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Ying
03-26-2014, 04:55 PM
Hello everybody! I am starting my own business selling an electronic product invented by our team. I am looking for a website designer to build our website. How can we find effective web design professionals? I searched "website designers" through google, and a batch of ads came out. Should I trust the internet advertisements or do I have any other ways to find them? How did you find your website designers Thanks!

Warm regards

vangogh
03-26-2014, 05:39 PM
Welcome to the forum Ying. Finding a designer is really no different than shopping for anything. Do your best to figure out what you need and want in a designer and start searching a little. Don't just choose the first designer who's site you like. Spend time on the site and take a few notes. Even 15 minutes is enough to get a feel for someone. Make a list of a few people you think would work well with you and start reaching out.

You can email them all to see how quickly they reply and the quality of their reply. Reduce your list further and give each a call to get to know them a little.

Ultimately you aren't going to know 100% who's the right person or firm to hire until after you've hired them and are working with them, but hopefully if you've done some research you'll have eliminated the designers more likely not to be a good fit. If you're worried about having to pay a lot of money to find out if you chose the right person you can start with a very small project that won't cost much.

You'll find there are a number of designers here on the forum, myself included. You can ask questions here and we'll likely answer. Maybe as you get to know the designers here one or two will stand out that you want to contact.

In the end you want to do some research, get to know possible candidates, and do your best to make a choice. If you've chosen well and are happy with the project hang on to the person you hired. If you weren't so happy, go through the same process on your next project.

Harold Mansfield
03-27-2014, 11:59 AM
On top of what VG said, you're very first step should be to determine what type of website you want. What do you want it to do?
Do you want to sell the product on the site? If so, you may want to look for someone with eCommerce experience.
Do you just need an informational website about the company?
Do you need to be able to administer the website yourself?
Is there a particular platform or CMS that you want to use?
Do you have any examples of websites that you would like to emulate?

These questions and more should be answered before you shop for a web designer. Or else how will you know what skills and experiences to look for?

PrincePatridge
03-27-2014, 06:25 PM
Hi,

I found my team on websites such as Fiverr and eLance.

I would definitely check out portfolios and interview them.

That is if your looking for A long term relationship.

Gabe
04-01-2014, 02:58 AM
It sounds like you just need a simple e-commerce website to sell online. If that's the case, I'd recommend Shopify.com. Use them for a few months to really learn what you want. Once you have a better idea of what you need and what direction you want to take the product in, then you can hire someone.

No matter how good of a designer you hire, they'll be limited by your experience because you don't really know what you need yet. So you can thousands now and realize that you want to change things in a few months, or you can use Shopify and pay $29 for a few months then splurge on an expensive website when you know exactly what you need.

During this period spend time learning who your customer is, how (and why) they buy, if there are any other products you can upsell with or use as accessories, your best marketing channels, etc. These are all important parts of your marketing strategy that will play a role in your website. Maybe you'll learn that your customer like a lot of product images. Or maybe they prefer detailed product specs, customer reviews, and rotatable 360 images. Maybe they want case studies and videos. If you don't know yet then there's no sense in spending thousands until you do unless your budget supports it.

Freelancier
04-01-2014, 03:06 PM
Find a web designer? Throw a rock into the air, you'll likely hit one. :rolleyes:

Finding a good one that's a match for your needs? That's about the same as figuring out which cell phone company is right for your needs over the next 2 years. You have to first figure out what you really need, then you have to start interviewing the vendors to figure out which ones can provide most of what you want.

Most web sites are static, not changing much from year to year... and that could be exactly what you want, or it could be a mistake for your marketing strategy. The difference in that choice is also the difference in whether you're just hooking up with your web designer or marrying them. Don't fall for the hot designer babe just because he/she is flashing "social media", "SEO", or other buzzwords at you...

So... your first step is to figure out everything you can about your marketing needs and wants and then -- armed with that knowledge -- you find the best vendor(s) to help you implement what you want/need, understanding that doing things right the first time sometimes costs more money than you're prepared to commit... so then you have to decide whether to do without, defer, or do it half-right at first and pay more later to fix it.

Harold Mansfield
04-01-2014, 03:57 PM
Find a web designer? Throw a rock into the air, you'll likely hit one. :rolleyes:

You don't even have to throw it that far. If you throw it in the air, you'll hit at least 3 on the way up and 6 on the way back down.

cwillmoth
04-02-2014, 03:19 PM
I am a web designer and what I have found most important is the ability to meet in person. So i would start by looking for a local web designer so you can meet in person and really iron out the details. Also I am a firm believer in business relationships not just knowing there email address but having a face and personality to put with it.

Harold Mansfield
04-02-2014, 03:33 PM
I am a web designer and what I have found most important is the ability to meet in person. So i would start by looking for a local web designer so you can meet in person and really iron out the details. Also I am a firm believer in business relationships not just knowing there email address but having a face and personality to put with it.

