Lately, I have really been prying into this web development thing. I still am a beginner, but I am quickly learning the ropes and applying myself in a few different ways.
I want to reverse engineer where I would like to be a half year from now. A few months from now, I would like to be freelance web developing at least 10 hours a week, at around $300 to $500 a week. That’s not a crazy successful goal, but it’s a goal that I can work towards. It’s about the money, but it’s more about doing what I like to do.
To get there, would mean that I would have something to offer to people/businesses. I need to be competent in design standards, as well as conversion best practices. I need to be flexible and creative in design, but also slimming and minimalistic so the project can actually finish on time. I also need to be quick, meaning my workflow needs to be in place long before I start. I also need to be versed in types of sites, e-commerce for small businesses, media for churches, etc.
Before all of that, I need to have a portfolio that shows off all of the things I can do. I would need to have some projects lined up that I can work on for free so I can get some practice. I actually do have a few lined up - I will be working on finishing the e-commerce site for my brother’s coffee business, potentially (I haven’t asked yet) working on a non-profit website for my mother-in-law, and also potentially working on another church website.
Before I get to those, I have some learning that I need to complete. I am still working on the Udemy course I purchased that has been really helpful in learning the basics of web development and web app design. I will need to read and study some fundamental design standards and put them into practice as well. I plan on being active on CodePen.
So that’s where I am now. I am in the learning phase. I will never really leave the learning phase, but at some point I will feel confident and move on to the application stage, and then once I have built a portfolio and “themes” I can move on to hiring clients that I will do work for.
This is all for a season. Who knows, maybe I will get into full time web development. I doubt I would continue doing that, though. I need to build something that is bigger than myself. I need to be working on something that impacts way more people than I could ever do on my own.
Jordan