Webmaster profession: from duties to prospects

The IT sphere is the area of professional activity that attracts the attention of many people who are choosing a new area of professional activity for themselves. It is constantly developing, expanding, improving, additional areas are opening up. And all this is extremely in demand in the consumer market. This area will constantly require highly qualified specialists. And this means that there will always be work, and the level of salaries in the IT niche is significantly higher than the average for the market as a whole.

It would take a long time to list all the professions presented in this area today. And we will not do this. Now we will consider only one option, but it may be of interest to many, as it is relatively simple in comparison with other options presented in this niche. In addition, it does not require long and complex training. It is enough to complete specialized courses or even independently study the relevant materials to gain all the necessary knowledge and skills to start work. In this case, we are talking about such a profession as a webmaster.

As part of today's review, we will dwell in more detail on what this profession is and what responsibilities such specialists will face in their daily work. We will provide the main advantages and disadvantages of working as a webmaster, and also get acquainted in detail with the skills that an applicant for such a position must have and the tools that he must learn to use. We will provide a number of tips that will help a young specialist improve the efficiency of his work and meet the expectations of the customer. We will tell you where you can find a job as a webmaster and what the average salary level will be.

Who is a webmaster and what are his responsibilities?

A webmaster is a specialist whose responsibilities will include support and administration of Internet resources and related applications. Most of them are hired already at the stage of creating a site in order to initially obtain a high-quality product that will be appreciated by both the consumer audience and search engines, systematically and steadily promoting the site to the top of the search results. Most of these specialists control the entire life cycle of the project and ultimately combine the professions of a programmer, designer, SEO specialist, content manager, and system administrator.

The first time such a profession as a webmaster was discussed was back in the 90s of the last century. And since then, it has continued to develop, expand, turning from a single one into a mass one. Today, in practice, you can often find situations where one webmaster takes on resource management, launches and attracts advertising, participates in affiliate programs, sells goods and services. But the larger the project, the more specialists it will attract.

But, in any case, everyone who applies for the position of webmaster must have sufficient knowledge and skills to cope with such work as:

• Directly creating a website. Here, the webmaster will take part in designing the structure and subsequent layout. From scratch, he will select the optimal placement of all elements and indicate their key parameters.
• Filling the site with content. Perhaps, another specialist will write the texts, but the webmaster must prepare a technical task for the materials, monitor the process of their preparation, deal with the direct placement, monitor the effectiveness of the work, namely, how well such publications appeal to the audience. That is, he will be responsible for ensuring that the site contains only high-quality materials that meet the goals of the business and the interests of the target audience.
• Monitoring visitor statistics. The webmaster must know how effectively the site attracts the target audience. Therefore, he must constantly monitor the dynamics of visits, monitor the depth of interaction and take a number of measures aimed at increasing involvement.
• Website administration. In this case, we are talking about interaction with potential clients, moderation of comments and reviews for aggressive statements, use of obscene language, responses to positive comments and conflict resolution, minimization of negativity. The webmaster should know what people say online about the resource he is working with.
• Control over the stability of the site, relevance of the SSL-certificate, regular updating of the technologies used and many other related works aimed at maintaining the stable operation of the site and its competitiveness.
• Monitoring current market trends and their implementation in your own resource, as well as in its development strategy. Thanks to this, it will be possible to maintain the relevance of the site at a high level, which will be the key to its high demand in the market.

As you can see, the range of work that a webmaster will encounter in his daily work is quite wide. This means that this specialist must not only have certain knowledge and skills, but also constantly develop in all these areas, monitor the latest trends and tendencies. This is the only way to maintain the relevance of the site and its high demand in the market, competitiveness.