I'm a web designer and my clients are spread all over the country and the world. Doesn't seem to bother them, nor me. Most people don't care about my personality. They care if I can do what they want, for a fair price, and when I say I'm going to do it.

Do what works for you. But limiting yourself to only local businesses in this day and age will cause you to miss a ton of opportunities.

Of course customer service should be top notch, but it doesn't have to be an intimate relationship where you go out to dinner once a month and know each others kids. Most people just want the job done. They don't need to know you after 5 o'clock.

billbenson
04-02-2014, 03:33 PM
I am a web designer and what I have found most important is the ability to meet in person. So i would start by looking for a local web designer so you can meet in person and really iron out the details. Also I am a firm believer in business relationships not just knowing there email address but having a face and personality to put with it.

Sorry, but I am going to have to disagree with you. I have seen people insist on using a local designer and it has been a nightmare. When you have a global market to choose from to look for the designer / developer, why go local? 15 years ago you sold face to face, but in this era with the exception of certain industries, It doesn't make sense.

Wozcreative
04-15-2014, 10:21 AM
Unfortunately hiring the right designer/developer for your job is an art in itself. Remember you're buying a service and not a product.

on_my_own
04-25-2014, 08:14 AM
Does anyone have any experience with elance.com to hire someone to build a site?

Wozcreative
04-25-2014, 12:48 PM
The problem with Elance is that they compete on price, the developers there have to lower their prices just to get the projects. Once they win they then will just provide the bare minimum for a website.. enough for a non tech savvy customer to say it's done (or often times the customer will request so many revisions that get done incorrectly that the customer finally gives up and takes what they can get—this is why you will see "unlimited revisions" from designers).

The other problem is that they are also competing to get jobs from students, people with not much education in the background and 3rd world pricing. When it's a competition, most real developers/designers will quickly give up and stop using elance as a source of income.

The only time I'd recommend elance is if you are yourself a professional designer/developer or have worked with these types of people and know exactly what to look for. Sometimes I hire developers who may specialize in a small portion of a website (for example custom calculators).

Another problem I found was that these people then would source out the work I'd give them and give it to yet a 3rd party... causing even more of a problem in communication and final output.

If you're going to invest money into something, do it right. You can try looking at website design magazines and look up the agencies that have done the work, or look at annual contest websites for top web designers. Do your research on the designer/developers. If they are good they will have an updated portfolio, they will know the current trends and they will teach you a thing or two.

In the end it all comes down to budget though. A good developer/designer will not want to work for $7/h, keeping in mind a website can take 40 - 80 hours of work at minimum.

With that said.. have you taken a look at my work?

David@ZeroZen
10-30-2014, 11:41 AM
I agree with Bill and Harold. We have worked with over 500 clients and only 20 or so have been local. I think the key is to find a remote developer that is good at working remotely. Not all are very good at this and it does require that the company be very responsive. In worse case scenarios, the designer/developer is so overbooked that they don't take the time to respond to emails in a timely manner, don't answer phones, etc. We have made sure that we provide updates to our clients every 3 days. There is no reason why this shouldn't happen with all remote developers BUT... this is something that isn't widely adopted I don't think.

I would suggest doing a Google search for something that is specific to what you are looking for. If it is an affordable website, type in "affordable web design companies" If it is specific to an industry " Industry web design companies". I would stay away from Fiverr and other services that will do things for 100 bucks, 5 bucks, etc. If you spend $50 on your website, your online presence is worth $50. That translates into being a $50 company impression.

Do like you should, take the time to invest money into your online presence and reap the rewards. A well done site will be a true value.

Good Luck!

Harold Mansfield
03-17-2015, 10:32 AM
How do you define reliable? Someone that delivers on the day they say so? Ok. If that is important, don't prepay.
No reputable, capable web designer is going to do all of the work up front without some financial commitment from the client. You will pay at least a deposit, or get comfortable with the fact that the only people who will deal with you are probably kids or people with malicious intent.

krymson
03-17-2015, 10:47 AM
No reputable, capable web designer is going to do all of the work up front without some financial commitment from the client. You will pay at least a deposit, or get comfortable with the fact that the only people who will deal with you are probably kids or people with malicious intent.

I'm going to agree with Harold, when I first started in the web industry I didn't charge a deposit, I would get halfway through the project and the client would bail. It took me twice to learn to make the client have a financial investment in the work I'm doing, and my deposits are non refundable because i've had people get "buyers remorse" or they found someone that would do the site cheaper and request a refund.

You as a consumer have to make sure that there is a legal binding document stating the scope of work and both parties signatures are on at least 2 copies of the contract so no one can go and make changes to it. The people that go that extra length to make sure BOTH parties are covered, that's how you know they're reliable because they are locked into an agreement to get a job done and if they don't then you have the paperwork to pursue legal actions.

