10 skills a web designer needs
Creating websites is not just about designing and programming. As the production system for the web becomes more complex due to the evolution of the field itself, technological advance, new demands and new user profiles, it is necessary to acquire new skills. Web designer Ben Hunt has listed the 10 skills every web designer should have:
Also, search engines that index websites are text eaters. Well-organized, structured and written content has a much better chance of getting a good position on search results pages than others that are not.
A common vice for all designers is to fall in love (first) and hate (later) their own work. Therefore, you have to be able to take some distance from your own creations and try to make a more realistic analysis. The holistic conception is not something that can be learned in a course, rather it requires some training in observing others and seeing how they behave in front of a computer.
Then, on a second level, we have those more specific aspects that make up the staging of the design: typography, image editing, 3D and the different resources that are used to materialize the design. Both levels are important: the most general allows to organize, clarify and facilitate the information; the second gives it a finish and finish that will make the product look unique and charming. But be careful: if we have not solved the general aspects of the design well, little will be able to make a nice decoration.
Each business has its own particular needs. It will be the experience and knowledge of the medium that help the designer to discern in which aspects he should pay special attention to the indications received and in which issues he can innovate by bringing his own personal touch. But it must always be borne in mind that great designs, bold and innovative proposals that set trends are very clear about their objectives and strive to achieve them.
How to survive in this jungle? A good starting point is to spend some time diving between the landmarks of the areas that interest us and regularly checking them out to see what's new. We can do the same with Twitter, which is a fantastic way to see what industry leaders and references are doing on different topics.
Optimizing pages so that they can be found by search engines is an important part of web design today. What's more, almost no one would hire a designer who couldn't. Keep in mind that there are marketing experts and search engines that are dedicated to 100% SEO and therefore we do not compete with them at work, but we must be able to complement each other and understand that if they ask us to include certain keywords, in certain places and with a series of precise labels it is not a whim but a need that we must satisfy. And if we don't work with experts, we should at least be able to provide a website with a decent level of optimization that allows search engines to index the site and provide clear descriptions on search results pages.
Google, eBay and Wikipedia are sites with a very simple and flat design that nevertheless works. However, many times you have to make an impact (more on our clients than on the end-users of the website) we have to rub the lamp to create some image that dazzles.
For my part, I think that knowing HTML and CSS is essential to dedicate yourself more or less professionally to web design. But that knowledge does not guarantee by itself that we know how to create good pages. Knowing HTML and CSS not only allows us to create the code for our page but even helps us create a way of thinking, organizing and working with the elements of the design, even though we are not ultimately responsible for the code. And it allows us not to depend on a person or a program to make a change or update our design.
If we don't know anything about business and we have to focus on one thing, it should be marketing. Create things that people want and make them choose our product or service above others. Once we achieve this, we will have to manage the money and make a list of our income and expenses to see if our work is worth it.
At this point, I would also add knowing the keyboard shortcuts of the programs you use most commonly. You really save a lot of time and gain productivity with it.
1. Writing and editing
The most necessary skill in any field of design is communication. In this sense, being able to clearly express ideas verbally and in writing is enormous capital and much more valuable than doing exotic tricks in Photoshop. Clear and effective writing helps the designer develop himself as a professional and enables him to help his clients establish their brand on the web. A good selection of words is also the starting point for usability: choosing the right words to tag the content, indicating the section of the site where the user is, or giving the content a title.Also, search engines that index websites are text eaters. Well-organized, structured and written content has a much better chance of getting a good position on search results pages than others that are not.
2. Holistic conception
Basically, it means being able to see a problem from different angles. Designing for the web is not a mechanical and simple exercise of moving content to a new medium. If we want a site to function as a piece of interactive communication, we have to put ourselves in the user's place and really think about what type of content would interest them and how it should be presented.A common vice for all designers is to fall in love (first) and hate (later) their own work. Therefore, you have to be able to take some distance from your own creations and try to make a more realistic analysis. The holistic conception is not something that can be learned in a course, rather it requires some training in observing others and seeing how they behave in front of a computer.
3. Design theory
Many designers tend to underestimate the conceptual and theoretical contribution of design theory. They believe that it is a series of abstract principles that little can contribute to something as "novel and dynamic" like web design. Nothing further from reality. On the web, the graphic component is fundamental and beyond the visual tricks or eye candies, you have to rethink the basic principles of design theory: composition, balance, proportions, colour, contrast and reading flow.Then, on a second level, we have those more specific aspects that make up the staging of the design: typography, image editing, 3D and the different resources that are used to materialize the design. Both levels are important: the most general allows to organize, clarify and facilitate the information; the second gives it a finish and finish that will make the product look unique and charming. But be careful: if we have not solved the general aspects of the design well, little will be able to make a nice decoration.
4. Listen & discern
The designers' ego is a complicated subject. Many think that his years of study and experience give him superior status over his clients who are unable to appreciate his creative ability and his obsession with achieving perfection in every pixel. They may have some reason, but we must never underestimate our clients, who generally have been in business for years and know their market much better than we do. Therefore, the basic rule is very simple: listen.Each business has its own particular needs. It will be the experience and knowledge of the medium that help the designer to discern in which aspects he should pay special attention to the indications received and in which issues he can innovate by bringing his own personal touch. But it must always be borne in mind that great designs, bold and innovative proposals that set trends are very clear about their objectives and strive to achieve them.
5. Self-learning
If for every new technology, product or service that appears in the market you are going to need to take a course, chances are you will lose a lot of money. Web design requires skills in visual design, technology, communication, psychology, programming, and empathy. That requires a constant effort to keep you updated both in the new version of Photoshop and in experimental psychology studies. It requires knowing the state of the art in web design but also the technological tools that are being used. You have to be aware of studies and research on the use of technology as well as new trends in design.How to survive in this jungle? A good starting point is to spend some time diving between the landmarks of the areas that interest us and regularly checking them out to see what's new. We can do the same with Twitter, which is a fantastic way to see what industry leaders and references are doing on different topics.
