The web design industry is very sensitive to the pikes and troughs of the economy, especially so for agencies and freelancers. If businesses are doing well and someone brings up the idea of refreshing their website, the consensus is often “Yes, we need that new website, pronto”. On the flip side, if there is a down turn, the purse strings are suddenly much more difficult to prize open; “No, we can make do with what we have got for now”.

So, as a web designer, how do you continue to do what you love, and still earn enough money to do it professionally when work becomes harder to come by? This is a question a lot of web designer ask themselves, so we decided to try and find out.

The survey

Earlier this year we conducted research amongst the web design community in partnership with designshack.co.uk. The survey asked for their experiences as a web designer, their approach to work and how the industry is developing. Of those who took part in the survey, 3 in 4 said they believe it is more difficult, or just as difficult, to find work compared to this time last year. Naturally, there are a lot of factors that feed in to this, with responses varying from more competition, client’s expectations rising, and of course the general down turn in the economy so many businesses are struggling with.

Additional sources of income

Interestingly, the survey also showed that over half of web designers are supplementing their income by diversifying their services, through ventures such as premium resources, advertising driven blogs, web hosting, premium membership websites, and digital marketing services including SEO & copywriting services.

Due to increased competition coupled with less available work, it is clear that forward thinking web designers are responding by expanding their core skills and services to areas that have traditionally been seen as added value services. These are increasingly becoming essential tools to maintain a regular income. Search optimization, copywriting, web hosting and other digital marketing services available all under the same roof is what sets the modern web designer apart from the masses.

For example, how often have you been asked by a client to recommend a host for their website and you have pointed them in the direction of your own web host? You could have offered to do this yourself for a monthly fee. You have a client base that you can continue to profit from far beyond the initial web design stage.

Shifting the primary source of income

In fact, it is possible to earn enough money through these supplementary activities, that designing websites for clients can become the secondary source of income. For example, I’ve seen web designers running free PSD resource websites which attracts a lot of traffic and incoming links. From here they then refer visitors to their work on theme directories, many of which are in the best seller lists. In one instance the designer has earned well over £250,000 from the theme directory alone.

A final thought

As the web design industry becomes more and more competitive, and there are few signs of a full scale economic recovery any time soon, the web designers who can offer more services beyond traditional web design and expand their revenue mix are the future.