How to Learn Code, Start a Web Company, $15k+ per month within 9 months

[Fox]

As a reference point - is this something you would say needs updating/revision?

http://www.ueso.org/

My thought is that one could use revision, while the below is fine and wouldn't need an update?

http://drmichellekatz.com/

Sorry if this type of thing has been asked a lot, just curious to get some reference point for things on the edge - some websites are obvious in need of revamp.

That first website has 20+ pages on content. That is a large job and not very suitable for someone just starting off. Both of those websites will be ahrd to pitch as a beginner and also probably low profit (value added, hours required, client need)

You seem to be in NYC. This was the top natural search for tow trucks in NYC...

http://nyctowingcompany.net/

- Not responsive
- 6 years old
- Already has SEO covered
- High volume search
- Responsibly profit business that is web dependent (dentist is usually network referrals, tow truck is google)

Start with stuff like this.

 

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[Denim Chicken]

As a reference point - is this something you would say needs updating/revision?

http://www.ueso.org/

My thought is that one could use revision, while the below is fine and wouldn't need an update?

http://drmichellekatz.com/

Sorry if this type of thing has been asked a lot, just curious to get some reference point for things on the edge - some websites are obvious in need of revamp.

Between those 2 sites, the one above actually is better. It also would be hard and take a lifetime to code that out using only html and css. They're using zocdoc and patient portals also. The 2nd site has that "modern" look but that look is also associated with cheap templates. I think ueso.org can use slight refreshing in styling but it doesn't warrant a big change.

 

[FastNAwesome]

Since a lot of newbies may be trying this, and I don't think this was mentioned:

Make backups!

Make a backup of the old version of the website before you replace it with new version (so that if new website is not working properly for whatever reason you can at least roll-back to the old version so that your client is not without a website)

Make a backup of the new version too (so that if anything goes wrong you can reinstall it)

This is a very oversimplified way of looking at it, but still much better than nothing.

 

[Chimp]

Just curious Fox, did you immediately move on to editing templates after the udemy course or did you create your own sites from scratch at first? I'm making my first site right now as I've just finished the course. I'd like to make a few websites for different purposes to get a hang of html and css before I jump into pre built stuff.

 

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[Yratill]

Interesting blog about web development and cutting-edge development http://djangostars.com/blog/

 

[Longinus]

Just curious Fox, did you immediately move on to editing templates after the udemy course or did you create your own sites from scratch at first? I'm making my first site right now as I've just finished the course. I'd like to make a few websites for different purposes to get a hang of html and css before I jump into pre built stuff.

Same here, I'm making a new website now based on what I've learned on the Udemy course. I try to play around with other effects, layout, jquery and css. I try to understand most of what I'm coding. After that, I will make a few more websites for free and try the themes. Every day I see companies with terrible outdated websites, there are so much opportunities.

 

[Fox]

Just curious Fox, did you immediately move on to editing templates after the udemy course or did you create your own sites from scratch at first? I'm making my first site right now as I've just finished the course. I'd like to make a few websites for different purposes to get a hang of html and css before I jump into pre built stuff.

Personally I just went right into editing themes. I like having some solid base code to work off and its easy enough to just edit it the way I want it.

What you are doing though is great experience and if you don't mind the extra time up front it will pay off later. It should make you much better at design and editing themes at a later stage.

 

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[JordanK]

I'm just closing out with my first client tonight. Making 50$ so its not that much but I didn't exactly have to design their site from scratch just complete a reasonable amount of work to touch it up after a previous developer didn't finish his work. I have also been breezing through the Udemy course as I was familiar with all the basics but there are some really cool new things that I am learning that are upgrading my skills set. Boy I love progress!

 

[DogsBreakfast]

Anyone else struggle to come up with a business name that isn't lame?

 

[germandude]

Anyone else struggle to come up with a business name that isn't lame?

I do that professionally (copywriting and naming) . I will make a post or something like that these days, thanks for the idea.

EDIT: Link To Post!

