Forum Moderators: phranque
I'm 15 and starting to think about the life ahead of me, I want a career in Web Design / Webmaster. The thing is I don't know what to do! Can anyone shed some light on how I get into it?
I presume you can produce websites, if so I would start by contacting some local companies and offering your services free of charge, to build both a portfolio and experience of dealing with clients which believe you me is a nightmare, once you've got some sites under your belt start marketing your services
I can produce webpages/websites but I'm stuc kas to what to do. I'm not the worlds best so I don't think companies would be interested. Am I wrong? What kind of companies? What about my age?
And your own? hang around here and i promise you will get all the help you want
/Ove
I think your age will help you to be honest if you wanted to you could put it over as some A level or higher training you doing for school, but as it's free I think most small companies won't hold your age against you, try for the smaller companies 1 or 2 manned businesses.
With a lot of small companies they don't have any time, heck I'm still sat at this PC on a Sunday working when I should be walking the dog :) so do some research into the industries your approaching so you can offer some idea's as to what other companies have also done, maybe also look into free webspace for them, that way it won't cost them a bean and then if there happy with what you've produce they could move it to paid space later and maybe drop some money your way for all the hard work you've done for them.
Do you think I should make a website with examples of my work and further down the line (hopefully) with links to clients sites and so on?
Luke if there are some local social, hobby or religious organizations you're affiliated with there might be an opportunity to volunteer to do a site. If you're part of a sports team, that's also a possibility, as are any non-profit organizations in your area. There might be a special event at your school, or some ongoing activity (like a club or cheerleading team), that a site would benefit.
If you can get together a portfolio with a few sites to show, even if they're volunteer, you'll have a headstart for when some paid opportunities turn up.
It's also not a bad idea to learn to promote sites, in addition to creating them. If there's something in particular you're interested in, you can develop an information site and learn a bit about promotion, since it would have a good variety of related keyword choices to work with.
(edited by: Marcia at 9:55 am (gmt) on Oct. 14, 2001
My company gets regularly contacted by web designers wanting a job. They always include a list of web sites they have completed.
I always check them out - just in case.
I very rarely see one that would get a good ranking on search engines.
So, my advice is 'develop a unique selling point'. Learn to do web sites that get found well on search engines. All the information you need are on these fora.
Develop your web design skill as much as you can, develop a 'real' site for your portfolio and make sure it gets a good ranking.
After that, when you approach prospective employers or customers you have a edge on all t'others.
Welcome to Webmaster World -- the unofficial University of Webmasters.
I like Marcia's idea about the local organizations. There is always a need in this area. It is also helpful to know what kind of free and low-cost services are available for these organizations. For example, my local newspaper recently announced that they are closing the site that hosts community pages (free and w/ automated design tools). These sites must be transferred to whatever free hosting that they can find -- Geocities, Tripod, etc. If you are willing to do their design work and know of the best free/cheap resources to take care of their hosting/community/newsletter needs, then you should have a pretty good response.
Or... when you don't have any projects, simply go back and read every post on this site. Learn the technical sides and the promotion side. You will then have a better overall understanding of webmaster issues than than the majority of WWW professionals. (If only I knew then what I know now!)
So... keep reading, keep learning, keep asking questions. You can't hang around this place for any length of time without adding value to your services.
So I am going to scout around and find companies/organizations in my local area (Chelmsford,Essex)and maybe write to them. Thanks for the help, I'm going to hang around here as much as I can to get my problems sorted.
Do that
Good luck
/Ove
Get into databases and scripting (probably Perl for a start).
What you could do is to build an on-line cv. and use that as your referance when you aproach small companies. Build the site with the aim of letting people know who you are ans what you want to do. who knows if the right person sees it you might even be offeres jobs etc etc.
all the best.
What's a good place to start with using databases?
