Please be as candid with me as possible.

Is learning web design a waste of my time.

Twice i've embarked on the process of learning it, and twice i've been discouraged saying 'everyone' knows web design and so the competition has driven the price of the market down.

That i should learn programming instead as it is more challenging.

Pls help me.

in Nigeria, it could be, I mean with where Nigeria is with technology today, but in U.S or diaspora, it's a good one.

Many ! Yes many half-cooked web designers. The population shud not determine whether u become one or not. Its ur passion for it. For example, look at music, many nigeria artiste comeup everytime but not all are gud which makes them go no too far.
The truth is anything u wanna do, do it to the utmost satisfaction.
Good Luck . . .

Learning web design could turn out to be one of your most profitable
decision if you know your why.
Are you going into web design because others are there or because
you have sincerely identified a problem to solve( I mean opportunities
to tap into.)
To be candid with you, the inspiration is in the WHY. If you don't have a
clear vision of what the knowledge of web design could do for you, you
may not have the genuine motivation to Learn the ropes.
Here is  my candid advise;
The web design industry is an untapped goldmine in  Nigeria. Bill Gate
said that in the future there will be only two types of businesses. Those
who are taking their business online and those who are failing in business.
In the past few years, I have witnessed massive influx of businesses to the
super information highway and shows no sign of stopping in decades to come.
Every business considering having an online presence needs a  website and
only the web designer can solve this problem. Do you know how many millions
of businesses in Nigeria without an online presence yet? Do you the number
of unborn businesses in Nigeria yet to go online?
The opportunity is endless.

The harvest is ripe but the Labourers are few. The  number of professional
web designers ( plus the multitude of quacks) in Nigeria are still very infinitesimal
to meet the huge demand of professional websites.

Even if there are millions of web designers out there, if you know your onions very
well you will still feed fat of the web design windfall.There is a huge market waiting
to be tapped in this great industry and learning how to partakein it is Never and
will Never be a waste of time. Am a professional web designer and I know
what am talking about. Concerning programming,I will only say that both of them are
like salt and water. You will need some programming skill( java, html etc.) as a
webmaster to excel in this trade.So my advise is while you learn web design neglect
NOT programming for they are related.

I think you nailed it Insight 01.There are limitless oppourtunities, its ur drive and passion to make something out of it.I just started learning web development but i strongly believe that in a yr or little more i will own my own web developemet outfit.I dont have to wait 4 a white collar job cos i will start my own firm.Yes there are a lot of designers,of which 90 percent might be crap, but it all depends on your taste and how you develop yourself.In my first month learning, i developed a site for which they paid me 70k cash.Imagine that.I aint scared that i wont get clients cos they are abundant.You just have to have some marketing skills to and be persuasive and look,talk proffessional.As a designer you could also get the job,design it and look 4 a developer to do the rest.Believe me this is the best place to be right now cos the benefits are limitless.

Hello,

Your perspective simply shows that you have been moving with the wrong crowd.

Hey my G,don't be discouraged when people tell u things,webdesigning is a passion,i started out after my service in 2008,i was fascinated about it so i learnt it.Although i did'nt get jobs on time i was not discouraged,last year someone called me to desin a site, the man started his asking price from 200k, i was surprised,we later settled for 300k for the website and the man was thanking me furiously for it.So G, don't let anyone tell u shit,the internet is man's greatest invention.The wealthiest people today are i.t related,Bill gates,Mark Zucherv.(owner of facebook, just 25 yrs) even google owners.
SO G,continue in the part and let people know about u.Also try learn programming they work together,i learnt php/mysql on my own thru tutorial websites like www.tizag.com and www.w3schools.com,someone had earlier told me to pay him 30k for him to teach meand i said to myself i must learn this stuff and now i even teach it.
So G,LEARN AM FAST FAST BECAUSE TOMMORROW ALL BUSINESSES ARE GOING ONLINE,AND IF U DON'T BELONG NOW E FIT TOO LATE 0;;;

take it as a hobby, then use it to make good side-income.
Just got paid N491k for a site that took me 3wks to put up. so i'd advise if you have the interest, build it and learn from scratch everyday (no excuses)

Easy

lagerwhenindoubt:

take it as a hobby, then use it to make good side-income.
Just got paid N491k for a site that took me 3wks to put up. so i'd advise if you have the interest, build it and learn from scratch everyday (no excuses)

Easy

Exactly, i get deals like that too sometimes. And it is my hobby too, i never paid anyone to learn it, but i think i learnt it properly on my own.
@poster, if you have interest, learn it = but if you are learning it as a shortcut to quickly make money, well. . . .

