Web designer: how much you can actually earn on websites

In this article we will talk about popular ways to make money in the field of design that are available on the Internet. You will learn where and how you can look for orders, how much they pay for various services, where to start a career in this field, where you can study.

First, let's figure out what web and graphic design are in general and what their differences are. This is important for further conversation.

What is web and graphic design and how are they different?

Web designers develop the design of websites and applications, design groups on social networks, make banners and other work related to graphics on the Internet.

Graphic design is a broader concept. It includes work with graphics in any field, including:

• Space design: design of signs, signboards, shop windows, facades and much more.
• Development of design for printed products, design of books, magazines and newspapers.
• Creation of designs for print advertising, booklets, leaflets, catalogs.
• Design for the Internet, including web design.
• Corporate identity design.
• Font development.

Typically, graphic designers have a specialization. For example, someone works in the field of printing, someone creates corporate styles, someone chooses the web.

How much does a web designer earn?

Salary of a web designer in Russia

It is quite difficult to give an exhaustive answer to this question. Employers and the tasks they set for specialists in the field of network design are different, the level of skill of the designers themselves, the speed and quality of their work also vary greatly.

If we talk about web design studios, we should take into account that they exist only in large cities. Professionals living in small towns work remotely.

A specialist’s portfolio is of great importance when hiring. How many works he has, how complex and expressive they are. If a novice web designer is hired, then, as a rule, they first assign him a probationary period with a small salary and take a closer look at his work.

Then they gradually increase the rate. The average specialist receives approximately 45 thousand rubles per month in the regions.

It’s hard to even imagine what web design will be like in ten years?

How much does a web designer earn in Moscow?

In the capital, the average salary for web designers is higher and today is approximately 55 thousand rubles. Masters of their craft earn significantly more. A designer who has made a name for himself and has a constant flow of reputable clients can work as a free artist and earn 200 thousand rubles or even more.

But the competition in Moscow is very high. Many metropolitan studios are looking for remote employees who live in the regions and work with them on an ongoing basis.

The benefit of the employee is that he receives a salary higher than that paid in his region, and a studio employee who does not require a workplace and costs less than a Moscow specialist.

How can a web designer make money on the Internet?

How to make money from interior design

Almost every client would prefer to receive turnkey design work.

The main list of services on which interior bureaus make money:

• advisory events - in the office and on-site to the client;
• drawing up a designer's project;
• volumetric visualization of future apartments;
• preparation of technical documentation and coordination of communications;
• Assisting the client in choosing pieces of furniture, decor, finishing materials.

Design studios - costs and profitability

Considering that potential customers are owners of houses with an area of ​​at least 100 square meters, the approximate price of a turnkey service can reach half a million rubles.

For example:

• development of a new project - room layout, zoning, design and technical documentation - on average, such work costs about 200,000 rubles;
• selection of furniture and decor - 50,000, plus commissions from furniture companies and large shopping centers for large orders;
• individual project of a small apartment - from 150,000 rubles.

Now let’s calculate what the net profit will be and when the studio will break even.

So, with an average income of 500,000 rubles, the approximate costs per month will be:

• employee salaries - up to 200,000 rubles;
• rent - from 20,000;
• utilities - from 10,000;
• office expenses - from 10,000;
• transport - from 5,000;
• advertising, catalogs, Internet support - about 80,000;
• taxes - from 20,000;
• balance - 145,000 rubles. This is precisely the net profit per month.

If the level of orders is larger and the number of transactions concluded increases to 3-4 monthly, full payback is possible within 2-3 months from the moment the design office opens.

How can a graphic designer make money online?

In this case, by graphic designers we will mean specialists who work with corporate identities or print advertising. We discussed earnings from web design above.

Graphic designers can make money in other ways. For example, making menus for cafes and restaurants, creating the design of souvenirs, making signs, outdoor advertising and much more. This is a very broad field of activity.

How much can a designer earn per month?

An experienced specialist with a good portfolio can earn 100 thousand rubles. per month or more.

