How long does it take
to become a web designer?
KEY: The key to learn web design in the shortest time possible is obsession.
NOTE: When I say "original post" that is because I am referring to the post below inside SECTION A which is the original post I wrote many years ago.
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Quick Intro before original post
The quick answer to this question is if you are fully dedicated to learn web design, then you will be on your way in 1 to 3 years.
I will even say less than a year is possible if you give 1000% of your time or if you become obsessed with it.
But if you are not a super human, then I will say 3 to 6 years can be an average time to learn.
Now there is another option which is the option I followed years ago but I have to warn you, this is not conventional.
This unconventional way to learn which is what I did back in 2007 consist in charging people for websites while learning web design which is pretty much like the "fake it till you make it" thing.
In my case I was selling the website first and then figuring out how to do it, the clients were paying my learning/education in other words.
Now this kind of way for doing things might not be for everybody because everyone has a different learning style.
However that does not mean one way is better than the other.
It is your choice to decide what will be the best for you and the best way that matches who you are as a person.
The only thing I can say is that if for any reason you end up doing what I did, make sure you deliver the work to your client and keep them happy.
Otherwise you will find yourself inside a wrecking ball with a huge disaster in your hands.
"I did not love web design, coding, marketing, or sales. They were not even my passion, but I learned how to love them and have passion for them overtime." - Luis Posselt
Sections Inside This Post
Now before you read the original post below, I want to tell you what you will learn here.
1) First, I show you 3 important questions you need to answer before deciding to learn web design.
2) Second, I will show you where to learn web design and the general path you should follow.
3) And third, I will show you where you can make the most money in web design.
So if you are interested in learning this, please make sure to read the full original post below.
SECTION A: Original post starts from here and below.
So, how long does it take to become a web designer?
Well the real answer to this question is, it depends because for some people couple months could be enough to be on their way but for some others years might be required.
Now obviously time is relative to the hours invested and it can be increased or decreased by the learner, in this case you.
Plus if you know what is your ending goal, it will be easier for you to finish that road soon.
Now if you have not even started to learn web design or you are still indecisive, here are 3 questions I would recommend you to answer before you even think getting into web design or before you even try to find ways to accelerate your learning process.
Web design questions you should ask yourself
1) What is your end goal with web design?
2) Do you want to master the art of web design?
3) Do you want to get a web design degree?
Now before you answer those questions let me tell you a couple secrets.
Inside this industry if you want, you can start making money right away and before you even have any drop of knowledge or experience.
Yes, I know this can sound a little weird especially if you don't anything about the subject.
But with the right guidance, your profits inside this industry can be hugely rewarding
How do I know that?
Well because that's exactly what I did when I was starting.
Look, the reality is that learning web design can be fast and making pretty good money is very possible and achievable even at the beginning.
But how much can you make, you might be asking yourself, right?
Well, what about selling websites projects for 5K?
Or 10K or 35K?
Is this even possible?
Well it is and at the end of this section I have included a few extra questions that will help you see the potential you can have within this web design and development industry.
Questions like:
4) Where and how to start learning web design?
5) Where can you make the most money in web design?
6) How and where to sell high ticket web design projects?
These are great questions I will be answering for you if you are interested in the money making part of web design and development.
But before jumping into that, we need first to answer the 3 questions I mentioned before.
Let's start with the first one.
1. What is your end goal with web design?
Now in the real world there are going to exist several reasons of why people decide to learn web design.
But the four most common ones are:
a) Because they want to get a job inside this industry.
b) Because they want to help with their company's website.
c) Because they want to get a job advancement in their company
d) Because they want to start their own web design company.
Again keep in mind that reasons will be plenty but whatever your case is, the only point I want you to understand here is that the only option that will take you the longer to achieve will be the first one.
The one for getting a job.
Why?
Well, because most web design jobs have degree requirements even for positions at the lower level like junior positions or similar.
Some employers will require you to have several years of experience as well as your own portfolio and in many cases they will even require for you to have a 4 year college degree.
And as you can guess, this can be a long, painful, and of course a costly road for your wallet.
On the other hand if you are not planning on getting a job, you can do as I did many years ago which is go with the flow.
When I was starting I was personally promoting myself as an experienced web designer while I was learning.
Even when perhaps people did not know I was a newbie which most of them did not even care to be honest.
Look as long as you can deliver what you promise to your client, that will be more than enough.
This gave me the possibility to learn web design, the possibility to make money from the beginning, the possibility to be worry-free for not having to meet any employer's requirements, and the best of all is that it saved me tons of money by not getting a 4 year college degree.
Now, that does not mean you won't find perhaps an employer that will give the opportunity to make an internship with them even if you are starting.
Listen everything is possible if you believe and fight for it.
But whatever your circumstances are, if you are willing to go the extra mile and work hard to get what you want both ways are possible.
Remember, the way I took of going with the flow was just the way I felt it was the best for me.
The question is, what do you think is best for you?
2. Do you want to master the art of web design?
Look, there is no doubt that if you want to be really good at something, you will need to dedicate some serious time learning and practicing.
But here is the great thing about becoming good at things.
Acceleration of time to master anything is within your reach.