 

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[FastNAwesome]

Personally I just went right into editing themes. I like having some solid base code to work off and its easy enough to just edit it the way I want it.

This can be a good idea, as ready-made themes cover a lot of stuff ya'll don't know that you don't know

Another "gotcha" awaiting newbies: Cross-browser compatibility. You need to make sure the website looks (and works!) as intended in all current browsers, on all current devices, on all the various screen-sizes. What looks great on your laptop, may be too small on a desktop monitor and vice-versa and so on...

(btw.this is usually covered too by good ready-made themes which doesn't mean you shouldn't test your work, as any edits you make to the theme can change something)

Good start is installing all popular browsers on your computer and checking how your pages look in them, and there are also services allowing you to test online on a variety of devices/browsers/settings, none of which I'll advertise but it's easy to find them

But yes...

What you are doing though is great experience and if you don't mind the extra time up front it will pay off later. It should make you much better at design and editing themes at a later stage.

...they way to learn is actually building stuff.

Over time you get acquainted with quirks of various browsers and this becomes easier, you know many things upfront. And then the new browsers come out, and we all learn...always...

Anyway, this post was made to help ya'll not turn you away, so hope it's taken that way. Basically I'm trying to spare you client screaming in your ear how their website is broken and you not understanding what they talk about as for you it works fine

In such situation it's useful to ask them what browser/device they're using.

 

[Andy Black]

Anyone else struggle to come up with a business name that isn't lame?

Use your own name to start with?

"People buy from people."

It's you who is going to become known as "The XYZ Guy" first, before you scale by building a "company" around that skillset and positioning.


Unless you're trying to appear bigger to charge higher rates.

In which case pick a company name that is meaningless, allowing you to pivot immediately, and have a hyper focused tagline. (I got this from one of the tropicalmba.com podcasts. They joined two words together to create their business name e.g. Two Trees).

When you find your focus, then maybe rename or spin out another entity (e.g. plumberseo.net and dentalcmo.com)

 

[DogsBreakfast]

Use your own name to start with?

"People buy from people."

It's you who is going to become known as "The XYZ Guy" first, before you scale by building a "company" around that skillset and positioning.


Unless you're trying to appear bigger to charge higher rates.

In which case pick a company name that is meaningless, allowing you to pivot immediately, and have a hyper focused tagline. (I got this from one of the tropicalmba.com podcasts. They joined two words together to create their business name e.g. Two Trees).

When you find your focus, then maybe rename or spin out another entity (e.g. plumberseo.net and dentalcmo.com)

Yeah i wish i could use my name but it's way too long and awkward to use and difficult to pronounce. I've been trying to combine two words but I'll keep brainstorming. Think i was trying to go too abstract coming up with names like momoweb and locobot etc.

 

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[Paul Thomas]

Anyone had success with contractors/roofing/deck builders/wood yards? Seems like most of these would be referrals, but I see some room for improvement..

 

[JDx]

Anyone had success with contractors/roofing/deck builders/wood yards? Seems like most of these would be referrals, but I see some room for improvement..

I've mailed and called a handful of contractors. All were too small to be interested though. Mostly 1 or 2 man "companies" who can barely afford another truck. Be on the lookout for bigger ones with more employees etc

 

[DogsBreakfast]

Can anyone explain why people are saying to learn wordpress? I already kind of know how to use wordpress and found it a pain. Sometimes the child theme wouldn't work or some code wouldn't override causing major problems. So I'd then have to continually update the parent theme with ftp to see the changes because I didn't want to download all the files and wait 20minutes.. Maybe Im missing something. In hindsight probably should have just downloaded the files. Didnt know at the time though how to work with php files offline

On another note I downloaded a html template and thats also a pain in the a$$ lol. Millions of files including ajax, bootstrap, jquery, js all that im unfamiliar with. Can still make edits but have no idea what most of the files do or if I actually need them.

