Web site creation and design

[PocketRockets]

Hi, I've already developed a muse and am looking into creating the website. I really wish for it to look professional and was wondering if anyone here has used a professional web designer and if so, how much did it cost? What are some companies you'd recommend, thanks alot.

PRS

[storm33229]

Hi, I've already developed a muse and am looking into creating the website. I really wish for it to look professional and was wondering if anyone here has used a professional web designer and if so, how much did it cost? What are some companies you'd recommend, thanks alot.

PRS
Always recommend:
http://www.elance.com
and lately I've seen:
http://www.briangardner.com
however using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 wouldn't be a bad option either.

[jonparker83]

The cost of a professionally designed site would depend on how complex the site is

e.g.

- Would you need to administer the content yourself
- Would it need to have e-Commerce functionality

I'd tend to stay away from trying it yourself and go with finding a designer/developer from elance.com


Cheers

Jon :)

[Sven]

I used professionals for my windvane site www.mistervee.com. It cost me a huge amount of money and recently I found out that I could have had the same results using drupal in about 2 hours of work+10 hours of trial and error.

I now think that first you have to try open source cms before you start outsourcing building and designing websites.

I have an overview of the sites I built on www.puresven.com

[jonparker83]

Sven,

Just out of interest, as it appears you were taken for a bit of a ride by the company who designed your mistervee site, how did you decide to use the company you did?

I agree if the work was going to be of that quality then it would be worth having a go yourself, but I think with a careful choice of web designer, you should expect much more than that.

If you don't mind me asking too roughly how huge an amount of money are we talking here too?

Cheers

Jon :)

[Sven]

I wasn't taken for a ride. I had difficult requirements. I wanted two levels of downloads a public one and a secure one. By now I think that the secure one is too secure and have been a lot simpler. I had the site designed which I know now can not be apreciated by my typical customer so it is only for my pleasure. That is worth something but I would not pay the same amount again for this kind of pleasure.

And finally, The webshop has a very specific feature: I can put the package together on a nut and bolt level and have the order sent automatically by email.

The builder, a very good friend of mine, also thinks the site has become too expensive and is rebuilding the webshop for free and he also paid the designer for an improved (better selling) look.

By now I know that most of the functionality can be achieved with drupal. By now I would start with drupal and have modules programmed in to it if I realy needed them.

The price of the site can feed a family for 1 to 3 months.

[webgal]

I think it depends on what you want the site to do. I see many "home made" sites that just don't sell the product or service. But if you're talking about just the nuts and bolts, then that's a different story.

[ksollen]

Being a designer by trade this question pops up quite a bit. Drupal, Wordpress and Other opensource solutions can be great, but you really need to be careful with what freelancer or company you choose to go with. Also, quality design is so important these days. Anything "wrong" with your site and your credibility can go down the toilet. In this industry you ALWAYS get what you pay for.

i post frequently about other designers and their work on my blog, I'll Eat Anything Once (http://illeatanythingonce.com).

[JFrenzel]

Elance or Asksunday


Cheers

Jose

[andyYY]

Well,This is pretty hard to say.

Most of web developers and "low profile comp.es" are most of the times uncapable of great site design or good at scripting.

I saw web projects sold for 2.000 USD and probabl my sister with dreamweaver could do it better,by the way, I always ask what the site will cost me,to see theyr projects and I inform them that they will compete with 3 others agencyes...

I deserve discounts (and trust me,do it with indians corp. is like fighting for survive) and I pretend the best,and I'm pretty sure that whoever is going to build my webspaces will do a great job,as I thinked in my mind.

I'm not interested in "quick cheap service" and after all is 1,450 USD bill and the site isn't functional or nice to see and surf....

Keep in my mind that if someone refuse to show his projects and don't tell how much money you'll need,probably isn't appropriate for you.


Outsource safe :D !

[onemoretry]

I am a professional web developer and yours is a tough question to answer; it really depends on what you want to achieve. First and foremost, you shouldn't skimp on design. Aesthetics are ever-important, and if you want to limit your interaction to just one person, I'd find a developer (somebody who builds the technical pieces that make your site work) that can work with a designer (somebody who designs and illustrates the visual appearance of your site) on your behalf. Most of the time this is preferred because the developer needs to work with the designer's "assets" (images, basic HTML, etc.) to bring the project together.

I have to say that the bar is being set higher and higher on the web and depending on your product you may not be able to generate a lot of interest with a static page and order button, but this might work for you. If that's the case you can get a designer to do most of this job with a static HTML page without too much trouble on your part. If your product is very web-centric and needs some interactivity, subscription management, and the like, you might want a web developer to do that work for you, and, as others suggest, you can also spend some time learning a plug-and-play software package like Drupal to build something halfway decent.

Custom web development, especially of the "startup" variety, is not cheap. I am lucky in that I can produce my own ventures with just time, but I charge my clients around $50/hr. And for my own ventures I pay a good designer I know the same rate to produce quality designs for me.