If you want to accelerate any mastering process, any learning, or any goal you want, then only thing you need to do is dedicate more time to it.
Laser focus on that single thing you want to accomplish and you will achieve it faster, period.
And in this case the more time you dedicate learning and practicing web design, the faster you will master it.
You want to finish sooner that 4 year college degree?
Then take more classes per semester, dedicate more time to it, and forget about everything else.
As I said at the beginning, time is malleable and you can use it to your advantage by focusing only on things that matter.
If you really want to become a web designer trust me, use your time wisely and it won’t take long for you to become a great web designer.
But before moving to the next question, here is one small caveat you need to keep in mind.
Becoming a master in web design has no end in sight.
Meaning that mastering web design is never possible.
You can become really but really good web designer but never a master.
Why?
Because web design is a technology that is constantly changing and for you to keep afloat and always at the top, you need to keep always learning.
So make sure you eliminate that question of "how long does it take to learn and master web design"
Because thinking that some day you will master this, it will create false expectations in your life.
3. Do you want to get an actual degree or not?
Listen, there is no doubt that a college degree will take you more time to complete no matter what.
A college degree requires from you to follow rules, complete serious tests, and let's not forget the high fees you will incur if you take this path.
In this industry as in many others that are similar, learning online can be faster if you are a dedicated and a responsible person.
Plus if you are good and gain quite a bit of experience from the real world, then you will always have a great chance to beat any kind of college degree or expert certificate competitor on any web design job.
Now, I am not saying here that you should never get a college degree for web design or that a college degree is good or bad.
That ultimately is your own opinion, choice, and decision.
Everyone is different and everyone will have different opinions while getting a college degree for web design.
At the end what it matters is what you want.
Both roads are good but if you want my advice, then I will say this.
If you are young and have the financials to go through a full 4 year college degree and you actually want to get it, then do it.
But if you don't, then my advice will be to forget about it and instead do things like I did.
Take online courses from SoloLearn, W3Schools, YouTube, or just Google what you want to learn.
Today there is plenty of information to find for web design plus you can make money while learning online and perhaps growing faster with real life experiences.
Look, currently I don't only do work for my own web design company in Fort Worth, but I am also doing work for other agencies in New York, California, Houston, and Israel.
And all that without even getting any college education.
So whatever you choose, whatever you decide, just remember.
All paths are possible and no path is better than the other.
What makes it better is the individual and that is you.
You can be successful with or without any college degree and you can accelerate any path as long as you fully focus all of your attention to truly mastering the knowledge.
So just dive in but dive in good and start as soon as you can.
4. Where and how to start learning web design?
Now, where and how to start learning web design will depend on your ending goal.
For instance when I started I was just looking to build a simple website and I was not actually looking for job opportunities.
So for me, the where and how to start was actually easier because I was free to do anything and I was not required to fulfill any specific requirements for any company.
What I did back then was to actually just create a simple flash website that at that moment were the fashionable thing to do.
Today we know that flash is good no more.
After my flash hype, I gradually moved to CMS systems like Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal.
Now the thing I want you to see in here is that I was on my own and following my own rules.
Today companies will require a lot of things like programmers, full stack developers, marketers, and everything else in between.
So you need to clear up your end goal in mind because that will narrow your options and the things you actually will need to learn.
But if you are like me, then I will recommend you learn as much as you can.
For instance, just look at what these developers overseas are doing.
These guys are becoming proficient in basically everything which makes the field harder to compete.
Now don’t get confuse here because I am not saying this will be impossible, what I am just saying this can be harder if you don't grow as much as you can.
So here is my plan for you if you want to succeed in the current waters of web design.
1) First, make sure you put your web design learning all the way to the top. Make it your first and last priority.
2) Second start learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript. My recommendation is for you to take at least twice the free courses at SoloLearn and W3Schools.
3) Third make sure you take the first three certifications from FreeCodeCamp.org.
These certifications include Responsive Web Design, JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures, and Front End Libraries
4) Fourth, learn the most popular CMS which is WordPress and if you can also learn Joomla and Drupal great for you. You can find lots of trainings on YouTube so no excuses here.
5) Fifth, learn the basics of SEO and how is applied to HTML, WordPress and any other CMS you learn.
Now with these recommendations you can do wonders and pretty much get into any entry level position if your goal is to get a job.
But remember, don’t limit your knowledge to only these options because you can also learn frameworks (Angular, Laravel, Bootstrap) , coding languages (Java, Swift, Phyton), and online marketing techniques (Email Marketing, Facebook, PPC, SMM).
Plus if you learn other human languages like Spanish, Italian, French, Mandarin, and Portuguese, you will be opening many opportunity doors for your future.
Look I am not a white or black kind of developer and I don’t like extremes even when sometimes they do work.
So I will always say open your mind to the possibilities and don’t stop at one thing.
You need to keep growing and learning everything so you can be prepared for the constant changes of web design.
Besides once you learn one language either computer or human, you will realize that all of them have similarities which will make everything so easy to keep learning.