6. SEO
"If a tree falls in the forest but no one sees it, did that tree really fall?" Asks a classic philosophical question. In web design, existing means being present on the search engine results pages, that despite the enormous power of social networks, they are still a fundamental means of finding the content we are looking for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or search engine optimization is the name given to a set of techniques and strategies to make our site read, interpreted and classified by search engines.Optimizing pages so that they can be found by search engines is an important part of web design today. What's more, almost no one would hire a designer who couldn't. Keep in mind that there are marketing experts and search engines that are dedicated to 100% SEO and therefore we do not compete with them at work, but we must be able to complement each other and understand that if they ask us to include certain keywords, in certain places and with a series of precise labels it is not a whim but a need that we must satisfy. And if we don't work with experts, we should at least be able to provide a website with a decent level of optimization that allows search engines to index the site and provide clear descriptions on search results pages.
7. Graphic creativity
Why is this skill so low on the list? Because you can make a good site by following design theories without being creative. We can make a page that works and works without having to revolutionize the field of design. Yes, surely an innovative and original proposal gives a plus to our work, makes it recognizable and increases the quality of the service we offer, but first, we must ask ourselves if the site we are going to develop really needs it.Google, eBay and Wikipedia are sites with a very simple and flat design that nevertheless works. However, many times you have to make an impact (more on our clients than on the end-users of the website) we have to rub the lamp to create some image that dazzles.
8. Production of sites with HTML / CSS
A long time ago, thinking about a web designer who didn't know how to write HTML code was simply absurd. However, with the rise of visual design tools that automatically generate code (Dreamweaver) and a large number of companies that specialize in translating a design in Photoshop to HTML and CSS, this need was not so obvious.For my part, I think that knowing HTML and CSS is essential to dedicate yourself more or less professionally to web design. But that knowledge does not guarantee by itself that we know how to create good pages. Knowing HTML and CSS not only allows us to create the code for our page but even helps us create a way of thinking, organizing and working with the elements of the design, even though we are not ultimately responsible for the code. And it allows us not to depend on a person or a program to make a change or update our design.
9. Business sense
Making web pages is a business. Whether we work as a freelance, in a small company, a large company or a part-time occupation, the truth is that it is an activity for which we want to earn money. So it is important to know how the market works, how companies work and make reasonable business decisions. Much of this knowledge is given by common sense although it is also interesting to meet people from the environment either through friends, associations or events to learn from people with more experience.If we don't know anything about business and we have to focus on one thing, it should be marketing. Create things that people want and make them choose our product or service above others. Once we achieve this, we will have to manage the money and make a list of our income and expenses to see if our work is worth it.
10. Typing
A web designer spends most of his time behind a keyboard. Although technology has come a long way, we still can't find a better way to enter large amounts of text than typing it key by key. Although graphics and image editing programs are mostly handled with the mouse, there are many other activities that a designer does and that require writing: putting together a budget, sending an email, coding in HTML, CSS, PHP or whatever language, create a report or complete an online form.At this point, I would also add knowing the keyboard shortcuts of the programs you use most commonly. You really save a lot of time and gain productivity with it.
Flat design, the most popular trend on the web?
The flat design or flat design emerged some time ago by Microsoft as opposed to Apple. The firm of Steve Jobs is committed to a realistic design or skeuomorphism that imitates reality through the use of shadows,
textures and all kinds of visual tricks. Now, the flat design or, called “authentically digital” by Microsoft, as its name makes us understand, is a minimalist, modern, clean and simple design that has gained prominence in recent years thanks to its ease of adapting to any screen and which, according to web design experts, will continue to be a trend for many more years.
The flat design or flat design is influenced by the Swiss-style; a graphic design developed in Switzerland in the 1950s. At that time, the aim was to achieve unity of design through asymmetry in composition. The information you wanted to reflect had to be clear, readable and objective to make it socially useful and important.
Since 2002, Microsoft has implemented flat design as a distinguishing feature among other companies in its releases, which was dominated by large shapes and bright images accompanied by San-serif fonts.
Since we have a general idea of what flat design is, here we leave you its main characteristics so you can decide if this type of design is the one that best suits your website or not:
Thanks to its adaptive design (Responsive Design), the flat design is perfect to accommodate any type of format, including smartphones, screens with retina display, tablets and monitors, thus facilitating the preservation of the minimalist look of the web on other devices. In addition to their functionality, flat-design web pages or applications are easy to use, have a modern appearance, are more efficient and take less time to load their content, which, in addition, stops looping and goes straight to the point. To give you a good idea of applying this type of design, Microsoft, with its Windows 8 operating system, pioneered flat design. The neuvoo landing page is also a great example of flat design.
If you decide that flat design is the best option to modernize your website, you just have to remember that less is more!
The flat design or flat design emerged some time ago by Microsoft as opposed to Apple. The firm of Steve Jobs is committed to a realistic design or skeuomorphism that imitates reality through the use of shadows,
textures and all kinds of visual tricks. Now, the flat design or, called “authentically digital” by Microsoft, as its name makes us understand, is a minimalist, modern, clean and simple design that has gained prominence in recent years thanks to its ease of adapting to any screen and which, according to web design experts, will continue to be a trend for many more years.
The flat design or flat design is influenced by the Swiss-style; a graphic design developed in Switzerland in the 1950s. At that time, the aim was to achieve unity of design through asymmetry in composition. The information you wanted to reflect had to be clear, readable and objective to make it socially useful and important.
Since 2002, Microsoft has implemented flat design as a distinguishing feature among other companies in its releases, which was dominated by large shapes and bright images accompanied by San-serif fonts.
Since we have a general idea of what flat design is, here we leave you its main characteristics so you can decide if this type of design is the one that best suits your website or not:
- Flat design is characterized by the use of flat and vivid colours with few variations in the palette to favour contrast on dark backgrounds and images.
- With their clean and minimalist compositions, they offer a simple and distraction-free content, where the text must be reduced to what is strictly necessary. In the flat design applies the well-known saying less is more in order to achieve a more functional design.