Don't be discourage about the 10k website jobs, I laugh when a client tells me prices lower than 30k for d simplest site u can think of. my final words is "you ve my number, call me when you are ready."

Sincerely, If you are Good I mean GOOD, you never be Idle, you will even be too busy for all those useless Jobs, even client wey pay 70k dey run after me up and down.

am a self taught, so it all about learning for the right reasons. I LOVED IT. from day one not for the money but for the fact that I want to be a professional.

Even if it's just HTML, CSS, Javascript, others can come later, sincerely the best teacher is yourself and you ask questions from a fellow developer.

naija-doll:

in Nigeria, it could be, I mean with where Nigeria is with technology today, but in U.S or diaspora, it's a good one.

even in naija it's not. like I said earlier Be very Good with your skill sets.

- SAFE

What exactly are u learning! Open source CMS like joomla? or the real stuff? Go for the real stuff. Learn the languages PHP, Javascript, HTML etc. The future is bright for automated operations on the web as is happening in developed places now. We need iphone apps in Nigeria too, we need to automate loads of utilities in Nigeria.

Who will create the necessary competion for the foreign bigwig sites?. Why cant we have a Nigerian facebook? built from scratch and hacker proof. Why cant we have a Nigerian google?

insight01:

Learning web design could turn out to be one of your most profitable
decision if you know your why.
Are you going into web design because others are there or because
you have sincerely identified a problem to solve( I mean opportunities
to tap into.)
To be candid with you, the inspiration is in the WHY. If you don't have a
clear vision of what the knowledge of web design could do for you, you
may not have the genuine motivation to Learn the ropes.
Here is  my candid advise;
The web design industry is an untapped goldmine in  Nigeria. Bill Gate
said that in the future there will be only two types of businesses. Those
who are taking their business online and those who are failing in business.
In the past few years, I have witnessed massive influx of businesses to the
super information highway and shows no sign of stopping in decades to come.
Every business considering having an online presence needs a  website and
only the web designer can solve this problem. Do you know how many millions
of businesses in Nigeria without an online presence yet? Do you the number
of unborn businesses in Nigeria yet to go online?
The opportunity is endless.

The harvest is ripe but the Labourers are few. The  number of professional
web designers ( plus the multitude of quacks) in Nigeria are still very infinitesimal
to meet the huge demand of professional websites.

Even if there are millions of web designers out there, if you know your onions very
well you will still feed fat of the web design windfall.There is a huge market waiting
to be tapped in this great industry and learning how to partakein it is Never and
will Never be a waste of time. Am a professional web designer and I know
what am talking about. Concerning programming,I will only say that both of them are
like salt and water. You will need some programming skill( java, html etc.) as a
webmaster to excel in this trade.So my advise is while you learn web design neglect
NOT programming for they are related.

islet:

I think you nailed it Insight 01.There are limitless oppourtunities, its your drive and passion to make something out of it.I just started learning web development but i strongly believe that in a yr or little more i will own my own web developemet outfit.I dont have to wait 4 a white collar job cos i will start my own firm.Yes there are a lot of designers,of which 90 percent might be crap, but it all depends on your taste and how you develop yourself.In my first month learning, i developed a site for which they paid me 70k cash.Imagine that.I aint scared that i wont get clients cos they are abundant.You just have to have some marketing skills to and be persuasive and look,talk proffessional.As a designer you could also get the job,design it and look 4 a developer to do the rest.Believe me this is the best place to be right now cos the benefits are limitless.

rapattorny:

Hey my G,don't be discouraged when people tell u things,webdesigning is a passion,i started out after my service in 2008,i was fascinated about it so i learnt it.Although i did'nt get jobs on time i was not discouraged,last year someone called me to desin a site, the man started his asking price from 200k, i was surprised,we later settled for 300k for the website and the man was thanking me furiously for it.So G, don't let anyone tell u poo,the internet is man's greatest invention.The wealthiest people today are i.t related,Bill gates,Mark Zucherv.(owner of facebook, just 25 yrs) even google owners.
SO G,continue in the part and let people know about u.Also try learn programming they work together,i learnt php/mysql on my own thru tutorial websites like www.tizag.com and www.w3schools.com,someone had earlier told me to pay him 30k for him to teach meand i said to myself i must learn this stuff and now i even teach it.
So G,LEARN AM FAST FAST BECAUSE TOMMORROW ALL BUSINESSES ARE GOING ONLINE,AND IF U DON'T BELONG NOW E FIT TOO LATE 0;;;

lagerwhenindoubt:

take it as a hobby, then use it to make good side-income.
Just got paid N491k for a site that took me 3wks to put up. so i'd advise if you have the interest, build it and learn from scratch everyday (no excuses)

