Hi everyone, i heard that webdesign business is a very lucrative one and many of us have really developed interest in this area. Pls if you are a full time succesful webmaster, help us share your experience on your journey towards actualising it as a dream. Did u learn on your own? Did u obtain a qualification? Are u realy successful in the business?, i believe this thread wil educate some of us who intend to go into this areas as a business.

One important point you must know is that you will not make money if money making is your main aim of delving into web design business.

You must have the passion to do the job, it is a lonely profession in a way especially if you write programs.

If you excel in helping your clients succeed, money will chase you, if however, you are only interested in making money from your clients, it won't be long before you start looking for another business to do.

@afam, Thanks man, but which prof. Exam qualifies you as a prof. Web designer jst like the CCNA, MCSE and others?. Is there anythin like regulatory body or association one needs to register b4 starting? Pls your contributions wil be appreciated

kennyuche,

there are institutions out there that give certification exams, but technically, there is no one, say, int'lly-acclaimed institution. Practice they say, makes perfect. The more sites you create, whether for pay or recreation, the better you become. Again, whether for profit or charity, create sites that implement different techniques, learn from your experiences and save the code in a library for reuse at a later date.

Have your peers, whether it be here on Nairaland or elsewhere take a look at your sites. Welcome all criticism. Make the -ve ones motivate you to do better rather than as a source of discouragement. With a few years/projects under your belt, you should be able to have garnered enough experience to stand out amongst your peers. Finally, visit web forums, read magazines. You could even do what I do - on a daily basis, go to google, do a random search and check out the top 10 sites that it returns. Analyze the sites for conformance to web standards, design patterns, etc. Ask yourself, "How would I make this site better?" If it is something you like, assume you were given a contract to do a job and see if you could replicate it without copying from them.

The web biz isn't a one day thing. You have to do it daily. You have to eat, drink and sleep it. Then and only then can you be on your path to web dev enlightenment.

I hope this helps.

@Kennyuche,

My2cents have provided very valid pointers to the issue and what information you may require.

I am niot aware of any regulator right now, I guess the quality of web prjects you develop will ultimately determine if yu will make a living out of it or if it will remain a hooby for you.

You certainy do not need to acquire any certificates whatsoever to become a very good web developer or even a web programmer.

Practice, practice, practice and be open to criticisms where positive or negative especially the negative ones.

Men! I love u guys for your advice. The issue is that i did an online tutorial on xhtml, right now am practicing frontpage so, i dont know if am on the right track and i wish to know other packages which i can learn in order to bcom fully prepared. Pls i need more guides frm u guys tanx.

for starters, some would argue that beginning with frontpage is the way to go. I tend to disagree. Using frontpage is like owning a car and not knowing what happens behind the scenes that enables your car to start. I prefer typing up everything yourself so you appreciate what your code is doing. In other words, keep up with your tutorials.

Once you understand what is going on behind the scenes, you may then "cheat" by using WYSIWYGs like frontpage, dreamweaver et al. Just be aware that they tend to add a lot of unnecessary code for the most part behind the scenes, code that more often than not makes your coder harder to read, not to mention that it tilts your site weight a little on the heavy side.

To summarize - code by hand first, then graduate to WYSIWYGs (What You See Is What You Get, just in case you don't know what that means )

I hope this helps.

@my2cent, do you mean using notepad? If it is, i think i can but i have problem with frames and i havnt practiced my css very well because d topic is too wide. If i may ask, is there any difference btwn web designer, developer n programmer? Thanx n bless.

Kenny,

Sure, you may use notepad, but that may be a little archaic right now, granted I started off many yrs ago using it

You can use dreamweaver or homesite. Better yet, you could pose this question to others in the field who are in naija as they may hv an open-source (aka "free" alternative.

I wouldn't recommend you learn how to implement frames, in my opinion. Search engines for one frown upon it. Also, some users don't know how to turn them off and they can pose problems when it comes to printing.

CSS? Everything in programming is pretty broad. Just buy a book or download an ebook, focus on one topic at a time and in no time, you would have covered broad grounds. As I said, practice makes perfect. Once you feel you have learnt a lot, put code to computer and give yourself an assignment using what you have learnt. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

As for the difference b/w the discliplines you mentioned, I already have addressed this at: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-31963.0.html

enjoy and good luck!

Thank you very much. I think i can feel you and i guess i hav to put more effort.

You may also want to register at http://www.webmastersofafrica.com/ so as to stay abreast of latest trends

Try to learn Dreamweaver.

It covers most of your needs when it comes to web designs and most people are using it from survey result.

Best of Luck

@my2cent

Men i but say u re Good,i want to really learn from you
can we be friends?i'm practicing webmaster but i want to
know more on it.

Hope to read ur reply,


Cheers man.

niceuzor,

Sure, thatz what I am here for

u may email me at webmaster@webmastersofafrica.com or YIM me at udotot25

I hope to "see" you soon. and don't forget to register at www.webmastersofafrica.com