Leosghost - 1:53 pm on Sep 8, 2011 (gmt 0)

Unless you have design talent..don't offer yourself as webdesigner..

( it is like setting up as a portrait painter if you can't draw or paint in a representational figurative style )

And if you do have design talent..?

You need to know more than how to work Dreamweaver to produce html to do good work ( make well designed visually pleasing functional as opposed to "pretty" websites ) ..and sites that get rank well and get found in SERPS for the terms that they are supposed to..

Build many sites that "work" relative to all of the above criteria for yourself before offering your services out as a "pro"..

( at which point if you can do that, you would not need to work for someone else ;-)..

One should never hang up a "pro" sign and charge "pro" rates until one has either a genuine innate talent that has proven itself, or one is proven to be extremely good at whatever service one is selling , or one has already learned the "craft".

Otherwise it is taking money under false pretenses..many "webdesigners" do however do just that..one should never be "training" oneself in a field whilst claiming to be a "pro" and charging "pro" rates in that field...it is unethical...learn on your own time and dime.

Plus what Lorel said regarding SEO..it has to be "built in" ( from the start ), "not bolt on" ( afterwards ).