There’s no doubt that freelance web design is the cheapest service to avail compared to a web design company if you want a web site done . As a freelancer you will only work by yourself thus, limiting your expenses and clients having to pay less. That’s why big companies sometimes outsource and stick with freelancers to do their job. Look at India and the Philippines for example, these countries are two of the most outsourced countries with regards to IT, call centers, and programming.

Now that we know that freelance web designers have an edge over companies with regards to price. How much do you have to charge? Well, that is one of the most asked questions by new web designers. And to tell you the truth, the answer lies in your own capabilities as a web designer.

Points To Consider When Pricing

1. Consider All Your Expenses In The Design - In web design, you are pretty much zero in on the expenses as you may already have a computer. You may put in the electricity spent when working on a particular design if you can compute it. But, there are times when you will really have to spend some money like buying stock photos, fonts, software tools, icons and more. Keep in mind these things to add on your pricing.
2. How Much Time Will It Take You To Finish The Work - Most of the time, programmers are paid by the hour and so are designers. But also, most of the time, designers are paid per project. So, consider how much time will it take you to finish this web site. The longer, of course the higher. You’re time is pretty much important here, you might turn down some clients while a project is still on going and you may lose more money than earn if you’re price is wrong.
3. Research About Your Competition - Web design is a competitive field so there will always be a competition. Know the price of other freelancers and compare the quality of their work with yours. Then decide whether you deserve a much higher price than them or lower. You decide.
4. What’s The Cost Of Living - This is probably the most important. Set a price that’s just about right to help you survive in this world. Don’t go dirt cheap just because you want clients. Don’t “whore” yourself if you think you can attract clients by lowering your price. Be sure to set a minimum price that you can afford to help sustain your business. And also, don’t go overboard in raising the price. Some people would raise their charges just because people from other countries are charging this kind of amount. Always remember that in other countries, the cost of living is different from yours. They need that price to sustain and continue running their business.

Although I didn’t exactly said how much you should charge your web design services, I know you could come up with really good and reasonable prices for your clients using the pointers I laid out. All these things depend entirely to you and your skills. If you think you should charge x10 than the competition, you are free to do that no one’s stopping you. Someone out there might avail that services if they feel its worth it. Don’t be afraid to ask for a certain price of web design, especially if its reasonable enough for you to sustain your business.

Full Time Web Designer

Back when the days of starting up in this web design industry, I had experienced total discrimination because I have no portfolio. Well, my first employer was good enough to give me an actual test where I can design a site hands on. But my 2nd employer did not even took a look at my work! I have all my sample sites in my flash drive but I have no site back then to where I can showcase my web designs. And that actually turned them off.

You can actually guess by my experience that if you’re a web designer and looking for a job in a web design company, the number one rule to have to get that job is the web design portfolio. Not many people have experience in this field and would like to try their luck and I can definitely tell, if you want a good company to get into, you should already have an experience.

Freelance Web Design

If you want to be a freelance web designer, it should be you’re number one goal to set up a rock solid web design portfolio. No one’s gonna gamble their money to know how good (or bad) you are at web design. They WANT PROOF. So before you win a client, they already did their research and most of the time, the quality of your work reflected from your portfolio is the best way to win a client.

How To Build Up A Web Portfolio

Now that we know the importance of web design portfolio in this business, lets talk about how we can build your own portfolio.

• By all means, join contests - This is by far the best way to build your portfolio. You earn while you learn and build up your sample works. Digital Point and Site Point are two great sites for web design competitions.
• Do Free Web Design For Friends - If you have friends that needs a web site design, even if its free, do it. But only take a handful, you can always expect friends to abuse free stuff from you, decide only a number of web design works that you will accept and keep in mind your true goal — to build a portfolio.
• Free Themes - Learn to design blogs and submit it to free wordpress blog themes sites. Wordpress.org lets you upload your own theme and be used by many people. The more people using your theme, the more you know that you have a great design. And a great design is always a great addition to your portfolio.

Setting Up A Site

Now that you have a portfolio, there are two things you can do with it. Either showcase it and host it in a free hosting. Or paid hosting, your own site and domain. My personal suggestion would be buying your own hosting and domain. Why? This is business, so treat it like one. Invest on a domain and hosting, it is the most professional way to go and brand your site.

I never really thought that I would take web design and development seriously. I have a Computer Engineering degree and its all computation, numbers and binaries on our head. But the creative spark of our human brain took domination over my other half of my brain. To put it in simple words, I was hooked!

I never really thought in the beginning that you could actually earn money from web pages or make a business out of it. I’ve been stumbling day after day after I quit my full time job as to where I could get the money to pay the bills. Up then after months of searching. I have come to find out the best way to make money on web design especially on a freelance basis.

This is how I learned, and I use these points to get freelance jobs. It may not work for anybody else but its up to you to apply the things I will point out.

Practice Web Design

Practice makes perfect. Creativity can not be learned by principle only through practice. Enhance your creativity in web design by doing creative things aside from web design. Creative writing, photography, painting… Anything that requires creativity. Its your bread and butter.

When I was starting up, I used to copy websites that I really like. My favorite was 2advanced.com. Their design is simply the best. Learn from each websites you visit and take note of what part of the page is attractive, pay attention to details.

Know the Web Design Trends

Clients are always on the look out for the best and freshest design for their website. If its a big company, they will need the website to be updated to the latest look. Know the styles, know the dont’s.

Brand Yourself

When joining web design communities or competition, always have the same name in the internet. So people know who you are and your skills and it would be easier for them to contact you.

Make Money

Join Web Design Competition

The best way to earn money online while learning is to join competition. SEO have seo competition so as web designers. Do not take any lost contest personally, learn from your competition. You may join contests on sitepoint.com or forums.digitalpoint.com there are tons of opportunities for newbie web designers.

Competition opens up new opportunities, people that are just passing by and saw your work might be interested in hiring you. Contests in which you have won might be interested in doing some more business with you. There are lots of benefits in joining web design competition so be sure to try them out while learning.

Freelance Websites

If you are ready to take on serious jobs, visit freelancing websites like getafreelancer.com or elance.com where you will bid on the work and the best bidder will get the job.

Put up a Web Design Portfolio

The reason why I wanted you to join competitions so keenly is that this is the best way to build up your portfolio. I have done FREE web design jobs to a lot of clients just to put up my portfolio but I learned that competitions are the best hands down. You get to earn money while building it up at the same time.

…and most especially…

Keep The Fire Burning

Have a burning desire to make web sites. That is what will make you earn money in this business. Once you have a list of clientelle, you’ll be amazed at how much work you have to do day after day and you’ll be happy that you have no more boss to answer to… Working hard would mean more money for you. You are in control now.

Making money online is never easy. This is a business and business is never easy. What is easy anyway? Picking your nose perhaps? There is no magic bullet here. Though you are sitting in front of the computer doing the work, its also tiresome and getting burned out is no joking matter.

I also understand that this type of business in the Philippines is not yet in the open so most people will look at you like a bum that have no work and always in the computer playing video games. They will ask you to get a “real job” will say things to you, but don’t be afraid to follow your heart. Let me quote this line from a very important figure:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

~Steve Jobs

Have a dream and follow that dream.