Finding A Good Web Designer
Keywords: web design, hire a web designer
If you just started an online business, you probably have no idea how to go about hiring a web designer. Who should you call? Should you look someone up in the yellow pages? Should you hire someone who works for a company that employs many different web designers, or should you hire a sole proprietor? Or, should you hire a freelancer who does web design part time? How much does it cost?
If you need someone to develop a very simple, static website that is merely a personal homepage or just an informational site about your business, then you pretty much have carte blanche. The only issue in this case would be cost. A freelancer will charge a lot less than a professional, but a freelancer might not do a thoroughly competent job. There are numerous website directories that contain a database of freelance web designers who are seeking work.
If you hire one of these individuals, make sure you request to see samples of web designs they have already done, just to make sure they have not done shoddy work in the past. I find it best to hire a professional in this instance, because even though a professional will charge more per hour, they can usually do much better work and get it done faster. So, in the end, a freelancer could actually charge more and you might end up getting a design of inferior quality.
Let us take a moment to delineate what the differences are between a freelancer, a sole proprietor, someone who owns a small, reputable web design business with a few employees, and a designer who is part of a huge company that employs up to one hundred web designers (there are quite a few companies out there that employ hundreds of web designers under a single company umbrella and also provide domain name registration and web hosting services all in one package).
First of all, a freelancer is usually someone for who web design is merely a hobby. This sort of a person has probably taken a few courses in simple web design at a local institute or college, or might be self-taught, and dabbles in web design as a part-time job or a way to earn extra cash. Some of these freelancers might be quite talented, but their designs are ordinarily not as crisp as what a professional can produce.
To reiterate, a freelancer is someone who only moonlights as a web designer. So, they are typically busy with their other career, and will take a longer time with your project because of time constraints. In the end, the freelancer probably will not give you the design you really want, and will refuse to refund your money.
A web designer who is part of a larger company that employs one hundred or more designers is just as bad as a freelancer. These sorts of web designers do not have much design skill, and are often given many different jobs to do at once. As a result, they will throw your design together haphazardly. You will be very disappointed with the work they produce.
The best web designers to hire are professionals who do web design as a career, and do focused projects. You should hire either a sole proprietor who has a large portfolio of work to show you, or a small firm of web designers who work together and have extensive web design experience. Professionals charge more than anyone else, but because they have so much experience and such a wide variety of designs for you to choose from, they will do a fantastic job in only a fraction of the time.
The only time you should use a freelancer or other inexperienced designer is if you can meet with that individual in person, explain exactly what you want, and if the project itself is very simple and the design work necessary for the job is not too extravagant. Do not make the mistake of hiring a freelancer over the internet that lives in a different state and only accepts payments via PayPal or some other sort of electronic payment processing service. Make sure your freelancer is someone who resides close by so that you can monitor their progress and visit them if you do not like the initial design they produce.
For almost all web design projects, it is best to hire a professional. Even though it costs more, it is generally only a one-time cost. A website is typically only designed once with major revisions only done once every few years; you may make changes here or there in the short run, but a web site usually stays the same for up to a few years or more. So, you might as well go with the most talented yet reasonably priced designer you can find.
Also, it is very important to hire a designer who has a contract that you can sign that stipulates certain terms and conditions. You should be able to pay the designer a down payment of 25% - 50% of the total quoted price for the job, with the balance due upon completion. This is critically important, because it can be very frustrating to flush money down the toilet on a design you hate without any way to recoup any of your funds afterwards.
Also, the designer should be able to quickly produce some sample layouts after they have been assigned the job so that you can at least pick a particular design that you like the most, and then the designer can begin working on that design rather than using their artistic license to create a design from scratch.
Follow all of these recommendations and be careful when hiring a web designer. Always work with a professional if your project requires a certain level of expertise and skill, and make sure you request a portfolio containing samples of their work so you can see what they have already done. Make sure their prior designs meet your standards.
Jim Pretin is the owner of www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make a free HTML form and download formmail.
