Website Design Services?

The other thread made me think of this ....at what point in a domain's development is it worth spending big bucks on a webiste designer? Many of us go into owning a domain without a lot of $$$ to put behind it, and I've used template services (paid not free) and had good enough luck.

Does spending a lot with a designer really make a difference???

No it's not once you understand how to edit and work on your own site you won't need one. You should first learn how to learn the basics of HTML's since most webpages use them. Once you get the hang of it, you'll realize that it's really simple to design your own site. Most everything on a site just has a basic code and you have to be able to tell the differences betweeen them (It's not that hard).Unless you don't have much of an imagination or can't decide what you even want on your site. lol ^___^ hope this helped!

I know html and do my own sites so for me it isn't a problem because I have some background in marketing and in design. I guess my question was more one for emerging businesses who are putting their efforts elsewhere and when do they make a decision to hire it done.

There's an economic theory to explain this:
Imagine youre really good at typing on a computer, but also good at managing a business. You are STILL better off hireing a secretary even if she is less skilled than you at typing, if you get to focus on managing the business.

The same is true with emerging businesses, if you can focus your time on managing your business, and even if you can design the site yourself, you might be better off paying for it and focusing on running your business.

Zach

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Sig: Before I post on Domain Social, I read the rules!

Agreed!! If you are aiming for online success, it is a advisable to get professional help. Although budget might be tight at the early stage, but think about the long run. Example that I studied before was this particular site :- alldotnet.com . It is a directory site using free php script. But the owner spend roughly about $7k in modding and designs (as claimed, but I believe it is true as the previous owner is pretty reputable).

After which, within 18months the site is generating a steady monthly income of >$200 within spending much time managing it except approving the link submited. More than 12k of links were submitted, inclusive free links when it was first started. Now it only accept paid listing.

To what I understand, the site was then sold for >$2k early about 3months back via SitePoint. Look at this way, if he continue owning the site, it is truly a steady income for years to come isn't it??!

web design is an intangible element of yr web business.

whether you get yr web design free, paid or done by professionals, depends on what your intent is.

if you're selling branded premium items like high-end PC CPU coolers cost hundreds of dollars, or customized car accessories or branded ladies handbags, the extra couple hundred bucks you spend on design will give your customers a better feeling and you'd cover that amount back after a few transactions anyway.

if your site is mainly content driven and yr customer profile doesnt care about aesthetics, then something functional and user friendly will be good.

by the way, i have some IM and business resources at two of my content sites, www.bizexcellerator.com and www.internetmarketingcookbook.com that you might find useful.

cheers,

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I agree with Andrew Wee about it depends what your intent is. You can pay someone to do it who might be able to get your site looking incredible and doing what you need to do. You can focus on other things.

Ah ...then we get into what an incredible website looks like. It seems so many for for the flashy graphics at the beginning which I can't wait to skip and get into the meat of the site.
That's an expensive aspect of a site build and I'm not certain why people do it.

The flashy graphics are expensive! I like to get to what people are saying too. That's what a site is about after all, who is on it.

Its same if you hire a designer or buy a template.
You need to pay both. There is one advantage of hiring designer. You can make that in your way. Since i didnt used template service yet, they only provide you ready made template. You need to put the contents. If you hire a designer then he completes all .