Easy

quadrillio:

Don't be discourage about the 10k website jobs, I laugh when a client tells me prices lower than 30k for d simplest site u can think of. my final words is "you ve my number, call me when you are ready."

Sincerely, If you are Good I mean GOOD, you never be Idle, you will even be too busy for all those useless Jobs, even client wey pay 70k dey run after me up and down.

am a self taught, so it all about learning for the right reasons. I LOVED IT. from day one not for the money but for the fact that I want to be a professional.

Even if it's just HTML, CSS, Javascript, others can come later, sincerely the best teacher is yourself and you ask questions from a fellow developer.even in naija it's not. like I said earlier Be very Good with your skill sets.

- SAFE

Albato:

What exactly are u learning! Open source CMS like joomla? or the real stuff? Go for the real stuff. Learn the languages PHP, Javascript, HTML etc. The future is bright for automated operations on the web as is happening in developed places now. We need iphone apps in Nigeria too, we need to automate loads of utilities in Nigeria.

Who will create the necessary competion for the foreign bigwig sites?. Why cant we have a Nigerian facebook? built from scratch and hacker proof. Why cant we have a Nigerian google?

Thank you all a lot!
You guys have given me all the inspiration i need. Believe me, there's no turning back now
Thanks a lot once more!

thanks a lot for the insight here. I really appreciate all the contributors. It has set me thinking aright.
I've already taken action.

Your responds are great!
There is no doubt about all you are saying. I earn from web design and my last project was from nairaland

I will tell the truth here it is not a waste of time infact you will glad you did i learn and i don't have any regrets people will always do 10k website because that where their skills lies always improved yourself learn and follow the trend in the industry and you will never regrets learning website design right now am even planning on putting up my company websites so that i can use it as a marketing to get more jobs. please go ahead and learning it

Just as DHTML said take it as a hobby and use it to Make money

am very sure you wont regret it if you follow this advice because its working for Me. To be honest with you i started web designing May of this year and while i was doing this i did it for pleasure and because of the excitement i get when i do things i see daily on the net. Now though am on web programming like creating of Website portals. I am very gratefull because i learned web designing if not i would have had a hard time learning.

And now this pays me, i stay with my parent. So am supposed to feed from them yes. But when i ventured into this my thinking change, although i dont collect money from people i work for i do it as free Job and guess what it pays much better. Since then i dont depend on Popsi for monthly internet connection, this or that. EVEN MY dad threatened to take me to the police station all because i programmed a secondary school Online payment Portal. Where student dont need to go school to submit tellers but the school website. I did this for free truly speaking but the school gave me 90k i mean 90,000 and even the director of the school gave me extra 20k as a gift. This my dad thought i stole but was suprised to hear from the director that the school gave it to me.

So in essense guy what am trying to say is. Web development, in terms of programming and design is not a waste of time a lot of opportunities are out there.

For example today i receive a call from a Man whose wife owns a SALOON hair shop in Town here that he wants some people to order online for private home service. I quickly said to him i can do it. And he said he infact drop a reasonable pay without even starting.

BUT WHAT I DONT UNDERSTAND UP till this moment is why should a Hair Dresses want people to order online.

for like 6 months, i av being reading on nairaland witout posting, but i cant hold it anymore wit dis thread, i design website, and nt rili bad wit development of it, as in php and mysql, but rili i dont get d jobs, im a 500level comp. Sc. Student but then i shld av few jobs 2 call mine, but nt rili, and here u pple r talking as if d jobs are everywhere, pls open my eyes, let mi even start wit d 40k, 50k job, cos i will neva take those 10k job even if they come, abeg good pple of nairaland dt get dis jobs wat im i missing

Learn for free from here

www.rightsiteclick.com

web development is surely your best bet, but do u have the flair for designing or creativity

@Poster, it depends on why you want to go into the field. If you go into it for the money, you may be discouraged by the obstacles one of which is the number of the people in the field. If you have a passion for it on the other hand, you will not be discouraged and you will get all the best from it. So the question is: "Do you Have a passion for it or you are after the money you can get from it?

