Do you want to work from home and offer freelance service? Learn how to become a freelance web designer and earn profitable income?

Back a few decades ago in the ’90s if you wanted any type of professional career you needed to go to college or university to get a degree. And guess what? If you wanted to earn more money you had to get a specialization or go back to school again!

Luckily, we are now in the 21st century and it is much easier to land a higher paying job all due to the advancements in technology. If you want to learn any new skill or start a new career, all you have to do is go online and either get the information from Google, YouTube, or download an online course. 

And this is exactly how I became a freelance web designer, it all started by consuming countless hours on YouTube and a lot of learning along the way. After learning about WordPress, plugins, themes, and some basic HTML + CSS, I started designing websites.

If there is one pointer I can give it is to have a lot of patience. There will be times where you will have to sit down to take a course, figure out how the web design tools work, and spend many hours building sites. 

In the rest of this article, I am going to break it down for you on how to get started with a web design career as a freelancer as well as answer some of the basic questions.

• Starting A Web Design Career
• Part-Time Freelance Web Designer V. Full Time Freelance Web Designer
• Freelance Web Designer Jobs
• How To Price Web Design Services

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Starting A Web Design Career 

Before jumping directly into a full-on career in web design, you should first figure out if it is the correct job for you. Here are a few questions to consider before making the switch. (The last question is the most important!!).Are you able and willing to learn many different web design programs and tools?

There are many different web design platforms such as WordPress, Webflow, and Wix with many other tools rolling out regularly.

Can you meet deadlines and work under pressure? Sometimes an important client may need the project completed ahead of schedule and you must put in the extra work.

Can you meet deadlines and work under pressure? Sometimes an important client may need the project completed ahead of schedule and you must put in the extra work. Being a web design freelancer does give you flexibility and the ability to work your schedule BUT when something urgent comes up it must be attended to.

Can you easily communicate with other companies or freelancers? More often than not you will have to work with graphic designers, copywriters, and SEO specialists to complete a project.

Getting work done on time is crucial, and you will have to work with others to ensure the job is complete. If you cannot communicate well with other.

Can you secure new business opportunities and provide proper customer service? 

As a freelancer you will often be handling everything yourself, and if you cannot make cold calls, book business appointments, close deals, and cover customer service you may need to work with someone who can. Other options include paying for leads but then can get real expensive real fast.

Part-Time Freelance Web Designer Vs Full Time Freelance Web Designer

Part-time or full-time, where do I start my web design freelancing career?

This is a bit of a tricky situation which you will have to evaluate for yourself. Starting part-time or full-time will depend on things such as how many hours you can devote to web design a week, your ability to get new clients, and the amount of time it takes to complete a project.

If you are making a career change or if you have a family at home, it may be best to start on a part-time basis moving towards a full-time schedule.

This is a decision you must make by yourself, but here is my thought. If you have to tend to family and children after your day job, plus pay lots of bills, I would lean towards part-time work until you can replace your income.

On the other hand, if you have more free time and are confident with your skillset, jump right in and become a full-time web designer.

Related –> How to become a virtual assistant and earn $25/hour.

Freelance Web Designer Jobs 

The best part of being a freelance web designer is finding your own jobs and projects you want to work on and are passionate about. There is no more being told what to do like at an agency, if you want to design websites for athletes, YouTubers, or Cryptocurrency Traders you are 100% free to do so.

As mentioned above, you must be willing to go out and secure these website design jobs. If you are not quite ready to start with the cold outreach, there are many freelancer websites such as Upwork, Fiverr, Communo. This approach is not my favorite because there is a lot of tough competition for the jobs and they do not pay as well.

Here is my approach to finding jobs.

In my city or surrounding areas, I just do a Google search for a niche. For example, I will use “delivery driving companies” as a search and then go back a few pages on Google and look for older websites. When I find a good website for a redesign, I make a personalized Loom video for the company and how I can improve their site and business.

Repeat this process multiple times a day. More videos mean more opportunities.

Can You Make Decent Money With Freelance Web Design?

The answer to this question is very simple, yes. If you are skilled at web design, provide an excellent product and have the correct customer base your earning potential can be unlimited.

After about 3 years in this line of work, I am starting to see the upside of it. People and businesses are always needing a new website or some design work and they are willing to pay for it.

Here is what I found out by working with many different clients – If you want to start making a good living as a freelance web designer you will have to stand firm on your pricing. If a potential client wants to pay you $500 than your stated price it is okay to pass on that opportunity – there will be more ( a little room for negotiation is okay, but not lots).

There is a podcast I listen to every week called the Josh Hall Web Design Show, and he frequently has solid tips on growing as a web designer.

Here are a few tips I recommend that you try, and hopefully they will work for you as well.

#1. Do web design work in different niches and see what one works the best for you. Here are a few different ones I tried.

– Health & Wellness (yoga studios, acupuncturists, nutritionists)
– Medical Sales

#2. General Contractors ( construction, plumber, heating

#3. If you want to make more money, instantly increase your prices

For example, if you currently charge $500 make the jump to $800 or $1,000.

To make some decent money online, offer another small service on top of your web design services. For myself, I like to provide Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services but many others can complement web design as well.

• Graphic design + Photoshop
• Facebook ads, Google ads, and Pinterest ads
• Copywriting – If you can write well this one is an easy choice!
• Video editing – providing some professional edits to a client’s video can pay very well.

By simply charging a few hundred more dollars and adding in another small service, you can take your web design money from good to great.

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Becoming a Freelance Web Designer

Learning how to become a freelance web designer, taking action is the next step. By now, you understand how freelance web designers build their online careers.

You can apply to freelance job boards, or find jobs using my approach. Whatever works, but there is surely a lot of potential in this freelance career.

Guest Author

Hey there, my name is Michael and I am a digital marketer from Kamloops, BC. Here I have a small Web Design & SEO company called MC Web Studio. What I like most about this type of business is that you can work with people from all over the globe! A few of my favorite SEO topics are On-page optimizations, Local SEO, and SEO tools. When not in front of the computer I like to hike, exercise, or find a new series on Netflix.