What does every web business need? A website of course! Without one doing business online is virtually impossible. Unfortunately, not all web business owners are creative enough, patient enough, or literate when come to technology. Thus web designers have become essential to the success of many who seek to etch out a living online.

Starting a web design business is one of the most lucrative career opportunities out there these days. However, setting up this business is much like setting up any business and it should not be taken lightly. If you are tech savvy and creative then consider the following to help you start a web design business.

Choose a niche
First and foremost you will want to consider a niche. Many people who attempt this venture mistakenly try to cater to everyone; they don’t focus on who their services can be an asset to. Saying that you want to target “small business” is not good enough. Small business make up 98% of all business, it’s just not realistic to try to market to everyone.



Your niche could be restaurants, shoe stores, real estate brokers, the list is endless. Find a field that you’ve always had a passion for, know something about, and are likely to make connections in. The big thing these days is to build community sites, such as “North East San-Francisco.”

Create your own website Being a web designer requires that you build your own website for your business first. When doing so, keep it simple. While you might want to showcase your graphics, flashing, and animation skills, these over the top enhancements will only slow down your website and cause you to lose business. Keep the design clean, simple and effective. Study different websites to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. If certain types of sites are continually popular make a note of why? What design elements do they display? This will help you to determine what’s current and how you might want to create your website.

You will want a domain with the keywords ‘web design’ (or something related) in it. Popular search engines like Google look at anchor text (the text inside the link) when ranking your site. If people link you with your keyword filled name, you can increase your ranking. On that note however, many experts suggest using your name. When people think of web designers you want your name to pop in their heads. The choice is yours. Ultimately, it is your marketing that will make or break your business.

The price is right.
There are many web designers out there. Because of this, you may be tempted to set a very low price. But don’t be afraid to charge what your worth. If you don’t charge enough to pay your bills then there’s no point in being in business is there?

Increasing your profits
A number of web designers overlook the entire “process” of establishing yourself online. That is- they don’t take into account that their clients will need a domain name as well as web hosting, what they end up doing is leaving money on the table. You can earn recurring profits for your web design business by joining a reseller program where you can resell domain names and web hosting. Many of these programs provide you with your own customizable website, which you can create to mirror your own web site. When people choose you to create their business you set them up through your site and earn a commission on their domain names and web hosting. Since both of these are recurring fees you keep getting paid month after month.

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