Advantages and disadvantages of the webmaster profession

Before you start mastering the webmaster profession, it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the main advantages and disadvantages of this solution. This is what will allow you to assess your strengths and weaknesses, your own prospects and make the most informed decision. So, the main advantages of the webmaster profession include:

1. Stable and high demand in the labor market. Such specialists are in great demand today and will remain so for a long period of time, as long as the Internet and websites exist.
2. Possibility of remote work. You can work with websites from any corner of the planet, the main thing is to have access to the Internet. Most webmasters work from home, choosing the most comfortable schedule for themselves. The main thing is that the work is carried out and there is an appropriate result within the agreed time frame.
3. Good prospects for career growth. After the webmaster gains enough experience, shows himself well in the implemented projects, with a high degree of probability he will be able to move to management positions and even open his own agency.
4. Complete freedom in creativity. Practice shows that the work of a webmaster is not so much knowledge as intuition, understanding which method should be used in a particular case in order to get the maximum result. Of course, you can't do without the relevant knowledge, but you still need to be able to create, test unconventional approaches, creative ideas.
5. Continuous development. We already said at the beginning of the review that the IT technology market is developing very actively and dynamically. New directions and methods are constantly appearing, and you, as a webmaster, will need to thoroughly understand all these nuances, keep your finger on the pulse of events. This is the only way to keep the website relevant, that is, you will have to study literally all your life. Perceive this as constant self-development.

And now just a few words about the disadvantages of this profession. So, one of the most serious problems in this case can be called irregular working hours. On the one hand, this is good, then you work when it is convenient for you, adjust the working day to yourself. But in reality, you will often encounter projects that require immediate revisions, more time and effort than can be accomplished within an 8-hour workday. And then no one will ask if you have a free minute to make adjustments. A webmaster's workday can be 10, 12 hours, or even more. Will there be extra pay for overtime? Most likely - no.

In addition, you will be responsible for the entire project. And if one of the related specialists makes a mistake, then you will have to answer for it and correct it. And this means that additional pressure is created, which not everyone will want to withstand. But you also need to understand how deep and extensive knowledge in a fairly wide area you must have in order to master the profession and become a good specialist in it.

That is, on the one hand, the webmaster has quite broad opportunities and good prospects for personal development, career growth. But on the other - such activity will require from you a high level of responsibility, readiness to constantly learn new things, and rework.

Qualities that a person must have to become a good webmaster

In order to become a good webmaster, you must initially have the appropriate inclinations and character. In particular, the chances of success in this profession will be greater for people who have the following qualities:

