Working as a Web designer is a rewarding career, but the ultimate reason to work in any field is to earn money. To be able to earn top dollar in this industry, designers must know how to run a business. There are many Web designers out there who are amazing at their job, but not talented at running a business. In order to be successful, designers have to know how to find clients, keep them and grow their company. Having a steady stream of current clients is a great way to make a baseline income, but husiness is not. If you are currently depending on one or two big accounts to make your income, you need to rethink your strategy. Finding multiple clients will give you a more stable income. After desiyn, if one client stops asking for work, you will still have other projects available. Finding clients can be as easy as networking with local businesses or joining freelance websites. Even direct mailing coupons to local businesses can bring in new customers. Stock graphics and templates are always needed by websites. Make money web design business a busniess business owner might not be able to afford a professional Web design, they can afford the few dollars it takes to buy stock graphics. In addition to we in extra money, stock graphics can be continuously resold.
Why Web Design Makes a Great Side Hustle
The first website I ever created for money was back in I was just in the last year of my high school career, so that kind of money was pretty sweet. Eventually, I turned this business into a very profitable venture that I sold last year. Back to the story: When it was time to get real jobs after college, we decided that it would be a better idea to just skip the whole job application thing, and see if we could make it on our own. This was in By this time, both of us were rather adept at design, development, and building a project from start to finish. Over the next two years, our focus was on our projects. I loved the technical aspects. New innovations, design techniques, and tools. I loved web design. I loved creating websites. I loved indulging on big, fat technical books with titles made of acronyms. But this love was killing me like a barrel of fried chicken kills a man struggling with obesity.
Why Web Design Makes a Great Side Hustle
Suzanne Scacca is a former WordPress implementer, trainer and agency manager who now works as a freelance copywriter. She specializes in crafting marketing, web … More about Suzanne Scacca …. This is a sponsored post. And some say that pricing should differ based on who builds your website i. The problem with this answer is that it teaches business owners to think about a website in terms of hours and manpower put into it. As you already know, this leaves many website clients focused on:. As you go out into the world, trying to reverse this faulty logic and convince customers to pay a fair wage for your web design services, you should do some calculations of your own. There are pros and cons to each option.
1.Work for a Design Agency
This article will serve as a guide that covers many of the most popular options that you could choose to pursue. Read through the details of each and see what might be a good fit for you. You could work as an employee for a design agency and spend your time working on designing websites for clients. Another option that allows you to work as an employee is to be an in-house designer. In this case, instead of working on projects for clients, you would be working on the website of your employer. For example, you could be an in-house designer for a financial company and your job responsibilities would involve designing and maintaining the company website. Now, stepping away from the first two options where you would be working as an employee, freelancing is an entirely different ball game. One of the really nice things about freelancing is the flexibility that it offers. The flexibility of freelancing also allows you to work part-time or full-time. Maybe you have a full-time job as an in-house designer and you freelance on the side because you like to work on some different projects. If you enjoy the business aspects, starting your own agency is an option. Instead of working as a solo freelancer, you could hire other designers and developers to work for you. If your ultimate goal is to start an agency, a low risk approach would be to freelance first and build up your business slowly. When you have enough of a workload and income to justify hiring someone else, you could expand. Another option to make money as a designer is to start and run a design blog. You could use the blog as a way to promote your own design services and take clients while also running the blog, or you could focus on making money with the blog in other ways like ads, affiliate programs, or selling products. The Vandelay Design blog was originally started with the purpose of attracting traffic and landing more client work. As the blog grew, it basically became a business of its own, and the client work took a backseat. There are a number of design blogs that hire freelance writers, and if you have some design and writing skills you can get paid to do it. I really enjoyed the work, and it was very flexible. There is a lot of demand for website templates and themes for popular content management systems like WordPress and Shopify. Set up your own shop — Create your own website and sell themes or templates on your own. Sell on a marketplace — Instead of dealing with building up traffic to your own site, you could sell at a marketplace like ThemeForest and benefit from their huge, established user base. The resources that are available in the Vandelay Design shop are perfect examples. You can also sell some types of files at stock photo sites.
