WAHM Forums

Hi,


I am looking into several careers I can do at home...web design being one of them.


I was wondering what type of training you have... degree, certf, teach yourself?


Also, do you get clients locally or mainly online?


Once you start how long does it take to start building a profit...months?


Thanks for any help!


~Dawn

Hi Dawn,


I don't know about everyone else but I did go to school for 2 years and get certified. If you have enough time and patience though with the programs that are available now, you can teach yourself mostly everything you need to know. Most programs are WYSIWYG or 'what you see is what you get' and they automatically generate the code for you. The programs most commonly used are Microsoft Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Flash and Swish. Everyone has their own preferences. Anyhow, I get clients both locally and online. I advertise in my local classifieds, I also searched google for free online advertising or free online classifieds, and posted to all of them possible. Of course I don't get too many from the "free classifieds". It takes some time to get going as far as making a profit, if you don't have the programs necessary to start your business. You can charge whatever you feel is acceptable for your area, for example I live in a small town and people here aren't loaded, so I charge between $500-$2500 for most websites, just a flat fee. But I know in some bigger cities, friends of mine are getting anywhere from $25-$100/hour.


If you are really serious about making a go at it, just sit down and learn html & css to start, both of which you can find great tutorials online for free. Then once you become familiar with them you can move up to php and cgi/perl etc...


Start small and work your way up, you WILL learn as you go. Good-luck and welcome to the Web Design community.


(P.S. Be sure to build your own website in a good professional manner before starting, I made the mistake of just throwing one together and I still haven't found the time between clients to get mine to higher standards!!! Just a little advice.)Edited by: lmfrench

Hi Dawn,


I taught myself. :) There are so many good tutorials and just building websites was a great learning process.


I find clients both locally and online.


Teresa smileys/smiley1.gif

I taught myself too. I think its the best way to fully learn the process.

Most of my clients were locals as word of mouth spreaded through my friends and family

Ya know I was interested in knowing the answer to that too! Glad to see that self taught designers can make a living. I enjoy building sites, although I have mostly only used sitebuilders...I do have frontpage though and its really not that hard to do. I have a html book and have learned things I didn't think I would ever do!


Something to look into for sure!

I have a html book and have learned things I didn't think I would ever do!





Be sure to check out the free tutorials online too! I learned most of what I know about Adobe Photoshop and Image Ready, not to mention quite a bit of perl & php from free online tutuorials.

Thanks for the tip!!!

I too taught myself all that I know. It took a lot of time but I've still done very well.

Thanks everyone for the advice! I found a couple free online tutorials, and I'm going to start on them today!


Thanks again smileys/smiley4.gif


~Dawn