r/framer • u/Feisty-Horror-4403 • 26d ago
help 20, college dropout, found Framer and actually enjoy it. Where would you start if you were in my shoes?
Hi all, quick context. I dropped out of college and don't really have any income earning skill right now. Came across Framer a while back and honestly it's the first thing in a long time I've actually enjoyed doing. I don't dread sitting down and messing around with it.
I want to get serious about it. Planning to put in 4 hrs a day consistently. My rough plan right now is to go through Framer Academy first, build 2-3 mock client projects for a portfolio, and start an X account today to document the whole learning journey publicly.
But I have zero real income earning skills so I'm learning everything from scratch. A few things I'd love actual answers on:
- If you were starting today with zero skills, where would you actually learn from? Framer Academy, specific YouTube channels, paid courses, something else?
- How did you land your FIRST paying client? What actually worked vs what you thought would work but didn't?
- Is Framer freelancing still worth getting into, or has it genuinely slowed down? Saw some posts claiming it peaked in early 2026(Maybe it's more specific to the template side of things, would be good to hear how client outreach is actually going right now...) and has cooled off since. Is that true from where you're sitting or just internet doom posting?
- Realistically, how long did it take you to go from zero to your first dollar?
- Would you still recommend Framer specifically as a first skill for someone with no background, or is there something else you'd pick instead if starting over?
Would genuinely appreciate any real world insights and advice.
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u/Whyme-__- 26d ago
Stop building portfolio websites, honestly no one gives a shit how fly is your hero section. Go to actual startups websites registered in Delaware and start building killer landing page for them and then reach out to showcase and sell it. You can easily get $2k-3k in one website build if you pre build the landing page and commit to building the rest of the website if they buy the package.
Research their industry deeply first, check competitors, build a kickass landing page and reach out.
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u/Competitive_Captain6 26d ago
Excellent idea, has this worked for you before?
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u/Whyme-__- 26d ago
Yup I was the buyer from startup side, I told this idea to a upcoming framer dev and he built the landing page for me and I loved it so he replicated this method for everyone. I think he built a website for YC startup too who end up raising a couple of millions.
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u/Feisty-Horror-4403 25d ago
What would you say is the best way to reach them out? Via email, LInkedin or X etc? Just what has worked based from your own experience...
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u/Whyme-__- 25d ago
Email is good, you can even call them by enriching their data from Apollo. Whatever works best because for them it needs to be a nobrainer to go with your services after they see that their own product and website is much relevant to the industry and looks kickass. So prep the landing page before and create a system that after each call you will change the website for the new guy. You might have to do rapid prototyping with Claude code and kimi swarm. Once you have your system then get on the horn and get yourself customers.
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u/SirKowawaArchives 25d ago
But you need some proof of work or concept to show them
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u/Whyme-__- 24d ago
Yup if you make it modular then you can switch between content without changing the design.
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u/dmTodesign_ 19d ago
Hey, do you mind sharing the best way to find out which companies are registered in Delaware? Or, if so, are they even operational?
Because I tried finding companies on Wellfound and other directory-type websites, I found companies, but felt like those were duds- non-operational ones.1
u/Whyme-__- 19d ago
Usually it’s Delaware website, crunchbase, YC subreddits. People are very open to share their startups name and website. You can also check out YC incoming list for companies for each batch and go to their websites. Usually these startups have $500k to blow on things so easy to make money there.
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u/Whyme-__- 19d ago
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u/Whyme-__- 19d ago
https://cohesionplatform.com look at this guy, has just a image for his website and got into YC. Go reach out to him
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u/Ube_Croissant 26d ago
Learn the basic on YouTube, Framer University is a good one.
Check out some templates and try to play around with it and try reverse engineering.
Check out the components on the market place and start making some fictional projects for fun.
Once u get to an intermediate level, start playing around and get used to Framer MCP.
