Where to find cheap designer to make me one-off landing pages?

[Zachary]

I want to test a bunch of my ideas with AdWords campaigns. Where can I find a designer with halfway decent photoshop/css skills, and quick turnaround times, and how much can I expect to pay?

I know there's elance, craigslist, rentacoder, guru, odesk... but I'm curious which you guys have experienced cheap rates and quick turnaround from.

BTW, I will basically just be asking them to make a highly modified, simplified version of http://www.cloudninehoodia.com/ -- pitching my new product/service. And it won't be a magic weight loss pill, I just like the clean simplicity of that design.

[Sven]

Search the forum before you post...

[Zachary]

Sorry, I couldn't find anything for "landing page design"!

[clanshrapnel]

$150+ and I recommend elance. Don't go with the cheapest bid and never be afraid to turn right around out of an in-progress project and cancel the project. I've had to do it and I've never regretted it. Look at feedback, look at return customers, and look at the portfolio to make sure they have done similar projects in the past. You can prevent hassle to a certain extent.

If you want no hassles, 100% for-sure good results, expect to pay a premium... but there are good deals out there. You just have to manage and negotiate properly.

You'll also want to get a handle on doing wireframes (even if it's just using MS Paint and drawing in your changes).

[Zachary]

hey, awesome. i'm in nyc too. we should meet up sometime and talk strategies.. :)

[FrozenCanuck]

Zach - Make absolutely sure that you have more on your website than just a landing page. If Google sees one page on the whole domain you will have ULTRA high cost per click. That's the google slap.

You should make sure to post about 15 decent articles about your topic on your domain. Then in your landing page footer have a link to "articles", so Google sees this. It will improve your cost dramatically. Make sure the articles have relevant titles and keywords for your market.

[winvest]

hey, awesome. i'm in nyc too. we should meet up sometime and talk strategies.. :)

If you want to meet up in NYC check out this thread
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=4214

[SoftwareGeek]

I hired a designer from Uzbekistan on elance to do a landing page for dry testing. It cost me $200, but was a semi-frustrating experience. I used to work as a programmer on sites like rentacoder (put myself through college that way), so I'm relatively familiar with the process. Still, I had a hard time getting the results I wanted, despite them having done very similar work to what I wanted.

One learning I took away from the experience is that I think it's really important to work directly with the designer. I (unknowning) hired a design house, where I was corresponding with two different "project managers" who spoke english, and translating my requests to the designer. This game of telephone made it really hard to convey what I wanted.

I also had some problems with just getting really cliche graphics. I was testing an info product around how to get started doing freelance work, and they kept steering towards photos of piles of money and the like, when I really needed something that was a bit classier. I finally had to pan the use of any graphic that showed a dollar sign to get my point across:) The landing page is at http://www.freelancingsuccess.com, if you're curious.

My advice:

- Ask explicitly if who you're talking with is the designer that will be doing the work
- Consider separating the design work from the html. Have the designer deliver a psd, and then get someone else to produce html from it. It will lower your price, and the psd->html work is pretty simple and mechanical
- Consider hiring a designer in your target culture/audience, or at least whose portfolio shows that they're capable of the style/sophistication you need.

Best of luck. It's always an adventure having freelance work done, but you can get really good results for low cost if you manage it correctly.

[Zachary]

Zach - Make absolutely sure that you have more on your website than just a landing page. If Google sees one page on the whole domain you will have ULTRA high cost per click. That's the google slap.

You should make sure to post about 15 decent articles about your topic on your domain. Then in your landing page footer have a link to "articles", so Google sees this. It will improve your cost dramatically. Make sure the articles have relevant titles and keywords for your market.



Wow, thanks dude. Do you think it's okay if I make the articles through a wordpress installation? or do I have to just have static pages..

[BlindSquirrel]

I've used elance. The post by clanshrapnel is right on. I recommend using the escrow payment method on elance. If you set a milestone with proof of progress a after you release the money but before it is available to the developer (there is a week or so delay), you can have some reassurances before your developer can withdrawl the money from escrow. Then if there is a dispute, it is MUCH easier to get your money back BEFORE it is released from escrow. If you wait until after it is released, then you are at the mercy of the developer or firm to make it right.

I just posted a web site build on odesk today. I was impressed with the amount of offers I got in a short time. I have about 30 replies in one day, and on elance it took a bit longer to get that many. Maybe odesk is better if you are in a rush...

Also, I've done the forum search too and come up empty only to post and get a "sven slap" for not searching. I feel your pain! :)

[clanshrapnel]

I can recommend a developer through PM that I am working with on eLance that offers VERY reasonable rates (i.e., less than $200) and does a nice, clean web 2.0 look.

Once they finish the final product by the end of this week, you can have a look and decide for yourself if you want to talk to the developer on eLance to strike a deal.


If anybody else has recommendations on eLance developers that do a great job for landing pages, everyone here could benefit for sure.

[jackson]

Who is he? Looking for a designer recommendation if anyone has one, my page needs a new skin and layout. thanks.

[FrozenCanuck]

Wow, thanks dude. Do you think it's okay if I make the articles through a wordpress installation? or do I have to just have static pages..

Use Wordpress for sure. Why complicate things with new static pages that you can't manage with the WP admin panel.

Tag them (or categorize them) all as "articles" and put a link to the "articles" category in your footer.