• Creativity. When working with web sites, it is necessary to select such methods and tools that will subsequently attract the attention of the audience, make it return to the same resource again and again. Only by showing a creative approach, originality can you create sticky site. Your product should stand out from the crowd, have fundamental differences from competitors' sites. Without a creative approach, this is unlikely to be achieved. In addition, it is very important to choose the right target audience and send them ideas that will not go unnoticed. It is especially important for a person who will work with advertising, traffic arbitrage to have such a skill. Classic solutions do not work here. In addition, it will not be possible to use other people's creative ideas, because they will not give the desired result: the ideas that the audience has already gotten used to seeing everywhere have simply become commonplace. Something special is required here, developed specifically for your audience. As experienced webmasters say: "You need to have 100 ideas for one of them to work."
• High stress resistance. This is one of the mandatory requirements that are spelled out in the requirements for applicants for the position of webmaster. We have already mentioned above that the work is creative, and in order to get good results, it will be necessary to work through a huge number of ideas in an attempt to find the one that will give an excellent effect. In addition, in the work you will have to deal with other specialists, clients, find solutions that can satisfy all requests. In some cases, you will have to pause the entire work process in order to draw appropriate conclusions, revise the decisions made. And this is already overtime work, an increase in its scale. And here it is important not to give up on everything and not to leave loudly slamming the door. It is necessary to find the strength in yourself and sit down to painstaking work in order to identify the mistakes made, correct them and move on to the implementation of the task.
• The ability to focus on individual tasks. In the work of the webmaster will have to deal with a huge number of different types of work. And here it is very important not to mix everything together, but to complete one task, and only then move on to another. Here preliminary planning, recording sequential actions will be of significant help. There is no point in scattering yourself on everything at once, otherwise none of the upcoming processes will be completed properly. Over time, you will learn to prioritize, see the most effective solution even before launching it into work.
• Absence of fear of making a mistake. In the work of the webmaster, situations when the initial idea fully justifies itself in practice are isolated. In most cases, you will have to come up with several ideas, test them in practice in order to see which option gives the best results and then build a strategy based on it. You will have to check the effectiveness of many parameters, starting from the general structure of the site and up to the work of the platforms where communication with the target audience is conducted. You will need to check what content and style of presentation the audience will appreciate the most, through which channels they will interact with your business. At this stage, such technology as A/B testing will be of significant help. In any case, you need to understand that a negative result is also good. It means that you have managed to identify non-working strategies and throw them out of consideration.
• Patience. The real work of a webmaster is to develop a strategy, test it, identify errors, draw conclusions, create a new strategy, and so on, all in a circle, until the ideal result is achieved. Without good patience, it is clearly impossible to implement all this in practice. Over time, as you gain experience, the number of erroneous strategies will decrease, since you will already understand what decisions to rely on in a given situation. It will be more difficult for beginners, because they clearly will not be able to make smart decisions right away.
• The desire to learn, improve, and comprehend new things. The area in which a webmaster will work is very flexible and extraordinary. It is constantly updated and expanded. New methods, technologies, and tools appear on the market. And you will need to navigate all this in order to be on trend and ultimately offer the market a really cool and modern product. If you are used to working the old-fashioned way, then this niche is clearly not for you.
• The ability to pay attention to the smallest details. All those wrong decisions that you will make in practice will almost always be associated with material costs. And there is a high probability that the customer will simply shift them onto you. Therefore, it is in your interests to minimize this. This means that each strategy before its launch should be worked out, thought out to the smallest detail, tested in conditions close to real ones. And here even the smallest details will be important. The main thing is to see them.
• The ability to analyze large amounts of information and draw appropriate conclusions. This is the only way to make the most correct decision, which will become the basis for the future strategy. We have already said that any mistakes provoke a loss of time and money. If technical knowledge and skills can be made up for, then the ability to look at things soberly and make competent, well-founded conclusions are the qualities that a priori should be present in a person. Only with their help can you achieve good success in such a profession as a webmaster.
• The ability to enjoy the process itself. If you want to become a webmaster only to master a well-paid and in-demand profession on the market, most likely, nothing will come of this idea. You must learn to enjoy the process itself, even if the results do not meet expectations. On the contrary, failure should stimulate you to work on the project even harder, recording failed strategies as your experience. This way you can avoid such mistakes in the future. That is, failures should not demotivate you.

If you are sure that all these qualities are inherent in you, we suggest moving on to further acquaintance with such a profession as a webmaster. You can't do without the relevant knowledge here either.

Knowledge and skills that a webmaster needs

In order to become a webmaster, you need to have certain skills, and at least the relevant knowledge at the very beginning. Today, it is not possible to get such a profession within the framework of universities. Therefore, you will have to master it either independently, by selecting the relevant materials from the Internet, or in specialized courses. Their variety is very wide today. These can be online classes, trainings, studying articles, thematic videos. That is, you will not have any problems with obtaining the relevant knowledge if you have the desire. You just need to understand what topics and issues should be given special attention. We would recommend that you include the following issues in the training program without fail:

