I’ve been learning to design websites for a while now but I was just wondering what sort of thing am I going to need to know to get into the industry? HTML? CSS? anything else? and does anyone know any universitys (in the UK) that run a web design course?

some of the languages to help you enhance the website…shockwave, PHP, Javascript, XHTML, Pearl, there are a bunch of things that you can learn…take classes at your local comunity college..a lot cheaper

I am starting a web design business and I am not sure. I just want to design, I don’t want to do any webmastering for anyone. I just want to sell a design. Is this what most web designers do? Or do they also set it up and get it online and running for them?

I agree with Jay above, there are far too many "just designers" already. Your best bet is to find a specialty and work for a company that uses you for just that. To be a generalist and make decent money now you need to know at least a dozen languages and be fluent with Flash and AS3 just to cover your bases.

http://www.imperfect-design.com

You can create your own web site design using one of our templates from http://www.allreadytemplates.com without having to hire a professional web site designer. Watch this video web design tutorial part 2 of 2.

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I’ll be graduating at the end of this year, from my web design and web development courses. Is it still a good time to start a web design business? And is it realistic to aim to earn £100K per year from web design and web development?

I started doing business as a webdesigner before I left school and now have people on a "waiting-list" to use my services. I have been working alone since I started, taking advantage of the full financial benefits but now have reached a point where I simply do not have enough time to cope with the business on my own so have employed three new people to assist me, a photographer and graphic designer, and another two web programmers, one of which also doubles up and works competently with flash. There are other webconsultant/designer/programmers working in my area but there is still plenty of business for us all to have.

I think if customers like what they get they will pay for it, competition is high but I still manage to find plenty of business in this area of work.

I would say get out and go for it, give it what you have and it will sort itself out…once you have a good reputation the business will come flowing!

Hope my advice helps.

I am looking for successful sales letters, selling web design services. Does anyone know where to find at least one?

You can look through www.docstoc.com to find examples of all kinds of things. It is a great place to go to get marketing and proposal examples.

Good Luck
Buzzoodle Ron

This is the original version of the popular Designer vs Client video. Based on the animated GIF of the same message.

If anyone has any more info on the original author please drop me a line to credit them properly.

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I’m looking for software that has more bang for the buck. I need web design software that has the following; 1) Search Engine Optimization 2) Database Shopping Cart 3) Import/Export databases 4) Web Storefront Software tools 5) Retail, Wholesale at once. Please let me know? Thanks!

There is none.

All you need is notepad.

SEO needs no special software – in fact, if you do try to automate it any, you may find yourself banned from search engines.

For the rest, there are individual software packages.

And you need knowledge. If there were such software available, you would still need to know what you’re doing.

Upon entering employment as a Web Designer, I’ve heard all you have to get is a Web Design certificate and that you don’t need a degree in college…I haven’t been to school in about 16 yrs due to having kids, etc…Not sure where to start. Have read books on Web Design and am very sure that that’s what I want to do. Please Help..Thank you in advance.

If I were you I would try getting some certificates from http://logiczap.com along with a design certificate. If you know HTML, CSS, or PHP I would highly recommend getting one since it looks good on a resume. Many clients want web designers to know basic languages like HTML and CSS (php isn’t really a requirement so you can ignore that one).

I think it’s about $15 for the digital one and $50 for the framed one sent in the mail. Good Luck!!!

I am self taught in many aspects of web design and would like to switch careers to this field but do not have a degree and I am thinking about going back to school. A local community college offers an associates degree in web design but will that be enough? What about schools like the Devry or International Academy of Arts and Design? What are employers looking for in this field?

I work in IT and technical support for Clearwire. Depending on what you want to do, a degree might not be your best bet. For instance, to open a computer repair business, you would think you’d need months and months of training and some sort of degree. Wrong. You need to be A+ certified and you can work on any computer you want as long as you have business licenses. Similar for web design, I’m not sure what you would need to run your own business but the way you come across your certifications is the same. A local community college could have given me tons of training spread out over 2-4 years OR you can pick up a couple books and learn it without the bull in 2-3 months, like I did. I’ve taken a few minor web design classes and decided not to pursue, instead got my Network + and A+ certs and now making $18 an hour on my first year of the job. Depending on how much knowledge of web design you have will correlate to if you need beginning classes coming into the field of web design. Learn it and train yourself, it will pay off in a few months!

I´d like to put up a website to showcase my portfolio in design and programming, but I would also like to use the site to sell my skills and design and host web sites for customers. Does that make me a reseller? Is host reselling the option I should look for?
I would appreciate recommendations for which provider to sign up with, I need to publish sites using anything from Drupal to flat file html.

That depends.

Reseller account: Get this if your clients want access to their own control panel, have their own set of settings, and do this kind of stuff themselves.

Regular account: If your clients are mostly small business owners who aren’t technically inclined, you’ll probably be the one to do maintenance for them. In this case you won’t need a reseller account. A regular account would be better since it’s more affordable.

I recommend http://webspacehq.net/ — they offer both regular and reseller accounts. You get unlimited add-on domains, so even if you choose a regular account, you could add and configure your clients’ domains very easily for no extra charge.