- The typefaces that reign in the flat world is Sans Serif fonts with an elegant and moderate use of sizes and bold to highlight content.
- The primary difference between the realistic design and the plan is the absence of visual effects, gradients, textures and shadows, which tend to cause a distraction for the user and recharge the visual environment.
- Finally, geometric shapes and simple icons are essential in the flat design, because they provide sharpness to the overall design.
- Still not convinced? We mention some advantages that not only highlight its aesthetic part but its functionality, which is what ultimately counts.
- This type of design facilitates the use and understanding of graphic interfaces on the screens of mobile devices such as your smartphone or tablet.
- When designing a web page, you will have much more freedom in the use of resources and, thus, you will be able to transmit the information you want more directly (the well-known call to action). For this reason, this type of design is more recommended for landing pages or single-page websites where the web community that visits you will be able to find and understand the information more easily and quickly.
- Due to its simple design, the use of bright colours will produce a friendly environment in your web portal and will provoke a series of positive emotions for the user.
If you decide that flat design is the best option to modernize your website, you just have to remember that less is more!
How to make money online: 10 formulas that work in 2020
So you want to make money online.
You have probably already found a lot of bloggers who explain how to do it. And probably most of them are not earning a single euro (run away from whoever tells you to fill out surveys or click on ads to generate income).
Not to mention those who only make money selling courses where they teach how to make money. Paradoxical, right?
Is not my style. I have spent years living on the Internet, generating thousands of euros and learning the ins and outs of online business.
First of all, you should know that making money online is not easy or fast. It never has been, despite what you read or wants to sell you.
I have had to put in a lot of effort and sacrifice a lot of my free time. I have spent sleepless nights, I have spent hundreds of hours learning and I have given up my vacation while trying to earn my first euros.
But it was worth it.
The great advantage is that technical knowledge is no longer necessary. Before you should know how to program to create a website, but today there are systems so intuitive that even a child would know how to do it.
So the opportunity is now.
In this article, I am going to reveal to you the 10 best ways to earn money on the Internet for its economic potential, simplicity and ability to generate income in a stable way. And since I want to be totally transparent with you, I will also show you my own results.
I remind you that here you will not find high-risk systems or ridiculous income such as completing online surveys or playing poker. If you want to make real money, you're going to have to work it out for yourself.
Active versus passive income
Before starting, you should know that there are two ways to make money online: active and passive systems.Assets are those that require that you have to be doing something to generate income, such as selling crafts made by you, translating texts or playing poker.
Liabilities are those that, once created, require virtually no further action on your part. Think about the advertising revenue generated by website readers or the dividends you get with an investment. After the initial effort, then you don't have to do practically anything else.
The latter is the most desired.
Thanks to passive systems you can continue to generate income while you sleep, are on the road or spend your time on anything else. They not only give you money: they also give you freedom.
And it's not that active systems are bad, but the Internet is like a storefront that never closes. It's always up and running, and you can take advantage of it to get a steady stream of income.
How to make money online: 10 formulas that work
Let's now see the best ways to earn money online for their economic potential, simplicity and reliability, and the results I have achieved with them.1. Make money with affiliate marketing
This is the system with which I earned my first euros, and in my opinion, it is one of the most affordable ways for any beginner who wants to generate passive income.It hardly requires knowledge, the investment is almost nil and its earning potential is very high. Also, once assembled you can practically forget about it: only minimal maintenance will be necessary.
Affiliate marketing consists of creating a website where you will publish analysis and product recommendations. In these analyzes, you will put links to other web pages where they sell the product. If you end up buying it, the seller will give you a commission for referring a customer.
Logically, you must first have come to terms with those web pages. Luckily, today there are affiliation platforms (the best known is Amazon Affiliates) where you only have to register to be part of that agreement.
Let's say you are passionate about photography. You could create a web page where you would post reviews of different cameras or lenses with a link to the product page on Amazon for readers interested in buying.
This, for example, is an affiliate link.
Your website would appear in search engines like Google when people search for analyzes or comparisons of those cameras. They would enter your item, click on the affiliate link, and if they ended up buying, Amazon would give you a percentage.
Do you see where the grace is? You create a web page, publish articles and, once they have visited, it becomes an automatic system that you should not be constantly attending to.
The income potential of this system depends on the market you have chosen (the more that category of products is sold online and the more expensive they are, the better), but also on the time you invest.
Basically, these are the tasks you will need to do:
- Create a website. You can do it in 15 minutes with this tutorial.
- Write analyzes, comparisons and recommendations. You will spend most of your time here. You can pay someone to do it, but I recommend that you write first to gain knowledge and practice.
- Position your website in search engines. Although in the less competitive markets your website can position itself practically, sometimes you will need to present your website in other places on the Internet to make it more visible.
Okay, but how much money are we talking about?
I like that you ask me this question. So you can see what this system is capable of, this is what two of my affiliate websites generated during the month of July.
This is the oldest website (I am very fond of you), is a technology niche:
And this one is barely 11 months old, but it is already around 3,000 euros per month:
Amazon Affiliate Revenue 2
If I add the rest of the websites, the figure exceeds 7,000 euros per month on autopilot.
As if that were not enough when Christmas arrives the income multiplies by two or even by three. This is what I gained with a single website during the month of December:
Amazon affiliates December
Earning some money with affiliation is relatively easy, but if you want to bill figures like these, you will have to spend a lot of time and effort.
So forget about anyone who sells you that you can set up such a system on a Caribbean beach overnight. To earn more than a dozen euros a month you will have to sacrifice a large part of your free time.
The good news is that, after the initial effort, you can dedicate yourself to picking the fruits. Not to mention that you can keep the system at a distance, working from anywhere in the world (something important for a travel lover like me).
2. Create a website and monetize it with Adsense
Another of the best ways to earn money online passively is to monetize web pages with advertising.The concept is similar to that of affiliate marketing: you create a web page on a topic, you attract readers and once they are there you earn money when they perform a certain action.
The great advantage of advertising is that you do not need the reader to buy for you to take a commission. The most common is that you earn money when the reader clicks on an ad (known as PPC -Pay Per Click-).
