emmaj

Thank you for all your suggestions!

Hello. I made a post on this forum about a year ago, asking for advice about starting in web design, and while I have made progress, I need some advice again. I am currently unemployed but doing one day of work experience at a web design company and two days of work experience at a charity shop per week. I keep applying for a number of jobs, just something to get me earning a bit of money whilst doing web design on the side, but I don't hear anything back from the employers and it's frustrating. So while I have the time, I thought it would be a good idea to set up my portfolio and build up my clients, something that I am in the process of doing now. I am doing the jobs for free at the moment because I don't feel like I am in a position to be charging for the work I am completing but I am gaining vital experience in the process. Best websites to get a domain name from? Best hosting websites? I don't really have a budget for this. I obviously don't want to pay over the odds. I have done some reading into hosting websites (and boggled my brain a fair bit in the process) and GoDaddy has been a hosting website that has consistently cropped up. My experience with this company has not been the best though so I would like to avoid them if possible and stick to a hosting company based in the UK. How do you go about getting clients? I do have a website that I'm working on at the moment, with another two possibly in the pipeline but I feel like three examples of my work isn't enough to showcase what I can do on my portfolio and I want to give myself the best possible chance when applying for web design based jobs in the future. I do have an idea of potential clients that may be in need of a website or their website updating but my main problem is approaching them. I don't want it to seem like I'm being forceful or treading on anyone's toes, particularly if they've done the website on their own or already got a designer. Would a simple email explaining what I do and how I could help be enough? Thank you!

Alluziion Thank you for the reply, Chris. I have already started looking at classes in the local area in both web design and business. I probably would have studied a Business A Level had I have had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do when I chose my A Level options in year 11. Because I do lack some of the information about the running of a business, would it be something that is easily self-taught or would you recommend finding a class to learn more? Also, would getting some work experience in a local web design company be useful to me? I am very new to this so the information you provided me with was very useful. Thank you for taking the time to write a reply to my post. It has definitely given me a clearer direction!

I am about to finish college and I would like to know the best way of going about getting a web design career, without going to University. I do have a big interest in web design and it something that I would definitely like to pursue for my future career because I enjoy it. I would like to go more down the design side of things as this is something that I do enjoy more but I would be willing to go into development. University is definitely not for me and I would much rather avoid going to University if I can get a career in web design without. I would also like to know how I would go about putting a portfolio together. I know that I would have to create an online portfolio but I would like to know what I would include within the portfolio. I don't have much experience in web design, apart from making websites on Freewebs a few years ago and coding personal themes for Tumblr. I am coding a website currently in A Level ICT so is this something that I could include? If I started coding free themes for websites such as Tumblr and Wordpress, would they be examples that I could include in my portfolio? How would I go about expanding my experience? I do have a basic knowledge in HTML, CSS, PHP and Photoshop but I feel like I would need to further my knowledge in these areas. Would I be able to learn this without the degree? Are employers likely to employ me if I have self-taught myself? Ultimately, the end goal for me would be to own my own web design company. I know that competition in the industry is incredibly high right now and I was just wondering the best way to go about getting into the industry.