GETTING YOUR FIRST WEB DESIGN JOB
People have been asking for this one, for a long time - I’ve been a total scatterbrain lately with heaps of half-written articles and tutorials!
I must have about 60-70 pages worth of material on everything from web design tips, PHP programming, how to create a database in MySQL, negotiating a web contract - all of them about half finished!
Before I go on with the article on the web design business, I have to say that I have relearned one thing in the last 3 months: do one thing and finish it! I think this is so important, that I’ve even come up with an expression:
‘If you’re half way there, you’re nowhere!’
Wow, I’ve coined my first expression! Keep it in mind when you’re doing your thing - whatever it may be.
GETTING YOUR FIRST WEB DESIGN JOB
One of the first question people ask, is how do you actually get a web design job? This has all to do with your presentation - how the client perceives you is more important than reality!
MAKE THE CLIENT CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITY
The first thing you need to do is make the client (prospect) confident that you know what your doing. Besides being able to speak clearly and present yourself (don’t wear flip-flops) in a professional manner, you will need a few props:
- A good business card - not one you make with your home printer! These days you can get great looking business cards made for 50 USD from a professional printer, there is no excuse for cheap looking home made jobs! When you hand
someone a do-it-yourself business card it screams AMATEUR! - You’re in the web design business - you better have a kick ass site! If your artistic skills are not the greatest, please use a website template designed by someone with the artistic skill!
- A portfolio would be nice! Having a great looking website is usually not enough, you need to show prospects examples of your past work - they will always ask for it.
So, what’s a new web designer to do? What happens if you don’t have past work to show? Just do what Bill Gates did to kick-off Microsoft: exaggerate!
I would create a couple of free websites for friends, family or even yourself.
If you can’t find anyone to give a site away to, then just pick a subject you know about (outside of web design) and build a site for your ‘new business’.
Example: build a website that sells books and become an Amazon.com affiliate while your at it! Besides having a working website to show prospects, you will learn about the growing business of affiliate programs.
SETTING THE PRICE
You don’t want to set the price in the first meeting. You need to be able to go home and evaluate the work. They may push you to give a price; you should hold your ground and just let them know that you will need all the details (how many pages, who does the artwork, any special features like Flash or database stuff et cetera,) before you can give them a final cost.
Asking for these details typically holds the clients off, since they have a few things to think about. But if you really have to, just give them your
hourly rate.
GIVING YOUR HOURLY RATE
How much should you charge per hour? This depends on where you live - it cost a lot less to live in China than it does in New York City! You should be able to gauge the going rate for your part of town by calling up web design companies checking newspaper ads that your competition has placed etc.
YOU HAVE TO ‘PAY YOUR DUES’
I am assuming you are new to the game of web design, so you will probably have to ‘officially’ charge a little less than the average to get your business going.
Example: if the going rate for web designers is $50 hour, you should TELL your clients $35. That will make them feel like they’re getting a deal, and this will help you to land the job.
Some of you may have picked up something I’ve been hinting at - did you see it?
When I’ve been talking about the hourly rate, I’ve been talking about what you should TELL your client, not what you should actually charge!
Consider this: we all got to eat, even you! Working for slave wages doesn’t put food on the plate - your client probably has no idea how long it takes to build a website! Now that I think of it, most web designers have no idea either!
The point is, you have to earn a descent wage; you should exaggerate the hours you need to complete the job. But remember, if you’re new to the field, you will need to work longer (and harder hours) than someone with years of experience, simply because you need time to develop your skills.
My business experience: I’ve found that web designers with a few years experience, can produce better websites in half the time of a web designer fresh out of school.
That’s part of the reason an experienced designer can charge twice as much and still produce a better web site. Nothing beats experience.. so build, build, build!
PRICING THE JOB.
Calculate the hours to complete the web design job and then multiply that number by 2.4! Only then will you have an accurate cost. Trust me, it always takes longer than you think!
Ok, I had enough writing for tonight! But you know what? I finished an article!
