Do I have to be good at design to sell websites?

[Phillip Anderson]

I don't consider myself to have artistic skills at all, so I don't know if that'd be a problem.

 

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[lowtek]

I don't consider myself to have artistic skills at all, so I don't know if that'd be a problem.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I'm not good with design but code/software is my thing. I abandoned the idea of doing websites and moved on to other stuff. Zero point in dwelling on something I'm not strong at.

If you want to continue doing them, either outsource the design aspect (upwork, fiverr) or partner up with someone locally who is good at design. Don't shortchange your clients by giving them functional websites straight out of 2005.

 

[Phillip Anderson]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I'm not good with design but code/software is my thing. I abandoned the idea of doing websites and moved on to other stuff. Zero point in dwelling on something I'm not strong at.

If you want to continue doing them, either outsource the design aspect (upwork, fiverr) or partner up with someone locally who is good at design. Don't shortchange your clients by giving them functional websites straight out of 2005.

What have you moved on to?

 

[lowtek]

What have you moved on to?

Machine learning / AI. Doing some freelancing at the moment, and produced a course.

Probably more courses coming, and working on a project that could turn into a business.

 

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[GWan]

No, because you can just use a theme that already looks great and customize it to fit the business. It's more important for the website to be optimized to increase sales and leads through the use of marketing and copy. Design is more secondary... it just has to look modern.

 

[MoneyPhantom]

No, because you can just use a theme that already looks great and customize it to fit the business. It's more important for the website to be optimized to increase sales and leads through the use of marketing and copy. Design is more secondary... it just has to look modern.

Even modifying existing themes requires some basic creative mind and an eye for what looks good. Therefore (IMHO), not a good idea at all, at least generally speaking.

Try it for yourself. Create an website for an imaginary company (or for your imaginary agency) and ask at least 10 people - not your friends/family - if they'd pay for it and how much (alternative: ask them if they'd pay amount X for it). From there, you know where you're standing.

Are you good at coding? Focus on that. There are a lot of backend coding jobs that mostly don't require to build more than a simple HTML layout. Frontend designers are gonna take care of the rest. Or it's even just an internal tool that doesn't need to be that nice-looking.

Can you market and sell? Then look into flipping websites. Find someone you can outsource the creative work to and just market your services, bring in the ideas, make the websites sell as @GWan mentioned.

 

[Lex DeVille]

You need to be good at selling to sell websites. Let designers design. Let coders code. Let writers write. You can do all of those things yourself, but probably not as well.

You don't need to be an artist, but you do need to understand certain fundamentals of design if you want to get your clients the results they're after. It's only a problem if you can't design if you let it be.

 

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[Guest61362]

List of most popular websites - Wikipedia

 

[minivanman]

I LOVE all of the great looking websites. They have all of this fancy stuff that the owner paid lots of money for I'm sure. Oh by the way, I rank 18 of my 19 websites above them. I'm not sure why the 1 site won't stay on the 1st page. I got it back on the 1st page but now it's on the 2nd page again. I should work on that next week. But, 18 out of 19 ain't bad using Weebly when they all use those 'better' site builders or do the whole thing their self.

As far as selling a great looking website, that's why I make the deals I make. When someone asks for my help (usually someone I know) I ask for a certain dollar amount for each customer I bring in or ever how much the company grows over what it was before I started marketing it. Once we make a deal, I don't have to make the bling website, I can make one that brings in money. Making sites my way, I never have to worry about any Google updates or anything like that. If you have what people are looking for on your site, it will do the work for you. Just think of it this way, many websites have come and gone but Craigslist hasn't changed a thing since 1995 (or when ever they started) and they are still going strong. My sites are like that... simple with information, not all glamoured up. I'm trying to sell tires or auto glass, not make-up to 15 year olds.... although I would if given the chance

 

[Kruiser]

The title of your post practically answers itself.

"Do I have to be good at [good or service] to sell [good or service]?" Answer: No.

"Do I have to be good at SAAS software development to sell SAAS software?" Answer: No.

"Do I have to be good at designing private jets to sell them?'' Answer: No.

Etc.

 

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[TonyStark]

No, but you need to be able to deliver a great product; or else you're f**ked longterm.

 

[nemenia]

Sometimes, you don't really need a good design to sell a product. There are so many website builders out there like, for example, the hPage Website Builder which already has hundreds of website templates available and no coding knowledge is needed. All you need is to pick one and fill in the rest of the content and create webpages.

It's the niche and the product development process which you have to figure out more importantly. After that, it's how to market that product. Here are some questions you should ask first:

1. Find out what niche do you want to target first. Who is your target market? Be specific. You don't wanna target the general audience.
2. Will I be able to create good content? What content should I put once I get that domain name?
3. What does my audience want? What do people wanna buy? What will they get out of my product?

 

[MoneyPhantom]

Sometimes, you don't really need a good design to sell a product. There are so many website builders out there like, for example, the hPage Website Builder which already has hundreds of website templates available and no coding knowledge is needed. All you need is to pick one and fill in the rest of the content and create webpages.

The problem that often comes up speaking to clients is that such website builders, WordPress themes, etc. - and even you if you don't know how to properly design and code - may sooner or later reach their/your limits. And then you are the one having to tell the client that something he wants is not possible (because of your knowledge or the website builder you chose). Not quite satisfying for both parties if you ask me.

Therefore, I'd encourage you to either show your cards first and let the client know that you'll just set everything up in a website builder (which is gonna have certain limitations) or have someone which you can add to your team when necessary.

 

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[Phillip Anderson]

Machine learning / AI. Doing some freelancing at the moment, and produced a course.

Probably more courses coming, and working on a project that could turn into a business.

What kind of ML/AI work do you do freelancing with? Did it take you a long time to acquire the knowledge?

 

[lowtek]

What kind of ML/AI work do you do freelancing with? Did it take you a long time to acquire the knowledge?

Vision and NLP are the most popular categories on Upwork. There is so much noise, though, so it's hard to really get a handle on what to specialize in. I'm kind of over freelancing, so I'm going from freelancing to building a prototype of a SaaS product. I'll be putting my execution thread on the inside. I'll start it later today.

As far as how long it takes to learn it, it really depends on where you're starting from. I learned to program when I was 12, did a couple years of computer science in college, did a PhD in physics (i.e. math inclined), and have been writing stuff off and on most of my life. If you're a web dev with weak math skills, it's a steep ascent. If you're a web dev with good math skills, it's still a tough road, but do able.

If you want to get started and know python, I'd check out Fast.ai - it's a top down bootcamp (you use the models first and then learn how they work) that's completely free. If you don't know python, just find some free resources on it and start learning, and then circle around to Fast.ai

You could learn enough to start making a little bit of dough in 90 - 180 days, if you're diligent. Of course mastery is a lifelong process, so you better get moving!

Oh, and shameless plug. You can check out the link in my sig to follow me on YouTube. I do tutorials on AI and also have a series on freelancing.

 

[The Abundant Man]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya0uliWzUTI

 

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[Kak]

IMPORTANT! - PSA: There are no dumb questions. Sorry, there are.