For many years, web creating has actually ended up being increasingly more a extensive skill. Long gone are the days when a "webmaster" was in charge of whatever -from creating pages to writing content and promoting the site. All while making a good living out of this.
Today everyone is a web designer. Free and spent for software application enable to produce a complete theme, or skin, for a website without any understanding of XHTML, CSS or Photoshop. Not to discuss all the graduates from public and private courses that were trained to develop website, pages and content management systems.
So it might look like there's little to no reason to end up being a freelance web designer today. However this is not completely true. As much the tools have advanced, they are still simply that: tools. They might randomize background images and produce a pleasing color scheme, however they do not have the mind and the skill of an individual.
And, unfortunately, so do lots of web designers that produce websites with no visual worth, difficult to navigate and look at. Websites, in one word, that can not transform their visitors into repeated visitors. Also, regardless of owning perhaps the entire Creative Suite, they just fire up Photoshop and overlook such a powerhorse as After Impacts is for Web Video creation.
Which's all, the 3 suggestions that will help you in earning a living from freelancing webdesign are currently in front of your eyes, but let's take a look in information to each one of them:
1. Offer value just a experienced human can offer. Machines are great timesavers, and somebody using a $100 application can produce twenty web sites much faster than you can prepare the first. But they will all be comparable, cookie-cutter produced, templates. The kind of site that does not show the site owner's goals and expectations. So make this clear, and spell it out on your LinkedIn profile or Facebook page: you do care for your consumer the way a factory-style designer will never have the ability to do.
2. Ensure you can design sites that transform. Conversion is whatever when it comes to web design. And it does not stop at web marketing. Every web site wants its visitors to transform. Signing up for the RSS feed, visiting a sponsored link, or possibly simply considering the "Message" the site owner is attempting to spread out. Conversion can only be attained when you prepare the site for a very particular target visitor. And once again this is something only an human can do. Start tidy, don't think an eCommerce site needs to look corporate or a gaming site needs to be strong and contrast. Instead, make it clear to your possible employer that you'll provide him or her with an extraordinary research effort, much earlier than when you'll start composing down CSS rules and look after DOCTYPES.
3. Be on the leading edge to new innovations. Just a few years ago it was tough not to find "flash introductions" and photos of people shaking hands. Now they have actually vanished from all the websites where trained, smart, web designers are at works. But they still live, and I can ensure you something: those site's owners experience a lack of conversion that irritates them. Show them you can relieve their discomfort with a case study, or perhaps much better a video case study. Opportunities are you own a webcam, so have a excellent hairstyle, buy some licorice (it works marvels when it concerns enhancing your voice recordings) and tape-record a short sector where you explain how and why they can gain from a contemporary, well thought out technique.
Don't go overboard with a Powerpoint presentation, keep it expert but on a individual level. And show, program, show them how an awful site can be become a well oiled converting maker. All because you have actually spent a couple of hours taking a look at how to turn a static Photoshop logo design into corporate looking video with After Results' 3D video camera motions and a little bit of screen recording.
In summary, all you need to do is to provide something an inexperienced individual with the ideal tool can not provide: a imaginative, personal benefit. Obviously this means you'll need to spend some nights in front of your Mac or Pc, scratch your head over After Effects structures read more or the ins and outs of digital video postproduction. But it's well worth it and will offer you a boost in no time. Remember this formula: Imagination plus Knowledge equates to Success.