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> Once upon a time you could make a good living building business websites (i.e. the local florist) Hum, back that up, because I don't think you could ever mak

> Once upon a time you could make a good living building business websites (i.e. the local florist) Hum, back that up, because I don't think you could ever make a good living with that. No florists is going to pay you the same salaries that going to work for Shopify pays you, small local business just didn't have the means to hire someone to build a website, that's why there was a market for things like Drupal, WordPress and Shopify in the first place. So in reality, those frameworks created jobs, because now you can actually be paid by a local florist to setup and manage a WordPress for them, and the equation works out that for what they pay you and the time it takes you is now profitable. And you have all the jobs opened up from the company developing the frameworks as well.

munk-a 5y ago
I've got a friend who coasted through the early 2000s plopping out websites for random businesses for around 1k a pop - for a weeks work that's a pretty good take home. The florist example was probably a poor choice since they tend to have pretty thin margins - but restaurants (while also not having a bunch of money) tend to have advertising budgets that can float a relatively modest cost for plopping out a website.
- pedrosorio 5y ago
  > 1k a pop - for a weeks work that's a pretty good take home 52k a year with no time off / benefits?
  - recursive 5y ago
    44k with 8 weeks off sounds better.
    - didibus 5y ago
      Glassdoor says a web dev freelancer today in the US averages 30$ per hour and it can range from 60k to 80k a year. So I don't, know, maybe their data is wrong, but it seems to be an even better gig today.
      - marc_io 5y ago
        I don't think it is wrong at all. It may be a niche – specially in the US –, but with 46.3% of the world population still without internet access, the long tail is indeed long.
  - nostrademons 5y ago
    That wasn't bad in the early 2000s. Median U.S. household income was $42K in 2000, and you didn't have these $half-mil/year FAANG/unicorn jobs back then.
- blacksmith_tb 5y ago
  Sounds like an ok gig, until you have to support them. I used to throw together and host little sites for friends for free, now I'd rather keep the friendships intact and tell people to just use Squarespace or some other builder.

munk-a 5y ago

I've got a friend who coasted through the early 2000s plopping out websites for random businesses for around 1k a pop - for a weeks work that's a pretty good take home. The florist example was probably a poor choice since they tend to have pretty thin margins - but restaurants (while also not having a bunch of money) tend to have advertising budgets that can float a relatively modest cost for plopping out a website.

pedrosorio 5y ago
> 1k a pop - for a weeks work that's a pretty good take home 52k a year with no time off / benefits?
- recursive 5y ago
  44k with 8 weeks off sounds better.
  - didibus 5y ago
    Glassdoor says a web dev freelancer today in the US averages 30$ per hour and it can range from 60k to 80k a year. So I don't, know, maybe their data is wrong, but it seems to be an even better gig today.
    - marc_io 5y ago
      I don't think it is wrong at all. It may be a niche – specially in the US –, but with 46.3% of the world population still without internet access, the long tail is indeed long.
- nostrademons 5y ago
  That wasn't bad in the early 2000s. Median U.S. household income was $42K in 2000, and you didn't have these $half-mil/year FAANG/unicorn jobs back then.
blacksmith_tb 5y ago
Sounds like an ok gig, until you have to support them. I used to throw together and host little sites for friends for free, now I'd rather keep the friendships intact and tell people to just use Squarespace or some other builder.