1. Working with content management systems (CMS). This is the tool that absolutely every webmaster uses in their daily work. We are talking about platforms that combine a huge number of tools for creating websites and making appropriate adjustments to them later. Here you do not need to study a huge number of platforms - initially insert the best solutions, in particular, Joomla and WordPress. To use them, you do not have to learn programming languages, which can be attributed to quite significant advantages. To work with the platforms, you will just need to master the basic functionality. Most of these platforms already provide sets of ready-made plugins, templates, as well as elements that allow you to create an ideal product for your work. The interface through which management will be carried out in the future is quite intuitive and easy to use.
2. Working with a number of services for effective website management and monitoring their visibility in search engines. We have already said that only by constantly monitoring the results of all the actions you take when working with a website can you instantly respond to difficulties and problems in the work and eliminate them in a timely manner. These works can be automated using tools such as Yandex.Webmaster and Google Search Console. This means that it is important for you, as a future webmaster, to study these tools thoroughly. In particular, Yandex.Webmaster will allow you to monitor the work of the site and analyze its work in the Yandex search engine. With its help, you will see how well the pages of your site are indexed by search bots, you will be able to identify errors, analyze requests for the most popular pages for different keywords, and manage regionality. If you plan to work with the Google search engine, then you will need to use Google Search Console. Here the functionality is quite similar to the previous option, that is, it allows you to check the indexing of pages, analyze the queries that the audience uses to access the site, identify and fix errors, and optimize the site loading speed. With their help, you can monitor the efficiency of the site, which will help improve its position in search results and attract a new audience. In parallel with this, we also recommend paying attention to the Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics services, which will also help track the behavioral factors of visitors, study traffic sources, and obtain the most detailed statistics. Thanks to this, you will keep the entire process of website promotion under control.
3. Website administration. This is one of those tasks that the webmaster will also solve in his work. You must be prepared for the fact that it will be necessary to constantly perform small, but very important and significant tasks, such as paying for hosting, renewing a domain name, updating plugins, and other similar work. But here we would not recommend going too deep into theory. It is much more effective to literally implement these works in practice a couple of times. To do this, you just need to find the relevant instructions on the Internet and, based on them, pay for the same hosting step by step or perform related work.
4. Analysis of competitors' sites. Without the most extensive information about the current state of the market, about the methods and tools used by other companies working in the same niche, the webmaster will not be able to develop the most effective strategy for the subsequent promotion of the resource. Therefore, it is important to collect and analyze information from the sites of your closest competitors, to identify those points that contributed to their effective development and failed methods. This way, you will get strategies that will obviously be highly effective. This means that the time for website promotion will be reduced, and errors will be minimized.
5. SEO optimization. Without sufficient knowledge in this area, you cannot do without working with the site and its promotion in search results. In order to implement all these works, you need to have sufficiently deep knowledge in various areas. In particular, you need to understand what quality content is and how to properly saturate it with key queries. You need to know how search engine algorithms work, including in the process of generating results. That is, the work ahead is really very large-scale and non-trivial. To get a decent result, you will need to work hard, often by trial and error. But today there are already a lot of good materials on this topic. You just need to find the time and delve into their study.
6. Creating content for the site. Most of this work is done by copywriters, but the webmaster's task will be to prepare a technical assignment that takes into account the specifics of the site and includes a set of key queries, as well as relevant recommendations, on the basis of which a high-quality text will be written. And this means that you need to know what parameters in this case are worth paying attention to, what points have the most serious impact on the quality of the content. To solve these problems, you can also use specialized tools, such as Pixel Tools. With its help, you can analyze competitors' sites, identify the methods that they used in practice. As a result, you will receive a set of data that will help you formulate a clear technical task for the copywriter.
7. Website usability. Many of you probably know that stable user audience attraction and retention of its attention on the website largely depends on the convenience and thoughtfulness of the resource itself. That is, the webmaster in his work must necessarily think about the user experience and do everything to improve it. Here we are talking about the convenience of searching for the necessary product, service, information, contact information, attractive and user-friendly design, the absence of unnecessary elements and many other parameters. Therefore, it is important to understand what a user-friendly website is and do everything to implement such an idea. Your own user experience will significantly simplify such work.

Again, we repeat that to work, the webmaster must have an impressive baggage of knowledge. Yes, there is a lot to learn, but there are more than enough relevant materials in the public domain today. That is, you just need to ask yourself a question and systematically study all these nuances step by step.

12 tips for a novice webmaster

In order for your work as a webmaster to be most effective, we suggest using the following recommendations:

1. Create a working mailbox for yourself, ideally on the Gmail service. Of course, now it is very important to provide high indicators for the protection of personal data, but still the password should be as simple and easy to remember as possible, since it will have to be entered quite often.
2. Get acquainted with the existing website builders, test several options to choose the one that you will use in the future. In most cases, the functionality of one platform will be enough for you for further work.
3. When thinking over the design of the site, bet on laconic and harmonious color combinations, the absence of too bright elements. The font should be easy to read and contrast with the base background.
4. It is better to start working with the topics that you are well versed in. Subsequently, you will be able to expand them as you gain relevant knowledge and skills. That is, at one stage it is better to learn one thing, and then expand the base.
5. Think through the structure of the site down to the smallest detail, provide a brief description so that visitors can quickly understand what the site is about and assess the need for its subsequent study. At the same time, try to minimize advertising on the main page.
6. Don't immediately make a site that is too big with a huge number of investments. Think about how it can be optimized. Subsequently, you can always add new sections. That is, it is better to add new materials to existing blocks.
7. Register on several link exchanges, select a couple of sponsors whose advertising you will place on your pages and receive additional income. But the main thing here is not to overdo it: an abundance of ads will irritate visitors and reduce the user experience.
8. Even if you have something to say about your business, you don’t need to post it all on the site. First of all, focus on unique content that your user audience will like, that will be useful and informative for them. These should be publications that will confirm the company’s solid image and indicate its authority in this niche.
9. It is better to break very large files into smaller ones and post only the most important information. You can provide the rest to interested parties individually. This way, the site structure will look lighter, more unobtrusive, and the information will be easier to perceive.
10. To protect authorship, you can insert the meta name=”copyright” content=”http://your site address/” tag into the resource’s HTML code. Practice shows that such a solution has proven itself well in practice.
11. In the process of promoting websites in search engines, rely exclusively on safe and reliable methods, excluding black and even gray SEO. This way you can minimize potential risks and bring the resource to the top of the search results absolutely legally and honestly. To do this, you should register in catalogs and search engines, you can buy traffic on specialized exchanges, skip links on third-party sites. But it is important not to overdo it with the latter.
12. Work on the site should be carried out regularly. You should study current market trends, prepare relevant publications, and post them. Search bots will see all these actions and bring new visitors to the site, ensuring its stable development and maintaining its positions.

We hope that the recommendations provided will help you improve the efficiency of your work on the Internet site and minimize potential risks.

Where to look for a webmaster job

To get a job as a webmaster, you will need to monitor thematic resources. Such vacancies are often published on social networks, on remote work sites, on freelance exchanges, communities. Considering that the demand for specialists is quite high, there will be quite a lot of offers and you will be able to navigate their diversity and choose the most suitable employer for yourself. On average, the earnings of a specialist who already has certain knowledge in this niche start from 70,000 rubles per month, but much here depends on the region of his work, the specifics of the site with which he will be dealing.

Also, webmasters can participate in affiliate programs to receive additional income. In this case, we are talking about launching advertising materials of a partner on the site with which work is being carried out. As a result, if users follow the links, the specialist will receive commission payments. Such passive income can be obtained from any site by choosing the most suitable affiliate program.

Moreover, the webmaster can generate income from his own brainchild by participating in these very affiliate programs, that is, directly selling advertising space, his own goods, services, launching paid access to exclusive content. It is also possible to attract support through crowdfunding. The secret to success in these areas is useful and high-quality content, clear planning of all marketing strategies, which will ensure a constant influx of audience.

That is, a good webmaster will not be left without work. Moreover, in parallel with his main activity, he can set up additional monetization, receiving a stable income from it.

Summing up

If you feel comfortable on the Internet, if you have such qualities as creativity, diligence, are not afraid to learn and experiment, then the work of a webmaster may well suit you. But still, in order to achieve certain success, it will take time and effort to study a new direction. You will have to constantly monitor current trends and implement them in your strategies, increasing their effectiveness, learn to use a large number of tools that improve the convenience and speed of work.

One of the indispensable products in the work of any webmaster will be mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service. With their help, you can bypass any regional restrictions, blocking, access sites and services from different countries and regions of the world. It will also be possible to work with various social networks, including a huge number of accounts. And with their help, confidentiality of work on the network is guaranteed, protection from unauthorized access.

To study the functionality of mobile proxies and the benefits of their use, available geolocation, we suggest following the link https://mobileproxy.space/en/user.html?buyproxy. Also take advantage of the free testing of this product before purchasing to make sure that it fully meets your expectations and is able to simplify, speed up and secure all those works that you, as a webmaster, will face when performing daily tasks.

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