Choosing a Web Designer - What to Look For and What to Avoid

By Tanya Stesen

Owning and operating your own business from day to day is a huge task in itself. Tack on the chore of choosing a professional web designer and well it can get overwhelming.
Choosing a web designer or developer should not be taken lightly; a web designer is responsible for creating and establishing your corporate identity and online presence. Your business web site speaks for you when you cannot. What does your current web site design say about your business? Does it portray a professional, reliable business? If not here's a few tips for finding and selecting a web designer.
What to look for
Portfolio Samples
A good web designer or design company will have an online presence. Ask to see the designer's portfolio and links to some of their current web site designs. Beware of designers that are offering web design or graphic design services with no online presence. Take the time to navigate the designer's web site and some of their client's sites to get a feel for their skills and also to make sure all links, navigational features, etc. function properly. Often unskilled web designer's sites will have dead links, misspelled words and other errors.
References
Most reputable web designers and companies will post client testimonials on their web site. These are a good indication that the designer is experienced and that past clients have been satisfied with their work. Beware of a long list of testimonials with no client information such as company name or a link to the web site. Most web designers will link their client's testimonials to their sites so you can verify that they are in fact a happy customer.
If the designer's testimonials aren't readily available ask, and verify them. Call or email the references and ask how their experience was with the designer and if they were satisfied with the work. This may seem like a lot of work but having a web site professionally designed is a financial investment and an important one to your business. It's wise to do your homework before jumping into anything.
Contact Information
Now this might seem like common sense but check the designer's web site for clear contact information such as a physical address and telephone number. A designer displaying only their email address and website address as contact information is not very credible and you should request and confirm the designers contact information prior to paying for or putting a deposit down on your design services.
Look for Familiar Logos/Affiliations
Displaying familiar logos such as credit card logos (Visa, MasterCard and so on), PayPal verified logos and other affiliation logos such as groups and organizations lends credibility to the web site and the company.
Who Is
No that's not an incomplete statement it's the name of a directory that you should familiarize yourself with. Using the WHOIS database you can search and find out information about an existing domain name such as the owner, how long it's been registered and other useful information. The WHOIS database will provide you with the contact information of the person or organization that registered the domain name you're inquiring about.
http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?se=%2B&app%5Fhdr=
Check out your prospective designer if you have doubts and verify that the information listed matches the contact information they are giving you. Beware of designers that have blocked or privately registered their domains to prevent consumers from accessing their information. With that being said we must also state that legitimate companies sometimes block their domains, usually in an attempt to prevent spam but it's not something we suggest.
Compliance with W3C and CSS Standards
This is often the most overlooked detail but the most critical. Most Web documents are written using markup languages, such as HTML or XHTML. These languages are defined by technical specifications, which usually include a machine-readable formal grammar (and vocabulary). The act of checking a document against these constraints is called validation, and this is what the Markup Validator does. Validating Web documents is an important step in web design. (Read more on why validating matters).
Unfortunately there are unscrupulous web designers out there that don't code to or even know the standards and their clients pay dearly for it. Check your designers site against the standards, if there site doesn't validate there's a good chance yours won't either.

Tanya Stesen specializes in web design and development for small to medium sized businesses. You can learn more about her company, her and her services by visiting http://www.dezignsbyt.com.

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Discover How To Make Your Web Design Easier

