What Does a Teenage Website Designer Do? 

Usually people get the terms “Designer” and “Developer” confused when they talk about websites.  Technically speaking, website designers focus on the visual elements of a way that a website looks, while a website developer actually does coding to make the website become a reality.  Teenage website designers use tools like Photoshop to design the way that a website page (or website pages) look and then hand those graphics to a website developer to code them.  It’s ideal that you learn both aspects of web design and the good news is that because of many advances in website design technology, this is easier than ever before.

How Much Does a Teenage Website Designer Get Paid? 

As a teenage website designer, you can expect to make good money compared to other jobs that you can get as a teenager.  It’s not uncommon for an entry-level website designer to make $15 to $20 per hour depending on the client.  Once experience, that number increases greatly to around $40 to $75 an hour if you are a freelance designer.  If you eventually take your experience and work for a company you can expect to earn less, but it’s still likely you’ll land your first job around $50,000 to $75,000 per year.  Generally speaking, I think it’s best to research how to price your web design service to determine what your eventual income can be. 

How Can I Get Started as a Teenage Website Designer?

1. Make sure that you speak to your parent(s) before trying to become a teen website designer.  They absolutely must know about your plans and will likely be able to help you in your efforts.
2. To begin, you’ll need to create your own website on WordPress to practice on. For this, you’ll need a hosting account and we recommend that you use Siteground.  To begin, click here to open Siteground and then click here to watch a tutorial video of the sign-up process and how to install WordPress.  If you need to figure out your domain name, you can use this tool.
3. Now that you have a website, you’ll need to get the proper training necessary to become a website designer. As a designer, you’ll need both web design skill and minimal development skills so that you can put your designs up on the website.  You can do this in a number of ways, but we recommend that you join Lynda.com.  They offer a free 10-day trial and you should get your parent’s permission before you start.
4. Once you’ve joined Lynda.com, we recommend you to search the course “WordPress Essential Training by Morten Rand-Hendrickson” to get started. In it, you’ll learn a lot about WordPress, which is the best platform to create a website on.
5. Next, you need to get access to Adobe Photoshop. This platform is the industry norm for those who want to be a teenage website designer and you can get it by clicking here. 
6. Now that you have photoshop, we recommend that you watch another course on Lynda called Photoshop CC 2017 One-on-One: Fundamentals by Deke McClelland. This course will help you understand the basics of Photoshop so that you can design web pages.
7. Next, we recommend that you use the website you created in step one and play around with it. Install different themes, plugins, change colors on the website, and use YouTube when you have a question to get a quick answer for what you need to do.  Also, we recommend that you design pages in Photoshop and learn how to put those designs into your own websites as well.
8. Once you’ve trained yourself for a few weeks, it’s time to speak with people to find someone who needs a website. It could be a local business, a relative, a friend, or even a teacher you have.  Many people need a website and when you first start, feel free to create one for $100 to practice.  Your best bet is to create the designs of the website in photoshop and then you can either code them into the website yourself, or work with a coder who can do this more quickly.
9. If you aren’t having any luck finding someone to make a website for, check out Upwork.com and you can probably find someone there. This website is free to join and if you offer the service at a low cost, it’s likely you’ll be able to get your first client.
10. Congrats! You’re officially a web designer and now all you need to do is keep making more websites and you can learn more skills as you go.  Be sure to increase your prices as your skill increases.

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Helpful Resources

• Siteground Hosting:  This platform is where you can choose a URL and host your website.  (Video Tutorial)
• Namemesh: This will help you choose a URL for your website.
• Lynda.com: This platform will teach you the skills you need to become a website developer.Course:Search for the course “WordPress Essential Training by Morten Rand-Hendrickson”
• Adobe Photoshop:  This is the platform you’ll use to design websites.
• Upwork.com: This will help you find new work when you’re trained as a web developer.
• WordPress CMS:  This is the CMS (Content Management System) that your website will be managed on.