Can old geezers make a living in web design?
June 8th, 2010
Once again, an article derived from a question put to me:
What do you offer unemployed 75-years old geezers doing a Flash self-learning approach, to maintain my sanity knowing no company, at my age, will ever offer me gainful income employment ???
Respectfully,
Marvin G
Translation: Can old geezers make a living in web design?
Short answer: yes.
… If you train properly.
The best thing about the web design field is that it is very open and not hindered by regulation and formality that we see in many other professions.
In fact, the professional web world is one of the few meritocracies left on this planet – imagine that, skill and talent count!
… It never fails to baffle me why economists and professional stock pickers still have jobs!? Oh yea, they don’t need to produce results!
Anyway …
Flash though, may not be the best route because it is a marginalized aspect of web design and I think with the added pressure from Apple and HTML5 (that supplants some important aspects of Flash) … it will fade even more so. I am NOT saying Flash will disappear, but I think it will be used that much less.
So what is the solution?
First thing, you may want to consider being self employed web designer, start taking on web design jobs. It much more fun anyway! And 2nd, you need to learn the skills of a modern web designer … skills that are used everyday:
- HTML
- CSS
- PHP
- Javascript
The last two on my list may scare you (programming for web designers?), but in fact, it is the key to you getting more jobs and earning more money than the next guy.
Conclusion:
I believe that the open nature of the web design profession and the growing demand for websites, combined with some strategic web design training … and yes, geezers will not just make some extra cash, they can make a good living and on their schedule. Remember, with web design, you don’t need to go work for a company.
Thanks for reading,
Stefan Mischook
killersites.com
The 75 has me beat by 6 mos. I agree with your projective outlook.
Hell is in the eye of the beholder, I guess I’m there now, but too stupid or mean to admit it; I lean back, take a deep breath and tell myself that I’ll be damn if I let it beat me.
Ihave no formal training in PC’s, Internet or Internet Marketing, but I plan to within the next 6 mos. (I am enrolled in your KillerSites University- which I consider the best that I have researched- and also enrolled in Wealthy Affiliate University),
I will @ 6 mos. have a website and be marketing on the internet.
I’ve 1 year invested so far, but at least 6 mos of this time has been repairing my PC after blue screen lock out and restoring lost information and material.
Once I reach that next 6 mos. point, the real work and fun will begain.
I’ve started at the bottom of the barrel in experience and knowledge and am looking forward to the future.
Have a TREMENDOUS YEAR.
I’m happy to hear you’re finding the Killersites University useful.
Stefan
Hi Stefan,
I’d never thought of myself as an “old geezer” until I read your article, but like most things, admitting to being old is more a state of mind than a reality! I turned 65 recently and have been designing and developing websites since I was forcibly retired nearly 10 years ago and thoroughly enjoy the continuing learning process that is necessary if you are to be successful.
Yesterday, Apple introduced Safari 5 and already I’ve had calls asking if I can develop sites using HTML5 and CSS3. I’ve taken a look at Apple’s introductory pages http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ and some of the examples are truly outstanding. All of them produced without using Flash, which is something I’ve been using quite a bit recently.
My question is this – where can I learn these new versions of html and css?….and if I develop a site using them, are all browsers compatible?
By the way, thanks for all the help you’ve provided to me and the other geezers (as well as your younger subscribers) over the years. The way you present information is most professional and easy to learn.
John Prudence
I can’t go so far as 75years, but all the same, can go as far as 70years young and say that I am earning a crust or two from web design. Some may think that I was brought up with computers, but I wasn’t. I started in earnest with them in 1996 when I purchased a business and put some of my stock on the internet through a web designer. He moved on to new pastures and left me to learn and pick up the pieces of web management. (He did give me some pointers before leaving, thank goodness!)
Since then, I have endeavoured to learn as much as possible and a lot of help came from Stefan along the way. I’ve read just about all Stefan has put on the internet over a lot of years. I always look forward to his emails and some of his excuses for not sending emails, ha ha!
I’m busy at the moment learning as much as possible about CMS apps, namely, Joomla – which I have built a site in, Wordpress and Drupal.
Just go for it!
Very good blog. I agree that anyone can do it, but it’s if you have the patience to deal with people and the skill set to do good work.