Stefan Mischook
What about a per-page cost? I’ve found that is easier to calculate accurately instead of using an hourly wage. Too much can go south with the whole hourly thing for me to stick with it. Additionally, I am pretty young in the industry and have only been at it a couple years, so I’m still kinda local. I found checking the prices of competitors helped me immensely as I was undercutting their prices by a good margin, I adjusted my prices and made them closer to the local guys and am making much more now.
Good luck with the blog.
Rob,
I agree - that’s the way I price too… can I ask what you charge and where you live, just for comparison? You can send me your answer back-channel if you prefer. Thanks so much!
Amy
Per-page costing is fine, I used to quote that way.
But when you think about it, most of the work is in creating the initial design - once that’s done, it is just a question of reproducing it.
I would explain this concept to clients: where 85% of the work is just in getting the framework/design in place … if a website had 5 or 10 pages, the time required would be pretty much the same.
In your most recent newsletter you commented on starting to use CMS/Blog format. Will share how you are doing this? Are you using a script?
I am using something called WordPress. I will be putting lots of learning material very soon.
I am in love with wordpress… however I’ve been seeking out a great CMS that works for an entire site, as opposed to falling back with a “blog” software that can mimic an entire site by building the pages, etc.
I do have more exploring to do with wordpress, yes, but what I’ve used it for on my own sites has worked beautifully, and as far as optimization goes, it can’t be beat!
I did try Mambo, but I found that not all hosting companies allow you to get into the db mgmt system properly in order to get things set up the way they need to be for Mambo. Any thoughts on that?
Hi Lara,
You don’t see WordPress as being able to mimic an entire site?
What complaints (if any,) do you have about WordPress? Where do you see it being weak?
Thanks,
Stefan
‘WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform’ (their statement) or in everyday language: blogging software.
Stefan is right to an extent it can be used to create a complete site but as a fully blown CMS it is not and is structured in the main for blogging.
The differentiation between the two may be blurry but there is a difference and have different methods of posting, maintenance etc.
Very few CMS allow email posting whereas many blogs can be updated and added to that way which is a very quick way of updating. Most CMS are for creating, updating and maintaining information/content in a regular and controlled manner with options for moderation, site owner control, user/group access etc.
Been looking at TextPattern for CMS recently and found it to be fairly easy to use, once you get your head round it, of course! It also has the ability to behave like a weblog.
As Stefan says in his recent post relating to Web Objects; the job can be done but not efficiently and there are better options. It’s ‘horses for courses’!
That’s not to say that you can’t integrate them to achieve exactly what you need.
regards
Rob
Gah! Rob sort of answered for me - thank you, Rob!
I guess what I was trying to say is that I would prefer a fully functional CMS that doesn’t LOOK like it’s an expansion of a blog. I don’t want the first thing people see to be the blog, which means that I either have to mimic the theme I’ve created for the blog to make at the very least, a static index page. I suppose from there, I can link off to the “pages” I’ve made with wordpress, but it seems like a lot of hassle. Sure, less hassle than creating 10 or 20 distinct static pages and interlinking them all, but a hassle nonetheless.
As Rob said, you can integrate things to achieve exactly what you need. But there are so many times I find myself wishing I had the time, money, and patience to learn programming so I can create my own CMS that works like some of those I’ve seen elsewhere. (As I mentioned in the first comment, I LOVE the look/feel of Mambo, but I’m not willing to leave my current hosting company. I love them more. LOL)
Lara-
There are PLENTY of options out there in terms of CMS scripting, try a bunch of em out and eventually you’ll find one that you can get really into..
as far as not having as much DB control as Mambo needs, you amy need to simply add an extra DB or call your hosting co. and ask them to help you out with installing Mambo (give you some advice, setup the admin, whatever) sometimes you get someone knowledgeable who wants to help and will walk you through setup, and help you get around certain limitations
I like to skip CMs stuff altogether… I use header and footer templates to “wrap” my pages for the most part, but I’ve never had a huge dynamic project so I’ve yet to really test how flexible I can make this stuff
Hi robbkore,
Do you find Mambo relatively easy to install and set up? How long does it typically take you - ball park?