It’s easy to calculate: the cost of an hour of work for a freelance designer ranges from 1000 to 1500 rubles. When loading about 100 hours per month, the resulting turnover is about 100-150 thousand rubles, of which approximately 70-75% is net income minus costs (for taxes, software, PC upgrades, payment for freelance exchange services, etc.). In total, the net amount is about 100 thousand rubles.

We figured out how to make money on design on the Internet and how much you can earn in this area. Now we’ll tell you what you need to know and be able to do to start your career.

Earning money by creating custom websites - how much you can earn

From my personal experience and the experience of my friends, I will say that on average this business can bring in from $200 per month to $5,000 or more.

This depends on several factors:

Factor 1. Sales volume

Since we are talking about business here, the most important thing is to determine for yourself exactly how much you plan to earn in a certain period, for example, per month.

You shouldn’t immediately think in general terms like “the more, the better.” Assess your capabilities soberly.

If you take inexpensive projects - the simplest business card sites, then your income is unlikely to be higher than $300-$400 per month, provided that you do the work of creating these sites yourself.

It’s another matter if you are developing landing pages, corporate websites, promotional sites or portals. Here your earnings will start from $1000 per month.

Factor 2. Customers are your main resource.

If you want to earn more by doing the same amount of work creating websites, then I’ll say right away that the money is found mainly “offline”, and not on the Internet.

Nowadays, many webmasters, both beginners and experienced ones, immediately rush to the Internet in search of a client, and this is not entirely correct.

After all, there are smarter guys online who find an order “from a neighbor” or “on the street,” for example, for 30,000 rubles and resell its execution on the Internet for 10,000 rubles.

Do you understand the “trick”?

This is an immediate hint to you about where your profit can come from out of the blue if you don’t know how to create websites yourself.

Try not to fuss with “little things.” It is much more profitable to find 2-3 large projects per month, say at $1000 each, than to take 10-15 customers with projects at $100-$150.

Where to find clients and how to properly sell your services without having a portfolio, I will tell you in more detail below in the third step of opening a home-based website creation business.

Factor 3. High-quality personnel (reliable performers)

Also, your final profit will depend on whether you are a performer - a programmer, designer or layout designer, or whether you manage the process by organizing such guys.

If you do part of the work of creating and promoting websites yourself, then in this case you are guaranteed to earn money in the amount of your amount of work on the project.

However, if you have good sales and negotiator skills (these skills will be useful to you both when communicating with clients and performers), then you can actually earn up to 50% of the money from the services sold.

For example, having sold the creation of a website to a client for $1000, you can negotiate with the contractors to do this work for $500.

Naturally, in this case, you will be responsible to the client for the quality of the site and its performance.

Factor 4. Quality of your services (final product)

Nowadays there is strong competition in the field of creating custom websites, so “hack work” no longer works here. All customers want to get a high quality final product for their money.

It is especially difficult for beginning entrepreneurs in this field, since the first successfully completed orders are an indicator of your level.

Don’t be a freeloader, involve only smart and professional guys in your cooperation, even if these specialists ask for good monetary compensation for their work.

At the stage of formation of your website creation business, name (reputation) is the most important thing!

Factor 5. Sales based on recommendations (word of mouth)

This factor is a logical continuation of the previous one.

3-4 months after the start of your web studio (company), you should have clients who came through recommendations, thanks to good reviews from previous customers.

When my friend Vitalik and I opened our home web studio, we began working with “referral” clients within the second month after the start of the project.

Therefore, do not skimp on quality and it will pay off many times over due to your good reputation, and you will have something to show in your portfolio at further meetings with potential clients.

What do you need to know and be able to do to start making money in design?

We figured out how you can make money by designing on the Internet. Now let's find out what you need to know and be able to do to start a career in this field:

1. Theory of design, painting and drawing.
2. Color theory.
3. Composition.
4. Types and genres of graphics, graphic techniques.
5. Typography (working with fonts).
6. Knowledge of specialized software. For example, a web designer needs to know Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, Figma (preferably), Axure (required for developing prototypes) and others.
7. For advertising graphics - the basics of marketing and advertising, modern trends.
8. To practice graphic design, you need to understand printing processes and be able to prepare layouts for printing.
9. Certain knowledge in the field of psychology, features of human perception of shapes and colors.