2. Work as an In-House Designer
This page may include affiliate links. Please see the disclosure page for more information. Posted by Marc Feb 24, Making Money. Back inI started doing some web design work for friends and family as a way to make a little extra money.
InI decided to take the next step and create my own website so I could attract more clients. What started as a little side hustle turned into a full-time web design and blogging business that I have been running since desifn Service-related side hustles, like web design, can be a great option.
This article will cover the basics of why you might want to work as a web designer, and the steps that you can take if you want to get started making money as a web designer.
Peti is a perfect example of what is possible with a service-related side hustle, and how it can impact your individual or family finances. Busiiness a side-hustling web wen, most of your clients are likely to be small businesses and organizations.
The cost of hiring a larger moeny to design and code a custom website is out ,ake reach for many small businesses. Freelancers and side hustlers can fill the gap by offering services that small businesses and non-profits can afford.
There are so many small businesses and organizations out there, and new ones popping up all the time, that there is plenty of demand. As a freelancer, you can charge a fair rate and still come in well below the price of just about any agency. My rates as a freelancer were similar. Many freelancers will create websites for clients without coding, thanks to the existing resources like the awesome Divi theme make money web design business make it easier than ever to create a website.
Creating a website may not require coding, but a business owner who has no experience with websites is unlikely to be able to create an effective website bussiness some help.
Things like design, layout, and usability are all important. Business ddesign may not want to take the time to learn it when they can just hire someone like you to set it up for. If not, you can certainly learn how to use the available tools.
In addition to web design, there plenty of other related services that you could also offer. Offering add-on services does a few key things. First, it allows you to make more money per client. Less time looking for clients, or talking to potential clients who never wind up moving forward, means more time to spend on paying clients. Second, some of desig services allow you to retain clients month-after-month. Instead of just designing a website, passing it off to the client, and being done, you can continue to provide services and get paid by that client.
Those on-going services can include things like website maintenance and updates, managing social media profiles, and managing ad campaigns. This may or may not be important to you, but web design like many other service related side hustles is a side hustle that has the potential to turn into a full-time income.
If you have an interest in being self-employed and working from home or working while travelingthis side hustle could give you that chance. The purpose of a side hustle is to make extra money outside of a traditional job. Some side hustles, like taking online surveys for example, are great for making a small amount of extra money, but will not give you the potential to make a full-time income.
If the possibility of making a full-time income is important to you, choose a side hustle that gives you a realistic chance, like web design. One of the nice things about service-related side desitn is that you will be paid for your time. With a service-related side hustle, you can start making money with just a single clientand the work that you do will be earning real money. Most service-related side hustles, especially those that are done online, will allow you to have a flexible schedule.
You can do the work around bsiness existing commitments, whenever you are available. A lot of people are looking for ways to make money with a blog, but most people ignore the possibility of monetizing a blog with a service. The possibilities will vary depending on the niche of your blog. Even small bloggers can make money with services, while other monetization methods like ads and affiliate links tend to require more traffic.
Even if offering a service is not the end goal for your dewign, it can still be a useful way to make money in the short-term. This is actually the approach I took with my own side hustle back in I started by offering web design and maintenance services.
Later, I also added freelance writing. While I was offering those services I was also working to grow my own blog. When the income fesign my blog picked up from things like ads and selling digital productsI scaled back and eventually quit the services. Peti Morgan is a real-world example that making money with a web design side hustle is possible you can even read her income reports to see details.
Peti kindly agreed to answer my questions related to her side hustle, and you can read bhsiness interview. I did this so that I could focus on my health, my family and my side hustles! My intention was to grow my blog income to cover this shortfall, and more — through affiliate sales, ad revenue and selling products of my.
So I decided I needed a service-based side hustle to bring in some immediate income — firstly, to cover our budget shortfall, and secondly to fund my online business and blog. So I decided to niche down further and offer just that — WordPress website design and development, and eBook design.
I batch schedule the work, usually in the mornings when my daughter is at kindergarten. I wanted to build up a portfolio of work, and test drive my side-hustle alongside caring for my daughter, growing my online business and blog and looking after the household. I quickly realized that I am really dedicated to, and capable of delivering high-quality work, so in hindsight that was too low.
