Ask Me Anything: Web Design Business

[virtualman89]

My friend with all due respect you are in the website selling business not website design business. This is coming from someone whose been in the website design and website selling business for a number of years.

I would suggest you up your prices. I dont touch projects that are under 1600usd with my average client paying me 2800 for a 3 to 5 page wordpress website. That being said I design pages from start to finish then develop custom themes. There are exceptions where a client has been with me from the start.

Recently a prospect approached me to install a theme and create 3 pages from that. He already had the theme I quoted 500. He didn't respond, I am not bothered.

I have also done multiple Magento projects that paid me on average 12k per project from the same group of clients.
And you wont believe it but in the last 3 years I have not personally approached a single client, not through ads, not through email. They come to me and I could possibly learn a little more to find new clients but its been almost that long or longer where I have not had to.

Edit.
Its probably relevant to add that I have had the good fortune of partnering on some top selling wordpress themes on tf where now I just get paid from them. And i am always actively working on personal or partnership projects to sell on themeforest. That also probably explains why I dont have to seek out clients anymore.

I agree 100%! I am in the website selling business. And I agree, the price is way low. I am aware that there is clients that would pay much much higher prices. Unfortunately I don't have experience with that.

 

[cheva]

I agree 100%! I am in the website selling business. And I agree, the price is way low. I am aware that there is clients that would pay much much higher prices. Unfortunately I don't have experience with that.

I believe there are primarily 2 reasons why you think that way and don't get those clients.
1> You don't think what you offer is worth that much.
2> Because you don't think what you offer is worth that much you can't sell it.

I would recommend you work on that part. I tell my clients, what they get is worth more than what they pay and because I firmly believe that, I won't sell my self short. Most people can pick up if you believe what you are saying.

I also go out of the way to help my clients, some small task here and there I'll help out for no fee. I keep an eye on my clients' industries and will occasionally update them with what's happening. That translates to them trusting me and often times they return for a different project or recommend me further and I can also approach them with an upsell. I have a dedicated phone and whatsapp where I am available usually till I am awake. 7 days. I don't respond immediately if I am busy and they don't seem to mind. Majority of my clients are referrals from clients before them.

Edit.
I should also add I don't have a single local client. I live in UK and all my clients are based in America or Australia.
Many of my clients are Spanish speaking and last year I started learning Spanish (though I have personal reasons for that too.)

P.s sorry for hijacking your thread.

 

[chimatim]

What tools did you learn or use ? I'm asking for someone that wants to start designing website

I believe there are primarily 2 reasons why you think that way and don't get those clients.
1> You don't think what you offer is worth that much.
2> Because you don't think what you offer is worth that much you can't sell it.

I would recommend you work on that part. I tell my clients, what they get is worth more than what they pay and because I firmly believe that, I won't sell my self short. Most people can pick up if you believe what you are saying.

I also go out of the way to help my clients, some small task here and there I'll help out for no fee. I keep an eye on my clients' industries and will occasionally update them with what's happening. That translates to them trusting me and often times they return for a different project or recommend me further and I can also approach them with an upsell. I have a dedicated phone and whatsapp where I am available usually till I am awake. 7 days. I don't respond immediately if I am busy and they don't seem to mind. Majority of my clients are referrals from clients before them.

Edit.
I should also add I don't have a single local client. I live in UK and all my clients are based in America or Australia.
Many of my clients are Spanish speaking and last year I started learning Spanish (though I have personal reasons for that too.)

P.s sorry for hijacking your thread.

 

[wpsokw]

Hi OP! Definitely subbing to this thread. Great suggestions and insight.
I'm curious about what you propose/offer/advertise to your clients? What "services" do you say you provide?
I understand you can build websites, etc, but like the answer a few posts up; do you offer hosting as well?
Like is this an smm or something? Of strictly websites?
Sorry if these questions seem all over the place. I'm closer to absolute beginner than beginner. Lol

Thanks!

 

[Bawsaq]

Do you also offer to host your clients websites for a monthly fee?

How does the website handover process work once the client has paid you?

 

[YuvrajThapa]

I see you use Divi and doing good with it. I am also a divi lover but the problem is I can't become much creative on it. As whenever I want to do some creative it needs custom CSS and all other materials which I am not quite familiar with it. So do you know some free basic divi customization tutorials online? and how do you do that ? please let us know.
Thanks!

 

[BigApe]

Hi, great timing with the thread I have recently been considering a small scale website building side business!

I plan on going in cold over the phone or face to face as I have no problem with this, I have identified a number of business in my area without websites or even official google listings....crazy!!

I have a basic understanding of wordpress and elementor, fiverr will be my fall back if I get stuck along the way.

My question is what services do you/can you up sell on top of the primary sale of the website? I see you have already mentioned the hosting packaging btw.

