Ask Me Anything: Web Design Business

[virtualman89]

Thank you for the info

No problem. Let me know if I can help some more.

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

Great! My biggest advice to you as a beginner is to have the right tools, and just dive in.

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.

Great! I will let you know when I release the Divi Course.

Could you share or pm me a sample please?

What type of sample would you like to see? A website I have built? I can definitely send you a sample no problem. PM me

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.

Not necessarily. I believe I can charge $1000-$3000 for the current work I am doing now. Obviously I would add more value to the package. When you are dealing with small businesses, you'd be surprise how illiterate they are with the whole Website creation world. What you deem simple, is difficult for someone who has never seen the backend of WordPress.

I don't charge more because I am marketing in the wrong place. So I do recommend if you want to charge in the 4 figures, you have to build a brand and some trust before. People have to know who you are before hand, or there must be some trust element. It's like any business.

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.

Don't worry. Answer as you wish. In fact, I love to learn new things as well. This is a free forum for all of us to speak and network.

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

What do you usually include in the craigslist post?

I keep my post very simple. I focus on them. On their business.

I will put something like:


We Build Affordable Websites
We make the process super simple for you!

Call me or Text me at: 666-666-6666

Business Package:

• Professional Web Design
  
  
• 1 Hour Phone Session With Us
  
  
• Customized Website
  
  
• Mobile Responsive
  
  
• Social Media Integration
  
  
• Mailing List plugin
  
  
• Contact Form
  
  
• Up to 5 Pages (ex. Home, About Us, Services, Blog, Contact Us)
  
  
• 3 Rounds of Revisions

Then I let them know what I need to get started.


That's it. I keep my postings very simple and to the point. No fluff. No overselling.

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

I consider myself a beginner in pricing still. I have only been doing this for about 1 year. But the way I quote is by pages. Up to 5 pages I charge a flat rate of $250.

Then I add an extra $50 per page after that.

But I know if my marketing was somewhere else I could charge $500-$1000 for 5 pages easily and add $100-$250 per page after that. And double for eCommerce. It depends how you market, and where you market. My current marketing is weak, but I do get customers.

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?


I appreciate the thread and the advice.

I do 50% up front. I do not do any work until I get 50%. I have gotten screwed in the past. Where I built the whole website and never got paid. I ended up bring the website down, and the customer got really angry, even though I had been pressuring him to pay me for a month. Trust me, don't work without an upfront payment.

I am also clear that I require the final payment when the final design is complete. Not when the website is complete. Because some customers will take forever to give you very minor details, like images, text, social media links, etc.

What is your turnaround time for a typical project?

Typically I return the website complete within 2-3 days. But I only take that long because there is some back in forth once the first draft is complete. Since there always needs to be some small revisions.

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

Sorry, I don't feel comfortable giving out my link. But I do add a bunch of keywords at the bottom of my posting. And I keep my ad very simple. I give an example above.

 

[Haydentk8]

Hello i would like to pm you to see a website you've built but i think i can't because my account doesn't have enough post or something like that, so pm me please thanks

 

[KonstantinosK]

Hello, I've PMed you for samples

 

[Reem khan]

So I must try craigslist to catch the clients, Any tips?

 

[awesomewebsites]

Have you used Upwork to sell your services ? If yes, how was the experience ?

 

[virtualman89]

Hello i would like to pm you to see a website you've built but i think i can't because my account doesn't have enough post or something like that, so pm me please thanks

Okay I'll send you some when I get a chance.

Hello, I've PMed you for samples

I will reply when I get a chance.

So I must try craigslist to catch the clients, Any tips?

My tip is to put ads, be able to speak to the customer on the phone, and ask the client lots of questions about what they want on the website.

Have you used Upwork to sell your services ? If yes, how was the experience

I have attempted to. But I am not cut for the upwork grind. I find it degrading to bid for projects and compete with so many people.

So I don't have experience with it. Since I only attempted to use upwork and quit for my own sanity.

