A prominent web design company has recently launched a free online education program that instructs users on how to run their own web design business.
TechCrunch reports that the “do it yourself” (DIY) web design company Wix launched its “WixEd” program on July 10th. Totally free of charge, the WixEd program is made up of three sections: Wix Webmaster, which teaches users about web design basics, and two business classes that go over everything from the basics of running a small business to accounting, photography, and search engine optimization (SEO).
The program is run by a group of Wix instructors who help students with their assignments online and go over the assignments with them. One of the assignments requires students to build a website for an actual small business.
“It’s not only about building websites, it’s about being the person who is responsible for the online presence of a small business,” said Yuval Finkelstein, the director of the WixEd program. “All of the strengths that online marketing had two years ago are now available for small business owners, they just need the professionals that can do it.”
WixEd has been in development for three years and was released as a beta version at least a month ago. Wix reports that 80% of users watched at least two course videos and that 30% of the videos were watched in their entirety.
The videos feature experts in web design and all that it entails, from attorneys who specialize in copyright law to Google employees who specialize in Google Analytics.
Finkelstein claims that WixEd only takes about two to three weeks to complete but noted that some students of the beta program completed it in one weekend.
“We are sharing the minimum theory needed in order to explain the practical side,” he said. “You don’t need to learn the whole history of the web and how SEO started to understand what you have to do on your own site.”
Web design is becoming increasingly important for small businesses as online-based sales continue to rise. In 2011, for example, more than $1.1 trillion in sales were influenced by the Internet.