You’ve probably already heard about the seven habits for achieving a highly effective lifestyle, the right kind of soup to drink for the health of your soul, and the three most important features of any good real estate deal, location, location, and location. Famous lists aside, do you know the six commandments for building a successful career in the field of web design? If not, that’s probably because there may not be many best-selling books on the topic, but the commandments are well known and widely used by everyone in IT who wants to build a career by creating excellent websites.
In case you didn’t get the memo, here are the commandments in question. They’ll change your life for the better if you let them.
Get Those First Few Clients
Once you know what you’re doing and can build attractive, responsive, workable sites, find a few clients. Use personal networks and free online advertising, i.e. content writing and guest blogging, to get your name out there. Offer to do one or two free jobs to make contacts in the community. Then use those early clients as references to get more work.
Use Simplicity to Make a Good Impression
The websites you design should do two things at once, which are to make a solid impression on viewers and convey a sense of implicit simplicity in the way they look. Keeping it simple is one of the foundations of any long-term career in this field. And once you learn how to build sites that leave a favorable impression, you’ll halfway to the finish line.
Get Educated
It’s possible to succeed in the IT field without a degree, but much easier to reach high levels of financial and personal success with a diploma in any technical area. Private student loans are the ideal way to finance your formal education in IT. Whether you attend a local community college or a major university, an education loan will open doors to the opportunity to study without having to hold down a full-time job during school.
Make Navigation an Intuitive Thing
Keep in mind that most of the people who see your work will not be technical. They want websites that are easy to navigate and don’t present challenges along that epic journey from the landing page to the check-out cart.
Don’t Rely On Anyone Else’s Code
It’s tempting to rely on some of the easy to use templates out there. In fact, some of them are quite good. But as a professional, if you write your own code from day one, you’ll never have to worry about relying on someone else’s specialized creation. What’s more, you’ll have complete control over the final look of the pages you create.
Do Thorough Error Checks
An otherwise perfect job can be instantly ruined by just one error. That’s why it pays to have a second and third set of eyes check your final product before sending it to the customer for review. Don’t let all your hard work go to waste. Check, recheck, and then re-recheck your completed work.