Magecom
07-03-2015, 09:49 AM
I am a web designer and what I have found most important is the ability to meet in person. So i would start by looking for a local web designer so you can meet in person and really iron out the details. Also I am a firm believer in business relationships not just knowing there email address but having a face and personality to put with it.

If you are good at what you are doing, if you provide high quality services, if you understand the needs of your client, it doesn't actually matter where you are located. We have our clients from different countries and manage to establish a good contact to them though we do not meet in person. You can have effective communication using phones, chats etc..

minjucubet
07-20-2015, 05:51 AM
Hey are you looking for web designers to work for you?

Paul
07-20-2015, 10:38 PM
For the wen designers here. Is there some industry "designation" by some reputable organization that can give a stamp of approval to the pros that meet certain criteria? That would make it easier for us layman.

Harold Mansfield
07-21-2015, 12:19 AM
No, not really. There's no overall web designer stamp of approval because there are many different ways to build a website. There's college degrees, nano degrees, and people can post up completed skills courses and such, but there's no sanctioning body of web designers.

The best way to determine skill, and if someone has what you want is to first know what you want, look at their work, read their reviews, ask for references.

billbenson
07-21-2015, 01:29 PM
Paul, would you hire a marketing manager knowing nothing about marketing? These days a web designer can be critical to a business. Not every web designer or design firm is appropriate for every company. This is why I recommend doing a hobby site to every entrepreneur or marketing manager. You need to know enough to manage a web designer.

I represent a very large company that has a web marketing department. They don't talk to other departments that rely on the website such as marketing, customer service, or sales. Simple things like being able to copy and paste an image can be difficult. The site could use a lot of improvement. They don't even have all of the products on the site. The problem here is a lack of internal communication between departments. It exists for other departments within the company.

turboguy
07-21-2015, 02:18 PM
I am not sure if I can add anything meaningful to this conversation or not since I am not a web designer and have only looked for one once with mediocre results. I do my own web sites for my business and have a handful of sites that I have done.

However if I were looking for a web designer one thing I would do is to look at as many sites as I could and when I saw one I really liked make a note of it. I am planning to update several of my sites this year and I took a look at about 40 sites in my industry and out of those found 2 that I liked. I think a web designer would benefit if you were able to show him a look you wanted for your site and the odds of you being happy with the results are much better as well. I belong to a couple of forums where people post links to their web sites for comments, critiques and suggestions. I have looked at hundreds of sites always looking for something that really catches my eye. Now one possibility is that if you see a web site that you really like they will often have a link to whoever created that site and you could contact them to see if they are interested in working with you.

What you need and what you can spend to get it is going to be a big factor. If you are hoping to spend $ 500.00 you will likely have a hard time finding anyone who is going to really give you a nice site for that money. I am sure as well that if money is no object you can find some top quality people who are willing to work with you. Late last year I was on the committee for a trade association to find someone to redo their web site. They didn't have a lot to spend and were hoping to get it done for 2-3 grand. I posted on a couple of forums looking for someone with almost no response. Finally someone else on the board did find a person who worked for their company and was willing to do it in his spare time for the amount the association wanted to spend.

The other suggestion I would have is to start working on what you want to say. I think one of the big problems for many web designers is getting ideas for copy for a new web site. Some guys just go blank when they try to think about the copy for a web site. I think too working ahead on photos for the web site is a plus.

Paul
07-21-2015, 03:14 PM
Bill and Turbo, I agree with both of you. I work with a lot of companies, mostly start ups, that need web sites. Sometimes I have to help them with that, even though I am NOT web savvy (when they are more clueless than me!).

I usually first look around for a site I like and then create a “mock” site on a DIY platform like wix or godaddy. Of course the designer does the site their own way but it helps save time and gets the ball rolling especially with copy and page lineups. I may be wrong but I think the designers appreciate that little bit of initial direction.

billbenson
07-21-2015, 03:43 PM
I don't think you are wrong about the little bit of initial direction, just be careful about dup content.

There are two things that are important IMO for hiring a web designer / developer. There is the design aspect and content that is for the web. As an example the eye tends to read the page in a certain path. A good designer will be able to design a page that has text that closes, follows the eye path, proper colors etc.

A developer knows (by my definition of developer) back end programing or knows enough to be able to farm this out. Go to HotScripts and look at all the scripts that can be added to a website. Then use your imagination as to what a script of some sort can do to improve your website. With databases and some programing you can do incredible things to a website. You don't need to learn to program, but you should learn the sort of things that can be done by programing. Then you can properly select and direct your web professional.

JMO of course.

veritasvisions
08-14-2015, 03:57 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fflWWnjxfw here is a video i made. should help you out.