Making money from website design.

[Iotrez]

Hi all.

I want to find a way of supplementing my income as an animator in the video game industry, so I thought about learning to design and put together websites in my spare time.

Assuming that I learn the necessary skills and can put together good quality sites, how would I go about advertising my services? How difficult is it to attract business?

Also, is the market place already saturated with web designers, making it impossible to make any money? Would I just end up as yet another amatur web designer unable to attract business?

Thanks alot for advice.

 

[Dan]

There is infinite number of designers, but most can't design anything.

If you are good, there should be no problem.

I get hired all the time for PHP coding and other things, and take a look at my site www.dan-friedman.com

 

[Tuts4you]

your site done even load lol it just keeps loading

 

[will7]

^^ What he said :lol:

 

[TeviH]

same as above... I guess if I need a loading screen I'll give you a call :sold:

Back on topic...

First of all I find it a little amusing... I'm a designer trying to switch gears into the animation industry! I find the field is saturated with designers, and as previously mentioned, most of them are terrible. But most people don't care, or know enough find out anything beyond the price. So if you're more expensive than the little boy next door who uses front page and clip art to make his "web pages designs" it's difficult to get the job, even though you may have far superior work.

I find that to do well you need to build yourself a base of repeat clients. It will take a while to get into the industry without any marketing, but it certainly is possible (I've never done marketing). You just have to get out there, shake people's hands, be friendly polite, tell them what you do, invite them to your office, or to check out your site, give out business cards, etc. Tell everyone.

The industry is saturated, just like the game design/animation industry. But there's still a real lack of quality out there - just like games/animation. If you're good, and a little agressive, it can work out fine.

Good luck!

 

[Zeeble]

same as above... I guess if I need a loading screen I'll give you a call :sold:

Back on topic...

First of all I find it a little amusing... I'm a designer trying to switch gears into the animation industry! I find the field is saturated with designers, and as previously mentioned, most of them are terrible. But most people don't care, or know enough find out anything beyond the price. So if you're more expensive than the little boy next door who uses front page and clip art to make his "web pages designs" it's difficult to get the job, even though you may have far superior work.

Good luck!

I totally disagree. I personally think that quality at a reasonable price is more important if you are going for medium to small businesses than shoddy work at a low price.........

 

[TeviH]

I agree with you, man! I'm just saying what I've encountered out there when selling my wares. *I* think it's more important to have higher quality at a reasonable price, but there are tons of people running their own businesses that just want the absolute cheapest, and it's difficult to explain to them about quality or they just don't want to hear it.

Your best bet to shop around quality is not to small businesses but the larger more corporate businesses. (This is especially true about logos - people can't seem to comprehend why a little simple graphic should cost more than 50 bucks! If done right you should be able to get at least 250 for it, and up to 450.)

And to clarify - I would *never* condone trying to pass off shoddy work, even for a low price just to get the job!!

 

[GT Web]

There are two types of customers:

those who think any website is a good one and dont have enough experience on the web to tell what makes a good designers vs. a bad one - these types only look at price.

those who know the internet and know what they are looking for - these types want high quality work and will pay a premium for it!

So, you guys are both right, some customers care only about price, others do not. The key is finding your niche and looking for customers within it.

 

[Zeeble]

I agree with you, man! I'm just saying what I've encountered out there when selling my wares. *I* think it's more important to have higher quality at a reasonable price, but there are tons of people running their own businesses that just want the absolute cheapest, and it's difficult to explain to them about quality or they just don't want to hear it.

Your best bet to shop around quality is not to small businesses but the larger more corporate businesses. (This is especially true about logos - people can't seem to comprehend why a little simple graphic should cost more than 50 bucks! If done right you should be able to get at least 250 for it, and up to 450.)

And to clarify - I would *never* condone trying to pass off shoddy work, even for a low price just to get the job!!

Of course. Just from my personal experience (running www.designs.pro), most companies prefer to go for quality at a medium price, rather than go for the cheapest.

It's all about good salesmanship.

 

[TeviH]

It's all about good salesmanship.

This is true, too. As far shear numbers, though, I find most people are looking for the El-Cheap-O site. They seem to think they can't justify spending 2 thousand dollars for their handbag business to make a nice ecommerce site. I don't bother with that crowd (any more).

I think the most important thing when running your own business, is being a business man, knowing you can say "No!" to people! You'll find that if you don't take the weasle clients and only go after the big fish, you'll get paid better for less hassle. Surprisingly, the ones that pay the least and want the cheapest job are always the most work. They'll be hounding you to "just fix this for me" or "can you please just update this" telling you "it'll only take a minute".... You'll find those minutes actually add up.

Another example - the biggest contract I signed, I was told of all the designers who submitted proposals I was the most expensive, sometimes double. I said simply, I'm giving you 100% quality and I don't think you'll get from anyone else the level of satisfaction I will give you. Isaid that was my price and I can lower it by cutting out certain features they requested. I ended up getting the job and they were satisfied. They also told me there was one other designer who had quoted more than I did, but when they said it was high, he sliced his price in half!! They said if he would slice his price in half, what was it worth? Why did he quote such a high price if it was only worth half?! And if he cut it down by half, was it really worth *that* much?! They didn't respect him for it, and didn't want to trust him after that.

Web design can be lucrative, but if you're running your own show, you have to be a business man.