12 replies to this topic

[Autumn]

I've always loved doing web design and I'm now thinking of going into a Web Design course at a local college (St. Lawrence) in the fall. I've made money already doing a few websites and I think it would be an awesome second income.

Any suggestions on how I could go about making it a primary income, or does web design have it's ups and downs and not recommended to be a primary income?

[salamangkero]

I'm not sure how things go over there but in our country, web design is more closely related to the College of Fine Arts than it is to Computer Science. As it is, I, along with a lot of people here, do think that web design is not something that could be securely made as a primary income. Here's what I perceive to be the reasons why:

1. No benefits - I'm assuming you'd be freelancing. If you are, then you won't get to expect health benefits, dental benefits and the like.
2. Variable demand - Again, for freelancers. Not that it's hard to find people who want to give their web pages a makeover. The problem is in finding those people regularly
3. Sub-skill - So let's say you're not freelancing; you work in an outsourcing or solutions firm or whatnot. The problem is that web design alone is hardly a skill enough. As it is, it is "supposedly" an integral part of web developers' or graphic designers' being.
4. Competition - the local College of Fine Arts churn out a substantial amount of graduates every year. A quarter of that will be your potential competitors. It is practically the same with Computer Science graduates.

Basically, that's why I'm thinking web design is hardly a suitable career track. It's like a compromise between Computer Science and Fine Arts (or Visual Arts, Multimedia, etc) There is also the saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none."

Then again, I could claim temporary insanity and advice you to take what I just said with a grain or two of salt. Like I said, that was just my two cents

[SSBC]

Okay, sorry to burst your bubble, but no, its not good for a PRIMARY career. It's a great side-job though, because alot of people will pay pretty darn good for a good web design.

The problem is if you were gonna make it your primary job, you'd have the risk of a long wait of waiting for someone to ask you for a web design. Could take a minute, could take a month. Not everyone who makes a site hires someone to make the layout for them, since theres alot of
pre-made styles where you can download them for free at random sites, which actually look pretty good. So you could easily hit a snag and come to a dead stop for quite some time, not making any money.

But it sure is a great side-job, so still stick at it but don't make it your one and only job.
Thats just my opinion.

[Autumn]

I figured as much.

I wasn't expecting to hear different than what was posted, but I just wanted to know what you guys thought about it, I guess. As a side "career" it would be okay, I'm sure. I'm not sure what I want to do for an ACTUAL career, but I guess I'll find out when I get there.

[DjLuki]

If you can get a job with like a company, like a contract or something, than it would be very good but do you know how much work it takes? i wanted to do that profession, i thought of taking that major in college but decided not to. I have looked at what the requirements are for those companies that lok for web deisgners, they basically expect you to know everything, html, csss, php, c++, photoshop, and many things.. plus there are so many people now doing this, and there are so many programs made for companies to make it easier for them so they don't have to hire web masters... what they do now is just get somebody to design a website for them than they get somebody to update it for cheap. I dont think it would be a good choice for a primary career option, but it is good to know and earn some money by freelancing.

[BooZker]

I would consider being a graphic designer. I am a graphic designer and thats part of the job. If you like making websites and making the graphics you could be a webmaster/designer and they make alright money. My friends Dad is that and he makes 100,000 a year for WB/AOL. He also teaches. Remember he is a designer and writes the website code himself also though. Now if you just like making graphics and images and art i would consider a career in graphic design. You most likely wont make more then minimum wage though.

good luck hope that helps a little...

[midnightvamp]

It can work fine as a primary income, depending on the type of businesses in your area. I recently finished my web developing course in college, and before I was done, I'd already had a couple offers from companies that wanted to work with me.

It also depends on the kind of work you are doing - either contract or salary, whether it's a primary income, because with contracts, obviously the income depends on getting the jobs, and that can have it's ups and dows.

And don't worry about having to know a bunch of stuff... since you've already been selling some websites, then you already have the basics, and most courses will re-teach you that, plus give you a good understanding of several programming languages, plus teach you many things about design as well.

I think that if you already like the job, and have saved up the money for it, then you are well on your way to a great career. Working is always better when you love what you do.

[Autumn]

My cousin's fiancé is a graphic / web design, and he just bought a new 2006 Pontiac in cash. It was like, $24,000 or something and he wanted it, so he bought it.

I guess some of them can make really good money. He does web design for 3 different security companies, and he updates them, etc...

He didn't go to school for anything. He just does it because he's good at it.

[FLaKes]

Cool, well so far it seems that it works for some people and for some others it really doesnt, It all depends on your ability to get good and plenty of customers. If you do a really good job for one, then you get recommended to more people and thats were most other customers come in.

[QuickSilva]

They are also a few websites which people can advertise if they need web design, graphics design etc. I would try these out to get started, and maybe get bigger from there. You will need to advertise though, you thought of where to advertise yet? And I would have thought you would make a really cool website to show yourself to new people, really give them a taste of what they may buy.

Now you may find this pretty weird, but I would charge them to update the website on a regular basis. Now I have to rush to school, but if you don't find them websites, i'll post them a bit later. Good bye!