 

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[Fox]

Can anyone explain why people are saying to learn wordpress? I already kind of know how to use wordpress and found it a pain. Sometimes the child theme wouldn't work or some code wouldn't override causing major problems. So I'd then have to continually update the parent theme with ftp to see the changes because I didn't want to download all the files and wait 20minutes.. Maybe Im missing something. In hindsight probably should have just downloaded the files. Didnt know at the time though how to work with php files offline

On another note I downloaded a html template and thats also a pain in the a$$ lol. Millions of files including ajax, bootstrap, jquery, js all that im unfamiliar with. Can still make edits but have no idea what most of the files do or if I actually need them.

This video might help...

But I will go through it again soon in more detail.


The Wordpress versus HTML is a classic debate. It really depends on what type of website you will be building.

The biggest question is will the client be changing a lot of content?

For those clients that I target (same website for last 8 years) the answer is no. I know this because they have a website that is years old, they are super busy with their actual business and I have built websites with Wordpress sections for past clients to update - they never do.

Wordpress is powerful for sure but its best suited for a website that is continuously being updated. Such examples would be e-commerce, photography, rentals, news, travel and so on.

For static businesses that do the same thing every year they don't want a website that can be changed. They want it stable and static. Something that can't be broken. HTML is perfect for this. Its fast, its clean and its easy to expand or modify later if need.

There is no right answer on what to use since it comes down to each business. I will say though, from my experience, the wordpress side of web development has a lot more competition and its generally lower margin work (for you) then the type of companies I target with HTML.

 

[DogsBreakfast]

Awesome. I've been making good progress in my website through inspecting elements and changing html. But this video is definitely what i needed thanks. Tried emailing the guy to give a progress update with a screenshot but now his emails not working. Might have to give him a call tomorrow.

Yeah I agree wordpress is good for updating content but in my experience it was a real pain to do simple things like add a cover picture

 

[Fox]

I have been thinking a lot about this thread and my web design business lately. I now have two big goals for next year...

Move up to 20-25k a month revenue

Create some form of learning course/material for people who want to learn this

I am about to sell a side business that is distracting me and I will also hire on some new sales guys soon. I think I will have a marketplace post on this within the next month. I will redesign my own personal website and also improve some of my sales material. This will also meaning hiring on a copywriter and possibly someone part time for design too.

As for the teaching I want to scale it somewhat while still keeping the value (and adding more). The people I have thought so far are having great success and I think I could add even more value to future students if I can create a better course with more material. At the moment it doesn't have too much form but that is because its the first time I have ever taught something like this. I will be buying some camera gear and starting to up my production standard very soon.

 

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[Fox]

I posted this on the Facebook group this morning also, here is an edited version for here...


What really sells in web design and what is just a waste of time?

So far In my experience of selling there are two mains things that work and a lot of stuff that doesn't.


Things that didn't bring in any/very little sales...

Company Facebook Page - Granted I don't keep it too well updated but I did for a while, brought in no sales. Likes don't pay the bills.

Linking at the Bottom of Websites - If you scroll to the bottom of any of my websites there is a link back to my company page. This surprisingly has never sold any websites. I am going to redo my whole site soon so maybe this will improve but I have never got a sale in this way.

My Actual Company Website - Again I have never gotten a sale through someone who has found my site and decided to call me. I have never actually even gotten an email. Sometimes I check the form myself and it does work ha. This just doesn't bring in sales. A big reason is I don't do any work to promote my website or even SEO. It just sits there to prove I am an actual company. It more to direct people to once they are already interested.



Things that do work, and quite well:

Cold calls and emails - In the beginning this was 100% my source of sales but over time as referrals have picked up and a have sales guys this has cut back. Its about 20-40% at the moment depending on the month.

Sales Guys - I have one guy who does nearly all my sales that I don't personally find. he is a great sales guy and kills it with meeting people in person. He accounts for 40-50% of my sales. And he makes great commission to do so.

Referrals "Hi you built my friends website and they said you could do one for me too". I love these, pretty much already sold. These are about 10-20% but are usually high price. They keep getting higher too (not just the percentage of my sales but also the actual price).


