and they think that a 1page website is going to cost them $500 since thats what the big companies charge, so offer then half price and they will be willing to pay it. If you want to be taken more seriously then set up a folder with samples of your work and take it into businesses. Talk to owners, the worst that can happen is they say no.

The problem with designing websites is everyone wants web 2.0 and CSS coded websites. Ive never liked coding an entire website in CSS, i like tables, and its hard to find any big paying clients that want work done in just html. So if you dont know CSS then i suggest learning it and stop using tables because they take 0.1second longer to load and people hate waiting.

Never present someone a finished product as your first sample. Always do a rough draft as clients always want changes. Make sure you are always saving as psd so you can always make changes. There has been so many times where i forget to save the psd and the person wants a different color or an image removed and its just so much more difficult to change it on a jpg. Show the client your work as you are progressing. Decide how you want payment,if you want it all up front or half up front and half at the end. If its a really big project which will take 6 months then maybe get a payment once a month.

[GigaNu]

I think the best thing to do is to go on freelancing sites and offer your services either for very cheap prices or for free. This has an advantage over dummy sites because as well as building your portfolio you will also get reviews from your customers! Therefore future customers paying full price will get to see previous work, and ALSO happy customer reviews!

[MRTG]

Klaja when you say you sent e-mails. Did you only communicate through the e-mails or did you meet them afterwards?

[klaja26]

I sent out lots of emails and you get a few of the copy/paste responses from most of them but if they responded and seemed interested in learning more then i called them and things go from there. At least with an email at first you can see who might be interested in the idea.

[GigaNu]

Originally Posted by klaja26

I sent out lots of emails and you get a few of the copy/paste responses from most of them but if they responded and seemed interested in learning more then i called them and things go from there. At least with an email at first you can see who might be interested in the idea.

Thats good advise, an email is a lot quicker, and a less time consuming way of finding out if people are interested or not in comparison to making phone calls!

[Mick T]

Another good thing you could use is proofhq.com, they allow you to show your work to your clients as youre completing it, allowing them to comment on different aspects of your work and allows you to keep an online portfolio of notes between you and your clients. I think it costs to get an account with them but their services are excellent.

[Liam]

That sounds ace!

I think I might give that website a spin myself!

[klaja26]

What reason would you pay to using proofhq when all it does is upload it to the internet and allows a client to leave notes all over it. Its a very simple script which you can add to an image or html page. Its good if your really lazy but id save my money for other things.