I understand where Lara is coming from and appreciate Robs textbook answer which comes from experience.
From CMS to Blog and in-between (Nuke) it comes down to you or the clients objective and what is the objective of the site as well as what you are familiar and comfortable with and lets us not forget search or crawl ability.
My favorite CMS is TYPO. It has a sharp learning curve but is worth the effort. My main site is powered by Rainbow Portal Pro which is not the friendliest set-up but it was my first and I have developed 101 work-a-rounds especially after SP2 upgrades on the MS servers.
Also to be dead honest I prefer php and mysql driven sites: fast and efficient.
Anyway, great discussion y’all.
Ben
Hey!
Sorry, feel as though I’m back-tracking a bit in this discussion, but what are people’s general opnions about passing on the raw data (e.g. flash file, html pages) to the client?
I know most clients may not understand it, but if in the future (with, for example a static page), they want to make some changes, if they have possession of the files this can be done much more easily. I have seen far too many people held to ransom with content management system - there is sometimes a power=play involved too. a ‘my work’ mentality.
What is you attitude generally on emboldening the client, and de-mystifying the design process?
Personally I would provide the source files.
My reasoning:
If you have a good relationship with a client, they will come back to see you for changes etc.
If you don’t have a good relationship with a client, it is better not to deal with them anyway.
Makes sense?
why is it, that whenever I want a site created by a designer, they either 1) don’t know anything but designing homepages (no CMS, e-commerce interface, back-office, thir-party participant/platforms, reconciliation and admin.)…or 2) appear to know, but then believe they have the business locked up so the a) don’t return e-mails on the same day (or week!), start ducking phone calls etc etc etc…I am on this site (downloading) because I have HAD it (to the eyeballs) with this industry, and would rather take the leap to do it all myself. Is it just my bad luck, or is this a norm in the industry? Anyone care to steer me to quality/value for money/designers, customised-CMS builders…and people with a BUSINESS sense…and not just “pretty pictures” thrown together that is then called Web-Site building? Id LOVE to be proven wrong.
I’m living in Phnom Penh Cambodia. I have seen the site design at killersites.com and what they charge for flash sites. I was dumbfounded at the quality-price relationship. Here in Phnom Penh, I recently talked to somebody from a French web design company. They do flash design sites for companies here and charge between 1200 and 2500$ per site, not including really special things. On killersites.com I saw a flash site is around 60$ or so and customization around 300-600 dollars. Then, the demos. I’ve never seen better demos in the industry online. But what I want to reply to is the recent post by Pedro. You may try elance.com. They have a comprehensive scheme to find qualified outsourcing. Generally, all is on a bargain basis. You get a quotation and then you discuss with each provider. I found it quite honest, and dishonest providers are quickly disappearing because of the transparent scheme. I find contrary to you or perhaps as an add-on that cheating is not really possible in this industry, it’s all too transparent, and at the same time very meticulous. When you get your end result, you see immediately or in five minutes where the bugs are. When you buy a car stereo you may find out only after some time, for example. The meanest business I’ve ever in and ever seen is not cascading style sheets, but cascading pyramides …, from these people, then, you can really learn to become a misanthrope …!
: by the way, thanks for this blog, so highly useful …:)
This post really made me thinking… I think I am charging waaaaaaaay to little… a lot of people charge 5 to 10 times more than I charge and very often doing lot lower quality jobs than I do… I did not even had time in 2 years to build my own website… I think my problem is more about the prices not about the number of clients
Hi!
I have created website using frontpage and manual html codes (static webpage) and that was a long time ago.
now, i heard about this, “PHP programming, how to create a database in MySQL”, do i require to have a background on this to make or create an amazon-like website?
please reply to me in my email. i really would like to pursue the web design job. thanks.
I have designed a number of websites but i still to know much about database to make me get more web site job. Please i need a web address where i can learn more about how to design database. here are some of the web site i have published so far.
Hi,
You can learn about database driven websites at www.killerphp.com.
Stefan