By Alexander Marlin 

Whenever I thought of web design my face would frown, I just hated the fact that I had to do any kind of web design. I just couldn't see why web design was simple for others and not for me.
Well, that all changed when I discovered this simple program, a web design machine made for those who just don't understand that you can do it yourself if, you would only keep your web design as simple as possible.
Since using this program I have been able to launch two websites with my own web design style within two months, these websites aren't perfect, but they do look very professional.
And, they carry my touch, yes, at last I can boost to my friends how easy web design is for me, because they have no clue that I am using my little secret weapon for my web design.
What does it take to design your own website?
Now, for those who don't understand what it takes to design your own website from scratch, I will give you five important steps you need to master, before you can get your website to the next level.
Five steps for perfected web design:
1) You Need Some Type Of Web Design Software
No one and I repeat no one, is doing web design the expensive way (The truth: Some are still wasting money paying for web design). Those who has enough money, pay for their web design, and those who can't will have to get their hands on a easy to use web design software that gets the job done.
2) You Need To Know Some HTML
No matter what type of web design software your using, you must educate yourself with a little HTML. There is no way around that. Once you get the feel for simple little HTML code snippets, you will notice that you never ever need to know more than that, because you already have my little secret weapon ( My secret web design software program, that I will lead you to very soon).
3) You Need To Know How To Layout Your Website
Wow, another killer, I had no clue how or what to do, much less layout a web site. That all changed when I bought my little secret weapon, it came with a manual loaded with tips on not only how to use the software, but also how to layout your website template.
4) You Need To Master Internal Linking
If you going to design your own website, you must know how to internally link you website together. Ah, well, not really if you have my secret web design software you won't need to know how. This is taken of by the program, it creates all your internal linking,
without you even understand how it's done, isn't that cool.
5) You Need To Keep Your Web Design Simple
This one should have been number one, because it is so important and yet so overlooked. Look around the web and notice the top sites online, they are all use very simple web design with lots of white space. Don't get flashy if your building a website for profit.
Look at Google and Yahoo, they are very simple and that's what you need to do when you design your website.
Anyway, I have given you some tips that should set your web design on fire, if you follow and study successful web sites online, you will see the trend, simplicity wins the web design war.
And now, for the long awaited secret weapon, just browse over to this simple web designed site and watch the video, you will understand why this is a secret weapon that only the guru's use, once you try it.
Be advised, your web design doesn't get return visitors, it is well written and informative content, so why spend thousands on web design, while searchers are only looking for information.

Alexander Marlin, Ebenezer St. Maarten A.N. He only uses simple web design tricks and teaches you how to build a website [http://how-to-build-website.com] that isn't an eye sore. One of his many profitable websites can be found at [http://how-to-build-website.com]

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Earn On Offshore Web Design and Development

By Julia Ramyalg 

If you have some experience in web site design and want to make good money you can try acting as IT-outsourcing partner. Learn more what you should know and how to start.
Why offshore web design and development?
Offshore web site design and development help to keep prices at least 3-5 times less, for example, average hourly rate of web development services in USA is $35-75; in UK - $25-50, in Ukraine - $5-20.
How it works?
Typical plan is like that:

• You find a client who needs a web site, ask his/her requirements for the project and send to your offshore partner company.
• The partner makes a proposal and gives you the project estimation basing on his hourly rate, for example, $10.
• You mark up the rate $10/hour as high as you wish (and can - taking into consideration competition in your region, level of demand for web design services, and other marketing factors), for example to $30/hour, and sends the proposal to the client. So if the web design project is estimated on 50 man-hours of work, you charge the customer $1500, from which $500 you pay to your offshore partner company, and $1000 is your profit.
• The partner company works on the project and delivers it to you along with copyright for the work.
• You deliver the site to the customer.

Result - you have a satisfied client and good profit from the marked up price.How to start?
The first and most important step is to analyze market in your region and decide if it's worth to start this business.
If you already have your own web design company it is easier for you because you already know situation in the market, gain certain reputation, have clients list, etc.
But don't be afraid if you are new to web design business. Believe in yourself and work hard and finally you will be rewarded for all your efforts. As in any type of business, starting the one in web design area, you must ask yourself general marketing questions:
1. Who will be your customers?
2. Why they will order the web design services exactly form you?
3. Where and how they will get to know about you?
Without having clear answers to these questions you shouldn't try to start anything.
The second step is to find trustful and reliable partner - offshore web design company - that will work as "development center" for your business. This company must have good experience in web design and development area, good reputation, top level of customer care and communication. There are many resources in the Internet where you can find necessary information - search engines, web design directories, outsourcing portals.
For example, you can try searching in search engines for appropriate key phrases "offshore web design", "offshore web site design", "offshore web development" and analyze sites of your potential partners.
Also here are several sites where you can find lists of offshore web design companies sorted by country.
http://web-designers.bluegeckonetwork.com/
http://www.theoutsourceguide.com/
http://www.1234-find-web-designers.org/
How to choose the right offshore web design partner company?
There are 2 main factors that determine your choice - cost and quality of web design work.
Cost
Basing on the average web design prices in your local market and your competitive abilities you set prices that you will charge to your customers. There are several methods of web design price calculation, most used are flat price for fixed web site packages, and price based on man-hour rate. Most web design companies operate with both and choose one depending on each project type and requirements.
Then you decide which profit you want to have and narrow down your search choosing companies with appropriate price range.
Quality
Consider the company reputation, portfolio of previous works, testimonials of previous customers, level of communication. Pay attention to payment policy and method, conditions of ready projects delivery, warranties, post-development support and maintenance.
If all details are agreed you may start partnership. Sometimes the first project is quite simple to test abilities of both parties and if everything is going well the partnership will bring mutual benefits.