Thanks

 

[Limsman]

Very interesting but I love to learned website.
How do I go about it sir

 

[virtualman89]

Hi OP! Definitely subbing to this thread. Great suggestions and insight.
I'm curious about what you propose/offer/advertise to your clients? What "services" do you say you provide?
I understand you can build websites, etc, but like the answer a few posts up; do you offer hosting as well?
Like is this an smm or something? Of strictly websites?
Sorry if these questions seem all over the place. I'm closer to absolute beginner than beginner. Lol

Thanks!

It's simple. I offer a flat rate. Up to 5 Pages. I like to focus more on brochure style type websites. I get mainly start-ups or low budget businesses.

I do not offer web hosting at the moment, but have thought about it. I probably won't since it requires long-term business plans. And my current web design plans are short term since I have other projects running at the moment.

But the way that I make extra money from web hosting is by referring them to my affiliate link. And I bring in extra money that way.

Do you also offer to host your clients websites for a monthly fee?

How does the website handover process work once the client has paid you?

I don't offer web hosting because I don't plan on doing web design forever. And web hosting requires you to be there in the long-term for customers. But if your goal is a long-term business, I recommend offering a maintenance fee and web hosting all in one monthly package. This is a great way to increase your monthly income on a monthly basis and get paid from old customers. This takes away the pressure from having to get new customers all the time.

I see you use Divi and doing good with it. I am also a divi lover but the problem is I can't become much creative on it. As whenever I want to do some creative it needs custom CSS and all other materials which I am not quite familiar with it. So do you know some free basic divi customization tutorials online? and how do you do that ? please let us know.
Thanks!

Being creative is never easy. Because your initial ideas can be crap. But it's one of those things you have to work through. Start building something that looks bad, and analyze it. And say okay, I really don't like this section, and recreate the section.

Elegant Themes has great videos that they release on a regular basis that will guide you how to build different things. I would suggest that you follow along with their videos. You will learn so many little things that you will add to your toolkit.

When ever you need a certain type of section, you'll remember what you learned and say that would be perfect for this section.

Like I said previously, I use the layout packs religiously. And then I remove sections that don't serve me, and add custom sections based on the design of the layout pack.

I would greatly recommend you dive into learning HTML and CSS. It's not difficult. It may seem difficult in the beginning, but honestly you'll get the hang of it quickly. There is tons of courses on HTML and CSS all over YouTube. That's how I learned.

But my knowledge of HTML and CSS are on a more basic level. But understanding how it works has helped me a ton. When ever I get stuck, and I want something to look a certain way, I literally chat with Divi's support, and I tell them that a certain section is not acting how I want it to, and they will send you the CSS code and tell you where to put it. But be reasonable with this. I only do this when I know it's a feature Divi should have, but they haven't gotten around to adding it.

I will be creating Divi courses, HTML and CSS courses in the future, but in the meantime just dive into YouTube and you'll learn a lot.

Hi, great timing with the thread I have recently been considering a small scale website building side business!

I plan on going in cold over the phone or face to face as I have no problem with this, I have identified a number of business in my area without websites or even official google listings....crazy!!

I have a basic understanding of wordpress and elementor, fiverr will be my fall back if I get stuck along the way.

My question is what services do you/can you up sell on top of the primary sale of the website? I see you have already mentioned the hosting packaging btw.

Thanks

I don't do many upsells. I use to do a logo upsell that would do pretty well. But I stopped offering the service because it requires a lot of back and forth. And I would hire the logo designer on Fiverr. And my turn around time wasn't to my liking.

But the ones that come up often is Facebook Marketing, Instagram Marketing, Google Ads, etc. The most popular service that clients ask for is SEO.

Like I said, I don't offer those services, but I know it would be an easy upsell if you know how to do these or can hire someone to do them for you.

 

[cosmo89]

My friend with all due respect you are in the website selling business not website design business. This is coming from someone whose been in the website design and website selling business for a number of years.

I would suggest you up your prices. I dont touch projects that are under 1600usd with my average client paying me 2800 for a 3 to 5 page wordpress website. That being said I design pages from start to finish then develop custom themes. There are exceptions where a client has been with me from the start.

Recently a prospect approached me to install a theme and create 3 pages from that. He already had the theme I quoted 500. He didn't respond, I am not bothered.

I have also done multiple Magento projects that paid me on average 12k per project from the same group of clients.
And you wont believe it but in the last 3 years I have not personally approached a single client, not through ads, not through email. They come to me and I could possibly learn a little more to find new clients but its been almost that long or longer where I have not had to.

Edit.
Its probably relevant to add that I have had the good fortune of partnering on some top selling wordpress themes on tf where now I just get paid from them. And i am always actively working on personal or partnership projects to sell on themeforest. That also probably explains why I dont have to seek out clients anymore.

Smart

 

[Boydycx]

Thank you for the info

 

[Limsman]

I am a beginner
I wish to learned from you atleast I should get started

 

[YuvrajThapa]

I will be creating Divi courses, HTML and CSS courses in the future, but in the meantime just dive into YouTube and you'll learn a lot.