If you can look yourself in the mirror and say to yourself, "even if I don't make a dime off of this, this is what is in me and is what I want to do". . . I mean, if you can honestly say that, then it isn't a waste of time.

If you can't. . .

Learning web design and perfect with it is a good idea. If you are passionate about web designing then it's a good thing for you. A web designer has a lot of skill to know as sometimes they must have to code.

You guys has inpired me to learn webdesign

The first question you need to ask yourself is "do I really want to design websites or do I want to earn a living?"

If you are really concerned about your livelihood and you want to get into a business that requires little financial capital but a lot of mental capital, then you may consider web design. But instead of designing yourself, learn and perfect the art of outsourcing. Your life will be so much easier for it.

If, on the other hand, you love to design and you are confident that you can learn things fast, then I suggest you learn photoshop, html, css, and javascript to start with. If you want to go further, pick up php and mysql. If you want some of the advantages of php programming without going through the trouble of learning the language, then pick up a Content Management System like Joomla (my personal favorite), Wordpress (easier to master, but not as comprehensive as joomla) or Drupal. And there's really nothing wrong with web templates. Business is about speed and efficiency. Turnaround time is more important for most clients than your production method, so the faster you can create the better for you.

In either case, the one skill you need to master much more than than web designing is Marketing. Extreme Marketing.

People do not line up to have websites designed for them as they do to buy fuel in petrol stations. Do not be fooled by the many optimistic comments on this thread. It is difficult to convince Nigerians, even business owners who should know better, that they need websites, so you need to be prepared to educate people a lot with patience.

Sometimes, unbelievably, the hardest part may not be to find a client, but to get them to provide you with the text and graphics to build their site with. The experience can be hell. You almost have to beg them to be organized and professional. Some people even expect you to magically understand their business and generate content and photographs for them automatically. That in itself can be an opportunity if you are equipped to provide copy-writing and photography services for them though. I mentioned this not to scare you but to prepare you.


To recap, if you want self-employment with little capital, learn how to market vigorously, how to persuade people to buy products/services they don't think they need, how to negotiate fiercely, and how to outsource for peanuts, but still get good work-(believe me, it is a science and a fine art.)

If you love to design and prefer to do things by yourself, learn these in this order:

Photoshop (with more emphasis on the web design features)
html 4.01/html 5
css 2.1/css 3
javascript
joomla and/or wordpress
php and mysql
Flash Professional (if you like)
and anything else you feel your brain can handle.


I deliberately left out Dreamweaver cos it doesn't let you do anything that you can't already do if you know how to code in html, css, javascript and php. The new Adobe software MUSE would have been better, but you may have trouble with Adobe's new Creative Cloud pricing system.

Anyways, I wish you good luck!


PS.

Making money by designing websites for others is not the only way to earn from web design.

One reason which by itself is enough to make you want to learn to design websites is to build a site for yourself that you can use to make money in other conventional or innovative ways.

you can build for yourself -
-a shopping site (where you sell stuff without the troubles of maintaining a physical store)
-an educational site (where you train people and sell information products)
-a blog
-a site which you use purely for affiliate marketing

I could go on and on, but you already get the idea.

Only your imagination can limit you and if it does, borrow someone else's.

Need more advice, call me - +234(0)7038837087, mailgaz14@yahoo.com

Goodluck again.

Pls fellow nls....I'm really interested in becoming a web developer...don't know if anyone can take me say as an apprentice,so as to ve first hand knwoledge on it

Albato:
What exactly are u learning! Open source CMS like joomla? or the real stuff? Go for the real stuff. Learn the languages PHP, Javascript, HTML etc. The future is bright for automated operations on the web as is happening in developed places now. We need iphone apps in Nigeria too, we need to automate loads of utilities in Nigeria.

Who will create the necessary competion for the foreign bigwig sites?. Why cant we have a Nigerian facebook? built from scratch and hacker proof. Why cant we have a Nigerian google?

We do, www.Braintem.org .
I guess we are who we are.

Great replies from you guyz!

Looking for professional web designing team? We are offering you low rate website design service in so much low rates. Hire the experts!

Wow. The comments here are still so relevant.