How do you get into web development?
I have all the skills to build some nice websites. But how would I get started in creating websites for companies.
For example, say there's some business which is doing a good trade, but their website is straight out of the year 2000 ( and they're sitting on page 2 of google for most relevant search criteria) . I know that if I redesigned their site to make it more modern it would improve their business dramatically.
What I was thinking was just emailing them out of the blue with a mocked up new front page, and say "Hi, noticed your website was a bit dated, I can totally redesign your site, for xxxx$ send me an email back and we can discuss it." But I know if I received an email like that it would seem a bit scammy to me, so how do I go about getting business like this?
I thought this was a popular topic on here.
you won't make a dime making customer facing websites. nobody cares about those, they don't bring in any money.
you need to learn HTML5 and JavaScript then Java, C#, or PHP, and respective web dev frameworks for that. then apply for as a contractor at an agency since most places don't hire full time web devs that often.
>>998752
Well this website is really bad, aesthetically it looks really fucking old, it's in times new roman, flashing gifs, etc. It's a relic. It's messy, it has no coherence, it has no index, full of dead links, and on top of that the content is messy, all over the place, and very dated. The business is run by a bunch of 60yo guys and as far as I understand the guy that designed that website last century is now dead.
The business however from what I understand is very successful and they're good at what they do ( guided tours ). Now considering they're doing guided tours, where internet and a good webpage and high place on google search is where you need to be, by tidying up their page and doing a bit of SEO I'm certain that they could be taking some of the business with now is going to their competitors.
Add to that, that their e-commerce system is one of the most confusing things I've ever navigated. I can't imagine the amount of revenue they've lost because people saw the site and just immediately thought that either this business is dead, or that it's run by cowboys, and if they made it to the online shop, just got so confused they gave up. But come on, it's 2015, in an industry like that you've got to have a decent website and a working online shop.
>>998784
The people using their website probably don't give a shit what it looks like or how hard it is to navigate. They probably get most of their business through word of mouth referrals. I mean you can try to convince them otherwise, but it's an uphill battle and you'll be underpaid 90% of the time.
Freelancing is just a meme, don't actually try to do it.
>>998795
Okay, well how do I go about convincing them, should I email them like I said in the OP? Is that a legitimate way of getting work or is nobody going to care? That's what I'm mostly interested in, because I know that a new website and some SEO would easily return their investment. And I know they've got the money to pay for a new website. So how do I get them to pay me!?!
>>998800
If they're 60 year old guys, they'll probably have more respect for a face-to-face or phone call, but an email can be a good start. Don't put your price right now front. Quadruple digits will shock them out of considering it most of the time. What you need here is to tell them what value you can offer THEM. "Have you ever googled yourself? It shows up on the second page. Some % of people don't go to the second page. I can do some SEO that will bring you to the first page." Discuss how you can create an updated website (avoid negative words like "nicer" implying their old one is shit. Even if it is shit, saying so doesn't help you). Basically, you're going to want to learn about sales and pitches. Then you're going to want to build your portfolio with examples. And you're going to want to continually network, reach out, and keep looking for opportunities. It's not impossible, but it's hard work.
>>998831
Yeah, well I would go round their shop premises, but I'm not in the country.
And yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. Is it worth attaching a mockup of an updated front page with the first email? And I want to know if what's effectively online cold calling has worked for anybody else on /biz/, or indeed how webdevs here get their business.
>>998713
Idk about topic, creepy pic though.
Once again.
Final bump
>>998831
This is some really good advice.
>>998713
> I know that if I redesigned their site to make it more modern it would improve their business dramatically.
> Business that's on page 2 on google
> I'm a nobody with no proven record
> I can make them better
you create your own website, get on page 1 for their keywords, then you email them telling you can make them better.
>>999839
this advice is retarded as fuck and clearly comes from someone without any understanding of how search engines index websites or the time it takes
>>999858
tell /biz what you're on page 1 of google for. /butthurt ?
>>999878
fucking ur mom while she was pregnant with u
Why don't you try building your own websites? Web hosting isn't prohibitively expensive, if you've already got the skills to create a website from scratch.
Find a market niche and build a website that's better than anything that currently exists. There are tons of old websites that have decent traffic. If you can innovate and build something better, you could steal their traffic.
That's what I'm trying to do but I lack web development skills. I need to learn more about dynamic content, user accounts, payments, databases.
>>1000139
Yeah, well I can build websites but I'm bereft of original ideas and I want to make money, and I'd rather do that by working with existing businesses where we've both got more to gain.
Pupm
OP, i have very similar plans. going to start my business in january with a friend
send me an email and we can exchange our plans in detail (would prefer to keep them "privat")
[email protected] (throwaway)
>>1001109
sent
>>999881
heh, you call someone "retarded as fuck" and "your mom" is the best you can do.
Haven't seen a picture of that nigga in years.
OP they will never respond to email. Call them, explain what you can do and how it will help them. Try to set up a meeting if you live close by. Let them know you're not a spammer, just a guy working by himself.
Focus on the benefits for the client.
And no, you don't need to know code. You can hire people to do that stuff cheap enough. You should know SEO though.
I think anyone who thinks this isn't viable has no idea what they're talking about. There's a lot of money to be made with this business, but it's not in programming like the one guy said, it's in selling the job.
The only place to sell websites is offline. You have to go to them, before they start looking online. That way you're not competing with a million people. So you have to find businesses that need a website/ better website and pick up the phone.
>>1001255
Thanks for the advice, it makes sense that you say to sell websites offline. I can code anyway so I'd rather keep that work to myself to do a good job. SEO is not something I've ever done to a website, but I understand the principles, have read a lot about it and as far as I know it just means optimising their actual website, increasing their social media presence, making it high quality and then paying ramesh and the boys on fiverr to place lots of backlinks about. Can't be too difficult.
>>998713
Old thread >>>/g/wdg
>IRC Channel
#/g/wdg @ irc.rizon.net
Web client: https://www.rizon.net/chat
>Learning material
https://www.codecademy.com/
https://www.bento.io/
https://programming-motherfucker.com/
https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books/blob/master/free-programming-books.md
https://www.theodinproject.com/
>Frontend development
https://github.com/dypsilon/frontend-dev-bookmarks
>Backend development
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks
>Useful tools
https://pastebin.com/q5nB1Npt/
https://libraries.io/ - Discover new open source libraries, modules and frameworks and keep track of ones you depend upon.
>NEET guide to web dev employment
https://pastebin.com/4YeJAUbT/
>>998752
This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
That being said, front-end web development is 90% marketing. You can make obscene amounts of money for little work if you can market well and find the right customers.
>>999839
So you're implying that you create a fake business just to prove to some old guys that you can beat them at something they probably don't understand? wat
>>1001297
Bishnu and the fiverr boys are gonna do more harm than good in the long run SEO wise. Getting a local guided tour website to #1 with a domain that's 10+ years old should be very very easy just with onsite SEO and basic social profiles set up and linking back to the site.
As for your actual problem: I'm sure they've been spammed with emails by marketers trying to set them up a $20 WP theme for a low cost of $1500. All you can really do is call them and use similar tactics to what this guy said >>998831
Sending them a letter might also work. Throw in a few graphics on how much extra profit could be brought in with a proper website and high positions on Google. Also be sure to mention how many people are searching for "________ guided tours" and whatever other relevant keywords there are and how 90% of people click the top 2 results and 9% the remaining first page and 1% go beyond page 1.
In the end, they're not gonna understand much of what you have to say, so you have to be sure they know that they will make your fees back in time, and that there's lots of value to be had with a website.