If you want to make money with this focus on whats working and forget the rest. I find an aggressive "searching" sales tactic along with great work (referrals) is the fastest way forwards and also allows you to have the most control.

This is just my won unique way though and it could be done differently with a different approach. When I have the new website up I might do some adwords and other forms of marketing and see what results they bring in. For now cold calls, sales guys and referrals is 100% off my sales.

Another side note here is business owners talk to other business owners. When you do great work for one they start to tell all their friends. These sales are great as the trust is already there.

 

[DVU]

I may have mentioned this but I will again because people are being stressed about this.

You don't have to get a new theme every time you are building a website.

There are "website builders", and I don't mean the crap ones where you can edit 2 things are the rest is not available.

I for example use Divi, it is a great thing to use in combo with HTML and CSS (note that you don't have to know any html or CSS, but it def. helps a lot.)

Its a drag and drop. You can select different columns combos and modules. Basically create anything you want. They have also just added a front-end builder but its not very good IMO.

Here is their version to impress you: https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/

The lifetime license if about 250$ and you can use it unlimited number of times. They're are also running a deal now on black fryday

Inside look:

COLUMNS

MODULES

For each of these modules you have a lot of customizing options:
General settings for TEXT module:

Advanced settings for TEXT module:

And you can add you own code to each module as vell as everything else:

And with combo of these I would dare to say that you can replicate 80% of theme forest themes. Of course knowledge of CSS and HTML as well as JavaScript and PHP would be required for some more advanced animations or stuff like that. But you get the point.

The Divi devs are also very helpful as they have a HUGE blog and a TON of free resources and layouts and all kinds of tutorials. They just ran a 100 day marathon sharing one freebie a day for 100 days.

It also has a VERY helpful community on Facebook that will help anyone out. I would recommend joining these groups on Facebook if anyone is going to go trough with this:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/divithemeexamples
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElegantThemesUserCommunity
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiviThemeTutorials
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiviHelpAndShare

Some freebies

(GOLD) https://elegantmarketplace.com/divi-100-the-countdown-to-divi-3-0/
https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/5-websites-to-find-free-divi-layout-packs
https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/...business-divi-layout-pack-by-olga-summerhayes
https://dribbble.com/MarioMaruffi
(MOST OF THE STUFF ABOVE COMBINED) http://www.divithemeexamples.com/divi-layouts/
http://layoutscafe.com/

The most awesome thing of allof these freebies are wireframes(done layouts that can be redone for almost everything if you are creative enough, plus there are three of these.)

WIREFRAME 1: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/...load-the-new-multipurpose-wireframe-kit-vol-1
WIREFRAME 2: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/...-download-multipurpose-wireframe-ui-kit-vol-2
WIREFRAME 3: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/download-the-free-divi-wireframe-kit-vol-3-today

Here is some stuff that I have created with Divi:

https://dotcomsolutions.org/
http://bensonwatch.dotcomsolutions.org/ (Not finished)
http://www.privadobysg.com/
https://m4rkographics.com/
https://qparkerlegacy.foundation/ (Just the front page is redeisigned)
http://retailreddiness.com/ (Not finished)
http://willandalexis.com/home2/ (Not finished)
http://cakes.dotcomsolutions.org/ (Client insited on the horrible huge logo and color combo
)

Hope I helped a few of you out.

 

[Fox]

Is this your company - dotcomsolutions?

I have started using a HTML theme builder to build my most current site. I will report back when its full finished but seems good so far.

 

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[DVU]

Is this your company - dotcomsolutions?

I have started using a HTML theme builder to build my most current site. I will report back when its full finished but seems good so far.

Yup,

Which one are you using?

 

[Fox]

Yup,

Which one are you using?

Thanks for sharing.

Its https://themeforest.net/item/pillar-multipurpose-html-variant-page-builder/16164427

Quite versatile with a good finish. There is a few tricks to working with it, I have deleted my website twice by accident so far. I am going to use these systems to build more and more but still with lots of small edits afterwards.