Do you accept $90 fees in 12 monthly payments ????
Otherwise, I gotta go to the casino and win the money!!!
— Marvin
I turned 65 in March. My computer died a few days ago and I’m waiting for thermal grease, but I will get it up and running again and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and dig into HTML 5, CSS 3, PHP and MySql. I love creating websites.
Marvin,
You can pay monthly at $9. It ends up being a touch more expensive than $90 but it is still a great deal.
http://www.killersites.com/university/
Stefan
@jdmajor,
I’ve never been a believer in working hard and then retiring. I think it is a better plan to figure out WHAT YOU ENJOY and just do that for a living.
… Sometimes easier said than done – especially if you like to drink bear all day!
Fortunately for us geeks, web design and programming is an easy thing to turn into a great career (or business) and is also a creative outlet. I love building things that work, that have function and on top of that, look pretty good.
S
Hello Stefan
Great post and site. Can old geezers make a living from seo.
Although I cant lay claim to being near 70 (47 actually)I believe that you are never to old to learn. spent the last year learning about web marketing, web site creation and lately seo.I have come to realise that although your sites may look great to have successful sites you need traffic (and I dont want the expense of PPC), so it looks like mastering organic search is required.
Kris
Ps. What anchor text would you like used in the link to your site?
I am near retirement age but I am broke where should I start to get my training up and running
student loans are killing me so the solution must be economical
Hi London,
You are in luck, we just released our new training package, The Complete Web Designer:
‘Over 29 hours of training video tutorials (spanning nearly 200 video lessons) that easily guide you from total beginner to becoming a productive web designer.’
Best thing, it is very affordable: $99.99!
Check it out:
http://www.killervideostore.com/video-courses/complete-web-designer.php
Stefan
If you know your shit then i can’t imagine you being turned down. Just your age makes you invaluable because you have 7 decades of advertisement, propaganda and a life long exposure to color palates of many different era’s.
I would hire you.
Peace
Facebook is a childs toy. Always has been. Don’t want to play with it, don’t. Its that simple. Tantrums to get the toymaker to change the toy are silly.
- Amegioa
“KillerSites University”
LOL…
anything you need to know about web…
and then I see “Dreamweaver”.
The day class is not based on DW you can call it a real HTML class; otherwise, they are teaching you how to use an application not a trade.
We teach Dreamweaver because it is the most popular web design software out there AND because it is good to know how this type of software works.
… You learn Dreamweaver, you learn a lot about all web design software. We also use Dreamweaver as a vehicle to teach basic web concepts.
That said, the first course we offer is Web Design 1 and it teaches you how to build websites without any web design software. So you learn HTML and CSS …
S
I am an old gezzer at 71. I learned Fortran in 1959 at Penn State. Next year in 1960 I got a summer job at IBM. Beleive it or not in my department, Industrial Engineering, I was the only person who at that time knew how to program. I subsequently learned Cobal and a few other things along the way. Now I am retired and am learning web design as a hobby. I am amazed at how much fuss is made about programming as if that were some exotic thing. Do loops and if statements have been around for over 50 years. I am in the middle of Javascript and looking foreward to your course in PHP. It is a modern version of Fortran. Thanks for the videos.
Hi Alex,
I appreciate the comments.
Yep, programming is really not such a huge leap if the basics are covered properly.
Stefan
Hello Stefan, I really liked your article !! and now that you have touch this topic of starting with web developing I would like to ask you a few suggestiong on how to begin to offer your services and to obtain clients ? Your comments will be very helpful, best regards.
Hi,
I talk about the business of web design in a series of podcasts:
http://www.killersites.com/magazine/category/web-design/business-of-web-design/
You might want to join the forum and ask your question, there are many web designers on there who can give you tips:
http://www.killersites.com/community/
That said, start with a few free jobs to get your toes wet and take it from there. Ask around … who needs a website. Something will pop up.
Thanks,
Stefan
Thanks for you prompt answer, with this ideas I can start developing and I will join the forum to get more.
(First: excuses for my poor languaje)
Very, very good. I like too much and I feel very close to ‘momentum’ readed here. The ideas and final conclusions are exactly I understand web programming.
Thanks!