The Profitability of Web Design

Over the past few years, the field of web design has been one of the most rapidly growing sectors within the information technology industry. As a result of this tremendous outgrowth, web design has become a very profitable business.

Moreover, the advent of point-and-click web-authoring software (such as Microsoft FrontPage) accompanied with an abundance of easily accessible developer resources, has made designing web sites a plausible occupation for non-programmers.

Consequently, a wide array of people have transcended the technological barrier, turning to web design to make a quick and easy buck. From scholars with PhD’s in extraneous disciplines such as astrophysics to teenagers with an iMac and some spare time, design firm entrepreneurs are emerging in countless numbers.

While all of this may sound promising to aspiring designers, we must consider the kind of implications this surge in supply will have on the profitability of professional web design. That is, will professional web design continue to be a profitable business despite the seemingly inexhaustible influx of amateurs into the field?

Let me know what you guys think is going to happen.

Cool!

I think people are going to get what they "pay for" no matter what it is they are buying.
Anyone can spend 2 weeks playing with "Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Pagemill, or whatever and "call" themselves a web designer simply based on the fact they can make a webpage appear.
IS the influx of aspiring web designers going to hurt web designers in general?....more than likely.

I really dont think of myself a "web designer" because most of my work is STILL print related... I do pick up new web accounts frequently, and the client gets what he or she pays for.

So if some
"scholars with PhD’s in extraneous disciplines such as astrophysics" OR "teenagers with an iMac and some spare time"
wants to come in and start designing web pages, bring em on...
Let em Charge "half" what I do.

I'm not looking for a client that is looking for the cheapest webmaster they can find.
I've got too many years invested in graphics to sell myself short.
Is it gonna remain profitable?
It is for me, because I'm not going to work for nothing...

here is how i see it...

these PHDs and teens with some spare time may get into the web design business, but the fact is that most of their work is not going to be as high quality as someone with dedication, experience and training (self-taught, or formal training). plus, the best designers i know are doing it because they have always had a natural artistic ability and its just what they have always done and what they always see themselves doing, not because they heard they could make a quick buck at it.

the bad news is that most clients out there have no idea what they want, let alone how they want it (blink tags, obscure plug-ins, that little scrolly status bar thing). plus, frankly most don't understand the web and don't realize its value. in my opinion, as time goes by people are going to be more familiar with the workings of the web and the next generation of business-people are going to recognize its value and how to properly approach it. as someone mentioned before, a lot of the work we do is re-design work because some hack left it half done and in horrible condition.

just last night i was going thru the local paper looking at who was advertising web services. and i was not impressed by any of them. most of them had that 1996 look with a black background, frames, and a bunch of animated gifs lifted from other sites (one even had that damn dancing baby....worst of all, it was anti-aliased to black but placed on a green background!)

my point is just because you set up a geocities account and made yourself a little logo with your initials, that does not make you a design professional and yes you may get hired to design your uncle's friend's site or your neighbor's cat's site, but next week i am going to be hired to redesign it.

this is a senitive topic for me because i have redesigned sites previously done by idiots, i've worked with paranoid clients who have been burned by previous designers, i've been hired by clients, forced to work with other designers they hired who were terrible, and i've been forced to work in an editorial capacity with the worst designer known to man (when they finally fired him, i refused to accept it until they brought me his chopped-off head!).

blah blah blah...my point is...
talented designers with a good portfolio, a good set of skills, and good experience will survive and should not be too worried.

personally, i can say that i have talents to offer that the average web designer doesn't...let alone some hack who read a couple chapters of an html book.

(note: i'm not trying to come off sounding like some elitist. usually i hate hearing designers talking about how special and precious they are. but, this is my job and we're talking about people who are my competition and i feel very strongly about this.)

I agree completely with Charm...

It's true that anybody with a computer and some time can make a web site, but that doesn't mean they can do it well. And people that are paying for the web sites are starting to realize that not every 'designer' is created equal, and they are starting to go to the people that actually know what they are doing for their web projects. I can already see the little guys being weeded out. The soccer mom's who slap together a site over a weekend to get some extra cash to buy that new dress from Sears, the teens who half-way finish a site to get money to buy a bigger hard drive so they can download more porn, mp3's, and warez, etc. etc.

I think the amateur web designers have already hurt the industry as much as they can, by making most people scared to put down $5k on a site, for fear that they'll wind up with a useless piece of rubbish for a web site. Now I think people are starting to catch on to that, and the little guys are only hurting themselves.