Make sure to call me immediately you've sent in your info.

@iamsi
and anybody else who has the same question

you can email me here:
mainverse@gmail.com (preferred email account)
or
mailgaz14@yahoo.com

I'll update this page in a day or two with more info so watch this space.

Cheers!

To mark the opening of our web design studio we will be designing 1 website FREE, everyday for 30 days and for 30 lucky individuals or businesses, starting from October 1 to October 30.


Features:

-5 pages or fewer (home, about, products/services, contact us, and any other page.)
-No blogs, no Content Management Systems or any functions/features that may require php or other server-side scripts. All free websites are completely in html, css, n javascript.


Please, you are required to first buy a domain name and hosting account from any webhost you want.
(You must have this or we cannot host the site for you after building it.) Only call me when you have gotten one. You can Google up "best web hosting" for help on choosing a good affordable host.

Only entries submitted before October 1st will be considered.


Call Emmanuel on +234(0)7038837087 for more details.

The first question you need to ask yourself is "do I really want to design websites or do I want to earn a living?"

If you are really concerned about your livelihood and you want to get into a business that requires little financial capital but a lot of mental capital, then you may consider web design. But instead of designing yourself, learn and perfect the art of outsourcing. Your life will be so much easier for it.

If, on the other hand, you love to design and you are confident that you can learn things fast, then I suggest you learn photoshop, html, css, and javascript to start with. If you want to go further, pick up php and mysql. If you want some of the advantages of php programming without going through the trouble of learning the language, then pick up a Content Management System like Joomla (my personal favorite), Wordpress (easier to master, but not as comprehensive as joomla) or Drupal. And there's really nothing wrong with web templates. Business is about speed and efficiency. Turnaround time is more important for most clients than your production method, so the faster you can create the better for you.

In either case, the one skill you need to master much more than than web designing is Marketing. Extreme Marketing.

People do not line up to have websites designed for them as they do to buy fuel in petrol stations. Do not be fooled by the many optimistic comments on this thread. It is difficult to convince Nigerians, even business owners who should know better, that they need websites, so you need to be prepared to educate people a lot with patience.

Sometimes, unbelievably, the hardest part may not be to find a client, but to get them to provide you with the text and graphics to build their site with. The experience can be hell. You almost have to beg them to be organized and professional. Some people even expect you to magically understand their business and generate content and photographs for them automatically. That in itself can be an opportunity if you are equipped to provide copy-writing and photography services for them though. I mentioned this not to scare you but to prepare you.


To recap, if you want self-employment with little capital, learn how to market vigorously, how to persuade people to buy products/services they don't think they need, how to negotiate fiercely, and how to outsource for peanuts, but still get good work-(believe me, it is a science and a fine art.)

If you love to design and prefer to do things by yourself, learn these in this order:

Photoshop (with more emphasis on the web design features)
html 4.01/html 5
css 2.1/css 3
javascript
joomla and/or wordpress
php and mysql
Flash Professional (if you like)
and anything else you feel your brain can handle.


I deliberately left out Dreamweaver cos it doesn't let you do anything that you can't already do if you know how to code in html, css, javascript and php. The new Adobe software MUSE would have been better, but you may have trouble with Adobe's new Creative Cloud pricing system.

Anyways, I wish you good luck!


PS.

Making money by designing websites for others is not the only way to earn from web design.

One reason which by itself is enough to make you want to learn to design websites is to build a site for yourself that you can use to make money in other conventional or innovative ways.

you can build for yourself -
-a shopping site (where you sell stuff without the troubles of maintaining a physical store)
-an educational site (where you train people and sell information products)
-a blog
-a site which you use purely for affiliate marketing

I could go on and on, but you already get the idea.

Only your imagination can limit you and if it does, borrow someone else's.

Need more advice, call me - +234(0)7038837087, mailgaz14@yahoo.com

Goodluck again.