/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>35157
http://hub.tutsplus.com/
Can't recommend the Envato websites enough. Years ago, I spent about 2 weeks following tutorials on their newly launched NETTUTS (now code.tutsplus.com) and building simple websites with the latest cutting edge techniques (which was slicing .psd mockups and writing XHTML1.1 valid markup at the time). Then I applied at a web design agency and got a job, being the best candidate they tested somehow.

Of course, that (in)experience probably isn't going to cut it anymore. That company was a bit of a joke to hire a 17 year old who didn't know what he was really doing. Front end development and back end development have evolved a ton in the last couple of years. Package managers like Bower, task runners like Grunt and version control like Git has seen front end workflows grow up. On the backend, PHP has become a respectable language with the latest versions. The PSR spec and frameworks like Laravel bring it up to par.

I don't know how much longer my just-passable design talent, sub-par development abilities and shoddy salesmanship will be able to support a career as a dedicated web designer for. That is, someone who designs, builds, launches, modifies and runs websites. Specialization seems to be the way to go maybe?

But for freelancing none of this really matters. Go to small business owners, sell them on the benefits of a website. And if you don't know how to build them; use middleware, templates and frameworks as necessary. Cheat.