So far its been quite fun to use.

 

[Mr.Donnerhuhn]

I may have mentioned this but I will again because people are being stressed about this.

You don't have to get a new theme every time you are building a website.

There are "website builders", and I don't mean the crap ones where you can edit 2 things are the rest is not available.

I for example use Divi, it is a great thing to use in combo with HTML and CSS (note that you don't have to know any html or CSS, but it def. helps a lot.)

Its a drag and drop. You can select different columns combos and modules. Basically create anything you want. They have also just added a front-end builder but its not very good IMO.

Here is their version to impress you: https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/

The lifetime license if about 250$ and you can use it unlimited number of times. They're are also running a deal now on black fryday

Thanks for the shout out about their black friday deal! I had been looking at Divi for a little while and picked it up on a good discount!

 

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[DVU]

Thanks for the shout out about their black friday deal! I had been looking at Divi for a little while and picked it up on a good discount!

This'll sound like a noob question, but I can't find where to edit the Header/Footer on my website though XD.

Its not, I looked for the footer edits for a very long time lol.


Anyways, they recently added an option to edit it if you go on your dashboard to "Appearance"-"Customize" and there you have "footer", there select bottom bar and there you can edit the color, font, text etc. If you want to put a link down there let me know, because it take a bit more time.


To edit the header go to dashboard "Appearance"-"Customize", and select "header and navigation" and then primary menu bar.

If you want to change the links on there you have to go to “menus” from the dashboard and create a new one and make sure the “make primary menu” box is checked at the bottom.


If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[Mr.Donnerhuhn]

Its not, I looked for the footer edits for a very long time lol.


Anyways, they recently added an option to edit it if you go on your dashboard to "Appearance"-"Customize" and there you have "footer", there select bottom bar and there you can edit the color, font, text etc. If you want to put a link down there let me know, because it take a bit more time.


To edit the header go to dashboard "Appearance"-"Customize", and select "header and navigation" and then primary menu bar.

If you want to change the links on there you have to go to “menus” from the dashboard and create a new one and make sure the “make primary menu” box is checked at the bottom.


If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Ahhh thanks! I had been googling and the first results were from Elegant Themes but they're out of date and treat the header as another module in the page builder. Thanks for clearing that up!

And this is a more general question to you, and Fox, and anybody else who's in this line of work.

What's your general process for designing & building once the client has signed on with you?

In my head it's laid out like this:

1. Consultation with client to understand their business & what they need
2. Research and Analysis (Keyword research, demographics, etc...)
3. Wireframe a mock-up, and send to client for review
4. Decide on & implement final design
5. ???
6. Profit

Am I missing any critical steps or is that pretty much the gist of it?

 

[Fox]

1. Consultation with client to understand their business & what they need
2. Research and Analysis (Keyword research, demographics, etc...)
3. Wireframe a mock-up, and send to client for review
4. Decide on & implement final design
5. ???
6. Profit

LOL at ??? > Profit

Mine would look something like:

• Cold call / email / referral
• Talk on phone (investigate need and company vision) ***lots of questions***
• Do up project plan (email) and quote ***lots of solutions***
• 50% deposit
• Do job
• Show client
• Any changes
• Host fully
• 50% final fee
• Repeat

I don't do mockups or wireframes. I work with clients who trust me. Most are too busy anyway and don't know what they want.
That is part of my value add - it gets done with minimal effort from the client. The only thing that gets changed 99% of the time is content.

Your question on how to design and build is quite a large topic, I don't think I could answer that here. Thats the magic

 

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[DVU]

Ahhh thanks! I had been googling and the first results were from Elegant Themes but they're out of date and treat the header as another module in the page builder. Thanks for clearing that up!

And this is a more general question to you, and Fox, and anybody else who's in this line of work.

What's your general process for designing & building once the client has signed on with you?