In fact, this is how the world's largest ad network works: Google Adsense.
Google Adsense
Adsense is so popular thanks to its ease of use and number of advertisers. You simply sign up and, once your request has been approved, you can already place ads on your website by inserting a small code.
With Adsense, you do not choose what type of ads appear: Google is responsible for doing it automatically according to the theme of your website and the profile of the reader. In this way you can show personalized ads for each reader, which has three benefits:
- Maximize the money you can earn from advertising. The more relevant and specific an ad is, the more likely the reader will click on it.
- It saves you from having to contact any advertiser directly. There are hundreds of thousands of companies advertising through Adsense.
- That the ads do not seem forced. Being personalized for the reader and thematic of the web, they integrate quite naturally into the pages.
Unlike affiliate marketing, here the idea is to create a web page that provides general information on a certain topic instead of publishing comparisons and analysis.
For example, you could create a website where you would publish cooking recipes or information about dogs or even dinosaurs (like this website).
The potential of this system depends fundamentally on three things: the theme you have chosen, the number of visits the website has and the percentage of those visits that click on the ads.
Adsense Ads
Adsense ads on a dog website.
The first point, the theme, is essential because according to that you will earn more or less money per click.
For example, on a cat website, perhaps Adsense will advertise cat food. However, on a website about university courses, there will surely be advertisements for postgraduate and master's degrees that cost a fortune.
Which one would you earn the most money when a reader clicked?
Indeed, in the second. Because the advertised product is more expensive, the advertiser is willing to pay more money.
To find out what potential a theme has with Adsense, use the Keyword Planner. Enter the theme there and see if it is something that is searched a lot in Google, and how much advertisers will pay you per click (which is called bidding).
A part of the bid (68%) is left by you and the other (32%) by Google, so the higher the bid, the more money you can earn with a website on this topic.
For example, if you created a website with information on recipes, each click of your readers would generate between 0.16 (68% of 0.24) and 0.19 euros (68% of 0.28). This is an average of 0.175 euros per click.
The percentage of readers who click on an ad is usually around 1.5%. Therefore, if you had two thousand page views a day, the monthly income calculation with Adsense would be the following:
- 60,000 page views / month x 1.5% clicks x 0.175 euros = 157.5 euros / month
In this case, the click is paid little, so to earn a good figure you would need to have a huge volume of visits.
If you created a website with information on forex and currency trading, with the same number of visits you would earn much more money:
Forex Adwords
Each click would generate about 7.8 euros (68% of the average of the bids), so 60,000 page views per month would translate into:
- 60,000 page views / month x 1.5% clicks x 7.8 euros -> 7,020 euros / month
In addition to what you get paid per click, the income potential is determined by the number of visits the website has. And that depends on the number of people who search for information on this subject on Google.
Fortunately, Google's Keyword Planner also offers a rough range of how many times a month a particular word or phrase is searched for 🙂
I know first-hand people who bill thousands of euros a month with Adsense. In my case, I have used it as a complement in poorly paid topics and still, it provides me with almost 1,400 euros per month:
Although this topic pays little, I make up for it with the volume of visits.
Monetizing web pages with Adsense is relatively simple, but the most profitable topics are usually VERY competitive. To generate thousands of euros you must choose a topic with high potential and work hard creating content and positioning it in Google.
3. Sell courses and services with your blog
If the previous two were two of the best ways to earn money online, this is the BEST way to earn money online.But like everything, the more money something can generate, the more effort it requires.
It is about creating a blog on a specific subject, positioning yourself as an expert in it, and selling your own paid online courses.
Course sales page
Sounds difficult? It requires effort, but it is not that complicated. The key is to choose a topic that you master, where there are people interested, and build a reputation by publishing content.
The advantage of online payment courses is that they can become totally passive systems because once created it costs you the same to sell one as two hundred. You just have to publish it in video or PDF format and sell it through an automated system to your subscribers.
This is what I do on my blog social skills.com. As I am passionate about social psychology, a few years ago I decided to start a blog offering scientific and practical information to shy people looking to improve their social relationships.
At first, it had hardly any readers, but little by little it became popular. Today I monetize it with online courses where I teach to overcome social fears and achieve a more charismatic personality.
Every time someone subscribes to the blog, a sequence of emails is activated, sending them valuable information. After a week, you receive an email presenting the premium video course in case you want to register.
In this way, I bill on autopilot an average of 1,000 euros per week with something that makes me feel proud.
Weekly earnings
There are blogs and online courses on almost any topic you can think of. From courses to learn to read faster, family finance management or Excel for letter students.
The only requirement is that you fix a problem that your audience would be willing to pay for.
Generating money with this system is not fast since you will have to work hard to earn the trust of the readers, but you will be building a long-term, solid and differential online business.
The biggest obstacle is not technical (today it is extremely easy to create a blog), but mental: many people believe that they have nothing to teach, are afraid of exposing themselves to criticism, or spend months wondering about which topic to choose.
You should know that the vast majority of bloggers have started with these doubts. But they took the step, and as they created content for their blog, they gained more experience and knowledge.
So if you think you have something to contribute, no matter how small it is (there will always be someone who knows less than you), and you are not afraid to expose yourself publicly, this is your best option.
4. Offer your services on specialized pages
If you do not have or do not want to create a blog or a website (although anyone without technical knowledge can do it today), another way to get a handful of euros online is by doing small online services.The operation is very simple:
- You register on one of the online platforms that put you in contact with potential clients
- You publish your service and put a price on it
- You wait to be hired
The jobs that are usually offered on these platforms are simple things, such as translating a text, editing a video, designing a logo, writing a resume or preparing a PowerPoint presentation.
There are even those who offer to write irresistible Tinder profiles, your imagination is the limit!
Home Fiverr
Your income will depend on the number of hours and effort that you can dedicate to it regularly. Some people make a whole salary or even several thousand euros a month, but it will generally be useful if you need extra income.
