Web designer: The Best Freelance Job!

 If you have a good knowledge of webdesign and development, you can definitely earn extra income through offering web development services.  Being a Web Designer requires a lot of experience and knowledge of graphic design and web development, you can make big independent profits, but in the beginning you shouldn't expect it and you can take it as an opportunity to learn because this domain is large and it is always up to date.

On the other hand, website building is easy because there are many online tools to build websites that can be explored to get hands-on experience, dedicated to one or two of these sites and small established sites that customers have need.

How to start? 

 You can start offering  the service for the people you know , even if it is without charge, and then start to collect a good data of customers, once you have a good portfolio, there will be a lot of big demands in web development services. 

How to create new websites? 

Building a web presence has never been easier as there are over 200 million active websites today, many of them created by regular people like you and me.

Yes, creating a website is no longer a fantasy or a difficult task that requires specialists and experienced programmers. Today you can develop your own website or blog using many tools available on the internet specifically for this service.

First Step: Choose a suitable platform for your website

 In order to be able to build a website, you must first choose the appropriate platform on which you will build this website. What do we mean by platform? 

Well, about ten years ago, websites were built using programming languages ​​like HTML, CSS and PHP. It was very difficult to learn each language and use it to build the site.It is precisely for this reason that we notice that many still think that creating a new website is very difficult and requires  design skills and advanced programming, but this is not the case.

Today in the year 2022, with CMS like WordPress, building a website is available to everyone. In simpler terms, Content Management System is an easy-to-use platform that is used to build and create websites and manage your content over the Internet instead of resorting to using a programming language such as HTML for example.

What are the most popular website building platforms?

Almost half of all websites on the Internet are built using WordPress. This may lead you to wonder: 

What makes WordPress better than others? 

1- Free platform 

Unlike most website building platforms and specialized design softwares, WordPress will not cost you anything to download or use. It is completely free and developed by a number of web developers, and there is a large community of designers and programmers who have designed many ready-made templates that you can choose what suits you best. 

2- Easy to use and highly customizable 

If you know how to use Google Docs, you will know how to add your own content on WordPress. Not only that, you can customize and extend WordPress as you wish by adding several plugins that allow you to add contact forms, registration forms, photo galleries and online stores to your site. Whether you want to create a website for your small business or you want to build a giant online store, WordPress will fulfill all your needs.

3- It allows your site to be compatible with various devices

Whether your website pages are viewed via a smartphone, tablet or computer, it will appear in a consistent and appropriate manner, and without you need to do anything for that, it is an automatic option available in WordPress. 

4- The ability to get help at any time 

You can get help through the large user community of this platform that includes experts in the web industry, business owners and bloggers. This way, you will find help quickly, and any question or inquiry you have will be answered.

Are there other alternatives? 

Of course, there are many alternatives that you can use if you do not prefer WordPress, among them: 

- Squarespace: It gives you the ability to design attractive sites quite easily, but it is paid, and the cost of the monthly subscription is relatively high, and it also does not allow you to migrate your website outside of it. 

- Drupal: This is a particularly popular platform among experienced web developers. The platform has a high learning curve which makes it a not recommended option for beginners.

 - Joomla: This platform is very similar to WordPress, and it is a great tool for building websites, but it requires you to have basic programming knowledge to be able to build and manage the site exactly as you want.

Second Step: Find a Domain Name and Host for your website 

In order to launch your website on the Internet, you need two basic things: 

- a private domain name or Domain Name which is the website address that comes in the form

 www.yourname.com 

- Web Hosting/ A service that connects to your site e-mail on the Internet. 

As we have already explained, creating a website on WordPress is completely free, but hosting the site and obtaining an email address is not free, however, it will not cost you much, you will not pay more than 3 to 5 dollars per month approximately. For your website to look professional, you just need to get your industry name instead of choosing the free sectors whose provider name will appear in the email address.

 Not only that, having a good hosting service will also ensure that your site won't crash in the event of increased traffic and will not be slow (which is very important for everyone who is browsing your site). 

Where do I get a domain name and hosting service? 