Previous Articles Highlighter:
HTML Might Become Obsolete (1)
The platforms that run on some of these new products and devices are not totally compatible with HTML. So, it is imperative that most web designers learn to design web pages in XHTML.
Creating Your First HTML Form (2)
If you do not have the patience to create your HTML form yourself, there are more than a few form creation services on the internet that provide a simple way for you to create a form without doing any programming.
Getting Ranked Higher On Search Engines (3)
You probably have no idea how to improve your ranking or where to begin. For the purposes of this discussion, we will outline the procedures you should follow to do better on the search engines, while still making sure that you attract qualified traffic that will actually be receptive to the products or services that your website offers.
My Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed (4)
The best way to promote your site, if you are actually selling something, is through an affiliate program. You need to provide an affiliate code to other online merchants so that they will place your banner on their site; every time you make a sale that resulted from an affiliate referral, the affiliate gets a commission.
Improve Your Search Engine Ranking (5)
They will charge you an arm and a leg for their services, sometimes as much as $2,000 per month or more. They often make dubious claims that they can get you ranked on the first page of the search engines within a few months, and if not, they will kindly refund your money.
Do You Need An HTML Form? (6)
As a result, those who have been spammed complain to their internet service provider, who then directs the complaint to the hosting company that handles your website. This can be a huge problem.
Introduction To Pay Per Click Marketing (7)
These sponsored links are paying a certain cost per click to be listed in this special section at the top of the listings. Each one of these websites pays a certain fee to Google each time someone clicks through to their site.
An Introduction To Internet Marketing (8)
You can submit your site to free directories, or join a link exchange and trade links with other sites, or, you can author articles and press releases and submit them to article directories, who will then distribute your articles to webmasters looking for free content, who must link back to your website when they publish your article on theirs.
Website Marketing Made Simple (9)
FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links to your site originating from these FFA pages or link farms. The way to improve your link popularity is simply by advertising your website.
Internet Marketing Made Simple (10)
The more inbound links you acquire, the higher your search engine ranking will be. There are several ways you can increase your number of inbound links. You can submit your site to free directories, or join a link exchange and trade links with other sites, or, you can author articles and press releases and submit them to article directories.
A Guide To Internet Marketing (11)
To recruit affiliates, you should submit your affiliate program to as many directories as possible (there are directories where you can list your affiliate program for free). The best way to find affiliates is by listing your program on forums or message boards visited by webmasters who are looking to generate additional revenue for their online business.
Can Anyone Really Make Money Online? (12)
However, after you pay the fee, you will quickly discover that most of the jobs posted are either bogus, or pyramid schemes, or jobs that almost no one is qualified for.
The Importance Of Link Popularity (13)
So, as your articles are put into circulation, you will receive a lot of links. You might want to join a link exchange so that you can trade links with other sites, but the links you will receive are usually worthless.
Issues With Formmail (14)
Some versions of Formmail automatically include this code, some do not. If it does not include this code, you will need to hire a programmer to create it, or visit some free programming message boards and ask someone to help you with it.
Choosing A Web Designer (15)
Professionals charge more than anyone else, but they have more experience. The only time you should use a freelancer is if you can meet with that individual in person, explain exactly what you want, and if the project itself is very simple and the design work necessary for the job is not too extravagant.
What Is DHTML? (16)
So, other programming languages have been created to improve site design and make sites more interactive for the user. One such language that has evolved is DHTML, a language that makes web pages both interactive and dynamic.
A Brief Introduction To E4X (17)
Now, every wireless gadget is equipped with access to the internet and email. Cell phones, palm tops, laptops, even computer screens in automobiles have web browsers. These gadgets have platforms and web browsers that are very different from what is installed on an ordinary desktop PC.
What Is DTD? (18)
PCDATA is used to mark data that is to be parsed or separated into more easily processed components and to cause tags within that data to be interpreted as markup instead of as ordinary data.
What Is RSS? (19)
Thus, RSS Feeds, which are created with XML, can be viewed on any web browser, and can help the user to navigate through the web site, which is sometimes not possible with web sites created only with HTML.
