How can you monetize the skills you're about to learn?
No matter why you're watching this course, you should know you have the option of
making money from what you're about to learn.
Before I present the options I have to stress something quite a lot.
Nothing beats hard work.
It doesn't matter if you've inherited Picasso's genes, or
if you're as creative as a pile of rocks.
In my book if you work hard enough, long enough,
smart enough you'll become highly skilled at it no matter your circumstances.
And, of course, money will surely follow.
That's why I constantly advise my students to stop worrying about their
computer specs.
The amount of competition their formal training or lack thereof.
Or whatever else may be holding them back.
Work hard, work smart, work long enough and success will come.
Working hard without first thinking things through will keep you at minimum wage.
Setting yourself up with a plan will greatly improve your chances of
getting ahead.
Be smart about it before you jump into it.
Regarding working hard, people at fast food joints or
on building sites or whatever job work hard too.
That shouldn't be your only focus.
Working intelligently but only in short bursts will be like drops in the ocean.
Your achievements will be next to nothing.
It's only when you combine the three for
a long enough time, that's the moment when you will see results.
That's very important to understand.
Now for the more pragmatic approach.
Here are some of the options to monetize your skill set
after you've become great at web design in Photoshop.
You can freelance on sites like 99designs, crowdspring.com or designcontest.com.
These are aimed specifically for designers who work only in Photoshop.
Besides these ones, you also have Elance, oDesk, Freelancer, Guru,
PeoplePerHour, and a few others.
My previous course is focused 80% of its 16 hour long content on this alone,
how to win design contests.
You can easily earn at least $2000 per month by entering and
winning design contests.
Learn more about it by watching that particular course.
In these online platforms, it's critical you establish your portfolio and or
ratings.
There's a black hat strategy going around where you get some of your friends to
create fake jobs.
They award them to you, they leave great feedback, and by doing so
you're creating an advantage for yourself when you'll enter real projects.
That's because a client is more likely to choose a freelancer who has three or
four reviews rather than a newcomer.
Still, that's an unfair way of going about things.
It's far better to give accurate, real world prices and
to double that with great communication skills.
Once you get going, it's easy to be your own boss.
Set up your own schedule and live comfortably by freelancing.
The start is difficult, yes, but
once you get going, opportunities will start pouring in.
Another option is to create WordPress themes and sell them.
This can be done in conjunction with a coder or you can learn WordPress yourself.
ThemeForest is the place to sell your themes since it's a huge platform with
loads of visitors and it's an established name in the industry.
But just in case you don't want to give them a percentage, last I checked it was
30%, you can always start a website of your own and sell your themes.
There's a lot of guys who do that and you can make a living out of it.
Keep in mind that designs for
ThemeForest are very different from your everyday projects.
We'll talk about that later on.
You can always start your own business in the web design industry.
Team up with an equally good coder, create a business plan, and get things rolling.
This is more difficult than running a WordPress store, yet
it's far more rewarding.
If you don't want all that pressure,
you can get yourself hired in an established agency.
You might think if you don't have any formal training in the industry
people will automatically shoot you down.
But I've hired lots of designers in the past for my own businesses and
my advice is this, keep a curated portfolio.
And always be prepared to showcase your skills in any test your employer might
throw at you.
If you have past experience and
decent skills, people will surely be interested in having you as an asset.
One piece of advice is to never get cocky.
Don't ask for ridiculous wages from the get-go.
You may be great at web design, but if you're interviewing at an agency that
mainly does t-shirt designs, you're going to get a rude awakening.
Your skills don't transfer over.
You might know your way around Photoshop but
that doesn't mean you can do web design, logos, branding,
digital painting, 3D work, packaging design, t-shirt designs and so forth.
So when interviewing for a job outside of your specific skills,
please set realistic expectations and in case the job is in your own niche,
always show flexibility and willingness to learn new things.
Last but not least, just in case you don't want to do any of these, you
can surely use your skills to create your own website or revamp your existing one.
You won't make immediate money out of that, but
it will surely save you a pretty penny.
When I work with any coders, I always provide the entire design by myself.
Plus I always lay things out in wire frames.
This saves me a whole lot of money at the end of the day.
What's crucial here is how good you are.
As you noticed I didn't go into lots of details about any of these options.
That's what my other course focuses on.
Instead you have to know you have several options, but
they all depend on the quality of your work.
You don't have to be good.
Strive to be great and then things are bound to line up for you.
And that's what we're going to be focusing on in this course,
becoming great at web design.