Where to study to be a designer?

As you can see, the amount of knowledge and skills required for the job is quite large. You can learn the basics of the profession on your own using free lessons on YouTube.

If you see that design is your calling and you are interested in working in this field, then you can take paid courses to receive training at the level needed for the job. The advantages of studying at good courses: the opportunity to master a profession in a short time and develop a portfolio during the learning process, expanding connections and making acquaintances, assistance in finding a job.

Examples of design courses at the University of Netology. Training here is conducted online, you can study from any city:

• Design course for beginners
• Web design from scratch to middle
• Mobile application design
• Graphic Design and Communications
• Branding
• How to become a designer (free)

My real story about organizing my own Web studio

About 3 years ago, my friend Vitalik and I opened a web studio at home.

We did not have an office and we carried out all projects in the “home office” mode, and at the same time we learned how to create websites on the go. To be honest, before this we didn’t know much about the topic and were guided by the principle of first getting into a fight (burning all the bridges behind us), and then figuring it out as things went along.

One thing helped - Vitalik studied the technical aspects of the Internet, and I had experience in design.

Later, Vitalik’s father, a professional programmer, joined our team. From that moment on, our team became fully staffed.

Combining our knowledge and skills, refocusing their profile on creating websites, we went through familiar entrepreneurs and literally a week later we already had almost $1,000 worth of services sold.

At that time, we made websites on the common free CMS “WordPress,” but you can go another way, for example, using constructors.

Starting with WordPress, we set out to create websites for an advertising agency and a company that sells roofing and facade materials.

Guys, I’ll be honest, we were fascinated by this business and we approached our work very responsibly.

Loving your job is one of the most important principles of success!

Having completed these orders “excellently”, acquaintances of satisfied clients turned to us and our activities began to gradually expand even beyond the borders of our hometown - Stavropol.

We worked with clients from Moscow, Sochi, and Kislovodsk via the Internet via Skype.

For some time we even created custom websites for a client from New York whose business was located in Ukraine.

Since we were often approached by legal entities (companies) who required a signed agreement and could only pay for our services by bank transfer, we agreed with our friend Evgeniy Korobko that we would pay him a percentage when making payments and writing out agreements on behalf of his company.

Zhenya sells advertising in our city, he also needed a website, which we made with pleasure, having the opportunity to work through his company for free.

In total, we developed more than 30 websites in two and a half years.

Dear reader, we also created even the business magazine “HeatherBeaver”, on the pages of which you are now reading this article, from scratch, starting from the idea and ending with writing the material and making a good profit from the project.

Now “Beaver” is visited by 5,000 to 8,000 people a day.

As you can see, we also figured out promotion. To do this, we read a lot of articles, bought training courses, both paid and free, on creating and promoting websites.

As a result, we calculated that in total we earned about 1,000,000 rubles !

As you can see, knowing the principles of business organization and understanding Internet technologies, making money by creating custom websites becomes completely realistic.

Below I have described the technology for organizing such a business in the form of a home web studio, which will allow you to launch such a project and earn $500 or more in the first month from creating and promoting websites.

I want to share a business plan for a web studio, which once helped me a lot.

Where and how to look for orders?

1. It is difficult for a beginner without a portfolio to find clients. In design, it is important for customers to look at the level of the performer’s work. Therefore, first of all, you need to develop a portfolio during the training process or by completing your first projects for free. You can do several works for friends or acquaintances. The main thing is to get examples of designs that you can show to potential clients.
2. When you have a portfolio, register on websites for designers and freelance exchanges and post your work there, and also try to get orders. Look at the article on how to correctly respond to customer projects so that you are chosen as a contractor.
3. You can try to find remote work in web studios or hire an assistant to an experienced designer. For this it is important to have good basic training. You can find such offers among remote work vacancies for designers on the exchange site Kadrof.ru.
4. It may take a month or two to get your first job - this is normal. When you receive an order, complete it as well as possible so that the client leaves a positive review and recommends you to friends.
5. As you gain experience, you will find 1-2 sites where you will receive orders most often. See how you can advance on these sites, for example, by increasing your rankings. Take advantage of these opportunities.
6. Be active on social networks. There are many groups there where design orders are posted.
7. Having become an experienced specialist, create a personal website and attract clients to it using promotion in search engines or through contextual advertising. This way you can reach large customers and raise your earnings to a new level.

