Web development skills to start earning money

In this blog, we are going to see what are those web development skills to start earning money.

When you learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript you are ready to earn money as a web developer. Those are some of the web development skills to start earning money but what are the exact libraries, frameworks, or points you need to know before starting earning money as a web developer. And where you can start earning money as a web developer?

The minimum web development skills to start earning money are:

• Basic Understanding of how websites work
• You should know HTML and CSS at least at a high intermediate level
• Learn Javascript & its library JQuery to make everything easy
• To be able to create a responsive website
• As a bonus, you should have expertise in a server-side programming language and database

Who is a web developer?

As stated in Wikipedia, A web developer is a coder (programmer) who creates websites using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Python, etc.

In my words, a web developer is a creative problem solver who solves problems in businesses, organizations, and their clients using their web programming skills.

How to become a web developer?

To become a web developer you don’t need to have a college degree or to go to an institute, you just need the skills that you can use to develop websites through coding. You can learn web development online through many online platforms such as Youtube, Udemy, etc.

To get started you must start learning the fundamentals of web development and then learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript to become a front-end web developer.

And when you have a good grip on the front-end, then you can jump to back-end development by learning a server-side programming language. You can learn PHP or Python to get started in the back-end. If you want to know more, I have written another blog post about how to become a web developer without a college degree.

Now that it is clear who is a web developer and how to become one, let me explain the points of web development skills to start earning money that I mentioned above.

Basic Understanding of how websites work

This point is the most important one and the fundamental of web development skills to start earning money.

To earn money as a web developer, you need to become a good web developer first. And without knowing how websites work, you can never become one.

Here is a graphical diagram of how a website works.

In simple words, a website is stored on a server and it has a domain name such as developerwings.com. When you type the domain name like developerwings.com in your browser, your browser will send a request to the server asking for that page, and the server will read your codes and generate an HTML, CSS, and Javascript page and respond back with that page.

This is just a basic understanding of it, there are more technical things that you need to know such as DNS, VPS, and other stuff.

Do you know HTML & CSS well?

HTML & CSS are those fundamental things that a web developer can never neglect. These are the most basic things that people learn when starting to think about web development.

If you don’t know HTML and CSS you can’t tell yourself a web developer, there is no website that has no HTML in it. And this is one of the web development skills to start earning money.

HTML is used to structure your website layout. And on the other hand, CSS is used to make your layout and structure beautiful.

Example

A perfect example can be if a website is a human. Then the HTML would be the skeleton and the meat. CSS can be the makeup to make the person beautiful or add some good clothing. And the brain would be the server-side language such as PHP and Python.

So that’s why you need to learn HTML and CSS first before starting web development.

How much HTML & CSS is enough to start earning money?

When I say you should know HTML & CSS at an intermediate level to start earning. I mean that you should be able to clone any simple-looking website. Some websites that you can try to clone using HTML and CSS can be Netflix landing page, google home page, or a blog site.

When you know that you can clone any simple-looking website and you have practiced it then you know HTML and CSS at a very good level. And that makes you a good front-end web developer.

Well, HTML & CSS are fundamental to becoming a good front-end web developer but you can’t miss Javascript in it. So let’s dive into Javascript.

Learn Javascript & JQuery

With HTML and CSS you can create a static website but you can’t do stuff like doing something on a mouse clicking on a button, searching in a table, collapsable content, and many other things that are only possible because of JavaScript. And Javascript is one of the important web development skills to start earning money.

What is Javascript?

Javascript is a programming language that is used to create interactive and dynamic websites and applications. It is used on almost every website. 97% of the websites use Javascript. It can be vanilla Javascript or by using its libraries such as Jquery, react or angular, and much more!

What is Jquery?

JQuery is a library of Javascript which makes javascript easy to deal with. Vanilla Javascript (core javascript) can be hard for beginners as well as so much time-consuming, well to solve that problem, we have Jquery.

How much Javascript & Jquery I should know to start earning money?

Javascript & Jquery are very important to web development skills to start earning money. You need to know javascript and Jquery at a level where you can add mouse Events (such as click, mouse enter, mouse out, key up, key down, submit, etc). And learn how to deal with DOM (Document Object Model).

When you know these things, then you can do things like a responsive menu, some effects on your website to make it look good, and other cool and awesome things.

To be able to create responsive websites

We are in an era where we have access to the whole internet with only our smartphones. Most people use their smartphones to explore websites.

For that reason, all websites you develop must be responsive. We can call a website responsive when it changes its layout according to the device size to make it readable.

For example, If you are reading this blog post on a laptop or computer then the content of this blog post should look like this:

But if you are using a smartphone then the content should look like this:

Now developer wings is a responsive website. Same like that the website you will build should be responsive because your clients will demand that.

Responsiveness of a website is done using CSS and a little Javascript. So you must know both of them to make your website fully responsive.

Server-Side Programming Languages & Database

When you are done with front-end web development, you can start diving into back-end web development. At this point, I expect that you are able to create or clone any website design. And now you want to make them functional or you want to give the website a brain.

The reason I put the server-side programming languages as a bonus is that you can still earn money as a front-end web developer. But if you know a server-side programming language then you will become a full-stack web developer which has its own pros.

Who is a back-end web developer?

A back-end web developer is the one who makes the site functional and deals with the database using server-side programming languages such as PHP, Python, etc.

Let’s say Developer Wings is the website you are creating. Then the front-end developer will create the website design and code it in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Makes the content looks good on different devices, adds good colors, chooses a good font for the website, and does all the graphical things.

But the back-end web developer will work on the functionalities, features, and database on the site. So he will make the site functional, add the feature to publish a new blog post, users management, and do the comment functionality, etc.

For Example, If you comment on this blog post then it will be stored in a database and then shown to everyone on this page. That is done by a back-end developer.

To become a full-stack web developer, you can learn programming languages such as PHP, Python, or Javascript (it can also be used as a server-side programming language).

Who is a full-stack web developer then?

A full-stack web developer is one who knows both, the front-end and back-end. So a full-stack web developer will design the website as well as makes it functional and deal with the database.

You will need to learn front-end fully as well as a server-side programming language along with a database to become a full-stack web developer.

How much Back-end development is enough to start earning money?

As a back-end developer, you should be able to create secure login systems, and blogs, able to deal with files, sessions, cookies, and much more things.

In other words, you should be able to create websites that have the basic functionalities and CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) system in them. You should be able to create a website like Developer Wings.

Where to start earning money with those skills?

When you have a little experience in web development, you can start earning money in a lot of ways. You can do freelancing, jobs, teaching, or as a content creator. There are much more ways you can earn. The example I told you about was only a drop from the ocean.

My income source as a full-stack web developer is freelancing. I’m working on a lot of other things as well but my main focus is freelancing. And trust me there is a lot of money in freelancing. When you become an expert in a programming language over time, you will get high payments from your clients.

You have a lot of options to get started as a freelancer, you can get in touch with your clients personally. What I suggest is to take the help of a freelancing platform such as Fiverr. I personally use Fiverr to freelance, although I have some clients outside as well.

I started freelancing when I knew how to create a CMS (content management system). So I was confident that I can handle a client’s requirements. So I joined Fiverr and I start earning. I was not an expert or something. I was just an intermediate web developer but over time I’m able to handle creating any website.

Conclusion of web development skills to start earning money

So now again what are the web development skills to start earning money?

In conclusion, if you know HTML, CSS, and a little javascript and you are able to create a responsive website then you can start earning money through freelancing or any other ways. As a bonus, you can learn a server-side programming language to earn more and increase your demand.