Currently, the most popular platforms and therefore with the greatest ability to bring you clients are Upwork, Fiverr and Freelancer:
- Upwork: It is only in English, but if you master it has enormous potential due to the number of clients it has.
- Fiverr: it is in Spanish and it has many clients demanding services, but the prices are low.
- Freelancer: it is in Spanish, but it has less volume of clients and it is not so easy to use.
Gig Fiverr
So the usual thing is to get a few jobs at the beginning or have to offer them at a lower price, but little by little you will have more clients and you can raise your prices.
5. Work as a virtual assistant
If you find it interesting to earn money by offering online services and you want to ensure more regularity and a more stable income, you can consider working as a virtual assistant.The virtual assistant is one of the new professions that has brought with it the technological revolution of the internet, and whose demand is expected to continue growing in the coming years.
Workana Virtual Assistant
Basically, it consists of giving remote support to bloggers, digital entrepreneurs or even companies in relatively simple or mechanical tasks, so it does not require too specialized skills.
It is not a passive system, but in return, it offers you the freedom to work from wherever you want, a very attractive salary and also saves you from having to create a website. You could literally start working as a virtual assistant tomorrow.
A virtual assistant usually deals with the following tasks:
- Email management
- Dissemination of content on social networks
- Management and organization of the agenda
- Billing management and income and expense reports
- Design of images and banners
- Community management in Facebook groups
- Writing newsletters, pages and articles
- Video and/or podcast editing
- Support in online courses and webinars
- Survey analysis and reader feedback
- Organization of face-to-face events
- The key here is in the confidence that you can earn from your client since then he will be delegating tasks of greater responsibility to you.
The fees of a virtual assistant are usually established according to an hourly price that usually goes from 10 to 40 euros per hour worked, although some specialized or highly reputable assistants can charge considerably more.
If you want to take the step as a virtual assistant, there are three ways to get your first clients:
- Contact directly with entrepreneurs, bloggers or small companies and present your services. Try to provide a sample of your work so they can check the quality of your services.
- Be on the lookout for virtual assistant requests from bloggers who are starting to stand out to their subscribers.
- Sign up for Freelancer, People Per Hour, Workana or Upwork, because many entrepreneurs look for virtual assistants there. If they are satisfied, then you can propose a long-term collaboration.
6. Work as a copywriter
Generating content that attracts and loyal readers is a fundamental pillar of any digital strategy, and this is well known by both large companies and small entrepreneurs.
So every day more than 3 million articles are published on blogs. There are posts about economics, animals, photography, food, health, marketing, video games, philosophy, politics ... Anything you can imagine.
This need to create content has led to the appearance of another professional profile in high demand in the online world: the editor.
Low Post Editor
Working as a copywriter is a very fast way to start earning money online since there is a constant demand. You don't need great skills to do it either: you just have to like writing and be good at it.
How much money can a copywriter earn?
It depends on your experience, quality of the texts and your speciality, but in general, the rates tend to be between 3 and 10 euros for every 100 words, so a 2,000-word article can perfectly be paid at more than 100 euros.
I have been working with editors for my affiliation projects for years and several of them, dedicating themselves full time, generate a monthly income of over 2,000 euros. But some can earn much more!
Copywriters who specialize in creating sales pages are usually the highest paid, as they are concerned with creating those messages that must convince people to buy. Thousands of euros have been paid for a page of this type.
If you are interested in starting to carve a path for yourself (and an income) as a copywriter, I recommend that you sign up for specialized platforms to connect copywriters with clients who need content, such as:
iWriter: one of the most popular. It doesn't pay too well, but it makes up for it with the number of customers who need content.
LowPost : Pay better and have a decent customer volume.
Textbroker: Lets you negotiate the price directly with customers, but you won't find much demand.
7. Translate content
If you consider that you lack creativity or prefer something more mechanical than working as an editor, and you have a good level with some language, you can make profitable your knowledge by performing online translation services.
There are many companies that need to translate texts from their blogs, websites or posts on social networks and who are looking for natives to do that job. Also, it is usually quite well paid.
In fact, at the time Netflix opened a few applications to find people to translate their series online through its Hermes program.
In the case of the translation from English to Spanish Castilian, they got to pay 12 dollars per translated minute, not bad!
Netflix translation rates
Now they no longer require this service, but there are also online platforms that connect translators with companies that need translation services, such as Gengo.
Gengo is an online platform that has provided translation services to YouTube or Sony, among others. You just have to register on their website and pass their level test. From there, you will advance in rank and access better-paying jobs as you translate.
The great advantage of Gengo is that you can choose what work you do and organize the schedules to your liking, which gives you enormous flexibility to earn money from anywhere.
Other interesting options are One Hour Translation (they also ask for a level test) or Textmaster.
And now the key question: how much money can you earn per month translating?
Well, according to Gengo's own calculations, if you regularly translate from other languages into Spanish, you will achieve an average monthly income of $ 435.
Gengo Fees
It's a nice bonus, but it's not going to give you a full salary, either. The great advantage is that you can do it from anywhere in the world, it does not force you to anything and you can go at the pace you need.
8. Create a YouTube channel
With the purchase of YouTube by Google and the exponential growth of the consumption of content in video format, there were people who, overnight, began to earn a lot of money with their video channel.
Yes, there are more and more competitors, but YouTube is the second Internet search engine, only behind Google, and it is expected that in a very short time it will become the first. That means that its economic potential is booming.
It is difficult to replace an entire salary, but if you can bring knowledge or fun to users and have fun in front of the camera, in the medium term it is possible to generate some extra money with a YouTube channel.
Youtube recipes channel
How much money are we talking about?
Surely you have heard that some YouTubers bill millions of euros a year. But you can count them on your fingers. For you to do your calculations, you should know that, on average, YouTube advertising pays between 0.20 and 3 euros for every 1,000 views of a video.
This figure depends on the theme of the channel since the content on Forex or health is usually paid better than channels on video games or curiosities.
Let's suppose that after 18 months you manage to build a channel with 100,000 subscribers, which is not bad.
If you upload one video a week that gets 75,000 views and YouTube pays you 1 euro for every 1,000 views, your income would be approximately 300 euros per month.