5. Where can you make the most money in web design?
In here, you will have two places to make the most money which are:
a) Going with someone else aka getting a job
b) Or going on your own aka becoming an entrepreneur or business owner
But the question remains, where can you make the most money, right?
Well actually both sides have their advantages and disadvantages.
For instance the biggest money advantage of getting a job will be that you can have a weekly paycheck that can give you better money security which is good for many people.
Now that does not mean you can never get fired and lose that job because in this world everything is possible including good and bad things.
On the other hand, if you go solo the only way you can get that stability or money security coming in consistently and every month is by becoming good at marketing.
There is no other way.
Marketing is the fuel of every business to keep getting clients, customers, and sales.
The thing here is that no everyone has that entrepreneurial spirit to make a company work and grow which is why so many people choose instead something more easy and secure like having a job.
However, there is no doubt that the only place where you can have unlimited economic growth is by going solo.
Building your own company and becoming an entrepreneurial web designer will give you the freedom to make as much money as you want.
Now I know some of you will refute this but the only way for you to surpass the economic freedom you can have with your own business is by buying company stocks, becoming a partner, becoming a manager, or perhaps becoming the president.
That’s the only way where having a job can make you the most money but even then being a successful business owners has many perks.
That's why becoming an entrepreneur or business owner is the best option for infinite economic growth.
For instance, let’s do a quick example.
Imagine your current employer just sold a $6,500 web design project which is very conservative in the Dallas and Fort Worth TX area.
If they pay you $35 an hour and it takes 45 hours from you to finish the whole website.
You pretty much will be making $1,575 on that project and letting your employer pocket close to $5,000 just for doing the project for them.
On the other hand if you had really become good at marketing which is one the keys for getting high paying clients, you would have had the chance of pocketing the whole $6,500 instead.
Do you see the big difference?
Now this is only a small example because with web design you have tons of options to upsell and keep the client paying you monthly with extra services.
That’s why I mentioned at the beginning of this blog that selling $5,000 to $25,000 web projects was a reality within this industry.
The big problem here is that web designers have to go beyond their web design skills in order for them to make big money which is why need to go to the next section to understand better how these high paying projects work.
6. How and where to sell high ticket web design projects?
Look there is no doubt in my mind at least that if a web designer wants to get high paying clients and make the most money inside this industry, he needs to develop many more skills beyond what web design requires.
Selling high priced websites and increasing your revenues is a combination of web skills, heavy marketing, sales, system processes, scaling, understanding clients, and understanding the web development market.
What I will show you here even when is not the whole picture, it will give you a much better idea of what it takes to really succeed economically within this industry.
Below you will see the subjects I will be covering inside this last section which are pretty much focused in the money making part of web design.
Some of these subjects are:
a) Understanding the differences between cheap and high quality websites
b) Knowing your customers and their levels
c) Calculating the right hours to finish your web projects
d) How to price your web projects accordingly
e) Creating the right packages for the right clients
f) Creating proper mini systems to escalate your web projects
g) Where to find high ticket web projects?
Now before you continue, here is one last secret that will help you exponentially accelerate your web design success even faster.
Ready?
You need to get a mentor or personal coach, someone that has already traveled this road before.
But what do I mean with this?
Well, imagine that two amateur boxers are going to compete in a 3 round match in Las Vegas Nevada.
Every boxer has the same weight and height and both of them will have 1 month to train to get ready for the fight.
The only difference between the boxers is that, boxer one will be trained by Manny Pacquiao every day for the next 30 days and boxer two will train just by himself.
Here is the question.
Assuming both boxers have the same physical capabilities, who do you think will have better chances to win the fight?
The boxer one who is being trained by one of the best boxers in the world?
Or the boxer two who is training alone?
Now even when there is a chance that boxer two can win in an episode of the twilight zone, there is no doubt that boxer one has better chances to win.
Look, the reality is that successful people always have a great education, mentors, and coaches around.
Just do your own research on these people.
Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Andre Agassi, and the list goes on and on and on.
I have personally trained people to start their web development companies and I have personally paid thousands to get trained as well for growing my business, myself, my web knowledge, and my entrepreneurial ventures altogether.
It is not easy, it is not free, but it is worth every time and dollar.
Now the only problem here which I want to share with you is that sometimes finding the right mentor can be tricky because even when many people can be experts at web design, many of them are not good teachers.
They can be rough on the edges to educate you but nonetheless you can learn from them even if it is a bumpy ride.
Trust me I have been there and I continue there as growing never stops.
Before moving on, I want to make an invitation to those who are interested in taking their web knowledge to the next level.
If you want to grow economically within this industry, I invite you to apply to my Web Design Bootcamp.
You just need to visit this link.
Keep in mind that this is not free but it won’t put your financials at risk like those expensive 4 college degrees will do.
I have personally offered one on one coaching sessions since 2008 but I don’t do this openly as I love my introverted part of me who likes lots of alone time.
If you are serious about growing and reaching your economic goals within the web design industry, this is a chance you don’t want to miss.
Remember this is not a public training and you can only apply through this link.
How to get answers for final questions?
For the moment I had to unpublished the last part as I will be only teaching it inside my bootcamp. If you are interested send me your application through this link.
Post updated on November 6, 2022.
