okay, I feel like there are two sides to this coin.

You see, on one side if I’m looking for a cheap inexpensive website design because my thinking is that this is a starting point and I will test and tweak my way to what my customers respond to best. There’s no reason to jump in and pay $4000 when you don’t even know what direction the website will be heading in when it’s all said and done.

However, if you are wanting a cheap website because you’re thinking you are going to save money and use that money on marketing and beer. Then chances are you’re never going to make any money with your website and you’re better off putting that money into something else. You’ve started off with the wrong attitude.

If it’s all about saving a dollar then you’re not looking at this as an investment but rather as an expense and you are really better off to stop now and save your money. If you won’t invest money in the business chances are you’re not going to be willing to invest the time either.

So on one side of the coin I agree, go cheap figure out what your customers are looking for and then fine tune and tweak your way up to the nice deluxe website design that you want.

However, if you do it to save money then I think you will lose every penny you put into the business. I don’t mean to be mean but I’ve seen it happen too many times to believe that someone not willing to invest very much time or money is going to do anymore then break even when it’s all said and done.

You may be asking yourself “ Do I need a professional website design ?“  With all the do it yourself website design sites out there why should you pay a person to do a website design?

Look at it this way,  you can find  do it yourself plans on how to build a house on the internet but you would be a fool to  try this if you have no previous experience in home construction.  It is same with a  website design.  I used to work on my own car but I can’t do that anymore because the technology has advanced to the point that I no longer have the technological knowledge to do this. Again it is the same with website design.

Being involved in the website design industry I have find it necessary to constantly be reading and studying to keep up with all of the innovations and advances in the industry. As a lay person you don’t do this and don’t really understand what is available to you.

If you want an effective website  utilizing the features available today then you need a professional website design. A cut and paste template just isn’t going to cut the mustard in today’s competitive internet.

With website design you have several goals.

1. To capture the viewer’s attention in the first 5 seconds.

If this is not accomplished then the viewer will move on to another site.

2. Once the viewer is captured to direct them to the goods or services that you are presenting and entice them to buy these goods or services.

3. To make the navigation of the site  easy and quick.  People have notoriously short attention spans.  So get their attention and  make the sale.

This almost never accomplished with a do it yourself website design.  Don’t waste your time talk to website design professional.

Blogs are everywhere on the internet today and cover every imaginable subject.  The term “BLOG” is blending of the words web log.  The term was first used in about 1997 and has become as much part of our language as any other word

Blog design can take many shapes and forms depending on the use of the blog.  They can be as simple as a diary giving running details of a person’s life or as complex as an interchange of highly technical information between professionals.

Dr. Mohamad Moujari of the New Deli Medical Research center recently said that the conveyance of information in the medical community through blogs has single handedly saved more lives in the first ten years of the twenty first century than any other factor.

Obviously the more complex the information being passed along the more complex the blog design.

If you are developing a website you will probably be including a blog.  Make sure you pay attention to the blog design as well as the website design.  Navigating the blog must be made easy just like navigating the website.

A blog is only as good as the blog design and the writer of the content.

Websites were once for big companies but today they are for everyone from families to small and large companies.  That means that there are many new comers to the website world.

It has become essential in the business world for a company to maintain a website and the website design is also essential.  With all the new businesses opening and others that also need website design many charlatans have cropped up that promise the moon but actually deliver little.

Beware of the person offering many features for a low cost.  I was recently contracted by a firm to handle their website design.  They had previously contracted another company and paid a thousand dollar deposit.  They waited a year and all they had was a design for a home page with no domain name.  They had been quoted 2500 dollars for a very simple website design.  It was overpriced and the work had never been done.

This is not the first time I have heard this story.  In fact it is becoming more and more common.  The point of this article is to be careful.  If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.  Website design is both an art and science that takes trained professionals.  Before you contract a website design company check their references and look closely at their work.

Remember a good website design can bring your company customers and a bad one can force them away.  Choose wisely and use a little common sense.  Picking a good website design firm is like any other business decision; you need to do your homework.  Don’t sign contracts you don’t understand.  If it is not in plain English be wary.

A good website design is like a good friend and a bad one is like your worst enemy.

So many people want websites today but so few really think about what they want. I hear the words custom website design thrown about so much that it makes me sick.  Much of what website designs firms are selling are not actually custom website designs.  A custom website design should be unique.  I recently was browsing through attorney websites in Memphis Tennessee.  What I found was that many of the sites had the same photos attached and had obviously come from the same templates but were all designed by different companies.  When I looked at the website design company’s websites they all advertized that they specialized in custom website design.

I am sure that each of these attorneys thought they were getting something special and unique, when in fact they were not.  It is your responsibility as a customer to first determine what you want and secondly look at as many sights as possible from your competitors to ensure the sight is not a copy. Always remember buy beware.  This is especially true in the custom website design business.

If you truly want a custom website design then you need to research the firm you are contracting to do the design.  Talk to their customers look at their sites.  If a company offers you a custom website design for five hundred dollars don’t believe them something is wrong.  You get what you pay for and you don’t get a custom website design for five hundred dollars.

Also don’t talk to just one company.  Get multiple bids and as many ideas as possible.