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Can an average person make enough to pay his bills?lol.


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#21 hobulus

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Posted 09 March 2006 - 05:31 AM

I am a budding web entrepeneur, and I am finding it difficult to get going. I currently work full time and am trying to get the skills up that are necessary to be a fully fledged legend WEBMASTER. And boy are there a lot of skills to learn. All these great posts of valued info and opinions make u realise a lot about the web world and how tough it is to make it.

I am sorry I am not really adding any opinions of value, just that hard work is tyhe ticket in the end. Sometimes I find it hard teaching myslef stuff and getting motivated to learn, so in that respect a college degree would be good, cos you have to go in and have to study, whereas teaching yourself is all about self discipline, and the drive to succeed.

A question of my own if I may......

What do we think the skill set required to be successful in this business is????

HTML, CSS, PHP, and design skills? would that be a good start?

I am constantly learning new things about building money making websites on the web. And P2L is one of my favourites! But I really need some sort of direction as to what to get into so that I can get into the game.

Any suggestions I am sure would be helpful to all reading this post as well....
:D



OK....... I just found the post Goto last unread

Becoming A Web Designer
By Matt Dwyer


So I guess trhat answers my questions!

Edited by hobulus, 09 March 2006 - 05:42 AM.


#22 mc500

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Posted 23 May 2006 - 01:10 PM

Hi,

Really interesting discussion!

I have recently graduated from university with a degree and have a part time job and do freelance work as well. I would like to do full time freelance. I think it is a real problem starting out, once you have made all the websites you can for people you know! I have struggled to get new clients and have been lucky with one who has a few jobs for me. I think making money from the web is about having the technical skills as well as business and communication skills.

I learned most of my skills at university, but when I think that if I spent 3 years learning web design rather than essay writing and all the other stuff that goes with university, I would be much further ahead in my career by now. Having said that, I wouldn't change it, as university was great and I probably learned a lot of things that I wouldn't have otherwise known. Also as Faken said, some companies require a degree for certain jobs.

It takes time to learn new things and get experience and I think you should learn the basics first i.e. XHTML/CSS and make as many contacts as possible, seeing each new person you meet as a potential client. You could also promote your website with SEO and Adwords for example, but I haven't had much joy with the latter yet!

As for making money from websites through ads and affiliation, this is something I am also interested in and have just started to explore. I can't wait for my first $10/£10 day.

Here's one article I found useful about freelancing: Freelancipation

#23 Futingkiller

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Posted 24 May 2006 - 11:55 AM

well, i make websites for fun :)
i started 2 years ago (my high school informatics teacher started teaching us the basics of the html (how to make a link, put an image ......) and the basis of css.
this year we started javascript (the basis). i started learning on my own from diferent sites and from makeing litle scripts for diferent ppl (making experience). i didn't know that colege teaches you webdesigning :), i don't hava a diploma, and i am not that old to go there.
i consider webdesigning as a second job (to earn some extra money)

#24 Jem

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Posted 24 May 2006 - 02:51 PM

I highly doubt you could make a living on Web design without a college cirtificate.

I completely disagree. I have no formal web qualifications and I've had tons of people ask me to do freelance work for them simply based on my websites. I was also employed as an Intranet/web app developer for my local college with no formal web skills. I turn the freelance offers down because I can't stand working with clients, but it shows it's possible. You just need to be able to prove you have the skills.

I don't necessarily think it's easy for the average person to make a living.. I think you have to be able to offer something that somebody else can't, and if you can do that, you're not average - you're smart.

#25 AvengeX

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Posted 24 May 2006 - 03:52 PM

To the people of P2L,

Just curios Faken, should one bother making a website if it cant earn more than 300 US DOllars or more. A good website makes allot of time. U have to pay for the domain name and hosting. and all that stuff. anyway waiting for you opinion.
Regards,
AE WAQAS



I'm sure it's not my place to say, but my website makes next to nothing at the moment, I still think it's worthwhile. Personally my aim in making a website was to make one to help people with web design, not to gain revenue. Secondly if you make any money you've got to remember taxes as well...

#26 Janeth

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Posted 11 September 2006 - 09:42 AM

Why? Because the average Joe is exactly that... average. Not trying to be offensive or pomous here. You have to be EXTREMELY dedicated for months and years to get your site earning a fulltime income, and even then it might not work out and you'll need to find something else. All these kids today expect to have a site raking in cash within a month or two... That's not how it works. I gave up video games, online chatting on IRC, sports, the gym, my sleep and pretty much all social activities to get P2L to where it's at. The average Joe won't give that up.

And I have a long ways to go yet!

Dan


Hi everyone I’m new to the forum but was looking for some information and came across this post.

I agree 100% with Faken, the average person can’t make a living online because he’s not willing to take the time away from his personal life to make it work.

We employee around 20 people right now full time in my office, I don’t worry about any of them ever becoming my competition because none of them have what it takes to make it online.

The people able to make a living online are a rare bread, you have to be hard working and at the same time flexible.

