Wordpress Web Design - Journey

My advice for newbies, learn how to code and create themes from scratch. Most clients will ask you to do custom scripts / plugins so it's better to know the in and out of Wordpress. Plus you can charge more if they ask you to do it, that's the real gem

Always satisfy your clients, even if they are pain in the neck. Think about the referrals, and always ask for testimonials after the project or when the client is happy. It helps to find other clients too!

Learn, learn and learn about Wordpress, clients and human behavior. You'll be confident in negotiating.

Hope that helps

ice41 said:

My advice for newbies, learn how to code and create themes from scratch. Most clients will ask you to do custom scripts / plugins so it's better to know the in and out of Wordpress. Plus you can charge more if they ask you to do it, that's the real gem

Always satisfy your clients, even if they are pain in the neck. Think about the referrals, and always ask for testimonials after the project or when the client is happy. It helps to find other clients too!

Learn, learn and learn about Wordpress, clients and human behavior. You'll be confident in negotiating.

Hope that helps

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Hey, thanks for the advice Ice I have a few tutorials about wordpress coding that I'm reading up about, but just find having the time to do this hard As with having another job/family etc, but one day I'll get there lol

Wordpress Theme is a good business i didn't do it but thought many times to start it but as i always hear we always get a Hacked themes from different websites so i thought that is good if your created theme didn't get cracked because there are lot's of experts in this world who experts in WP so make sure your theme is highly secured.. Good luck..

Ubaid Iqbal said:

Wordpress Theme is a good business i didn't do it but thought many times to start it but as i always hear we always get a Hacked themes from different websites so i thought that is good if your created theme didn't get cracked because there are lot's of experts in this world who experts in WP so make sure your theme is highly secured.. Good luck..

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I had one of my sites hacked once before, think his name was Ice or something like that. Don't know how he got into the site or were he got it from as it was just a small site I had not even advertised, I was just testing it out...Thankfully I just got in touch with hosting company and they sorted it all out in about 10 minutes.

Does anyone know of any good security pluggins I could get to prevent hacks??

Any tips for getting clients when you're 18? I've spread a little via word of mouth and referrals, but the stoners and lazy assholes that I chill with got no connects.

StrictlyBiznez said:

Any tips for getting clients when you're 18? I've spread a little via word of mouth and referrals, but the stoners and lazy assholes that I chill with got no connects.

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You don't have to tell your clients your age, make up a fake profile about yourself if need be. Try what I do and advertise via social networks etc and spend less time with stoners lol

To the OP, and 18yr old.

I trust you have a good site yourself. I say this as yesterday I went to a site of an SEO person that was posted on a local community FB site. It was truly awful - full of grammar mistakes, poor navigation, limited copy etc, etc.

What I find strange when I look at web design companies is the lack of information about how they design websites (not the nitty gritty but the process). This may be fine if a company has a good quality portfolio, but if you don't it'll be a problem.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. It's fine saying you design websites, but what on earth does that involve for the customer?

Place a process map on your site;

Stage 1 eg. information gathering, purpose of website, sites the client likes etc

Stage 2

Stage 3

If the client sees the journey they will be on, and the fact they will be involved they will see the value in your work.

To the 18yr old, why not start a website about something you are interested in? Perhaps make it magazine style so that it looks fresh and dynamic. If you happen to make a few quid that's fine, but primarily have it as a showcase. Buying a domain name and hosting is pretty damn cheap.

Personally I wouldn't use an alias as it may come back and bite you.

Why not look at your local market and determine what type of client you could easily build for, eg restaurants, dentists, lawyers, plumbers etc then mock up some websites (may only be a few pages), and then reach out to local businesses.

Sit down with friends (or perhaps your friends parents) and showcase your designs. Don't do a hard sell, simply ask if they know anyone who may be interested.

With web design people need to see something, a picture and a 1,000 words and all that......

Perhaps also consider linking up with a graphic designer.

Anyhow, just my 2p - hope it helps.

I had similar experience from owner of lotoftalks.com. He said, do the work for me, don't worry about money, work should be first class and quality. And then he said, I will pay your shortly, once my domain starts to rank and earn me some advertising bucks. I still did his work assuming it could add into my portfolio but no luck. Bad choices from me I can tell you. If you find similar person for the work, turn your face and avoid such people who say, they'll pay you once they start earning sort of.

igniteimages said:

To the OP, and 18yr old.

I trust you have a good site yourself. I say this as yesterday I went to a site of an SEO person that was posted on a local community FB site. It was truly awful - full of grammar mistakes, poor navigation, limited copy etc, etc.

What I find strange when I look at web design companies is the lack of information about how they design websites (not the nitty gritty but the process). This may be fine if a company has a good quality portfolio, but if you don't it'll be a problem.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. It's fine saying you design websites, but what on earth does that involve for the customer?

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I think that my site is pretty good but I guess it could be better and I could add lots more to it, especially the process maps etc, Thanks I will give it a try

Oh and I Really appreciate all of your help guys had lots of helpful info that I can use to my advantage now, and ideas that Ive not thought of trying

**Update**

Had no new enquiries of late, but on the plus side Ive nearly finished the site that Im in the process of making Once I have finished this my prices are definatly going up. And in the meantime I am going to update my personal site and make some sites to add toward my portfolio.... Im thinking of making a few sites for tradesman, for example plumbers, electricians etc and add these types of friends to Facebook and get their contact numbers and give them a ring.

You could make a local website for an electrician or plumber.

Get it ranked, and then sell it.

Move on to the next area.

igniteimages said:

You could make a local website for an electrician or plumber.

Get it ranked, and then sell it.

Move on to the next area.

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Yeah this is what I think I will do as I am a tradesman myself and know a lot of plumbers, electricians and plasterers etc...but most of them are tight or self employed, like myself lol and cutting back on things, just like the general public i guess