Many web designers who are new to the industry often ask exactly where the money can be made. If you’re looking to make a living from web design after finishing university, or maybe moving into the industry from a different area of work, then you’ll want to know exactly what your options are. Many crave for the freelance lifestyle (who doesn’t want to sit in their pants ’till 3 in the afternoon?) – and while this is suitable for some, for others it’s just not a viable lifestyle. I’m gonna quickly run through the different options available below, in the hope that it can help a few of you out…
Things that I would call facts…
a) You’ll never make mega bucks from web design. While there’s always opportunity, it’s now quite a saturated market. You can become very well off, but Sugar or Branson style cashflow is generally out of the question.
b) Be prepared to work hard with often long hours to make it.
c) You’ve gotta be good. Web design is something that a lot of people can teach themselves, thus meaning there’s a lot of people to contend with out there.
1. Get a Job
The main aim for most, this is one of the best ways to start out your web design career. Consistent pay, and a lot less stress than working for yourself. You’ll get the chance to meet a lot of other great designers and developers, and ultimately learn a lot. For this, you’ll need to be comfortable in an interview, have a few portfolio pieces that you’re proud of, a good skill set, and a willingness to learn. A university degree definitely isn’t a requirement, although you’ll need a good portfolio if you’re lacking in the qualifications department.
2. Spec Work
As a web designer you generally get a lot of hate for even proposing the idea of spec work and crowdsouring. “Antispec.com” has recently been doing the rounds on Twitter, with a lot of high profile freelancers jumping onboard to campaign against it. I can appreciate their views, and a lot of their principals are correct – however, I’m going to stick my head out and claim that spec work isn’t always bad.
First things first – spec(ulative) work refers to when a single designer or agency design for free in the hope of winning a project (i.e. design contests). The bad = you can spend many hours doing work for no cash in return, sometimes the cash prize itself is too small, the briefs and clients you work with are generally less professional, and finally… plenty of designers would claim that spec work damages the industry due to the low cost approach for the contest holder, along with the regularly low standards of design. All of this is true to a certain extent, but I still insist that spec work can help you out when you’re starting out and building a portfolio. Believe it or not, the earnings to work ratio isn’t to bad if you’re good at design – it’s not the slave labour that some would claim it is. You can make good money quickly, often even enough to live off. 99 Designs would be popular place to go for design contests.
3. Sell Products
An excellent money making scheme that a lot of designers simply seem to forget about. Whether it’s selling themes, icons, applications, scripts, static templates, or anything else that comes to mind, you can gain a lot of business from this. As Orman Clark put it, it beats dealing with clients! (He pretty much provides WordPress themes full time at the moment). He uses Themeforest as his marketplace, although many choose to sell on their own website.
4. Freelance
With freelance you can live the dream… kind of. You can be your own boss, choose your own projects, charge as much as you want, and generally reap the benefits. With very low start up costs, freelancing isn’t particularly difficult to get involved in. However, you need to know what you’re doing business wise, and (very importantly) you need a great portfolio. A few projects you did at college won’t really cut it… you need to have some sizeable clients and projects under your belt. You’ll want some cash for general marketing and advertising, as lack of work is the biggest problem many freelancers contend with.
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