Julia Ramyalg
Marketing Director
IT-Inventors
IT-Inventors is a professional offshore web site design company. We are located in Ukraine and due to local economy we can offer your affordable rate $10/hour for custom web site design and web development services. It's at least twice less than average Western European rates and more than 3 times less than USA rates.
We have developed more than 130 projects for dozens of satisfied customers, established strong relations with partners from USA and UK.
Services we offer: Custom web site design, E-commerce web site design, Content Management Software [http://demos.it-inventors.com/cms1] integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design, Flash sites design, Logo design, SEO.

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Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio

By Julia Ramyalg 

When you start building your online business and search for a web design company that will implement all your needs for the web site you must understand that it is a very serious step because you are entrusting your business along with its reputation and future.
That's why it's very important to make the right choice.
There are several factors that must define your choice, and one of them is portfolio of previous web design works the company has done. It can tell you more than all words and promises, just be attentive and try to analyze. I will tell you what you must pay attention to:
1) Presence of portfolio
Yes, it seems to be obvious that web design company must have own web site with portfolio of previous works. But don't be astonished too much when you see one without it. There can be various reasons for this but I wouldn't recommend you to tempt fate. Portfolio is like a "face" and it's pride of web design company, it must be full, substantial, and routinely updated...and IT MUST BE!
2) Total number of works
This can tell you much however there is no standard number that will guarantee you are going to deal with web design guru. Yes, 50 successfully finished projects is better than 5, but their quality is also important. Compare the number with period of time during which the company operates in the market and calculate average number of projects per year, month, or week. Remember that average web site design takes 2-4 weeks to be finished.
What this information can give you? Firstly, you can see that the company has got enough expertise. Then this shows that it has stable flow of works, adjusted schedule of development process, and enough staff to perform it, so if you commit your web site design to the company you can be sure that the work won't be for them like a bolt from the blue or well-paid but not feasible overloading.
3) Type of works
Look attentively at each work in the portfolio. How many projects are similar to the one you need by type of site, technology used, industry, and look and feel?
At least 2-3? Good!
More than 5? Excellent!!
None? There can be a reason for this - owner didn't want to make it published, or web site is no more live - so if all other works show professionalism and expertise, you should ask the
company if they have ever done the task you need.
If you need any particular technology to be used for your web site implementation it's more than necessary to see examples how the web design company worked with it. However sometimes it happens if the technology is not common used and very popular that the web design company hasn't had chance to work with it for commercial purpose but it might be used for internal projects development, so you will loose nothing if ask the company to show you some examples if they exist.
If you need a web site for exact business, for example dating site or real estate site, it's also better to view such previous works in the portfolio because there are can be specific features and it's better to make sure that the web design company is experienced with them. Also some web design companies make demo packages that also can show you the abilities and experience.
4) Quality of works
Learn carefully each live site (or the ones which are similar to the site you need). How long does it take to load the site home page?
A few seconds? Great, the web designer knows how to optimize images.
A few minutes? It's normal if this is a Flash site because usually the whole site is loaded at one time, not only the home page; or it's a Flash intro which goes ahead entering the site
and also can load longer because of movie and sound.
But if a simple HTML web site loads more than 2-3 minutes and you can't see all images or they are shown partially, you must be watchful. Check another HTML sites from the portfolio - if they are also loading for ages, it's better to search for another web design company because this one is not professional.
All of the aforesaid is correct only if bandwidth of your Internet connection is normal and usually you don't have problems with loading web sites.
Test the site for user-friendly navigation, pay attention to colors combination, and estimate general impression from the site - all this must reflect professional work. But sometimes a web design company is forced to design a site strictly according to the customer's wishes, so if the customer lacks for good taste the site also looks tasteless. There can one or two such sites in the portfolio, but not all!
5) Happy owners
Web design business is a highly competitive area and as in any business there are honest and dishonest players. Sometimes it happens that you see the same site in portfolio of two different web design companies and it's difficult to find the truth to which of them the work really belongs. Some quirky companies place cheap templates in their portfolio with fake owners' contact info.
That's why it's very important to know real references of real owners of the web sites the web design company has made. Ideally this info must be accessible on the web design company site under Portfolio, Testimonials, or Clients sections. Try to contact ALL of the persons listed there and compare their opinions. You may get to know some interesting facts.
6) Own site of web design company
And finally compare the own site of the web design company to web sites presented in its portfolio. Are they similar by quality, technology used, and overall feeling? If the works from the portfolio look much poorer than the own site this can mean that the own site was ordered from another web design company, more professional. Yes, it happens sometimes in web design business that start-up amateur company commits its web site design to "older" professionals. In such case you better to continue searching for another web design company.
So these 6 rules can help you to make the right choice. Don't be afraid to spend longer time for search and analysis, finally you will only benefit by getting perfect web site that will give new prospects to your business and make it more successful.

