Matthew Felsted
How do web designers make their money?
The median salary for a web designer is $61,417 according to
Salary.com. Another website,
Indeed.com puts the average yearly pay at $59,000. Successful web designers can have a comfortable salary. The most successful can move beyond web design and work to live the life they always wanted.
What web designers want
The dream of many designers and developers is that of earning passive income regardless of where they live or what they're doing - to relocate to another country or remote suburban part of America - while making money remotely. Could you imagine? You spend your brightest years doing what you dreamt of after building an automated income. Move to paradise. In this post I have summed up some basic revenue sources outside of standard employment that web designers can find.
Popular Revenue Sources for web designers and developers
Freelancing and telecommuting
Popular websites such as
Guru.com and
Freelancer.com offer an open marketplace where employers and clients post their projects and accept bids from people living all around the world. The competition is usually tight, but if you operate in a competitive business oriented manner, you should be able to secure enough contracts to make a healthy profit. Web designers that maintain regular contact with clients have greater success and client satisfaction. Since the vast majority of workers are remote and telecomute, I'd recommend they use
VoIP service, email, and a free messenger application.
Gigs
You can find gigs for any kind of work you can imagine, and this works well for web designers that want to make their income remotely.
SugarGig.com was a microsourcing site where the worker or business pitches the idea of what they will do for money and potential buyers peruse the service offerings. If they like what they read they might decide to purchase your gig at your asking price.
Advertisement revenue
There are different types of advertising that will pay a website owner. One of the most popular programs is the adsense text link and banner advertising program that pays per click for contextually relevant advertisements. Google is selective, and they choose honest webmasters and website owners. Google is the most reliable and trustworthy advertising network available with some publishers making upward of $20M a year. Other types of paid advertising are affiliate programs which in earlier years had grown to be infamous as many advertisement networks would get away with not honoring the commission rates they had promised and also many of these companies simply ignore all complaints and flat out refuse to pay even a dime to affiliates and associates that had earned hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some are reliable and honest, but you will have to find out which one's are on your own.
Develop and sell apps
The apps market is a booming and plentiful one worth billions of dollars. If you are versatile and crafty you can learn to program apps for hand held devices and smart phones. The amount that consumers have already paid for apps worldwide is staggering. Web designers can have an affinity for the app market.
Start a business
There are so many ways to make money online, but all of them require hard work and persistence. If you have a unique plan you might find that starting a business is a viable option. You can develop a product and market online with adwords or other network tools. You can have free advertisements with organic results provided by search engines for excellent and noteworthy content. Many companies online make money by selling a product, service, subscription, or through advertisements.
Sell html products
- Sell scripts, plugins, modules, and other code - CodeCanyon
- Sell themes - ThemeForest is a wildly popular template and theme site
- Sell stock photos and graphic design elements
Other links
