So I have made the decision to start a blog to discuss all things web related in the hope to drum up so interest in my site, share some views and maybe help other people looking to get into web design, I mean the job is all about interactivity isn't it?, so why not start helping others along this long path I'm walking.

I am a self taught web designer and have therefore not been to college or university to learn my trade and instead dedicated every day along side my regular job for the past 4 years reading, doing and testing. It's a difficult process and although I'm not all the way there yet, I think it would be a good idea to share my experiences of what I have done, and what think is a good way to make that transition to a career in web design. So here we go...

Your Goal
The first think you want to do is establish what you want to do. Do you want to be a designer, a coder, graphic designer? This may be too specific for some people to choose at this point, my choice was to make websites, and work freelance as this made sense being an english speaker in a non-english speaking country. I didn't consider which part of websites I wanted to make and didn't lean towards anything specific but I did have a strong urge to learn Flash This was alot more popluar 4 years ago. In my experience, just dive into low level web design and pick up all knowledge you can as this will help you later in your career, and you will eventually be drawn towards something that fits. Although I liked the idea of Flash and design, I now love to code and theme sites and find designing new sites a painful experience.

The Tools
Another way to ask this question is where to start? Well, a good way to find out what you need to know is to find some good web designers and ask them what they consider the important basics are, or if you don't know anyone, use forums. Another trick is to look on other peoples portfolio's and see what their skills are. Either way you will find roughly the same answer. HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are the 2 key basic languages you need to start with. Every site is built around these tools. In addition to these the next language that will be fairly popular will be PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. Now this is a thinking language so to say, if will enable your sites to be smarter and more interactive and knowing this language will be a big feather in your hat. Those would be the main things you need for building a site, but there are other tools you can add into sites to make them more user friendly or snazzy. Javascript for one is a useful tool to know but by no means essential. From there its also a good idea to have a little working knowledge of a graphic program. Many top designers use Photoshop which is beyond a doubt the most advanced image editing tool but don't overlook other programs also. I find Adobe Fireworks is a great tool for site designing and layout. You can then use tools like Photoshop for more precise image work. From there you will need to look into Content Management systems like Drupal or Joomla and then server side knowledge and MySQL would be very handy if not essential.

Experience
This will be one of the most difficult parts to overcome. Nobody will hire you if you don't have qualifications and no experience but if you have no qualifications but experience and are good at what you do, you will be rewarded. So how do you get experience? Work for free is the answer, you have to spend money to make money. Start to make a few sites for yourself to start with, maybe set a goal of what site you want to make, design and the create. See how you get along, and learn from the experience. When your comfortable try to seek out some work with local businesses or friends. Generally if the company are not paying you and you explain its a learning process, the customer will have tolerance and you will have space to develop and learn. This is also good for gaining skills of working with customers. Through working for free, you will gain experience, get a bit or recognition, and maybe attract more customers where you can possibly charge a small fee. All this free work will be added to your portfolio of work and be used to attract jobs in the web field.

Gain Recognition
As you know web design is a very social community based business, people help you and you help other. That's how we progress. The more people that know about you and what you can do, the more interested people will be to work with you. Remember above when I advised you to search forums for help, this could be you answering questions for another designer on the way up.
So, learn, read test and help others as much as you can online and in the web domain and you will soon get the recognition you deserve. Also try and get the opportunity to meet with your piers. There are many places that web designers meet and geek out, especially Drupal developers. This is great way to pass out a few business cards and maybe shake a few hands. You will meet great friends and contacts if not potential employers.

So once you have come as far as you can with the above, you might have a small steady flow of work, maybe not enough to quit your main job and proceed into full time web design. You have a little reputation, you feel happy and confident in your own ability, it's time to get a job.

How does this happen? I'll let you know.