Julia Ramyalg
Marketing Director of IT-Inventors - professional web design company
Services: Affordable custom web site design, E-commerce web site design, Content Management Software, Real estate web site design.
View Portfolio and References

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Offshore Web Design and Development - Use Great Opportunities

By Julia Ramyalg 

Sooner or later every small or medium business owner realizes that he needs a web site for his business. And almost everybody wants to have great web site for affordable price because usually web site design budget is quite limited.
There are few ways to find the best solution.

• Somebody prefers to design the site by himself - but it takes much time and labor, distracts from the general business, and let be frank - you have seen many of such "DIY" - web sites -they lack professional touch and look unfinished or overworked.
• Somebody decides to hire a professional web design company but in case of limited budget he has to say "good-buy" to many features he wants to see on the web site, because web design companies are also businesses and they can't work for "thank you very much" only.

So what to do when you want to have great web site but your web design budget is limited?
Think about IT-outsourcing and offshore web design and development!
There are many web design companies in other countries, mostly of Eastern Europe and East-Southern Asia that operate with small budgets and offer great web design works
How it is possible? There are different economical factors which condition on low internal expenses of the companies in these countries so they can do the same volume of work but for lower price than it costs in USA, Canada, UK, Western Europe or Australia. So offshore web site design and development helps to keep prices at least 3-5 times less.
You can say "Yes, this is cool that I can save my money but how they will do the work if I am here in USA but they are in Ukraine, for example?" Easily! In our age of Internet this is not a problem at all! Practice proves that for web site design project it's enough to have communication through email, instant messenger (ICQ, AOL, MSN) or IP-phone.
You can say "How can I trust somebody whom I have never seen before and most likely will not ever see?" Actually this question must the web design companies ask, not you, because there are many of IT-outsourcing companies and competition is quite strong in this area, so to get a customer many companies allow the first payment after 30-50% of the project completion, i.e. you pay after you have seen good results and satisfied with the work.
And as in onshore web design you need to pay much attention while choosing web design company: look at their previous works in portfolio, and ask about previous customers' references. Ideally all this information must be accessible on the company's web site.
As for the rest there is not much difference between offshore and onshore web site design process. You see the results of work in the progress, make your comments, see changes, agree them. When the project is complete and the site is ready to be uploaded to your server, you make final payment. It's also not a problem - you can make payment by credit card, PayPal, wire transfer, Western Union, etc.
So let's resume what you must know when dealing with offshore web site design:

• If you are on "tight budget" and can't afford spending thousands of $$$ for your web site design you should think about trying offshore web site design opportunities.
• There are many countries, which take part in offshore web site design; the most well known are India, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Philippines.
• To make right choice of offshore web design company for your web site design take into consideration the company reputation, portfolio of previous works, previous customers' references, quick and competent feedback to your initial request.
• To avoid problems you must be attentive and ask exact questions about payment policy and method, timescale and milestones of the project, conditions of the ready site delivery, warranties, post-development support and maintenance.

At your first experience with offshore web design you can see it to be too risky and complicated, but this feeling will be replaced with real satisfaction when you will see your new great web site live in the Internet and you realize how much you have saved on its design.

Julia Ramyalg
Marketing Director of IT-Inventors
http://www.it-inventors.com/

IT-Inventors - professional offshore web design company from Ukraine offers affordable custom web site design at rate $10/hr. Services we offer:
Corporate web site design, E-commerce web site design, Content Management Software integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design.
More than 130 projects made, dozens of satisfied customers. We are always ready to help you become an owner of a great web site for affordable price.

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