As a web developer you have the necessary set of skills to create HTML email formats. I was never that crazy about them because creating a design that will be effective in all major email clients is even more taxing than creating one for the major web browsers. You really have to keep the styling pretty vanilla.

But some business owners (particularly those with a marketing budget) love having a branded look-and-feel for their email messages. Sometimes they just want all of their outgoing messages to have a unique look. The first time you build a custom stationary in Outlook it may take a while to learn what you’re doing, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Maybe they have higher aspirations for a monthly email newsletter that needs to have a more complex layout. Steer them towards Constant Contact or Exact Target and create a personal template just for them. These third party email campaign managers even have a lot of cool features already built in that could help you close a sale.

I don’t like doing email templates as much as I like building web sites, but it’s still a heck of a lot more fun than flipping burgers. When there’s nothing on your plate this might be a good way to bring in a trickle of income and build relationships with business that could lead to larger projects down the road.

filed under: Finding Work, Web Development