How it works

Welcome to possibly the longest, wordiest "how it works" page ever. The Web Guild was a simple concept - but as we delved down the deep rabbit hole of caveats that every big project brings with itself, we found we needed to accommodate different people in different ways. Hence this page. To get started with joining The Web Guild you basically just need to fill in the form here. But we'd recommend you read the rest of this blurb first to understand how it all works.

We have various different membership types:

Full members and Junior members

If you're a web guy or gal, you can become a full or junior member of The Web Guild. 

A Full member needs to have at least 2 years full time commercial experience of working in the digital industry, or 5 years part time experience. This might be due to a part time job, or because within your agency you only spend some of your time in the digital realm. A Junior member - you've guessed it - has less than 2 years full time or 5 years part time commercial experience. If you're a complicated soul who falls somewhere in the middle, just drop us a line.

We're working hard to bring you lots of benefits of being a member of The Web Guild and we'll keep you posted as we gain you discounts, perks etc. (it's a bit chicken and egg at the moment, as we're sure you can appreciate).

As a member you can choose whether you want a public profile or not. If you decide you do, you can then choose how much you display on it. It doesn't come up in searches but if people read about you or your work on the site they'll be able to click through.

All individual members have the facility to update a CPD journal. For Junior members this is optional but Full members need to add an entry at least every 3 months. Don't despair! An entry is anything from a brief few lines about a new tool / service / sector you've worked with or a new way you've used an old tool, to a brief sum up of an event you've been to, training course you've done or even an article you've read which has gotten you thinking! If you're working on the web, when you stop to think about it you're always doing slightly different things as technology moves on. But keeping a CPD log up to date separates the proper web professionals from the folks who maybe write a bit of HTML every 18 months but say they make websites. You can choose whether these entries are displayed to the public or not.

People who sign up using the promo code "first50" before the end of March 2016, will get free lifetime membership. After that to be a Junior member will cost £15pa whilst to be a Full member will cost £70pa. The fee for a full member is more just because of the mandatory CPD journal - all the cron jobs in the world won't take away the work for us around this entirely.

You don't need to be vetted if you're an individual - you can just join. But oh, to be any kind of member you agree to adhere to our code of conduct - which says how you'll always be professional, courteous and helpful in your dealings with clients and you'll strive never to bring yourself, The Web Guild or other members of The Web Guild into disrepute.

Student members

Student members are in full or part time education studying a digital / web related course. Again, people who sign up using the promo code "first50" before the end of March 2016 will get free lifetime membership, after which the cost will be £15pa.

And yep, we hope to bring you lots of benefits too in time. From the offset though it will show any potential employers that you're serious about your profession.

Companies and freelancers

To get a company listing on The Web Guild's site you need to apply for Company or Freelancer Membership. Freelancers need to sign up as a Full Member (as long as they meet that criteria) and then create a company listing page, where they'll be able to state they're a freelancer.

You'll be asked what skills you possess in-house, and you'll be asked for 2 references for each of these skills. If your skill is development, it has to be handwritten (we're a guild of craftsmen and women).  You'll also be asked to upload a copy of your professional indemntiy insurance as part of the vetting process (you'll need to re-upload it every year).

Companies can submit as many press releases, jobs or events as they like all year round - provided they're well written, original/unique and won't bring The Web Guild into disrepute we'll always hope to publish them. Just email them over. Our events and job listings are basic for now but as soon as there's an interest in these areas we'll develop them further.

Companies also need a Full Member associated with them before they can go live. In other words, a company can't consist of only Junior Members, and a Junior member can't advertise they trade as a freelancer.

Whilst your Company page won't show on the live site to public visitors until you're approved, logged in Full, Junior and Student members can see your profile and click to say they work for you. You can also, from your profile, pick up a link to send them. This is how, if the person who made the page isn't a Full Member, a full member from your team can associate themselves with your page in order to gain approval.

This process also allows people who aren't web professionals to initiate / create a company listing - for example if you're in a business development role or management. You can apply for a company listing, and get someone from your company who's a Full Member to associate themselves with your company before we approve you.

Once members of your team have requested to join your page, you will be notified via email and be able to approve those applications if correct. These members of your team will then show on your page - Junior members show in greyscale whilst Full members are in colour. Please note - it's mandatory that you are honest about who is an employee. Contractors, freelancers, collaborators etc. will have their own section of your page where you can show who you like to work with - coming soon!

Companies can also add as many portfolio items as they wish, and tag Members who worked on each piece. These portfolio pieces are shown on Company pages, and on Member profiles. Companies need to add at least 2 portfolio items a year - or contact us if that's not possible (we appreciate big projects / NDAs could screw this up, but we need to check our members are actively practicing digital work).

Companies who complete their application before the end of March 2016, having signed up using the promo code FIRST50 will get free membership forever. From April onwards the cost will be £350pa. You can also add additional offices to your listing, for example if you're based in Bristol and London, for an additional £99pa per office. Freelancer listings are cheaper - £150pa because they're just one person. People can't state they're employees of a Freelancer - because that would just be silly.

Please note once you pay, and we start to vet you, your fee is non-refundable. So please don't apply, pay and then have us find you don't do what you say you do, don't have insurance, or don't have any Full Members because we won't be able to refund your money.

And that's it! Simple huh? Please Sign up here.