Beginner web designer

[LazyFox]

Hey everyone! I'm a designer from Kazakhstan. I don't have much of experience at it, but I've been taking little projects from russian customers, and I would like to start working with american and european market. Now I just need to make some connections to know where to start, so I think maybe I can design or develop a website for you guys for free or for little money. I really need to start from somewhere, I tried upwork, but couldn't get any project, because my level is too low yet, so I need to gain some experience. I have a behance profile, if you want to see what kind of things I can design: behance.net/AlmazBisenbaev

 

[Marc van Leeuwen]

Now I just need to make some connections to know where to start, so I think maybe I can design or develop a website for you guys for free or for little money.

This is a good idea to grow your business by offering people free services but you are sure they will be high quality?

I have a few questions for you because I often to find freelancers to do custom works for my sites.

What cms will you use for your customers?

Will it be designed in responsive design?

Standard for HTML5?

You just do on static html templates or they will be integrate into web system and making them as dynamic parts?

 

[LazyFox]

LazyFox

Well I wouldn't say I'm on the top, but I have some experience. The thing is I've been freelancing for russian market and now I need to start working for western market, but I have no connections and no idea where to find customers. I'm also not good at english, so I need to test my skills before I start.
Yes I code HTML and I design reponsive websites, because it's a must for every website in my opinion. On CMS - I have a good experience with WordPress, I made some websites on it with custom design, so I can adapt the designs on it. I've also made a portfolio website, it's under development now: bisenbaev.ru

 

[Harry P]

Hey everyone! I'm a designer from Kazakhstan. I don't have much of experience at it, but I've been taking little projects from russian customers, and I would like to start working with american and european market.

Reading this post

https://www.webmastersun.com/threads/14783-Open-a-web-design-company-in-USA

That might help you!

 

[Mike001]

What type of sites have you designed for? Are you proficient in dynamic site design, that is sites that are constructed with content from a database?

If so, what types of database designs have you been working with?

Are you comfortable working remotely? Do you understand how to use remote conference tools like, Zoom, GoToMeeting, JoinMe, etc? Are you proficient in English, do you understand web terminology in English?

I actually do quite a bit of design work for large customers and just want to get a feeling as to what your background is.

Do you only work in WordPress? That can be a shortcoming when working on commercial sites.

 

[LazyFox]

LazyFox

I mostly design landing pages and other non-dynamic websites, because I'm just starting at web design. I did graphic design before, vector graphics in particular, so I'm new at web development. Talking about dynamic websites, I'm now working on a multi-author blog website on wordpress, so I can make dynamic websites, but I can't code PHP and deal with database and stuff. I mean in russian market web developers' roles are clearly divided, like one person draws the mockup, the other one codes HTML&CSS, and the third one codes the backend. I'm now learning to work with backend, but I already know how to design the appearance of a website and code HTML&CSS. So I would like to get some advice on this subject.

 

[Mike001]

We do pretty much the same in the states, we have front-end developers and back-end developers, very few cross over.

I have learned both over the last 16 years since I teach at a college level and needed to understand how the two sides interact.

Do you have any examples of the landing pages you have done? I ask because I am actually looking for some new landing pages for my training site and just really have not had the time to develop those between teaching and running a web development business. The ones that I am using now leave a lot to be desired. They convert, they could just be much better, I just have had a hard time finding the time.

I would also be interested in any ideas you may have on a good logo for the training site. Graphics design is probably one of my weakest areas in development. I actually have a good graphics designed that works for me in the web development business but I keep him so busy that I would never ask him for personal stuff.

WordPress is avoided by most professional developers. It is far to heavy and slow for most commercial sites. It is also difficult to customize the back-end of the site development. It is good for waht it was designed to do, but not so good for commercial applications, when it comes to speed, SEO and configuration.

 

[LazyFox]

LazyFox

Thank you, so I need to learn about other CMS I guess.
Well I posted my behance page here, where you can see dome of my designs. I also made this website: premiumsmm.ru, it's still under development, I mean I designed it, coded and put on wordpress and now copyrighter is filling the pages with content. This one - amcoal.ru - I have made recently, it's non-dynamic.

 

[Mike001]

I just looked at the premiumsmm.ru site, I like it. It looks clean, well organized, translates well and has a very modern design. It came out very well.

I would look at the Recent blog posts images as they are not appearing in the browser when I view the page. It is a nice design. The one thing I would be concerned with is the speed, although that probably pertains to WordPress more than anything else.


The amcoal.ru site, also very well done. Again one thing I would point out is that to a developer, it is very obvious that this is built on a WordPress theme. The basic architecture of those types of sites all pretty much the same. There are slight speed issues with this site also, but much better than the premium site.

As far as learning another CMS system. I am not certain I would go that route. I think I would learn how to build your own custom CMS systems. It gives you much better control and would really increase your marketability as a web developer. That is just personal opinion but it is based on many years of experience.

Based on what I have seen you are off to a very good start. You have good color balance and great eye for design.

 

[LazyFox]

LazyFox

Thank you, man. I think it would be really difficult for me to build my own CMS, but I'm learning PHP now in order to become a full-stack web developer. Thank you for your advice!

 

[Mike001]

Building your own CMS is not that difficult. You are on the right track by learning PHP, that is the most popular server side language in use. Most of the big commercial CMS system use PHP and MySQL.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.

 

[FoxMetrics]

Looking through some of your work you seem to be more experienced than you think you are. Have you tried putting ads or posts for your services on western platforms like E-Lance or Fivver? The fact that you work remotely is not a big deal. Unless your working with major organizations or large budgets most of your communication will be done through emails/video calls anyway. I think you are on the right track and doing the right things by learning all you can and then asking questions and actively looking for jobs.

 

[LazyFox]

Thank you guys so much! Actually I've tried Fivver, but got no projects from it. Can you guys give me advice on how to write proposals and cover letters on freelance platforms? Because I think I'm not writing them properly for I suck at english when it comes to such things.