#27 Slugger

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Posted 30 November 2006 - 04:25 AM

If you were to devote the time and resource I believe you can make a living out of the web. If you do it as more of a hobby as I do then as long as you employ the right SEO stratagies and pick the right affiliates etc, you could easily cover your host costs and make a fair bit of money on the side.

#28 Burford

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Posted 05 December 2006 - 10:56 PM

Answer to the topic title is yes. I nearly can with one website :(

#29 uday

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Posted 29 December 2006 - 05:23 PM

I am able to make a healthy living in web development without a degree (making only slightly less than I did as upper level management). However, this income is a combination of 4 income generating sites which I own plus web development projects for paying clients.

From my estimate of earnings vs. unique visitors looking from my 4 sites, which are all vastly different in design, content, traffic, CPC, and CTR, in order to earn $300 per day, it would take about 40K unique visitors and 450K ad impressions per day. My most successful site gets about 25K unique and 270K ad impressions per day (and, unfortunately, the lowest CTR and CPM). However, you may find that even getting 10K unique visitors and 50K page views is extremely difficult and, by no means, what you should expect. I know lots of people with websites who stuggle to even get 1K or 2K unique visitors per day.

I also don't think the "average" person is willing to take the time, has the patience, or is dedicated enough to make their site work. It takes lots of sleepless nights, constructive action when criticized, and the willingness to change yourself and your habits. And, even after all of that, your site may still not do well. I don't think the "average" person would allow themselves to go through all of that with a high degree of uncertainty on whether or not it will pay off.

#30 Davey

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Posted 07 January 2007 - 11:30 AM

I may be wrong about that. But It seems that you would have a better shot at getting it.



ur portfolio is more important than any kind of certificate imo

#31 mwookie

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Posted 11 January 2007 - 08:53 PM

This discussion has been very interesting to read. Well, o.k. I read most of it. It think one important thing to point out is that you don't actually have to have any web design skills at all to make money at the internet, you have to have good business skills.

There are people who successfully run hundreds of websites at the same time, but they don't make the site, nor actually run them.

I guess my point is that while many of us freelance and have web design projects, and can make a good living doing so. there is another road which is that you have good marketing skills and know what will be successful online and then hire people to make it happen

It is obviously important to hire a couple people and not give them all the pieces of the puzzle because they could go do it behind your back.

I just wanted to point out that really you don't have to learn every new technology, skill and language. Eventually now matter how much you want to know it all, you will have to hire someone who does what you don't. This was my first lesson because while I love design, I wanted my business to be successful. I kept trying to keep up and I finally realized that I needed help. I hate trusting people, because "I know best".

The only thing I have yet to try is outsourcing out of the USA. I get a couple calls a week from who knows where asking for design work (I normally can barely understand them).


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#32 djdossiers

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Posted 21 January 2007 - 10:50 AM

If you show someone you have a college certificate. I guarantee you will get 3x the business than without one.


no, this is not true.

I am the Director of Technology for a very successful ecommerce startup in Austin and I hire designers all the time. I could give a damn where they went to school. The only thing that matters to me is their portfolio and their attitude. That's it.

I also have side projects that I work on and I hire designers for those projects as well. My criteria is the same: Portfolio + Attitude

Most of the people on this thread are correct. The "average person" can make it in this industry if they take the time to learn the tools of the trade. The better you get, the more money you can demand for your projects.

I know some VERY talented web designers that make upwards of $5000 per project (they usually work with larger clients and build out full brochure websites). And that's only for static sites. They charge twice that for dynamic sites.

These guys have honed their skills like surgeons wielding a scalpal. They know their tools backwards and forwards and they never stop learning. That's why they can charge the big bucks.

You dont need a school cert to make it in this industry. Just a badass portfolio.

Some of you may be wondering how to build a badass portfolio if you dont have any clients. Easy: Open Source Designs.

There are tons of these sites on the net
www.oswd.org
www.openwebdesign.org

Those are the 2 biggest. This is where you study. Look at the designs that are downloaded the most. See how the designers merge colors and use subtle gradients to trick the eye into thinking there is depth.

Start creating templates for these sites. You can add them your portfolio and you would be surprised at how much business you could get from a really nice free template. I have hired 2 designers from those sites and I'm sure I'm not the only one.



hope that helps

Edited by djdossiers, 21 January 2007 - 10:54 AM.


#33 DuLt

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Posted 07 February 2007 - 06:14 PM

I'm a college freshman, and I'm currently taking a Arts and Multimedia degree. For my experience and knowledge, wheen I finish this degree I will be able to do everything computer and filming wise (webdesign included) but not to its fullest advantages. It has also come to my knowledge and opinion that most people with a college degree either don't know or don't care about what they do. I know people that can code a decent webpage but don't knwo the first thing whereas how to organize it or what to put in it.
So I say (for my sake) that college isn't an escuse to prove we are good at a certain job or not.

Also I believe a person can have a job and have a website. If he can join those two together then "YAY"!

For example... Imagine I'm a cartunist, I do cartoons for a news paper, but on the web I have my own webcomic were I practise techniques and such. I could make a comunity for people that wanna post their comics... And then i add some ads (lol) and make some income (maybe).

I know what I said has already been said sometimes in this thread. but I just wanted to say my opinion.




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