There are many hosting sites that you can resort to connect your website to the Internet, perhaps the most famous of which is Bluehost, which you can host your site through for a price not exceeding $3 per month. 

Other sites that you can take advantage of in purchasing a domain name and hosting your website: 

NameCheap: which offers domain names and hosting service at very competitive prices that sometimes do not exceed $7 annually. 

SSLS site: which is characterized by the feature of hosting and confirming sites and protecting them from hacking.  

You can also host your site yourself independently, but it is an expensive and very complicated process, we advise you to avoid it and save the cost and trouble on yourself.

 When you have your sector name (website address), you will also be able to get a professional email, which includes your company or website name, in the following format:

 yourname@YourWebsite.com 

Doesn't that look more professional than a Yahoo or Gmail email ?!

Step Three: Prepare the website and start designing 

This step includes several other sub-steps, starting with installing WordPress and choosing the appropriate design, all the way to adding and modifying the content. Let's talk about each of these steps in details:

 1- Install WordPress

This step is a simple and easy step that you can do with one click. Here's how: 

• Visit the hosting site of your choice. 
• Choose the subscription/payment plan that is right for you and don't mind choosing the least expensive subscription. 
• Type the website address you chose for yourself. 
• Fill in all the required information and select the hosting period you want. 
• Complete the payment process and register for your own account on the hosting site.
• Once you create your account and sign in, you'll find an option to download and install WordPress with just one click. 

WordPress includes thousands of ready-made templates that you can choose from to use in designing the appearance of your website. There are more than 8000 ready-made templates for you to choose from, and all of them are completely free, not to forget the paid designs and themes that you can get from other sites and add them to WordPress with ease.

3- Adding content 

Before you move on to customizing the content, you first need to add the content of course, otherwise how can you see the changes you make in terms of design or settings?! 

Website pages vary according to its nature and your goal in creating it, but there are some important pages that must be present in every website, whatever its type. These pages include: 

• Home Page 
• About Page 
• Contact Page 
• Privacy Policy Page

To make things even easier, some WordPress templates offer the option to customize the look and feel of a single page. Where you can access this option by clicking on Appearance and then Customize. Choose the look you want for your page and customize it as you wish, and when you are finished, press the Publish button in the left corner of the page. 

You can now start adding new pages to your website by clicking on the Pages command and then New on the main WordPress page.

4- Arranging and Organizing the Website 

Structuring your website becomes more important as the content you add to the site increases and becomes larger. So, when creating a website, you will have to arrange and organize it in a way that makes sense for your visitors so that they can navigate and browse easily. 

Here, you must set up the Navigation Menu that shows the pages available on your site.

5- Adding a blog 

Not all types of websites need a special blog, but adding one when creating your own website may be a good idea, especially as it allows you to publish renewed content on a regular basis, thus providing additional value to site visitors.

Creating a blog on your site is very easy… All you have to do is create a new web page from Pages, then Add New, name it “Blog” and press the Publish button after that.

6- Make your site secure 

How do you make your site secure? 

Have you thought about the importance of this step in ranking your site on search engines?

Adding an SSL or Secure Socket Layer code to your website means that all data sent to your site from visitors will remain safe and secure from hacking. This also plays an important role in increasing the reliability of your site and thus its ranking in the search results pages of search engines.

8- It's time to launch the site! 

After completing all the previous steps and enriching your site with the right content, you can say that you are now ready to officially launch the site. 

You can do this by clicking on the Coming Soon Active icon at the top of the WordPress dashboard, and then clicking on Launch Your Site. 

Your site is now available on the Internet, and you can browse and see it as any other browser would. 

Navigate between the different pages of the site and make sure that it works correctly without any problems.. 

Congratulations... you can now feel proud that you have already succeeded in creating a website without any programming or design skills... Isn't that a great thing? ! 

But remember...you don't have to stop here...it's just the beginning, and now you have to work even harder to create premium content that's SEO compliant. 

You have learnt how to start a new website , so you can find a freelance job for yourself and offer your services to companies and individuals who want to launch websites for their brands.