Crimson Light Web Designs

Next to Squidoo, websites are the next best way to advertise your product, company, thoughts, and lifestyle. They serve a functional purpose for businesses, allowing customers to: find information without tying up your technical support, order the latest products, tells family and friends about your business. For the artist or writer, it gives your audience access to your works. And for those with opinions, weblogs can give you a new ear. But before your website can do all these things you a good website.

Sure, you can go to any old free webhost like Geocities or Freewebs and create a website yourself with a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editor but just like your office, business card, brochure, or artwork, the quality says something to the audience - it's a WYSIWYG kind of world. Just because you have a website does not mean it will make you any more popular. Infact, a bad website can be the fall of a company. You need a real website, by a real web designer/programmer, with a domain hosted on a real host.

Now wait just a minute! Before you spending any money you better consider a few things:
You'll get no where without a clear outline of objectives and content for your website.
Not everyone who claims to be a web designer really is. This is the internet, after all. So, you'll need to do your research and when you think you've found the right one get a contract. Just because their website looks fancy and you are paying a lot, does not guarantee you are getting diddly-squat without that contract.

OUTLINING YOUR WEBSITE
I tell you you need this because you do. It will save you time, money, and help you choose your web designer.
First, do a little exercise and ask yourself the following three questions:
A. What is the purpose of my website?
B. What do I want on my website?
C. What do I want it to look like?

Answering these questions will be easiest if you do some research, especially for B and C. Take a look at websites that have similar purposes and content for ideas to B and take notes. For C, just take note of anything and everything you like on all websites you visit. Take detailed notes and write down & bookmark your links.

Once you have your content straight, outline it like so:
Home
Products
- #1 Product
- #2 Product
Forum
- Help
- News
- General Discussion
Customer Support
About Us
Contact Us
etc.

Once you have your game plan down you can then focus on finding a web designer.

Part 2: So, You Still Want A Web Site?

Once you have a general idea of what you want it is time to start looking for a designer. Today there are great tools like GetAFreelancer.com and iFreelance.com that allow you to submit what you are looking for and web designers will bid on your project.

When you use tools like this it is good to look for:
- A portfolio with good work examples. If their portfolio and the other sites they have designed look tacky or does not load right for you then you should probably not trust them to do any better with your website.
- Their portfolio should list at least one site with at least one of your project's requirements. If you want a shopping cart make sure they have done a shopping cart before. Even if they are capable of working with anything if they have never done it before they will have to learn. You will be paying for their learning time! A project that might be done in 2 hours by someone who has done may take 6-8 hours for a new person. That's 4-6 hours more at whatever you are paying them.
- IF they have a project similar to yours in their portfolio look through it with a fine tooth comb. If you find problems with their work, steer clear.

A big question many ask is: How much should I be willing to pay?
It depends on your project and who you hire. If all you are looking for is a simple five-page website with a logo, some pictures, and some articles on your company or hobby, then you are looking at a going rate of $300 or less. This assumes you do not want a super flashy website with huge graphics, "shiny bells and whistles." I charge less then $150 or less for such projects because I don't pay light bills.

The going hourly rate for a good web/graphic designer is about $10-$20/HR. Those working for huge firms tend to charge more (like $20/HR) due to the good old supply and demand. If your site is like my five-page example then be looking for someone doing a package for $300 or less. If you want much more then this you will then need to be looking at hourly wages.

The going hourly rate for a good web programmer (someone who works with code to build web applications and not just graphics and simple websites) is about $15-$35 an hour.

Back to Part 1: So, You Want A Website?

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Articles: Part 1: So, You Want A Website? and Part 2: So, You Still Want A Website?

With five years of web site building experience, Jennie Harris is proficient in xHTML and CSS. She works with Photoshop and Animation Shop to create eye-catching and relevant designs for websites and advertisements. She uses HTML, CSS, and bits of PHP, XML, and JavaScript to build dynamic websites for her clientèle.

Crimson Light also boasts other freelancers proficient in Flash Animation, PHP, Ruby, Rails, and other high demand skills.

With our combined skill-set, Crimson Light offers the following services: web site design, web site application building, web site application installation, web banner design, brochure design, business card design, logo design, photograph editing, copy writing, ghost writing, proof reading and editing, data entry, and technical support.

We also offer cheap web hosting packages perfect and cheap for the small business or hobbyist.

Recent Projects | What Do We Do? | Packages and Pricing | Drop Some Feedback
Articles: Part 1: So, You Want A Website? and Part 2: So, You Still Want A Website?