In my head it's laid out like this:

1. Consultation with client to understand their business & what they need
2. Research and Analysis (Keyword research, demographics, etc...)
3. Wireframe a mock-up, and send to client for review
4. Decide on & implement final design
5. ???
6. Profit

Am I missing any critical steps or is that pretty much the gist of it?

There actually is a header as a module, it allows for a bit more options.. But use the normal one, its simpler.

BE SURE TO DESIGN ON A STAGING ENVIRONMENT
(You don't want them not paying, thinking they just got away with a free website, then you take it down, and then they complain etc(been there, not worth it))

Get a subdomain and do it there. ex. (clientname.yourwebsite.com) Although this kind of stuff probably wont happen once you start doing bussines with some "higher end" clients.


FIRST
Always to find out what is the purpose of the website is and in what industry they are and how it works(just the basics). But focus on the purpose.

Is it to sell a product?
Is it to book an appointment?
Is it to give more info about something?

It is usually something in those lines, and when you know what the sites main purpose is, design around that. (Although some clients insist on having it the other way around)

SECOND
If i am getting a client that works in an industry that I have not yet had experience in(not worked with a client in that industry) I google that service and see what is the general theme of those website, what I like and what I dont. Then I hop to theme forest, get some inspiration there and get to work. But keep in mind the main purpose of the website and then the design.

THIRD
After that I usually design the homepage and dont present it if I dont like every part of it 100% (If I think I can do better basically)

Sent it to the client and get his feedback, if there are small changes do them, if they dislike it, schedule a skype meeting and get on the same road with them, because emailing back and fourth is going to take ages to get it the way they want(been there as well)

FOURTH
If the website if "finished" go and try to break it and find some stuff that doesent work. ex. that you maybe forgot to put a link in, not formatted correctly, forgot to put the email address to the forms etc.

FIFTH
After thats done, get the payment and setup the website on the main domain of theirs.


What I recommend is asking them if they want you to maintain the website(most cases they dont want to be bothered with it and will say yes) and charge cca 20$ for it a month.

PROTIP: You can get all of your websites on Manage-WP (https://managewp.com/). From there you can update all of your website plugins and themes and WP from one place(Although I recommend doing a backup every time you update a theme or WP, because it WILL break and you will wish you had a back up.)

They also offer a lot of other services like performance tests, backups and some other stuff for about 1$ per service, which is really cheap but I prefer to do it for free with some other tools.

 

[João Pedro]

Fox,

First: Thanks for a lifetime for your time writing this helpful thread. I know you put such a high value on your time, so i'll be brief:

1) What kind of help do you offer:
- website (Design, copywriting and sales funnel);
- a complete package internet plataform (All of the above + Social media, ad campaigns and maintenance) or
- Custom (--)

2) What is you average time of development per client?

3) Your price its based on the clients revenue, gross sales returns, market average or guessing?

4) What's your personal approach to website maintenance? (offer free little fixes; if the fixes demand more time you charge; or refuses to do)

5) What is you main method for international transactions? (with the lowest fees)

6) Some 'must have' questions to a client before starting a project?

7) Dumb question: If the owner doesn't have the cpanel login, how do you put the files on the public_html folder? (call the cpanel support?)

8) What is your method of work? (Ex. Images -> Copywriting -> Wireframing -> Coding)

9) Mistakes to avoid.

10) Resources (Brackets, Themeforest, istock, shutterstock, XXX, YYY, Kickass copyriting secrets of a markting rebel, CCC ...)

Because of our limited (non-existent) interactions in the past, i understand if you give a superficial answer or just scan through this post, but if the Fast liner in you could share any piece of advice on a practical baseline of work, it would be greatly appreciated and implemented right away... After all, no turning back now. It is the famous 'gun to the head + Gradual leaps of faith' method.. Getting much better at it... So far so good.
I am eager to begin sharing stuff and help others out, but i'm kinda of a perfectionist and i need something really worthwhile for you guys... a.k. I'm learning and executing before sharing the good stuff.. i don't want to put you guys off course. But hey, maybe with that questions i helped you with some topics to cover in your next course.. Haha

Wish you the best,