How To Hire The Right Web Designer (20)
The best web designers to hire are professionals who do web design as a career, and do focused projects. You should hire either a sole proprietor who has a large portfolio of work to show you, or a small firm of web designers who work together and have extensive web design experience.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Your First Online Form (1)
After that, you will need to create a file that will process your form after someone fills it out and send the answers to you via email. The code used to process a HTML form is often referred to as Formmail.
Learn How To Use Formmail (2)
If they do not allow their customers to process forms or have certain rules that restrict your flexibility, you should switch to a better hosting provider that will allow you to use Formmail.
How To Make Your Traffic Explode (3)
The best way to find affiliates is by listing your program on forums or message boards visited by webmasters who are looking to generate additional revenue for their online business.
Your First HTML Email Form (4)
Either way, it is important to have an HTML form so that people can contact you directly through your website. Jim Pretin is the owner of www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers create a free web form with the code to email the web form responses.
Learn To Create An Online Form (5)
Many times, inexperienced programmers will put an online form on their website that does not include code to at least try to prevent spammers from utilizing the form to send spam to hundreds or even thousands of people.
How Traffic To My Site Skyrocketed (6)
Some internet companies have thousands of affiliates, and get all the business they would ever need or want this way; and it costs you nothing. To recruit affiliates, you should submit your affiliate program to as many directories as possible (there are directories where you can list your affiliate program for free).
Your First Web Form (7)
Formmail has been used to process and email the results of web forms since 1997. When you download Formmail, make sure it has code that prevents spam from being sent through your online form.
Internet Marketing For Beginners (8)
There are several ways you can increase your number of inbound links. You can submit your site to free directories, or join a link exchange and trade links with other sites, or, you can author articles and press releases and submit them to article directories.
How My Website Became Popular (9)
Also, you should set up an affiliate program. And finally, you should budget a small amount of money to spend each week on pay-per-click. If you are persistent and use all of these methods, you will continually increase your traffic over a period of time.
How To Make Your First Web Form (10)
If you do not have the patience to create your form yourself, there are more than a few form creation services on the internet that provide a simple way for you to create a form without doing any programming.
How To Start A Digital Information Business On The Internet (11)
The other thing that is important to do is to provide some sales tools to help sell your book. Graphics, banners, emails, classified ads, solo ads, or anything you can offer improves the chances of an affiliate selling your product.
How To Create A Content Rich Website (12)
After all, it is important to write articles because you want to establish yourself as an expert in your field and if your articles display a lack of writing ability that can definitely ruin your chances of being regarded as an expert.
7 Internet Marketing Secrets That Will Curl Your Toes (13)
This will not only increase your traffic but it ensures that your prospective customers can continue to find your marketing pages long after the launch of your campaign. 2) Generating Traffic No website is profitable without traffic.
Google Page Rank Is It Relevant To Your Websites Placement? (14)
It will show you the sites page rank and when the site was registered. You can do a search in Google for new music for example. The free results will show up with all the link info and page rank score below the text listing.
How To Beat Marketing Competitors (15)
It is also important to research your competitors and what they are providing. How can you successfully work toward beating your marketing competitors if you aren't familiar with what they are offering to their customers?
Successful Strategies For Marketing (16)
A catchy subject will at least get the email opened; from there it's a bit more difficult to keep your potential customers interested. Any grammatical errors and your business won't be taken seriously.
Writing Article Reviews (17)
Purchasing products and services is a good way to get information for writing review articles. But, if you advertise a lot of them, be ready to spend a lot of money and hope they convert!
Keywords Are The Key To Success (18)
Another important point is that you need to keep the motivation of the user in mind. If you have a choice between two keyword phrases, you should use the keyword phrase that the internet user is more likely to use in search engines, and will most probably prefer.
Magnetize Your Affiliate Marketing Site (19)
However it has to be optimized for maximum sales. Your affiliate site must be attractive, interactive interesting and usable. Your affiliate marketing program will be successful with a well designed and focused website.
3 Quick And Easy Ways To Building A Profitable Opt-in List (20)
For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list. 1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first.