Choosing a Web Designer

Things to Think About as You Create a Web Presence

You’ve taken a look at web services and may have looked at the prices and products offered now you’re wondering what is all of this stuff? Why do I need Site Analysis, project scheduling and all of this design? I know what I want, I want a web site out there and I want it published now, or even yesterday, if possible!!

Plan is NOT a “Four Letter Word”

You just publish a site and put some really basic stuff out there and you would be on the World Wide Web, in no time flat. And than you would be just like millions of other people who got interested in the web, published a site and than, when millions of hits didn’t occur, decided that ‘it wasn’t worth it’ and just left their poor, orphaned site out on the web to die. (Excuse me while I dust the cobwebs off my own site. 😉

Good, Fast, Cheap – Pick Any Two

Also consider this, if you had the opportunity to advertise your business in a world wide publication, one that reach every single person in your target market, would you have your ad designed by say your teenager or would you be looking around for the best graphic design/ad firm you could find to do the ad? Unless your teenager happens to have won awards in advertising, I suspect you’ll be looking around for the advertising firm to do your ad. But the same people who would do this, have no hesitation about getting their teenager or best friend or a very inexpensive web designer to publish their site. And than, these people complain about the cost of doing the site, thinking that anything over a few hundred dollars is way too expensive.

Now, again, you may be very blessed and have access to very talented people and there are people building up their web portfolios who are willing to work inexpensively to do a web site. However, if your major criteria is to have a web site up fast and that it’s cheap, you will probably be sacrificing how good the web site is and how well it will help to attract new visitors and keep existing customers and visitors coming back.

Reading Minds is Not a Web Service

Unfortunately, web designers also can’t read minds and until the new G-10 Cranium 2000 is invented that can allow web designers to read minds, a good web designer is going to want to talk to you, clarify what you want and what you need for your site and than get your approval prior to doing any work for you. This is also part of building a relationship with you, because a good web site is not a static web site. You are going to need updates, announcements, and graphics changes, so why not pick a good team of designers in the first place, instead of having to hunt around for a new designer each time you make an update. And by building a good working relationship with your designer or designers, they will better understand your goals and ideas and will be able to provide more value in the kind of content you put on your site.

Summary
To sum it all up, you get what you pay for and web services aren’t any different. However, expensive doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is better, it just means that they know about this rule too. I highly recommend going out to Secrets of Successful Web Sites and looking over the site, especially the Client Profiler section. This will give you some insight into how much work you are going to have to do, yes, that’s right I’m looking at you now, before you can have your world class site up and out there. And, if you don’t have a viable business going in, then having a website isn’t going to change that, as a multitude of dot coms will now attest to. So, it’s a lot of work, it may not help your business, but if it does and if everything clicks right, you can have a pleasing, successful web site and be on your way to being the next great thing on the web