As you can see, you must publish videos consistently if you want to make money with YouTube, so it is not really a very passive system unless they go viral or have thousands of searches a day.
Fortunately, there are also alternative ways to increase income:
- Contact companies and offer to put their advertising on your videos
- Sell personalized merchandise, such as shirts and caps with your channel's logo (when popular)
- Accept donations with Patreon
If you already have a stable income in some other way, betting on a YouTube channel is not going to mean too much investment and over time it can give you more than a pleasant surprise.
9. Sell online through dropshipping
Another good way to earn money online is by selling products online.
I know people who are achieving more than 4,000 euros a month of profit with very simple but specialized products, so if you do it right it is possible to generate a good income.
You should know that, mainly, there are two ways to sell online:
- Create your own website (again, it's easier than it seems) and sell your products there
- Sell your products on third-party platforms (such as Amazon)
If you don't manufacture products, don't worry. It is as simple as finding a manufacturer with little popularity, buying the product and selling it to the final public through your website or platform, adding your margin to the price.
For this reason, most often look for Chinese suppliers. Although you will have to carry out the import procedures, you will have a greater margin.
The main drawback is that you will have to carry out the tasks of billing and shipping the product, which can be quite a lot of work. To avoid that hassle, it is best to find suppliers that work through dropshipping.
Dropshipping Oberlo
The dropshipping system will allow you to convert your online store into a passive business. With it, you do not keep stock or take care of shipments, you just take care of sending the order data to the manufacturer (there are very simple automated systems) and he takes care of getting the product to the customer.
Note: There are already websites like Oberlo that put you directly in touch with manufacturers that work with dropshipping.
The profit margin is usually between 20 and 50%. The inconvenient? If the shipment does not arrive or a return has to be attended, customers will claim you and you will have to resolve the issue with the manufacturer.
The keys to the success of this system are:
- Find a product with more demand than supply
- Achieve a serious and reliable supplier
- Have a good profit margin
- Bring traffic to the web with organic positioning, Adwords or Facebook Ads
- It is also possible to earn money by selling your own handmade products. If this is your case, I recommend you take a look at Etsy.
sell on Etsy
Etsy is an online store where only manufactured products are sold. You can register and create your own store where users can buy your products.
10. Sell courses on online platforms
If you are not attracted to the idea of selling products online, having to find distributors and create a website, an excellent alternative is to sell your knowledge on online platforms.
The concept is simple: create a video or text course on a specific topic, upload it to platforms like Udemy, and put a price on it.
To create the course you can record yourself on video, record a presentation on your screen, or do it in text format (in pdf files), just as you would for your blog.
This type of platform receives thousands of daily visits from users looking for courses on a subject, so if yours meets any demand and meets the expectations of users, you can earn a lot of money.
Okay, but how much money can you earn?
In general, these types of courses are not usually very expensive (according to Udemy, 90% of the courses sold are priced at less than 50 euros).
Udemy also has a calculator, the Udemy Marketplace Insights, which allows you to calculate the potential of your online course according to your theme.
For example, if you were to create a course on photography for beginners, this would be the potential:
Udemy Photography Course
As you can see, most photography courses generate just over 30 euros per month, while the most successful courses exceed 400 euros per month.
Of course, there are also instructors who generate thousands of euros a month, such as this web design course that currently sells for 10 euros and has almost 20,000 registered. These cases are a tiny minority, but calculate what your author has earned!
Udemy
If you want to build a successful course on Udemy, I recommend this strategy:
- First list those topics in which you think you know more than the population average
- Create an instructor account on Udemy and enter your topics in the Udemy Marketplace Insights to calculate the potential of your course
- Stick with the theme where the monthly income from popular courses is highest
- If in addition the demand is HIGH and the number of courses MEDIUM or LOW, you are facing a good opportunity
Creating a course is laborious and not many instructors reach great numbers, but if it is of quality and the evaluations are positive, little by little you will increase your turnover.
Hybrid or Native App: Which is Better?
Before starting I would like you to see the following image and deduce which application is hybrid and which is native:
(at the end I will give you the answer)
Making a native or hybrid application has always been a matter of controversy since HTML5 became mature enough to almost match the functionality of a native application. Why? Well, because native mobile development is difficult.
Platzi has courses for native development on iOS and Android with Java or with Kotlin, React Native and Xamarin or also hybrid with Electron and more.
Before we know what works best in each case, let's clarify a few things.
If they require something additional to run like a browser or a container, they are hybrid. This is the case of Apache Cordova, Ionic and Unity. If they run directly on the OS, they are native, just like ReactNative, NativeScript and Xamarin do.
Even hybrid development is not unique to the mobile ecosystem. There are hybrid desktop apps that you use frequently like WhatsApp, Visual Studio Code, Brave, Github, Slack. How you will notice are very good applications and complex enough to think otherwise.
This perception was taken because the first iterations of Phonegap gave us very bad products in the app stores, but the tools have already matured enough to match almost any native application.
Take for example Ionic, which despite being hybrid, its components are designed to respect the guidelines of each operating system. In addition, the connection to hardware is very wide.
Screenshot 2017-08-04 15.42.15.png
By the way, using another language does not mean that it will be a hybrid application. The React Native and Xamarin case run natively thanks to something called Bridge. Therefore performance is not affected.
I think you are still afraid and think that something that facilitates development on mobile phones by default is bad. However, cross-platform development has something that the native does not have: being able to share learning between platforms.
If you are a web developer, this is the best time to make your jump to mobiles using everything you learned with either React Native or Ionic. If you like Microsoft technologies, C # now allows you to reach iOS and Android mobiles thanks to Xamarin.
Perhaps, there are cases in which there is no other option than to use native development and official languages since it is the only way to access things at a very low level and the latest APIs of the operating system. But at the level of performance or the perception of users who will be using your application, they will notice very little difference against something native or created using some other language. If this is not your case, give other options the opportunity.
Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, Uber Eats, are just some of the applications that millions of users use every day and were created using JavaScript as a language and React Native as a library.
