Thursday, March 25th: We will offer a free preview webinar to give more details about our WD Certified Program and to answer questions you might have about certification.  You can register for free by clicking here.

Saturday, March 27th: Benjamin Bradley will offer a free preview webinar specifically about the WP Developer Certification course and will answer questions you have about this program.  You can register for free by clicking here.

Thursday, April 1st: James Dalman will offer a free preview webinar specifically on the WD Consultant Certification course and requirements.  He will answer your questions about this program.  You can register for free by clicking here.

Thursday, April 15th: James Dalman will discuss some of the secrets to building your brand for you or your business.  Q & A session at the end of the free webinar.  You can register for free by clicking here.

WP CERTIFIED DEVELOPER COURSE:

This live webinar course will kick off Saturday, April 17th at 8 a.m. CST and be a full day event from WebDesign.com.  This is a two part series, with the second and concluding class taking place on May 1st.  Please note that you do not have to take the additional certification test we offer, but you MUST BE A WD MEMBER to attend this amazing course that will be offered by Benjamin Bradley.

For more information, please visit our website at www.webdesign.com.

WebDesign.com is proud to finally announce our WD Certification Program!

The WD Certification is an additional program that focuses on three main tracts or areas - Consultants, Developers, and Designers – the primary roles in the web development industry. The WD Certification is a valuable asset for any serious entrepreneur, designer, or developer who wants to invest in their skills, build their business profits, and have a powerful brand name backing them up in the market place.

WebDesign.com Certification offers amazing tangible benefits including brand recognition and credibility, the opportunity for potential business leads, and access to exclusive content in white-label format for rebranding.  Our program will also provide group mentoring and coaching from respected experts in web design, branding, and web development.

All instruction that will be provided is based on industry experience and is practical information you can use immediately.  It is relevant to today’s technology and will continue to evolve, which means you will always keep current with the latest trends and developments.

How does the WD Certification Program work?

We are pleased to let all of our current and new WD members know that the Certification Program courses will be INCLUDED in the yearly membership. This means anyone with a WD annual membership will have access to the courses; however, the three certification fees are not included in the WD Membership.

The courses will initially be offered as LIVE EVENTS via webinars through your computer. Once we have the recordings (audio and/or video) they will be placed in the WD Membership for instant viewing and download.  We will also continue to offer live events throughout the year if you prefer hands-on training.

The WD Certification is offered to any person who has completed the course work either through the live sessions or by video.  Once a member has decided they would like to become certified, that member will be required to pay the certification fee and pass the test in order to earn the certificate and benefits.

How Much is the Certification Fee ?

The WD Certification fees are an introductory price of $1,000 USD for each of the certifications you are interested in.  You must be a WD Annual Member ($397) in order to qualify for certification.  The WD Certification courses are included in the WD Membership and you do not have to become certified if you do not want to invest the additional fees.

How Do You Sign Up?

The WD Certification is currently available by invitation only.  If you would like to be considered for the introductory program and certification, please e-mail James Dalman at james@webdesign.com

Need More Information?

Please look through our WD Certification information on this website for the details and benefits of this program.  You can also register for the FREE WD CERTIFICATION WEBINAR coming up on Thursday, March 25, at 6 p.m. Central Standard Time.  (Registration details will be posted today).

Benjamin was the International Business Development Director for GarageGames.com and was instrumental in its acquisition by IAC in 2006.  He also worked as the Vice President of an international non-profit responsible for training NGOs around the world in the proper uses of technology. This included the largest micro-finance organization in India.  Benjamin is also a successful entrepreneur and has a wealth of knowledge in WordPress and Drupal that he brings to our WebDesign.com team and members.

We also have a couple fun facts about Benjamin …

• He has traveled through over a hundred countries and was born in Karachi, Pakistan.
• He was struck by lightning while watching Stephen Segal’s “Marked for Death” in a mountain cabin.
• He has recorded several musical albums with some bands out of Nashville and toured throughout the South.

We are pumped to have Benjamin Bradley on our team and he has some excellent course material he will be adding to the WD Membership. He will also be very instrumental in our new WebDesign.com Certification Program which will be announced today.

Welcome aboard Benjamin!

I do want to apologize to everyone who was promised a live show on Monday. We had so many meetings scheduled throughout the day it kept us away from our computers, and there was also such a drain on bandwidth, that we couldn’t even upload our ten minute video we created.  There will be some very exciting news resulting from our trip to SXSW that I hope will make up for the delayed announcement.

I’ll let you in on some new information throughout the day and the announcement will be posted soon!

WD Certified Program

I am pumped to announce that we will be launching a WD Certified Program that will focus on two specific core tracts: WD Developer and WD Consultant.  The certification is going to be a great benefit to entrepreneurs, web designers, web developers, and others who are pursuing work or a career in the web media marketplace.  The official details will be announced from our live show at SXSW in Austin, Texas next week (Monday, March 15th) and then posted here on the WebDesign.com website.

