Being a web master is one of the coolest jobs in the world but how do you become a web master in the first place and what training should your get before applying for the job?

First off, what does a web master do? They’re the glue that holds a website development team together, a jack-of-all-trades who knows how to create graphics and code for the website but they’re also often responsible for writing content, developing marketing strategies, testing the quality of the website and building everything from buttons to business relationships. In short, a web master is the heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears behind a website.

To be a good web master, you’ll need to learn how to be good at not only the creative side of the art but also the technical side. There’s no use having a great looking website if you’re not capable of fixing the bugs in the code as well. Furthermore, you’ll need to understand the business side of the site and how to deal with hosting companies, review analytics data and meet marketing objectives just like a store manager would need to do.

Of course, there’s various degrees of being a web master just like in any other field so if you’re more comfortable building HTML code, you might want to focus more on being a web publisher or for people who love Adobe Photoshop, the role of being a web designer may be more suitable but for those who like running websites there’s only one job .. the web master. 

As for education, the industry is one that’s always changing. There’s no use spending four years and $40,000 learning to do something that’s going to be outdated by the time you’re done so don’t focus your education on technologies. In 2005 for example, Java was the big thing and many websites used ASP as their primary language, if they used a scripting language at all. Today, I’d venture to guess most websites use PHP but tomorrow they might be Python, Ruby or any language we’d yet to hear of. So don’t base your choice to learn to be a web master on the language instead, choose a skill that’ll never go out of fashion and supplement it with a thirst for technology knowledge. 

If I was going to start over today and hope to be a great web master? I’d go to community college or university to study Marketing or Business, possibly Communications or Commerce with a minor in Computers for any of these degrees. Then, I’d buy a copy of the Adobe Master Collection and spend at least as many hours a week learning Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Fireworks as I spend in class and homework. With these skills, your education will naturally help you become a great web master.

What if you can’t afford or don’t want to go to school? A lot of people make a mistake when they’re young and go to college (I know somewhere out there your parents just convulsed) but the truth is, college isn’t about school it’s about learning and some people are not ready to learn when they’re young. For those people, becoming a web master is just as easy. Pick up the same software as your college bound buddies (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator etc) and put in 1,000 hours of hard work and determination. Becoming a great web master is a little like leveling up in Warcraft, it takes time but eventually you’ll be great at it.

Remember, being a web master isn’t really about being the master of the web it’s about being able to bring an expert knowledge of design, programming, marketing or business to the yet unbridled technology industry.