Finding A

Website Designer

Website designing is a huge global business because if you want to do business on the web, you need a website. There are two choices, either:

design it yourself or
somebody to create it for you

The bottom line is that your site's got to look good, be functional and convert! Unless you're prepared to learn how to do it yourself (see Site Build It) that can be pretty expensive, especially if it needs to be custom built. Website designers from an established firm who create that PRO, snappy look with cool mouse-overs etc. are likely to set you back:

5 pages $1,500
10 pages $2,500
15 pages $3,500
16 pages + open for negotiation

Then, of course, there are the extras:

copywriting, copy editing
flash
audio
video
e-commerce
programming

...and for a whiz-bang 20-page site, your costs could be easily around $20,000 with ongoing costs if the website designer becomes your webmaster in the process. Now, spread out over e.g. three years (you'll probably need a serious website upgrade by then), that cost, even if it balloons to $25,000, comes in at about $150 per week. If your internet presence is worth that to you and you can write website design and maintenance off as a business cost, it may well be worth your while.

My advice to anyone who wants to hire a website designer is to bookmark your favorite sites and use them as a means to explaining reasonably clearly what you'd want from your the designer. It's very easy to get bogged down in vague adjectival language like "nice" or "cool" and you'll save yourself enormous amounts of time and money by giving your website designer some clear direction.

If you're on a budget you might try Elance, where you describe your prospective site's needs and web designers will offer their services and quotes for the job. You can check their web design portfolios and make your decision from there.

Funnily enough, even though it's a more expensive option, I find that more of my clients seem to go for:

Logoworks

...just about the most popular site designers on the net with more than 45,000 customers and over 300 website designers working for them.

Logoworks are a real American company based in Lindon, Utah, with a phone & fax etc. and have designed for both the small-business guy and Fortune 500 companies. Their work includes jobs for:

Seaworld
Disney
Honeywell
Microsoft etc.

...Logoworks are also the only website design firm recommended by:

American Express
IBM
HP &
Office Depot

...which is pretty big-time!

Your website is your internet shop, it needs to reflect your business' image because it directly influences your profits. Therefore, website design is crucial and needs to be considered seriously, as much the design of any real-world shop. To put your business in the hands of a web designer who hasn't been thoroughly prepped on your present and future aims for the web would be folly.

With Logoworks you can be assured that your input will be listened to and integrated into the web design if feasible and they have the experience to suggest sensible and realistic options.