There are many nuances in working with customers, so I recommend reading all the articles in the section on how to work with clients. This information will help you work with customers faster and easier and quickly develop a base of regular customers.

What options are there for starting your own business?

In the classical understanding of this profession, it is assumed that the designer creates interiors from scratch and on a turnkey basis. He comes up with and visualizes different interior options, approves the final version of the project with the customer, is present when purchasing materials, supervises the implementation of construction work, participates in the selection of furniture, textiles, accessories, and, finally, “puts together” all the individual components of the interior. That is, the process is long, responsible and labor-intensive. The entire cycle of work on one such order can last from two to three months to six months, and sometimes more.

Most designers who are self-employed prefer “lightweight” business models, which would be more accurately called the work of a decorator.

Some specialize in giving the interiors and exteriors of buildings a “fresh”, more stylish look. Others work with clients and/or builders to help select the right color and texture for materials. Still others simply give design recommendations, so to speak, provide consulting services, without doing any practical work. But, if you are a beginning designer, you are unlikely to be able to find a sufficient number of clients for such a consulting practice: as a rule, design consulting is carried out by professionals, people with extensive experience and a well-deserved reputation.

If you, as a designer, are just starting out in your career, then, undoubtedly, it is better for you to start as a decorator, gradually gaining experience and confidence in your abilities, so that over time you can take on serious projects. Moreover, the average client has absolutely no idea that there is any difference between a designer and a decorator.

How is the order fulfilled?

To make money from design on the Internet, you need to know how the order is usually fulfilled and what needs to be taken into account in this process. Typically the work includes the following steps:

1. Receiving an order. You need to carefully read the customer's requirements and ask questions about anything you don't understand. Ask the client to show examples of designs they like and analyze them. Find something in common between these works. This will help you understand what the client wants to see.
2. Drawing up technical specifications. Typically, the terms of reference include all the requirements that your work must meet. For example, the number of layouts, which layouts the designer should make, what colors are acceptable to use and which are not, and other parameters. The technical specifications should be drawn up by the customer, but in practice it is usually done by the designer, so write the technical specifications yourself before starting work and be sure to agree with the client.
3. Making an advance payment. Newcomers are often offered to work without advance payment. It's a risk, it's up to you to decide whether to take it or not. Typically, the prepayment amount is about 30%-50% of the project budget.
4. Preparation of the concept. It is important to agree on the design concept, i.e. some simplified version of the work. If the client likes the concept, then make the final version. There are clients who fundamentally need to change something. For them, freelancers often introduce some controversial things into the layout, which the customer will clearly reject. Thus, the client will correct what the performer did not plan to include in the final version, and will not touch what is well done.
5. Preparation of the final design. As a rule, the work is provided with a watermark and in low resolution so that the client cannot use it without paying in full.
6. Receiving payment from the customer.
7. Providing ready-made design layouts after receiving payment.

This scheme of working with the designer allows us to protect the interests of the contractor and the customer. Try to follow it to protect yourself from unnecessary risks.

What affects the cost of design services?

Globally, two factors influence the cost of design:

• Workload.
• Complexity of the project.

The more complex the project, the fewer performers are able to complete it efficiently. Specialists of a higher level, qualifications and experience are required, whose hourly work costs more. The amount of work determines how much time the designer will spend on the project.

To earn more money in design, try to improve your skills, develop projects for large clients, complete more complex orders for clients whose business depends

. This will allow you to earn more money from your activities.

Author: Sergey Antropov (KadrofID: 5) Added: 02/16/2020 at 21:14

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