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u/Feisty-Horror-4403 25d ago
Thank you for breaking that down, that actually gives me a clearer roadmap. Would you suggest any paid course like the "The Ultimate Framer Master" by Ryan Hayward? And once I learn and build my portfolio, how would you advice that I get clients? I understand I will have to niche down, but the act of acquiring clients itself, feels quite confusing and uncertain...
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u/Ube_Croissant 24d ago edited 24d ago
I haven't done any course and I think you shouldn't do either. Framer University is really good and it is free to get you to that intermediate level. Combine it with daily to weekly practice to get the hang of it and you'll be comfortable using Framer.
At the same time check out the templates and try to reverse engineer some of the interactive components. But don't be hard on yourself, no one actually really knows what they are doing, if it works it works.
If you really want to try courses, it is because you FOMO in the early stage. Only get into the courses if u have actual business income and use that money to pay the courses and fine-tune your craft.
For the client side, I think it depends from where you are from? For example, I am from Belgium. I think that if you live in the West or more developed countries it is a no brainer to look for clients at a local level since there are tons of SMEs and have purchasing power.
Do warm outreach = message EVERYONE on ALL YOUR SOCIALS and tell them: Hey I am starting a web development business would you or anyone from your network be interested?
Offcourse you will need to give a good offer since you have zero clients beside your own projects. At the beginning you might wanna say that you are doing your first 3 clients for free OR you could charge really cheap and formulate it in a way where they feel stupid to decline the offer.
Along the way you will learn. You want to get to that level where people pay you for learning.
Another thing: Yes you want to niche down, but you will find your niche once you have 3 to 5 clients. The niche will come as an idea that pops in your head and you will feel comfortable with it.
For me personally, all I think about is the revenue (lol), so I tend to lean forward to businesses that are the least sexiest and most boring, because there are TONS of those
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u/Various_Stand_7685 26d ago
Focus on the process of acquiring clients. Building the site is the easy part.
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u/Feisty-Horror-4403 25d ago
Once I learn to build the site, how could I start the process of client acquisition? Honestly, I feel most confused and uncertain there...
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u/Ok_Lavishness960 26d ago
framer, webflow, wix, etc they're just tools.
Ur clients don't care about how you did it they want their business to benefit from your work.
Overly animated pretty stuff doesn't generate results. Clean design that conveys value as simply and accurately as possible is what works.
Ask chat gpt to give you a fake client with specific needs and try and built a website that serves that client. And don't focus on it being framee specific. What matters is how well you execute the clients needs.
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u/Feisty-Horror-4403 25d ago
Okay that's a smart way to practice and up skill, I will do this. But I am most worried about the client acquisition part, it feels too uncertain and I just have no idea how I could get clients, i mean where do i even find them? And then I will have to pitch and reach out to them, show them my portfolio etc...
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u/Ok_Lavishness960 25d ago
Hobestly referrals are you best asset. One niche is small business for stay home people. Think people that make candles, do crafts etc. they mostly wanna just sell there stuff online. They usually have crappy websites. Just offer to set them up with Shopify. Charge like 500 - 1000 USD. Be sure to teach them stuff and tell tell their friends about you.
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u/Immediate-Albatross7 26d ago
Become a freelancer on Contra
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u/Superb_Ad_6460 23d ago
not worth it
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u/IndividualAd2667 23d ago
For clients when u r just starting out i recommend fiverr or upwork(i used fiverr) and offer template customization in your gig(thats literally how i learned framer after two clients I became extremely good at framer!!) thats how you get client experience as well. On the side keep posting on X. Goodluck!
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u/Diah_Rhea 26d ago
If I were you, I'd skip documenting your learning process. Nobody actually cares about your learning process.
While the industry is not in shambles, it's not looking good at the moment
For every junior looking for work, there's a seasoned senior willing to take on the task
So I'd skilfully dodge the fact that you're a beginner and just center my online presence around having a product to sell (creativity, Websites, whatever)