Hi peep, Happy Worker's day.
I have a mind bugging issue which borders around mid life ish and career.

I get this question every time from my peeps at home asking me if I have applied for jobs but I keep posting them. This is bacause I am a website designer at the moment and I have spent like a year in d business though very though I almost quit but with God's wisdom I am begining to see d light at the end of the tonnel.

But looking at the challenges, like clients who can b so frustrating goin back and forth, to delay of payment to working late at night and having less time to sleep to the challenges of crappy internet services to non availability of power supply etc.

Plus the fact that if u want to get branded and go corporate in a place like Abuja, office space is not less that 450k per annum aprt from service charge and generator maintenance and possibly a secretary or partner, company registration and tax payment.

However, I love working around the internet although my major back in school was medical science (me no b dokitor o).

The big question now is: Is Website Designing Job a worthy career one can pursue?

Are u telling us that for the past one year you siad you have been doing this that you have not decided whether web design is worth pursuing or not?

Listen, every career is worth pursuing if you know ur game. There are frustrated medical doctors and lawyers. There are snail farmers that are living well. I mean very well. There are web developers that are struggling. They are desperate. They use free templates and modify for their clients. They do copy and paste. They have not decided to learn how to design and develop beautiful, dynamic and responsive websites. Their color theory is very poor. They dont know how to use typography on the web. They dont know how to distinguish themselves and market their skills. They keep begging clients to allow them design a website for them for 10k. They lack packaging.

Guy, every career is worth pursuing if you know how to stand out from the mediocres in that industry.

I think the best term to describe such career is "Web Consultant". Yes, its a profitable venture but with the challenges presented by clients especially Nigerians and the general working environment, it tends to be frustrating.

When i start off, i was strictly into building websites (the parts i cant do very well, i outsource) and it got to a time, i began getting just one job in 3 or 4 months...i was getting frustrated. I didn't back out but rather i went to the drawing board and re-strategised. I added other services that have to do with web development and the internet as a whole, like;

- SEO
- Content development
- Email Marketing
- Customer service
- Graphics and logo creation
- General Web advisory services
- Now i even extend my content creation to building organizational profiles, etc

All these and more makes you a "Web Consultant". Now if am not doing a website, am doing SEO or content development, or email marketing, etc so am always busy. I cant say i have hit the jackpot in the business yet but, i can say i am OK. At least i can pay my rent, feed, entertain myself, and also have flexible working hours. I have a powerful laptop, backup generator, and an Android phone for follow-ups. You don't necessarily need an office. My bedroom is my office and i love it, cos the bed is close by

Also, to excel, look at how you source for clients. Business cards can be underestimated but they are a great marketing tool. If you have money, print flyers, send out bulk sms campaigns, do word-of-mouth and trust me, someone will start calling. Once, you get you first set of clients, then comes referrals

So, its a worthy career. Just repackage yourself according to GraphicsPlus.

Yes it is. From professional to personal, it is. The question you should ask yourself is, "why am i going into it?" If you are going into it because you love it, then you will do well. If you are going into it strictly for money, you won't.

#ILike

sisqology: #ILike

yawa-ti-de:
Yes it is. From professional to personal, it is. The question you should ask yourself is, "why am i going into it?" If you are going into it because you love it, then you will do well. If you are going into it strictly for money, you won't.

Pls about those changing themes and templates! Could you through more light on how they can better their skills?

Yes, In one word I would like to say Yes. This career is very lucrative and with good future. You think yourself, now everyone is going live and who will make them live and who will support them after going live? Definitely a website designer.

Thanks to you all 4 your comments so far.

Presently, I have like 5 jobs on me, but I dont feel too ok. I love internet and working around the interent, but I seriously don kno if a Webmaster will be respected in our society in the near future.

I have read about American Web Design Firms who were the foremost in Web Development, some have closed down after many years even when they hav more than 200 clients, is this where Nigerian Web Design Firms are heading?

We all kno they way Indians are looking for web design jobs in Nigeria, Why? Simple cos the market is saturated.

This career thing is eating me deep at this time. Life is short, can a webdesigner make significant impact in the society?

Please , if you are living successfuly as a website designer, please share ur success story and possibly achievements.

I wld be appreciative if this thread can be moved to fp to get a wider opinion of d general public.

Presently, I have like 5 jobs on me, but I dont feel too ok. I love internet and working around the interent, but I seriously don kno if a Webmaster will be respected in our society in the near future.

The bolded above is the wrong attitude, IMHO. Why do most things in Nigeria, revolve around "respect". So what if I work as a road sweeper with a phD? Isn't that better than being a corrupt politician?

Impact? Do you have a facebook account? A video I watched of a conference on Friday showed stats that said that there are 900M+ users on facebook. When you consider that the world's population is about 1.3B, that's a huge impact. Also, when you do a job for someone, do you bother following up with them to see how it has impacted their business (as in, if it's a company, how much have sales gone up since it launched), or do you just want the money and then you scram?

The web market is also saturated in the US but web developers thrive. You just need to find a niche market and offer something unique.

@Yawatide, thank u. But let me quickly add that the world population is approximately 7 billion presently.

