About
Web designing since 2010
I’ve been a full time web designer since January 2010. Before that time I’d been working in sales and marketing for different advertising companies. I’d been working at a local radio station based in Melbourne and before that time I’d worked in print advertising. After my time in radio advertising, I’d gone off to work in sales with a St Kilda based web company. It was there that I learned about the web technologies being employed by clients to maintain their marketing edge.
Over the years that I’ve been involved in the web design business, I’ve seen industries completely change and evolve in ways that have made the web impossible to ignore. The book industry in particular has gone from a predominantly bricks and mortar retail environment, and shifted over to digital eBooks sold through partnered retailers. Seeing the collapse of several bookstores across Melbourne made me realise how important my role as a web developer will be in the years to come.
Other business sectors affected include the clothing retail industry. Manufacturing has almost completely moved offshore and now the online retailers are a force to be reckoned with for the average clothing retailer. What was once an optional added extra to a website, the e-commerce website is now fast becoming a necessity. Thankfully, I feel a website designer like myself is able to provide an affordable website with e-commerce and content manager so that small Australian business can remain competitive.
Why I became a web designer?
I guess it all started way back when I was working as a sales rep in the print industry. I was noticing how several clients would invest large sums of money into a series of print ads and the return on investment was quite low. Sometimes they invested several thousand dollars to run some ads in a local paper and very little response came from any of the ads. What I did think about when these print campaigns were put together was the amount of money was plenty for a website. The money invested in print would have been much better invested into a website. The main reason was that the print ads only run for a week or two and then they’re thrown out by the readers. With a website, I knew that they’d be up for as long as the client kept their site up.
My journey so far…
When I first began building websites it was all about putting something simple together. The time it took was a month or two and the process was a little slow. Now it’s amazing how much has changed! WordPress websites have made the process incredibly efficient and it’s allowed me to develop websites with better photography and illustrated design.
The second type of website that is now possible is a highly customised design with clever animation and embedded videos. The new evolution in web technology means that this second type of website is better suited to five to ten pages.