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i went to school for computer programming, but the web design is what i loved the most
since no job would would take a risk on me as a new graduate, i did tech support for 4 years and then started my own web design business. i have a small portfolio of 5 clients.
does that help a little
Sounds like you're a mid-level developer with good technical skill. Not a newbie, not a senior expert either. For you I've seen salaries range from $20K to $90K USD; you'll have to shop around and ask people in your industry, in your geographic area.
The point is that even if you know what your abilities are, where the location of the job is, and what the average salary is for a webmaster in that area is, you STILL can't be sure that you have any idea what to expect for a salary. You have to know all those things, and THEN you have to know what exactly the company/client wants from you, as well as how you think you could grow those responsibilities... then MAYBE, with all that information, some of us here could give you a salary range. The way I started to figure it out was just by finding out how much other people were making and what they were doing to earn it, and then pro-rating a salary for myself based on where I fell between all those people's abilities and experience. I still don't know jack, and I think it will be a long time before I do, because this industry is still very much in its infancy.
FYI, it would be to your benefit to learn a server-side language... ASP, Cold Fusion, or perhaps PHP or Perl. If you can't work from a database or run server-side scripts, you better be the best damn visual designer in your region if you want to distance yourself from everyone else.
Is there really a town called Tallawalloohah? And if so, how did it become a magnet for web design? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
Unfortuantely, the OP doesn't list any experience in a design field, which is essential for a web *designer*. Knowing layout, form, typography, colour theory, etc is a must.
There are millions of 'web designers' but very few designers who know the web.
The latter command the best salaries. The former are ten a penny, and rarely produce effective, high end work.
Just my opinion.
you should apply and after they see what "basics" means, and what they need, they'll make you an offer. "Basics" is way too general...
Don, he specifically asked about web designer salaries, not web*master* salaries.
Whoops... i did actually make my comments based on the O.P.'s mention of being a web designer... I just wrote webmaster by accident.
Or... maybe I was making a point that these web-something titles are so vague and interchangeable that it really doesn't matter which one you are discussing.
Ok, I wasn't. But it would've been slick If I was.
Check out the major online career sites like Monster, DICE, Careerbuilder, etc. for salary ranges and job descriptions in the area(s) where you would like to work. That will give you an idea of what companies are actually willing to pay, probably a much more valid source of data than our opinions here. :)
I really don't see much of a future in only building static HTML pages. The design skills you already have should be used to complement new skills in developing dynamic sites. As already suggested, if you want to earn a decent salary, you really need to learn at least one scripting language, and you should really learn at least some basic database skills.
I learned how to design web pages and thought that I had to learn a programming language, like a few people here wrote. I learned Flash and Fireworks for design, and finally bought a huge book and attempted to teach myself ASP. I got to page 80. I thought learning programming was very difficult and I didn't enjoy it one itty bitty bit. Leave out a ) and your whole page doesn't work. A year later I tried again and got to page 100. It was torture.
I'm a design person. I like pretty colors, and fonts, and nice layouts. I don't like code or databases.
I think a really really valuable skill to learn, even more important than design or programming is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - getting the beautifully designed and well-programmed sites to the top of the search engines. The design and programming mean nothing if no-one can find the site.
And it's not some cryptic programming language. It's plain logical English.
If you want to add another skill onto your resume, add that one - SE0. For me, it's a much better use of my learning time and now I use sub-consultants when I need a database on my site.
A few years ago, when I was wondering what to learn next and I asked that question on a forum, someone said that you can't be good at everything and to just focus on what I'm good at and enjoy. I realized that I'd rather get better at Photoshop or Flash, and now, no doubt about it - it's SEO.
Hope this helps.
Risa