 

[BigApe]

Could I see some completed sites you have created also please? I’d like to see how I compare with my current skills. Thanks

 

[qazqaz]

Great AMA, thanks!
After put your listing to Craiglist, how do you manage sale? With email or phone call? And how do you potential low price customers' attract?
Did you try Facebook ads or Google ads?
How do you explain domain and hosting buying stage to a non-techie customer? I think that can be a good upsell point: "If you can't make it, I can get it done for a $$ price"

 

[virtualman89]

Great AMA, thanks!
After put your listing to Craiglist, how do you manage sale? With email or phone call? And how do you potential low price customers' attract?
Did you try Facebook ads or Google ads?
How do you explain domain and hosting buying stage to a non-techie customer? I think that can be a good upsell point: "If you can't make it, I can get it done for a $$ price"

Well when they need web hosting I just send them to my affiliate link. I don't offer the web hosting myself. But I am sure they would easily be willing to pay for web hosting in the $150 range for the year. So yes, web hosting is a great upsale. And a small maintenance fee can be a good upseel.

As far as communication with them, I talk to them on the phone. But I usually only have 1 call with them and I try to make it a good one. I talk to them about what they want to accomplish with the website, if they have content, if they have images, etc. But I always require content and images and I make sure to add that requirement in my ad.

The rest of my communication is through email. But I do get a few clients that call me a lot during the building process. It really depends. The majority are fine with email. But being available for a phone call is essential to closing the sale.

Have I tried Google Ads and Facebook Ads? Not Google Ads, but I know that you can get higher paying clients through Google Ads for sure. Higher as in the $1000's per website. I attempted Facebook Ads, but I wouldn't say I committed long enough to say if they work or not. So I can't tell you if they are effective.

 

[virtualman89]

Could you share or pm me a sample please?

Hello i would like to pm you to see a website you've built but i think i can't because my account doesn't have enough post or something like that, so pm me please thanks

Could I see some completed sites you have created also please? I’d like to see how I compare with my current skills. Thanks

For everyone who is asking for sample portfolio of mine, you can view it here: https://virtualman89.com/portfolio/

Please keep in mind that all of them are templates from Divi. So they were just edited to fit the business. I didn't design those from scratch. Also I haven't updated my portfolio in some time.

 

[Reem khan]

My tip is to put ads, be able to speak to the customer on the phone, and ask the client lots of questions about what they want on the website.

May I see your profile or ad? Thanks for the tip.

 

[KonstantinosK]

How much time do you spend on each site on average?

 

[sagor1385]

please tell me details....

 

[virtualman89]

How much time do you spend on each site on average?

About 10 hours on average. Sometimes less.

please tell me details....

What do you want to know? I've answers quite a few questions on this thread already. Is there something I missed?

 

[meminuygur]

Thank you for the tricks and honest infos

 

[JackFruit]

Very useful thread. Posting to subscribe.

 

[Adam718]

Nice thread

I am also interested to start a web design business, but not sure where to start.
How you started? Any recommendation for learning web design, like some courses,links to guides and so on.

Basically, how you started and where you learned web design?

 

[IM Dude]

I appreciate all the information you are providing. How do you get content for the website? Do you make them unique? How do you get logo for the website?

 

[Keemaa]

Nice thread

I am also interested to start a web design business, but not sure where to start.
How you started? Any recommendation for learning web design, like some courses,links to guides and so on.

Basically, how you started and where you learned web design?

You can search YouTube for Divi or Elementor tutorials.
There are some free bootstrap builders and editors.
If you want to dive deeper, then start learning CSS in apps like Sololearn, you can find front end courses for free at Microsoft and Udacity and like sites.

 

[virtualman89]

Thank you for the tricks and honest infos

No problem. I hope I was able to help you out.

Very useful thread. Posting to subscribe.

Awesome!

Nice thread

I am also interested to start a web design business, but not sure where to start.
How you started? Any recommendation for learning web design, like some courses,links to guides and so on.

Basically, how you started and where you learned web design?

The first thing I would do is learn the very basics of WordPress. I created a free course to learn here: https://wpzone.xyz/pick-a-course
Then learn a Page builder like divi. I briefly touch on that in my free course. With that alone you can start a web design company. But I also recommend learning HTML and CSS with free YouTube Videos.

I appreciate all the information you are providing. How do you get content for the website? Do you make them unique? How do you get logo for the website?

I don't write content. I make it a requirement that the customer provide the content for me. I tell them since they know their business better than I do, I require content is provided. I also require they provide a logo for me. If they don't have one I charge them for it and outsource it to Fiverr.

You can search YouTube for Divi or Elementor tutorials.
There are some free bootstrap builders and editors.
If you want to dive deeper, then start learning CSS in apps like Sololearn, you can find front end courses for free at Microsoft and Udacity and like sites.

Exactly!