Google will be your best friend.
Experience does help ALOT though.
Experience does help ALOT though.
- Status
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
About.com has some great articles in general for beginners in most web design subjects:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/jobs/p/aa031703a.htm
It would be easier to help if I knew what exactly you're looking at getting into. Will you just be building static web sites? Do you want to learn dynamic and server-side programming for more advanced features (smarter email forms, database functionality, etc)?
How much experience in web design do you currently have? You really want to have a portfolio you can show potential clients that exemplifies your skill set and what you can do for them. I did free stuff for people for years before I started charging because I had to learn what my value was. Don't be afraid to ask for what you're worth. You should make sure you have contracts in place that protect you and the client with plenty of "what-if" scenarios built in (because you don't want to just assume that everything will go perfect). Speaking from experience, you want everything to be negotiated before you start on the project. If your base rate for a site is $500, you need to specify what that includes and what costs extra. You'll run into clients who will want to change things constantly so you need to have prepared standards in your contract (ie: "X number of hours of content changes, $X per hour thereafter"). Everything in the contract should be broken down - like if you're working hourly, $15 per hour for non-dynamic programming (like HTML) and graphic work, $25 per hour for actual application programming (like PHP and database work), etc. Those rates would be based off your experience. If you're working the same kind of project you've done before, you should have a base rate for each section of the project (ie: "$X per hour or a base of $150 for the component"). The reasoning is you have the code already (it belongs to you) and they're benefiting from that pre-built library and experience you have that they'd have to pay more for elsewhere.
At first it's a bit uncomfortable and your standards may benefit the client a lot more than they benefit you (especially with rates/pricing) so you have to grow into it. As you get more clients and thus there is more demand for your experience and knowledge, you can expand those standards to benefit you more.
As far as finding clients - you may be surprised how much interest can be drawn up by just telling your family and friends about your new business.
http://webdesign.about.com/od/jobs/p/aa031703a.htm
It would be easier to help if I knew what exactly you're looking at getting into. Will you just be building static web sites? Do you want to learn dynamic and server-side programming for more advanced features (smarter email forms, database functionality, etc)?
How much experience in web design do you currently have? You really want to have a portfolio you can show potential clients that exemplifies your skill set and what you can do for them. I did free stuff for people for years before I started charging because I had to learn what my value was. Don't be afraid to ask for what you're worth. You should make sure you have contracts in place that protect you and the client with plenty of "what-if" scenarios built in (because you don't want to just assume that everything will go perfect). Speaking from experience, you want everything to be negotiated before you start on the project. If your base rate for a site is $500, you need to specify what that includes and what costs extra. You'll run into clients who will want to change things constantly so you need to have prepared standards in your contract (ie: "X number of hours of content changes, $X per hour thereafter"). Everything in the contract should be broken down - like if you're working hourly, $15 per hour for non-dynamic programming (like HTML) and graphic work, $25 per hour for actual application programming (like PHP and database work), etc. Those rates would be based off your experience. If you're working the same kind of project you've done before, you should have a base rate for each section of the project (ie: "$X per hour or a base of $150 for the component"). The reasoning is you have the code already (it belongs to you) and they're benefiting from that pre-built library and experience you have that they'd have to pay more for elsewhere.
At first it's a bit uncomfortable and your standards may benefit the client a lot more than they benefit you (especially with rates/pricing) so you have to grow into it. As you get more clients and thus there is more demand for your experience and knowledge, you can expand those standards to benefit you more.
As far as finding clients - you may be surprised how much interest can be drawn up by just telling your family and friends about your new business.
Great point, neonjuice. I've had a few people ask me about sites that are very involved. Some including things that take a lot of programming time (this is where experience and code library comes in handy!) and once you explain that their ambitions typically reel back a bit. Sometimes you'll meet people that realistically just need pre-canned software...like a blogging system, CMS, and/or a shopping system. I got into PHP because I hate doing things over and over - so it's kind of my character to try to help people set up pre-canned software than building it from scratch and leaving them the bill
Defo a great way to do business, when you keep a list of PHP scripts or any dynamic scripts for that matter. Sometimes you can get a client who wants one style of interactivity and although it works out great in theory, sometimes it does not end up that great on a user experience level, so you do not want to waste to much time developing a larger prototype application, when you can draw a ready made script from your library. Another thing with being in the Web Development business is getting paid. It has and still is known for clients to steal code and try to finish it themselves, so always get 50% upfront to cover initial programming and design costs. I made this mistake several times, but hey, we gotta learn. Now days, I do no work at all, without a signed contract. Contracts are so important. Also, trademark your name if you can afford it.Great point, neonjuice. I've had a few people ask me about sites that are very involved. Some including things that take a lot of programming time (this is where experience and code library comes in handy!) and once you explain that their ambitions typically reel back a bit. Sometimes you'll meet people that realistically just need pre-canned software...like a blogging system, CMS, and/or a shopping system. I got into PHP because I hate doing things over and over - so it's kind of my character to try to help people set up pre-canned software than building it from scratch and leaving them the bill
I do a lot of server-side stuff and until the work is paid in full, it stays on my server. That is a pretty big advantage of being more specialized. I could see stealing being a big problem with graphic/static web design work, for sure. I'm always super prudent to have a contract in place before any work starts (at least, these days! I've been burned without one before!) but even then I place watermarks on my layouts (obvious ones too - not ones that can be blurred out by someone disparate to save a few bucks!). JUST like you need to protect your web sites with security for that one person that may come along and try to screw it up, you have to set yourself up to protect against that one client that may try to screw you
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
- Status
