I am working on my degree currently through ASU - [Bachelor of Applied Science in Internet and Web Development Concentration] and minor in marketing. I am looking to see if anyone works in this field and can give me an idea of what type of jobs are out there? I have learned a good amount of basic programming, web design, marketing, and other various aspects of the IT field. What I do know is I do not want to work at some call center doing help desk. What I am looking to do is be able to develop and maintain websites, and market them for better rankings. My long term goal is to work from home. Anyone here do this type of work? Freelance or otherwise? My career goal is to start off doing freelance work and building a portfolio, and eventually work my way into a firm, or even start my own firm that does web design, marketing/seo, development (programming) and other work. I would love to have the ability to work from home or have my own office someday. I want to get into a career where I can make enough to live comfortably, and eventually afford to buy a home. I am 23 and feel that I am struggling compared to others my age. Any advice is greatly appreceiated.
Sure thing: A) get really good at dreamweaver and photoshop B) learn ppc (goog and ysm/bing) C) Learn affiliate marketing Once you have all those down, your an asset to many companies and you can write your own checks.
You also need SEO, SEM and SMM knowledge along with web design skills to survey in the competive market.
Before starting your actual freelance work, you need more practice and knowlede in SEO. 1. Develop a site (you can create free sites by googling) 2. Study SEO and improve ranking (you gain more experience from this task) 3. Try to get small project (simple website) from freelance jobs 4. Slowly improve your design skills and SEO skills Good luck for your career.
Its a competitive world and there are lots of people prepared to work for low money, but if your good and can prove yourself you can do well. Get your skills up by working on your own sites and develop marketing skills to 'sell yourself' then start developing a reputation on elance, odesk and forums like this (you might have to do things very cheaply at first) and hopefully it will follow from there, good luck mate.
Thank you all for the advice, I think I am going to put my focus into a few sites of my own and work on the SEO and start building a portfilio. I just picked up a freelance job from odesk, $100 for a simple 1 page no linked homepage, seems easy enough.
If you know PHP I might want cooperate with you on regularly adding and editing stuff for my project - pm me if you're interested