Web Site Design

Can anyone tell me if web site design is a viable business at the moment? I see so many courses offered in the subject at local colleges. I'm wondering if there is much work out there for people with good design/programming skills, or is the market just getting swamped with developers, with most freelance developers just doing it as a sideline to their day job.
Any comments?

thanks.
tm

I believe knowledge is power; the more you know, the better. Learn what you can, when you can. It's all good.

Can it be? yes... The problem is every 16 year old thinks themselves to be a web designer and/or programmer (and the VAST majority simply shouldn't). Establishing yourself can be very difficult and you may have to take many smaller jobs at little to no pay to build a portfolio and reputation. Many simply won't want to take the chance on the unknown.

Perhaps, the best way to get started it to start doing some designs and market them yourself either through a site like templatemonster where you'll get a cut, or yourself through sites like webhostingtalk.com's 'design offers' forum. A good slided/diced, css'ed site can there run $200 to $300. That's for a GOOD template, mediocre and lower quality templates will bring signifigantly less.

Average web design is an oversaturated market. Really good, sharp, professional web designers are few and far between. If you can develop your skills well and find a few clients and work hard and create good products for them, then the work will pour in.

it's a good biz in this monent.

Hm... on the other side, I always think that first you should ask yourself if you enjoy doing such work first.

You are correct that there are a lot of web designers / developers out there in the market. But in my opinion, I would think that there are still a lot of room to grow in this arena. So my answer is yes, it is still a good industry to be in!

Web design can be an enjoyable career and there are always going to be people who want websites designed.

SEO should be also a learning curve and to be attached with the web designing skills.

I've done a ton of web development in the past, and have personally noticed a bit of a decline in opportunities. With the advent of CMS such as Drupal and Joomla, more individuals/businesses are looking for content managers rather than website designers. Bottom line: If you can offer website design, intelligent content management solutions and search engine optimization techniques, you'll be able to build a viable, long-term business.

Kimm
oDesk

Thanks for the replies everyone. It was good to read everyone's thoughts on the topic.

Thanks again

tim