thinking about web design as career | WPDFD.com Forums http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/ A Miscellaneous forum thread at WPDFD.com en-us 09/02/04, 246 02 2004 2004:%i:1094148161 14:02:41 06/06/13, 157 24 2013 2013:%i:1370575468 23:24:28 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss NineLabs Framework Feed Generator sitemaster@wpdfd.com sitemaster@wpdfd.com Mankey said: http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p1244 I'm a c/c++ programmer with 5 years experience working in cubicles for other people.  I've been recently laid off, and started a slowly dying real estate business.  Actually, it's dying rather quickly.  So anyhow... I thought I might get into freelance web programming.  I downloaded apache and php and started digging up forums like this, and finding programmer resources.  I know I need to get a website of my own.  But I have some questions, of course.  Does anyone want to share their wisdom?  
How viable a career is it (assuming I'm not an idiot)?  Where does a fellow advertise himself? What sort of things would you recommend I do or not do?  Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
thanks!
Mankey ]]> 09/02/04, 246 02 2004 2004:%i:1094148161 14:02:41 http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p1244 Joe Gillespie said: http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p1245 How viable a career is it (assuming I'm not an idiot)?

It's a perfectly viable career - even for idiots. Whether it is the right one is another matter.

Where does a fellow advertise himself?


In the WPDFD Web Design Directory.

http://www.wpdfd.com/resources/WDDirectory.htm

What sort of things would you recommend I do or not do?


First design a Web site that will impress potential clients of you talents and take it from there. You can do this with samples of your work, gems of philosophy or just sheer trickery.

What not to do, is a site that looks like every other one or trips over itself getting the message across.]]> 09/02/04, 246 56 2004 2004:%i:1094151390 14:56:30 http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p1245 Mankey said: http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p1246 ]]> 09/03/04, 247 20 2004 2004:%i:1094264441 22:20:41 http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p1246 Richard Robbins said: http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p2900 I've found this discussion pretty interesting, so I thought I'd weigh in with my input. Five years ago, I started an online sports uniforms store together with my wife. I had a simlar background to yours, but both of us had to learn a lot (PHP, CSS/XHTML, Photoshop, etc.) to build our website. It was a slow process, but we ultimately made a lot of money from the venture. The advice I have is to be persistent, even when it doesn't seem to be going exactly as you'd hoped.
We recently sold our sporting goods business and started a new business selling website templates. It's taking some time to learn the business, but with persistence it will likely pay off.
I recommend that you learn well the principles of SEO. If you want to sell some of your products or services, I'd recommend using Zen Cart or Magento for your shopping cart.]]> 09/01/09, 244 09 2009 2009:%i:1251824952 13:09:12 http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p2900 Sam Desouza said: http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p3135 11/10/09, 314 59 2009 2009:%i:1257839983 02:59:43 http://www.wpdfd.com/forums/wpdfd/miscellaneous/thinking_about_web_design_as_career/#p3135