Some Advice Please - Im A Designer Wanting To Start An Online Business

[Legion]

Hello Warriors.

I have decided i want to make money online doing something i love, Designing.

I have come up with a really cool catchy brand name and the domain for it is available, i want to start an online Designing empire.

Any thoughts, surguestions and advice please

I can design Myspaces, Div Overlay Myspaces, Buttons, Banners, Flyers, Posters, CD Covers, DVD Covers, Websites (basic HTML/CSS), Sales Pages and Logos.

Someone told me it would be a good idea to make Wordpress themes, however i have no idea how, but im trying to learn at the moment.

Discussion, help, advice and ideas please

Thanks in advance.

Legion

[DavidO]

My first advice is don't let the domain name get away. It's not enough money to hesitate over.

The second thing, if your work is totally unknown, offer some work here on the forum in exchange for testimonials or other promotion. You'll get feedback on your strengths and weaknesses and help with how to promote yourself, not to mention the experience.

Obviously, you need a webpage to showcase your talents. I would never hire a designer online without seeing their work (unless it was some kind of promotion like I suggested).

Finally, don't ignore offline resources. There's lots of potential work out there from people who don't troll the web all day like we do!

[Legion]

Thanks for the advice guys, you are really helpful

Right now im studing how to make wordpress themes, im going to offer a free, or very cheap design service for promotional purposes.

Thanks again...

P.S - if any of you would like anything designed, either free or very cheap then PM me.

Legion.

[write-stuff]

You might want to consider specializing in one or two areas at first. Give people too many options and they frequently don't choose any of them.

Good luck with it. - Russ

[tomw]

Hi Legion,

In addition to Michaels great advice, value yourself, your skills and your work. Don't offer it for free or too cheaply or you'll be a long time making a decent living.

Thomas

[utproducts]

I'd check out established sites like psd2html.com and outline2design.com

These are very nice sites that I would buy from if I was in the market. (No I do not work for them )

For wordpress themes, there is a generator called Artisteer. It is limited, but you can make some nice themes. That may get you started.

Good luck!

[LavelleC]

Hire someone asap so you can focus on growing your web design business.

[Legion]

Originally Posted by Michael D Price

Ok, ill try to give you the best advice I can for the entry level you are currently at.

Getting started making money online by selling your ervices is alot easier, IMO, than trying to sell information.

Since you mentioned that your good with myspace layouts, we can start there.

The first step to marketing anything myspace related is to have a myspace account. Think about this for a second. Im sure you already have a myspace account, however, you will want one solely for promoting your good/services.

You said you already have a cool domain name thought out. Buy it now.
Dont worry about building the website right now.
The next step is to create your myspace account.
Once you create your myspace account, you will want to choose your myspace url. For your myspace url you will want to use the same name as your website. So if your website name is coolpictures.com, you would want your myspace url to be **IM NOT ALLOWED TO POST LINKS YET***
This will come in handy down the line with your website and SEO.
Ok, so next step would be to design a really cool myspace profile, for your myspace account. maybe daily, you could change your profile to a new one.
Now the next step is to get a myspace automation tool.
This is something that will allow you to perform mass friend requests, post bullitens and blogs ect, automatically.
There are some free ones that can get your started, but are limited to x amount of requests per day. This sometimes can be manipulated my changing you date and time settings on your pc.
Use this tool, and the huge lists of friends you will get, by offering free myspace layouts, or custom myspace designs.

*Make Sure You Include Links To Your Myspace Profile and /or Your Website.* This is a viral marketing element, and your compensation for your goods/services.

Research your market, and hang with the crew.

Normally you want to research your market before you even decide to enter the niche, however, i dont find this nessessary when dealing with design or myspace.

Research and hangout. What I mean by that, is to kinda play detective.
Scour the internet and find out where people who are likely to purchase myspce layouts hangout at. Forums, like this one, where marketers "hangout".

Talk, chat, and make your presence and skills and knowledge known. Become "one of the guys".
Another example is simply to find the beasts and pitch them.
"The squeeky wheel gets the grease"
Check out the myspace profiles that are the most popular.
Send a friend request, and/or a message and offer them a custom myspace design, in exchange for either payment or a link back/recommendation.
Now you may be thinking that this is a lot of free stuff, but it is truely benificial in the long run. Not only are you building a name for your self, but your also setting up a stream of traffic, and adding to your portfolio.

Then ofcouse there are a thousand methods of traffic I could go into, but ill point out free classified ads, MYSPACE ADVERTISING, get creative.

For general graphic design many of the same elements apply, offer free design here on the forum, with link and or/ img branding in exchange.

Craigslist is a great place to find people who are looking for graphics to be designed.

Approach a guru, give him your portfolio and tell him that you would like to create the graphics for his next product, and offer it for free, or a substantial discount and then work on getting the contract, or repeat business.

If you have the skillls and talent to design, its simple to make money doing so.

I hope this serves as a helpful starting guide to your success



I can design Myspaces, Div Overlay Myspaces, Buttons, Banners, Flyers, Posters, CD Covers, DVD Covers, Websites (basic HTML/CSS), Sales Pages and Logos.

Wow, a massive thanks for this post. You have been very informational and helpful

I have already began working on my own myspace design

Originally Posted by write-stuff

You might want to consider specializing in one or two areas at first. Give people too many options and they frequently don't choose any of them.

Good luck with it. - Russ

Thanks for this advice Russ, Im going to focus on Custom Myspace's and Minisites/Salespages for now

Originally Posted by tomw

Hi Legion,

In addition to Michaels great advice, value yourself, your skills and your work. Don't offer it for free or too cheaply or you'll be a long time making a decent living.

Thomas

Thanks for this advice Thomas, I will offer my services very cheap to begin with, simply for promotional reasons and then I will value my services upon the time it takes me to complete the job and the overall value of the work created

Originally Posted by jacstone193

You need to get your website up and running and get your home based business running!

Thanks for this push JacStone

Originally Posted by LavelleC

Hire someone asap so you can focus on growing your web design business.

Thanks for this advice Unfortunatly i am litterally broke as joke right now, but hiring is definatly planned for the future


Again, thanks everybody for being so helpful

All the best, to your success,

Legion.