Web development and website programming

Although some designers limit their work to website design and the use of designers, there are those who take on the full cycle of development and integration of the site with various systems.

Here’s what you need to know about web development:

Basic Web programming languages. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the building blocks of any website.

HTML defines the basic structure of a web page, and CSS defines how that structure should look in a web browser. JavaScript provides users with interactivity.

Even if you don’t know these basic languages in detail, you better understand how they work together and how basic changes are made to client sites. It will help to be bolder in offering solutions and bounce back from developers’ initial questions.

Frontend development frameworks. Frameworks like Bootstrap or Genesis (for WordPress designers) contain an arsenal of HTML, CSS and JavaScript components. You can put them together and greatly speed up the web development process, as well as ensure consistency and quality of projects.

WordPress Themes. Themes take control over the composition and appearance of a site on WordPress. WordPress now runs about 35% of the sites on the web, so it’s helpful to learn how to create and update WordPress themes.

Site Development. After you complete a project and your client is happy, every client usually wants you to continue to develop their new site.

Tilda, Webflow, Readymag, and GoDaddy Pro builders are just the way to go.

What skills you need to work as a freelancer

As a freelance web designer, you’ll use a variety of skills in your day-to-day responsibilities.
In addition to managing production work, you’ll also be responsible for project management, marketing, accounting, sales, and more.
In fact, you’ll probably find that you end up spending just as much (if not more) time managing your business as you do creating websites for clients.
These business skills aren’t something you’ll learn in an online course — most of them are based on experiences and lessons learned as you grow your freelance web design company.

But you can learn the basics of running a sustainable and profitable freelance web design business.

Let’s look at some key business skills and tools you need to learn.

Customer Service and Project Management.
Once you get a decent number of clients, you’ll notice that you no longer remember who and what you promised. This is where new tools come to the rescue.

For freelance web designers, project management and client work tend to overlap.

Project management is aimed at improving project quality, optimizing design processes and reducing the burden on themselves.

Client work is designed to help make your clients feel a tangible effect when working with you, and it’s also the kind of competent client management that helps you meet (and even anticipate) their expectations.

It’s important for you to learn how to manage deadlines, client immersion appointments, and your workflow so that your web design business thrives.

Here’s what you need to know about client and project management:

Project management and planning. A clear plan and its implementation is the key to a successful web design project.

Start applying standard project management procedures, and use project management tools like Basecamp, Asana or Trello to stick to your plan when working with clients.

Work with clients. Even if you only have a few clients at a time, a customer relationship management (CRM) system will take care of building relationships with them. With CRM, you’ll always know the best things to do now to increase your customer flow (e.g. work with current customers and find outlets for new ones).

Copper, Streak, Pipedrive are great easy and inexpensive options.

Customer Onboarding. Tools like Typeform (to collect data) and Zapier (to automate the process itself) can help you here.

Time management. When you’re responsible for managing your time effectively, you need to make the most of every hour. Timekeeping tools like Harvest, Toggl, and Timely make it easy to keep track of what projects you’re working on, when, and which projects are most profitable.

Finance and billing. After all, you deserve to be paid on time for your work. Tools like Bonsai and FreshBooks are designed to help freelancers keep track of their business finances and make it easy for clients to pay their bills.

If you hate managing money, you may end up switching to an off-the-shelf accounting service like Bench.