It’s already August and the year is about to draw to a close…how are doing with your work and projects? I know that inspiration is quite often hard to come by, and with our line of work inspiration is mainly the driving force. To give you a boost, why not read these 7 inspiring interviews by famous bloggers, web designers, and web developers, who have garnered success in their fields?
Are you ready to be inspired?!
7 Inspiring Interviews
Four of the interviews below actually focus on how their design blogs became a huge success. These blogs they have started simply as pet projects to teach other people about their passion: web design and web development. In the end, they managed to not only fulfill their wants, but they also managed to create entire communities for designers and developers by providing useful resources. This is one of the reasons why I once asked, Hey Web Designers and Web Developers, Are You Blogging Yet?
The following interviews will redirect to Founder Tips (except #1), 1WD’s sister website where we publish interviews and success stories of people.
Ready to be inspired? Go!
1. An Interview With Chris Coyier – Founder of CSS-Tricks
Chris Coyier is a web designer and a web developer who founded CSS-Tricks, a website that may or may not contain CSS tricks, according to him. I’m pretty sure everyone knows Chris so there’s no need for a lengthy introduction.
No secrets. I just wake up in the morning and do stuff all day. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: It’s amazing how much you can get done in a day if you just sit and you do it.
-Chris Coyier
2. Jacob Cass Explains How He Built A Successful Web Design Blog
Jacob Cass is one of the most known personalities in the web design industry. He has worked with several major brands like Disney, Red Bull, and Nike. He runs Just Creative, Logo of the Day, and Logo Designer Blog.
In this interview, Jacob tells what are the important things to tackle when it comes to brand building. He also explains how he built a massive social media following.
My blog is, and has been, the base platform for me to grow as a designer. It allows me to share my thoughts, insights and learn from others as well as provides a place to share my work, bring in clients, and make some passive income too. My blog and website is the backbone of my business.
-Jacob Cass
3. John Saddington On Making WordPress Theme Development A Great Business
In this interview John Saddington explains how he developed a WordPress theme in just six days. Soon it turned out to be a great business and he had to hire people to help him with it. The thing about his WordPress business is that, unlike the rest, it only has one product, and they’re very much focused on its development.
It’s not too complex to create your own WordPress theme.
In fact, it’s not too complex at all if you have any background, but the challenge is not so much in building the product, the challenge is to find the right target audience, the right niche or the right consumer market.
-John Saddington
4. Michael Martin On Running A Successful Web Business
Michael Martin is the founder of Pro Blog Design, one of the top blogs under web design and WordPress niche. He built a theme shop called Pliable Press, and is now building an application that will help teams work together fluidly online.
In this interview Michael shares how he started Pro Blog Design and how he monetized it successfully.
If I had to give one tip, then I’d say to have a razor sharp focus. You don’t get a big audience by appealing to everyone. Instead, you pick one area and rock at it.
-Michael Martin
5. Sacha Greif Explains How He Earned $15,000 From Selling His E-book
Sacha Greif is a freelance web designer who has been in the field for four years now. Currently he’s working with several startups and he has recently launched an ebook, with which he earned $15,000 from.
In this interview Sacha explains how he managed that amazing feat and how important passive incomes are.
There were three main phases of selling the e-book: the launch, after launch and affiliate promotion (selling the e-book through the third party sites).
During the launch, which was really good, I sold about 2000 copies in the first week or so, which generated revenue of about $8,000.
-Sacha Greif
6. Jacob Gube On Building A Fast Growing Web Design Blog
Jacob Gube is the founder of Six Revisions and is a co-founder of Design Instruct. He is a web developer who specializes in front-end development.
In this interview, Jacob shares how he manages one of the biggest design blogs along with how he manages all the contributors.
I had no experience with marketing or blogging prior to starting Six Revisions. My only experience in blogging came in the form of developing custom WordPress themes (which was, at the start, primarily a blog-publishing platform).
-Jacob Gube
7. David Appleyard Tells The Story Behind Design Shack’s Success
David Appleyard is a writer and web designer, he is the founder of Design Shack, a CSS Gallery turned Design blog. He currently works for Envato as the Tuts+ manager.
In this interview David shares the story behind Design Shack’s success and what makes a blog/website successful.
It’s important to have passion for the area you’re wanting to focus on. If the end goal of your venture is to make money, that’s likely to be fairly obvious from day one (and won’t lead to the best experience). Producing engaging, quality content is the most important thing to consider, and having a passion for your website’s topic is the best way to do that! Just start writing, and don’t worry too much about site’s details and features — those can evolve over time.
-David Appleyard
In a Nutshell:
Here’s a quick recap of all the important things the interviews made:
There is no such thing as the impossible. Things may be hard now but if you really focus on one thing that you are passionate about, you’ll eventually succeed given enough push. The thing is, you really need to be passionate about it in order to go on working.
All of them have blogs that they constantly update to share information they deem would be useful to everyone. The idea is that blogging actually increases creativity, it makes designers and developers grow more.
One thing that I learned is that you can either start your own business either with years of prior experience or simply start now. Both method works, and the only actual requirement to get things done is to do it. If you don’t have the necessary experience, double your take on it and work harder. Everything is achievable when you work hard.
So, what did you learn?