@OP, I understand your worries. If you have passion for web design and you do it with fun, you will build a big career in it. Take for instance, this guy called Chris Coyier of css-tricks.com. He's a web designer to the core. It's his profession and he makes impact through it. He creates screencast. He hosts talkshows on front-end designs. He has a forum. He built codepen.io for live coding in html, css and javascript. He has what he calls 'The Lodge.' It's a membership only site where one subscribes to have access to his video tutorials.

The company that developed the present website of microsoft.com is a three man company - paravelinc.com. It's headed by Trent Walton - trentwalton.com. Look, these guys are making it. Do you know what it means for the almighty microsoft to hire a web development company?

All over the world, there are web designers who are doing well in this profession. The bane of Nigeria web designers is our inability to step up our game. We must start thinking beyond echo 'Hello World';. I mean there is a big need to know color theory and typography. We need to start building beautiful, dynamic and responsive websites. We need to get serious with this career. It's not enough to know the basics and then run out to rant. We must know that things are changing rapidly in this career. How many web designers in Nigeria have applied for Visa to travel out just to attend a one week web design conference? Conference like: http://2013.uxlondon.com, http://industryconf.com and http://aneventapart.com. It is not about getting a 50,000 Naira job and you quickly do it with wordpress or certain free template, then you fire up your filezilla and upload and collect your money and go your way.

Again, there is need to diversify. There are lots of opportunities in this career. All you need to do is to think. If you know your game and you are still learning from web designing masters through their blogs, you can start building a career in this industry. Get a small, but well furnished office. Furnished in the sense that it will be simple and neat. Get a user interface designer for designing logos, bg images, icons, buttons, banners and mockups. Get a front-end designer that will focus on htm/css/js. Then if you are a backend guy, settle for php/mysql and other stuff. Then start marketing yourself. 2015 is here. These politicians need websites for their campaign. Have you noticed that our politicians are internet illiterates. I mean they dont think about it. Do you know that in US, politicians have websites even if they are contesting for governorship. In nigeria, it's hard to see a gubernatorial candidate that has a campaign website. When they do have, you will always discover that it's shabbily designed. Now, you can plan for this 2015. Package yourself and get ready. Do you know you can approach these politicians and market yourself to them. In fact, I managed to get a personal email of one of them who is warming up for the presidency. I wrote him about building a website for him. He replied and said that it's ok that I should just keep in touch as they watch events as they unfold.

@Solid, go become solid. It's in you.

Web design in itself is a noble profession but in this part of d world, I suggest u develop skills in other areas of interest which can always compliment web design.

Passion is key but as responsibilities of being a successful enterpreneaur beckons, other streams of inflows would be very key to keep ur business afloat.

Most successful IT shops are involved in various facets of tech, and a key point dat can help is liaising with specialists in other professions.

Eg, I won't say no to a mobile app project for let's say an Android / Iphone app even though am a Coldfusion / Php developer.
I will simply get my mobile app guy involved, get a piece of d profit and everyone goes home happy .

Best of luck .

I am proud to be a Web Developer, its worth doing

There are actually like and great minded web developers here! I can  and hear them talk. What makes the worl go round is dynamism. Steroetype people don't survive in this technology driven world. Learn more, offer more, as long as its related to this profession. You can have a team, or some specialized tech friends, and package yourself, there is a great future for this proffessio I tell you...

GraphicPlus, you are straining at a gnat and swallowing a cow. You just had to throw that in, didn't you?

Yep, I goofed. Meant to say population of India and/or China. Oya, go google that one to find something to say, "At least I don get yawa back", he he

am a living testimony

www.greenmousetech.com

You can't be a web developer or designer and also play the role of a marketer.

If you to do this as a business, start thinking in systems or models.

It can never be lucrative, if you have to market your services and at the same time build sites when a customer bites.

Which means when your working on a descent project your business stops till that project is complete.

Which will put you in another long search for customers.

Besides, that you may not have as many good ideas or plans as a marketer or business savvy person.

There's a good reason why Zuckerberg is wealthy today and it's not because he Co founded facebook or wrote most of the code. Its because the old owner of nasser had business experience and had the contacts.

Without, that guy Zuckerberg would not have had facebook as large to the extent of having a multi billion dollar ipo.

You need to pool resources together and explore them.

Brother.... Even pepper selling is a good career, if you have a strategy.

Every career is worthy.
If you have passion, the right skill, and a well thought out strategy.
Even a shoe-maker can build a billion dollar empire if he's got the above.

You need to work on building a stronger business network.

Any good web designer that resides in Abuja should contact me via email patrickani2012@gmail.com , I want him/her to do website for my sports project, tnx

patoski96: Any good web designer that resides in Abuja should contact me via email patrickani2012@gmail.com , I want him/her to do website for my sports project, tnx

You can call 08186414186, we would give you a befeting website here in Abuja.

yawatide:
Yes it is. From professional to personal, it is. The question you should ask yourself is, "why am i going into it?" If you are going into it because you love it, then you will do well. If you are going into it strictly for money, you won't.

This is not blogging but strictly business.

So how do you expected someone in business, not to expect money. Simply awkward i guess.

klog:
I am proud to be a Web Developer, its worth doing

Have you bought a house with it?

What is the rank given to a graduate in Nigeria Police Force. pls i need answers

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