I had doubts about my ability to manage this side hustle well, with my daughter at home full-time with me at the time. I was wrong! We quickly got into a scheduling groove and I was able to busuness out some pretty good work.
It has low overhead, so most of that was funneled towards my online business and blog, and the budget shortfall. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to designing and developing a website, so if you want to offer this service as an individual person not as part of a project teamyou need to know quite a lot of stuff. I think this is where my career busines has been really valuable. I think this is really important for small business owners and entrepreneurs bootstrapping their businesses.
Many VAs can do this sort of thing. But if they want to be able to easily add extra pages in the future, or want a blog, then I make sure that they have an appropriate theme customized for their needs. The two give me a LOT of design options and elements.
I can pretty much throw anything together with this combination. My favorite themes are Divi and Extra from Elegant Themes, and they offer a ton of flexibility as.
Beware that it can be quite hard to judge your own value. Women, more than men, tend to undervalue themselves. Because they could be undervaluing themselves. Likewise, if you want to work with people who will pay you more, your services and products need to appeal to. Look for people who are willing businss pay you for your services, and who value what you have to offer.
They know, like and trust me already, and many of them are in my target market, which is — small businesses ready to scale up out of the DIY phase. Ironically, it was this business school that helped me work out my target market! A good business coach goes a long way!
From experience, they make for excellent clients! Because you have already bridged that relationship gap, and you can work well together from the start. I just want everyone to be falling over themselves to book me! But the reality is, that you need to work on new relationships and networks, in order for them to bear fruit. Here is a look at what you can do if you want to get started. Earlier in the article, I mentioned that there are several services related to web design that you could offer.
To get started, I suggest deciding on and defining the services that you plan to offer. Are you going to be using existing WordPress themes? Are you going to customize themes or create your own from scratch?
Before going any further, decide on what you will offer and how you will do it. Getting some experience under your belt is an important step. When I was getting started with web design, my first few clients were friends and family.
Most of us know several people who run some sort of small business or maybe they work at a small businessand these people are a good place to start. With your first few clients, before you have established a track record, you may need to offer your services at a low price in order to get the business. I used project-based pricing rather than an hourly rate, but my prices at first were definitely low.
In addition to building your portfolio, your first few clients will help to give you some experience going through the process from start to finish. Even having just two samples can be enough to show potential clients what you can. When it comes to the items in your portfolio, quality is much more important than quantity. Only show off your best work. If potential clients busjness to see mondy examples, they can always ask you for it.
Here are some ideas for ways you can promote yourself and get work when you are still relatively new:. The best way to make more money is to increase the amount that you make from each client as opposed to trying to get more clients. Your on-going services could include maintaining and updating the website for clients, managing their social media profiles, creating graphics that your clients can use on their own through social media, managing advertising accounts like Facebook ads or Google AdWordsand general VA services.
Even though WordPress makes it easy to anyone to update their own website, there are a lot of small business owners that would rather pay someone to do it. And you never know, it could grow into something much bigger.
How to Make a Website in 10 mins — Simple & Easy
Ways to Make Money Online by Designing
Would you rather toil away as you are, continuously bogged down by stress? Or are you willing to take a risk for a chance at something better? This guide will teach you:. Proactively prepare for all of the possibilities! This can also be a great time to build thought leadership. Just make sure to weh a compelling link back to your portfolio website. Of course, in order to be known for something, you have to stand for. Specifically, you need to omney. If you want to build clout, you need to specialize. As part of this process, spend some time developing your target customer persona a basic bio of your target customer. Where do they hang out? How to best reach them? What do they require from a website? The question is: how? Hourly rates set you up for make money web design business conversations and the devaluation of your expertise. You may also want to check out these business-related calculators. Go to mlney 2. The key to success? Not treating marketing as a one-and-done task. One of the best first steps is to start by making your intentions clear with your existing network. Post publicly about starting a web design business on social networks and reach out to friends, family, and colleagues who may be able to send you referrals. LinkedIn buslness be a buisness source of leads because of its B2B nature.
Comments
Post a Comment