BTW – If you are an WDU Annual Member,  you will get a special advanced announcement on Friday, March 12th, in our Membership area.  One of the perks being a member!

Consulting

Our team has been asked many times if we could provide advice or insight into how we’ve set up our live shows to website and social media strategies to how to become great bloggers.  The answer is absolutely!  We will now offer a limited amount of consulting opportunities for those needing help in a variety of areas.  You can see the details by visiting the WebDesign.com Consulting page.

Web Design Services

We will no longer be offering web design or development services to clients. This new strategy and focus will help us do what we do best which is training, education, and consulting.  Additionally, with our new WD Certified Program and marketplace, we want to be able to reward our Certified Partners with the opportunity to partner with people who have these needs.

>> WebDesign.com will also be revealing upcoming courses next week along with some other special news!  So make sure to follow us with your RSS reader or sign up for our newsletter.  Exciting times ahead!

Before I get into this post, I want everyone to know there is no magic bean or secret potion to making money.  I’m not trying to get you to go to a “meeting” or sign up for the latest “break through” – there is no pie in the sky dream I am selling, but I am going to share a quick idea on how you can really make a good living if you are willing to work at it.

Web design is a growing field.  There are people who are experts to those who are novices making money part-time on the web.  This is a fact.

If someone asked me today a sure fire way to create a business that would sustain them and allow for the flexibility that so many entrepreneurs dream of, I would say learn how to install and set-up websites and blogs on WordPress and then learn how to customize premium WordPress themes.  There is a huge mass of clients who need this kind of help and with millions of people moving onto WordPress, you have a great opportunity.

Aren’t there already a lot of people doing it?

Yes there are, but quite honestly many are not doing a good job at it.  There is room for leaders who can do things better or differently.  And again, there are millions of people using WP.  If you have an eye for design or can learn the Design Hacks we’ve been teaching, then you will really have an edge on the competition.

How do you get started?

My recommendation is visit the commercial WordPress site to learn a little about it.  Then I would set up a free blog to see how WP works and watch some our free tutorials from iThemes.  Get comfortable with WordPress first!

The idea is to take small steps.  Once you’ve done some homework I would suggest taking a few online courses (free or paid) to learn the basics including learning how to set up a hosting account and installing premium themes.  It will take an investment of time and money, but for what you do invest, you will get so much more out of it!

Final Thoughts…

I have spent 20 years in the branding and design industry and I have never seen a time where there is as much opportunity as there is today –even with the economy jacked up as it is.  I’ve said this to all of the friends in our WebDesign.com community that if I wasn’t a part of this business today, I would be jumping all over the chance to get an All Access Membership and learn to customize our themes.

PLEASE KNOW that I am not a programmer and failed a class on HTML.  You don’t have to be a programmer to do this, I can assure you of that, but you will have to learn some things and realize that you just can’t push a button to make this all work.  Any worthy goal requires commitment and hard work, but if you are willing to do that, you could have an awesome side or full-time business in web design.

If you have questions, feel free to contact us for conversation.

I interviewed Terrell Sanders, who will be teaching the workshop, and asked him to give a couple of tips from his 20-plus years of experience.

This is a can’t miss workshop for those wanting to get into freelance web design, or already doing it and needing some good tips on how to manage projects better. Trust me, you creative types need it!

RESPOND.

One word that gets missed on too many opportunities.  One action that people love and expect.  One thought on how you can differentiate yourself from the thousands of other design firms or entrepreneurs all fighting for customers.

It seems simple but one of the biggest complaints I have heard over the course of twenty years is that a potential or existing client would like a timely response to their inquiry, their question, or their needs.  Even if you are not interested, don’t know the answer, or cannot fulfill their request you should have the decency and courtesy to respond – with something…just acknowledge them.

You can make a fan and great impression with this strategy — or not.   It’s really up to you!

At WebDesign.com we love using WordPress as our Content Management System (CMS).  WP does just about everything you can dream about and need for a highly effective website or blog – especially with the additional use of premium plug-ins!  And while we promote using WordPress over any other platform on the planet, there has been one nagging problem with easily moving or backing up your entire site … until now!

Originally moving your website to a new host or taking a test site and launching it required a lot of moving parts.  You would have to export your content and save it, then do a back of your images, reload all of it to your new home, and then reinstall all those widgets you set up and love.  It really was time consuming and a pain (not to mention you might lose some content).  Now there is a simple solution to do all this with ease.

Plug-In Buddy, the newest edition to our company, is releasing a BETA premium plug-in called Back-Up Buddy this week that will allow a WordPress user to create a back up, migrate content and complete a restore of their existing site including the content, graphics, AND widgets all in one installation!  This plug-in is going to make life easier for a lot of people and ensure that your site is always ready to be restored to the original specs you have it set up to.

Visit www.pluginbuddy.com for more information on Back-Up Buddy and to keep in the loop with our other upcoming WP Premium Plug-Ins. WP enthusiasts won’t want to miss it!