Thanks a lot for your wonderful reply! I really appreciate it. I will definitely do what you have said. I will be waiting for your divi course also.

 

[KonstantinosK]

Could you share or pm me a sample please?

 

[RedLix]

My friend with all due respect you are in the website selling business not website design business. This is coming from someone whose been in the website design and website selling business for a number of years.

I would suggest you up your prices. I dont touch projects that are under 1600usd with my average client paying me 2800 for a 3 to 5 page wordpress website. That being said I design pages from start to finish then develop custom themes. There are exceptions where a client has been with me from the start.

Recently a prospect approached me to install a theme and create 3 pages from that. He already had the theme I quoted 500. He didn't respond, I am not bothered.

I have also done multiple Magento projects that paid me on average 12k per project from the same group of clients.
And you wont believe it but in the last 3 years I have not personally approached a single client, not through ads, not through email. They come to me and I could possibly learn a little more to find new clients but its been almost that long or longer where I have not had to.

Edit.
Its probably relevant to add that I have had the good fortune of partnering on some top selling wordpress themes on tf where now I just get paid from them. And i am always actively working on personal or partnership projects to sell on themeforest. That also probably explains why I dont have to seek out clients anymore.

The main difference I guess that you design websites/themes from scratch that's why you can ask for 1600usd+ but someone using bought themes and just editing them imho can't charge that much.

 

[cheva]

The main difference I guess that you design websites/themes from scratch that's why you can ask for 1600usd+ but someone using bought themes and just editing them imho can't charge that much.

I wanted to avoid quoting or answering posts to not hijack the thread again but i was charging 900 to 1200 for installing themes and creating pages albeit with my own layouts and some design elements back a couple of years ago.
I guess the main problem is the assumption your clients know much about commercial themes or how much work it takes to set one up. Most clients don't have any idea. That doesn't mean you should rip them off but you can provide more value if you charge more. You don't have to literally copy paste a demo.

 

[iSmexy]

Thanks for the tips I picked some good things from this thread.

What do you usually include in the craigslist post?

 

[Keemaa]

Hello all and thank you for providing such info.
My question is, how do you know if a client gonna pay 200, 500, or 1000?
Do you negotiate or offer discounts after the initial quote?

Thanks in advance

 

[HiPurple]

How/when do you arrange payment? Upon completion of services, or do you charge your client a deposit to begin the work? Does the client pay via Paypal?

What is your turnaround time for a typical project?

I appreciate the thread and the advice.

 

[qarisiq]

It's simple. I offer a flat rate. Up to 5 Pages. I like to focus more on brochure style type websites. I get mainly start-ups or low budget businesses.

I do not offer web hosting at the moment, but have thought about it. I probably won't since it requires long-term business plans. And my current web design plans are short term since I have other projects running at the moment.

But the way that I make extra money from web hosting is by referring them to my affiliate link. And I bring in extra money that way.



I don't offer web hosting because I don't plan on doing web design forever. And web hosting requires you to be there in the long-term for customers. But if your goal is a long-term business, I recommend offering a maintenance fee and web hosting all in one monthly package. This is a great way to increase your monthly income on a monthly basis and get paid from old customers. This takes away the pressure from having to get new customers all the time.


Being creative is never easy. Because your initial ideas can be crap. But it's one of those things you have to work through. Start building something that looks bad, and analyze it. And say okay, I really don't like this section, and recreate the section.

Elegant Themes has great videos that they release on a regular basis that will guide you how to build different things. I would suggest that you follow along with their videos. You will learn so many little things that you will add to your toolkit.

When ever you need a certain type of section, you'll remember what you learned and say that would be perfect for this section.

Like I said previously, I use the layout packs religiously. And then I remove sections that don't serve me, and add custom sections based on the design of the layout pack.

I would greatly recommend you dive into learning HTML and CSS. It's not difficult. It may seem difficult in the beginning, but honestly you'll get the hang of it quickly. There is tons of courses on HTML and CSS all over YouTube. That's how I learned.

But my knowledge of HTML and CSS are on a more basic level. But understanding how it works has helped me a ton. When ever I get stuck, and I want something to look a certain way, I literally chat with Divi's support, and I tell them that a certain section is not acting how I want it to, and they will send you the CSS code and tell you where to put it. But be reasonable with this. I only do this when I know it's a feature Divi should have, but they haven't gotten around to adding it.

I will be creating Divi courses, HTML and CSS courses in the future, but in the meantime just dive into YouTube and you'll learn a lot.




I don't do many upsells. I use to do a logo upsell that would do pretty well. But I stopped offering the service because it requires a lot of back and forth. And I would hire the logo designer on Fiverr. And my turn around time wasn't to my liking.

But the ones that come up often is Facebook Marketing, Instagram Marketing, Google Ads, etc. The most popular service that clients ask for is SEO.

Like I said, I don't offer those services, but I know it would be an easy upsell if you know how to do these or can hire someone to do them for you.

Can you give your post link in craigslist? i just want to check it.