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14 years ago

Hi Donalld
It can take time to get a consistent flow of clients, but if you are good and start off with good rates, then it can work.
College education is not always a necessity but some sort of training of course is helpful
Having a portfolio is an absolute must, this is where schooling would come in, they help you build a port, and if a good school will help you market yourself.
Apart from school, this is what I recommend/some ideas

Find a niche/interest/hobby/whatever that you like, the love of the niche will show in your work and your experience in it will be a great help
target this niche/group/hobby and participate in active forums maybe once a day, put your contact info in the signature, share your expertise in design with others
you will need a website, a portfolio,a domain name obviously
find worn out websites and offer redesigns at a good rate, this will build your portfolio and give you experience in dealing with clients
do not rely on design as an only income at first. work part time/full time and design part time until you get a good portfolio and a stream of clients
if you can, offer a free simple website to someone once a month, again portfolio building. ALWAYS keep a copy of the website yourself on your hosting account so it can be used as a live example
if doing redesigns, always take a screenshot of the 'before' so you have a comparison to show potential clients

I've been freelance for 11yrs, I started while working full time and doing design part time, and within a year I kicked real world jobs to the curb, but did rely on a 401k to help while i really got going.
Be wise about it, unless you land a nike redesign, take it slow and again if you are good and affordable it can work.

Thanks

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mgreener

14 years ago

Hi,

It may be one of the easier things to get into, depending on what type of jobs you want to be doing. For example, you could visit businesses in your area and show them how you can improve their website (or build them a site if they don't have one).

Experience and a strong portfolio mean so much more than some college degree as the web changes much faster than a course can keep up with.

If this is something that you are passionate about, then just do it and stop over analyzing

Thanks

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CoursesWeb

14 years ago

Hi,
The perseverence can be like a drop of water, in time can break a stone, and the skills can speed this process.

Thanks

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helenayee

14 years ago

Never knew that web design will be the next big thing ten years ago. I have been part of a research team and we did research on the evolution of web design over the past ten years. I did found out that this was really nothing back in the days and now I am earning royalties because of this. And I honestly did not think about it ten years ago.

Thanks

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diana206

14 years ago

You need good will

Thanks

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techiespider

14 years ago

a impressive portfolio will be good.

[mobile]
Tech

Thanks

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Walter Warner

14 years ago

I would suggest taking classes at a community college especially if they offer any courses dealing with servers sided languages such as PHP, ASP, JSP. If they offer any Javascripting or HTML 5 classes take those as well.

Thanks

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Nathan Joshua

14 years ago

The best way to break in to the web design industry is by creating a great portfolio and showing it to potential clients.

Around 10 websites will do, fake or not, it will show your skill. (Obviously it's better to go for real websites that people can link to)

Thanks

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Istvan Horvath

14 years ago

Originally Posted by donalld

Hi,

From the time I was eleven I've been into designing websites. Now I'm eighteen years old and looking into pursing web design as a career. I know that what I know about web design now isn't nearly enough to get a job with. I’m planning on either going to college or taking a course on web design, but before I can make this kind of choice I need to know: Is it difficult to break into the web design industry, even with proof of college or college level education and a portfolio?
Thanks

This is the worst place you can ask such a question.
None of the IM people will give a sh*t about your college level education or PhD... the only thing they care about: how cheap you can make a converting design.

Notice, I didn't say gorgeous or beautiful or functional or anything similar that would be invaluable in the "normal" world, outside of the MMO circles.

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htmlthis 14 years ago

Breaking into the web design industry is as easy as following these steps:

1. Get free/paid tutorials in: either front end(photoshop, html, css, js) or back end(php/mysql) technologies. It's best to just focus on one part at the beginning. I would suggest to just start with html and css. Continue with Javascript/jQuery, PHP/MySQL and learn a CMS like Wordpress.

2. Try to get a junior position in a company or just do as many websites as possible. Experience is key here, nobody will hire you without experience and you'll need to work on anything you can get your hands on to build that.

3. Begin freelancing on one of the many websites. Type freelancer in google and you'll find a plethora of website through which you can apply to jobs. As a freelancer you can make anything from 15$/hour and up depending on your experience. You can easily get to do 40$ an hour with time.
- Thanks
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doran0303

14 years ago

In any business it is said that if you do hard work and try to be different from the crowd then you can not only survive but can acquire a unique position in the market. If you have the requisite skills then nobody can stop you from achieving your goals and can earn a lot as well.

Thanks

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ecoverbee20

14 years ago

Start building your portfolio and getting customer testimonials. I started from nothing 10 years ago and gradually built my client base and now get clients who pass my sites to their visitors.

Word of mouth is the best advertising.

If you dont have a portfolio offer graphics for free

Good luck

Thanks
Andy

Thanks
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amacg

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ecoverbee20

Start building your portfolio and getting customer testimonials. I started from nothing 10 years ago and gradually built my client base and now get clients who pass my sites to their visitors.

Word of mouth is the best advertising.

If you dont have a portfolio offer graphics for free

Good luck

Thanks
Andy

Good advice. Starting to build your portfolio shouldn't be that heard. I did a lot of this in college, basically by asking friends, family, colleagues for work and even registering on talent marketplaces like elance, odesk etc.