The games you love to play on your phone arose thanks to the ease that Unity has for using a single code base and delivering it to almost any OS and I assure you that it does not bother you that it is hybrid.
In the end, the limitations of using one option or another will depend a lot on how many users and functionalities your application is gaining.
IMG_2776-85ac17b0-adf9-432a-9cd8-10695bfd181a.png
You don't have to carry something from the start, changing is fine. For example, spoiler alert, at Platzi we decided to migrate the application from native with Swift and Java to React Native. This allows us to have the talent of the team that React uses daily on the web in the mobile application, and this translates to our Platzinautas having the same functions at the same time, no matter what OS they use. And having a single code base makes development easier.
The most important thing is the Indian, not the arrow. Choosing native does not mean that it will automatically be better or that using any other platform will not end in a quality product, currently, we can find good and bad examples of both hybrid and native applications.
(at the end I will give you the answer)
Making a native or hybrid application has always been a matter of controversy since HTML5 became mature enough to almost match the functionality of a native application. Why? Well, because native mobile development is difficult.
Platzi has courses for native development on iOS and Android with Java or with Kotlin, React Native and Xamarin or also hybrid with Electron and more.
Before we know what works best in each case, let's clarify a few things.
Hybrid is not developing in a different language
One of the biggest confusions that exist at the moment to develop on mobile is to think that if we do not use Swift or Java (the official languages of iOS and Android) it is a hybrid development, but it is not. The biggest difference between a native and a hybrid application is not how they are scheduled, but how they are run for the end-user.If they require something additional to run like a browser or a container, they are hybrid. This is the case of Apache Cordova, Ionic and Unity. If they run directly on the OS, they are native, just like ReactNative, NativeScript and Xamarin do.
Even hybrid development is not unique to the mobile ecosystem. There are hybrid desktop apps that you use frequently like WhatsApp, Visual Studio Code, Brave, Github, Slack. How you will notice are very good applications and complex enough to think otherwise.
The rejection of hybrid applications
We are no longer in 2011, so saying that a hybrid application or made natively with other languages will have performance problems is no longer entirely true.This perception was taken because the first iterations of Phonegap gave us very bad products in the app stores, but the tools have already matured enough to match almost any native application.
Take for example Ionic, which despite being hybrid, its components are designed to respect the guidelines of each operating system. In addition, the connection to hardware is very wide.
Screenshot 2017-08-04 15.42.15.png
By the way, using another language does not mean that it will be a hybrid application. The React Native and Xamarin case run natively thanks to something called Bridge. Therefore performance is not affected.
User experience vs Development Experience
Talking about the experience that we are going to deliver to the users against the way that we are going to develop the product is the only factor that should matter.I think you are still afraid and think that something that facilitates development on mobile phones by default is bad. However, cross-platform development has something that the native does not have: being able to share learning between platforms.
If you are a web developer, this is the best time to make your jump to mobiles using everything you learned with either React Native or Ionic. If you like Microsoft technologies, C # now allows you to reach iOS and Android mobiles thanks to Xamarin.
Perhaps, there are cases in which there is no other option than to use native development and official languages since it is the only way to access things at a very low level and the latest APIs of the operating system. But at the level of performance or the perception of users who will be using your application, they will notice very little difference against something native or created using some other language. If this is not your case, give other options the opportunity.
Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, Uber Eats, are just some of the applications that millions of users use every day and were created using JavaScript as a language and React Native as a library.
The games you love to play on your phone arose thanks to the ease that Unity has for using a single code base and delivering it to almost any OS and I assure you that it does not bother you that it is hybrid.
In the end, the limitations of using one option or another will depend a lot on how many users and functionalities your application is gaining.
IMG_2776-85ac17b0-adf9-432a-9cd8-10695bfd181a.png
You don't have to carry something from the start, changing is fine. For example, spoiler alert, at Platzi we decided to migrate the application from native with Swift and Java to React Native. This allows us to have the talent of the team that React uses daily on the web in the mobile application, and this translates to our Platzinautas having the same functions at the same time, no matter what OS they use. And having a single code base makes development easier.
The most important thing is the Indian, not the arrow. Choosing native does not mean that it will automatically be better or that using any other platform will not end in a quality product, currently, we can find good and bad examples of both hybrid and native applications.
The different programming languages for the web
HTML language
Since the emergence of the Internet, websites have been published thanks to the HTML language. It is a static language for website development (acronym in English for HyperText Markup Language, in Spanish for Hypertext Markup Language). Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Files can have extensions (HTM, HTML).Syntax:
<html> (Start of HTML document)<head>
( Headboard )
</head>
<body>
( Body )
</body>
</html>
<b> </b> Bold
<p> </p> Define paragraph
<label> Opening the label
</tag> Close the tag
Advantage:
Simple to describe hypertext.Text presented in a structured and pleasant way.
You do not need excellent knowledge when you have a web page editor or WYSIWYG.
Small files.
Rapid deployment.
Easy learning language.
All browsers support it.
Disadvantages:
Static language.The interpretation of each browser may be different.
It stores many labels that can become “garbage” and make correction difficult.
Design is slower.
Labels are very limited.
Javascript language
This is an interpreted language, it does not require compilation. It was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape Communications. Mainly used on web pages. It is similar to Java, although it is not an object-oriented language, it does not have inheritances. Most browsers in their latest versions interpret Javascript code.Javascript code can be integrated into our web pages. To avoid incompatibilities, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) designed a standard called DOM (in English the Document Object Model, in its translation into Spanish the Document Object Model).
Syntax:
<script type = "text / javascript"> ... </script>Advantage:
Secure and reliable scripting language.Scripts have limited capabilities, for security reasons.
Javascript code is executed on the client.
Disadvantages:
Code visible by any user.The code must be downloaded completely.
You can put your site's security at risk, with the current problem called XSS (stands for Cross-Site Scripting renamed to XSS for its similarity to CSS style sheets).
PHP language
It is a programming language used for website creation. PHP is a recursive acronym that stands for "PHP Hypertext Pre-processor", (initially it was called Personal Home Page). It emerged in 1995, developed by PHP Group.PHP is a server-side interpreted scripting language used for generating dynamic web pages embedded in HTML pages and executed on the server. PHP does not need to be compiled to run. For its operation, you need to have Apache or IIS installed with the PHP libraries. Most of its syntax has been taken from C, Java, and Perl with some specific characteristics. The files have the extension (PHP).
Syntax:
The syntax used to incorporate PHP code is as follows:<?
$ message = "Hello";
echo $ message;
?>
It can also be used:
<? php
$ message = "Hello";
echo $ message;
?>
Advantage:
Very easy to learn.It is characterized by being a very fast language.
Object orientation is supported to some extent. Classes and inheritance.
It is a multiplatform language: Linux, Windows, among others.
Ability to connect with most database managers: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, among others.
Ability to expand your potential using modules.
It has documentation on its official page which includes a description and examples of each of its functions.
It is free, so it is presented as an easily accessible alternative for everyone.
It includes a lot of functions.
It does not require a definition of variable types or detailed low-level management.
Disadvantages:
A web server needs to be installed.All work is done by the server and is not delegated to the client. Therefore it may be more inefficient as the requests increase in number.
Code readability can be affected by mixing HTML and PHP statements.
Object-oriented programming is still very poor for large applications.
It hinders modularization.
It makes it difficult to layer the application.
Security:
PHP is a powerful language and interpreter, whether included as part of a web server in the form of a module or executed as a separate CGI binary, it is capable of accessing files, executing commands, and opening network connections on the server. These properties make anything that is run on a web server insecure by nature.
PHP is specifically designed to be a more secure language for writing CGI programs than Perl or C, and with the correct selection of configuration options at compile and run time, and following some correct programming practices.
ASP language
It is a server-side technology developed by Microsoft for dynamic website development. ASP stands for Active Server Pages, it was released by Microsoft in 1996. Web pages developed under this language require Internet Information Server (IIS) to be installed.ASP does not need to be compiled to run. There are several languages that can be used to create ASP pages. The most widely used is VBScript, native to Microsoft. ASP can also be done in Perl and Jscript (not JavaScript). ASP code can be inserted along with HTML code. The files have the extension (asp).
Syntax:
<%%>Advantage:
It uses Visual Basic Script, being easy for users.
Optimal communication with SQL Server.
Supports JScript language (Microsoft Javascript).
Disadvantages:
Disorganized code.A lot of code needs to be written to perform simple functions.
Proprietary technology.
Expensive website hosting.
ASP.NET language
This is a language marketed by Microsoft, and used by programmers to develop, among other functions, websites. ASP.NET is the successor of the ASP technology, it was launched to the market through a market strategy called .NET.
ASP.NET was developed to solve the limitations that your predecessor ASP offered. Created to develop simple web or large applications. For the development of ASP.NET, you can use C #, VB.NET, or J #. The files have the extension (aspx). For your pages to work, you need to have IIS installed with the .Net Framework. Microsft Windows 2003 includes this framework, it will only be necessary to install it in previous versions.
Syntax:
<% %>
Advantage:
Completely object-oriented.User and custom controls.
The division between the application or design layer and the code.
Facilitates the maintenance of large applications.
Increased server response speed.
Higher speed.
Greater security.
Disadvantages:
Greater consumption of resources.
JSP language
It is a language for creating dynamic websites, an acronym for Java Server Pages. It is aimed at developing web pages in Java. JSP is a cross-platform language. Created to run on the server-side.JSP was developed by Sun Microsystems. It shares advantages similar to those of ASP.NET, developed for creating powerful web applications. It has a page engine based on Java servlets. To function, you need to have a Tomcat server installed.
Syntax:
<% = new java.util.Date ()%>Characteristics:
Code separate from the logic of the program.Pages are compiled on the first request.
It allows separating the dynamic part from the static one in web pages.
The files are found with the extension (JSP).
JSP code can be embedded in HTML code.
JSP elements
The elements that can be inserted in the JSP pages are the following:
Code: "Java" code can be embedded.
Directives: allows you to control servlet parameters.
Actions: Allows you to alter the normal flow of execution of a page.
Advantage:
Fast execution of servlets.
Create server-side pages.
Multi-platform.
Well, structured code.
Integrity with Java modules.
The dynamic part is written in Java.
It allows the use of servlets.
Disadvantages:
Learning complexity.
Python language
It is a programming language created in 1990 by Guido van Rossum, it is the successor of the ABC programming language. Python is usually compared to Perl. Users consider it a cleaner programming language. It allows the creation of all kinds of programs including websites.Your code does not need to be compiled, so it is called that the code is interpreted. It is a multi-paradigm programming language, which forces programmers to adopt a particular programming style:
Object-oriented programming.
Structured programming.
Functional programming.
Aspect-oriented programming.
Syntax:
Example of a class in Python:def draw_muneco (option):
if option == 1:
C.create_line (580, 150, 580, 320, width = 4, fill = "blue")
C.create_oval (510, 150, 560, 200, width = 2, fill = 'PeachPuff')
Advantage:
Free and open source.General-purpose language.
Lots of functions and libraries.
Simple and quick to program.
Multi-platform.
Open source license (Opensource).
Object-Oriented.
Portable.
Disadvantages:
Slowness because it is an interpreted language.
Ruby language
It is a very high-level, object-oriented interpreted language. Developed in 1993 by Japanese programmer Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto. Its syntax is inspired by Phyton, Perl. It is distributed under a free software license (Opensource).
Ruby is a dynamic language for quick and easy object-oriented programming. For those who want to start in this language, you can find an interactive ruby tutorial. A site with information and courses in Spanish is also available to these users.
Syntax:
puts "hello"Characteristics:
There is a case-sensitive difference.Multiple expressions bylines, separated by semicolons ";".
It has exception handling.
Ruby can load extension libraries dynamically if (Operating System) allows it.
Portable.
Advantage:
It allows developing solutions at a low cost.Free software.
Multi-platform.
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