Thursday, October 23, 2008

Freelancer Or A Web Design Agency?

When you are looking for someone to build a website for you, you have many different options. One of the first things you will have to do is decide is whether you want to use a freelancer or a web design agency to design your website for you. Each option has its own unique set of pros and cons that need to be carefully considered so that you get the web design professional that meets your specific wants and needs.
Freelancers can be a great option. One of the great things about a freelancer is that they have more freedom and flexibility to take on a variety of projects. Some of the most creative people in web design work strictly on a contract or freelance basis. Another great thing about using a freelance web designer is that you may be able to negotiate a great deal. Freelancers often work from their homes, so there are myriad expenses that are spared. While it is true that freelancing has its own expenses associated with it, freelancers certainly have a greater range to negotiate a price. Lastly, you may find a great talent at a bargain. Many new freelancers are eager for work and sites that they can use in their portfolio to command higher-paying jobs. These people are very talented; they are just not as experienced. If you can find one of these gems, and don't mind being a bit patient while they get the hang of freelance work, you can get a great deal on top of the line web design service and also help a deserving person launch his or her career.
Although there are many good reasons to go with a freelancer, there are some drawbacks. If a freelancer gets in over his or her head, it might be hard for him or her to find someone to help him out. Also, there is a great potential for miscommunication and other project-killing incidents to happen with a freelancer. Lastly, with a freelancer, the price may be more variable. You may not know exactly how much the project will cost until it is already over.
If the drawbacks of hiring a freelance professional for your web design project outweigh the benefits, you may want to consider using a web design agency. Web design agencies are usually more established. It is easier to get references as well as a look at portfolio material. Furthermore, a web design agency will have a wide variety of people to work on a project, so that if there is a function that you want, there will be someone in the agency who knows how to do it. Web design agencies also have the benefit of experience. They can accurately estimate the cost of a job, so there are no surprises for you. Finally, most web design agencies are members of their local commerce chambers or some other authoritative organization. If you have a hard time with a freelancer, you don't have very many avenues for recourse. However, with a web design agency, you are more likely to have any dispute you may have resolved to your satisfaction.
Web design agencies and freelance web design professionals both have solid good points and a couple bad points. In order to figure out which is right for you, you need to do an honest assessment of what you are looking for and what risk you are willing to tolerate for what benefits. Each project has its own needs and at any given time a freelancer might be more desirable than a web design agency or vice versa.
About the Author
Author: Tanya Swithins Website: http://www.pecdesigns.com Bio: Tanya writes for PEC Designs, a manchester web design agency.

Awards For Web Design And Development

After all the efforts you put into designing and developing a web site, it is nice to know that you can qualify and win an award for the effort. If you have not yet been awarded for your efforts and design, its time you competed for one. To receive an award, you need to apply for one. Apply to participate, as in most beauty contests or the Miss World contest, you have to apply.
Various award sites are available on the internet, most are authentic and legitimate, however a few do look like link exchanges. The award sites are categorized, some of them are for non-commercial sites and some only for corporate sites.
Go through the criteria of the award sites through a fine tooth comb. Some award sites do not accept frame sites and some reject java applets. Applying to a award site without fulfilling the criteria will not get you anywhere.
If you have a good site, you will get an award, but if you are looking forward to getting more hits through winning the award, you need to have an amazing site,. Only then, when your site is showcased by the award site, you can get those expected hits. The purpose of the award should always be towards getting more hits and not towards showcasing your web design and development skills to your friends and family.
If you don’t win, don’t get bogged down. Web design is always profitable, so look towards improving your site as a challenge.
You could use the following tips while working towards your award:
* Never spam the award sites with too many requests.* Strictly no adult content.* Be sure that the web site is complete. * Make sure your web site loads fast. * Make sure the graphics are not broken and no 404 errors.* Make sure you have good content.
A few award sites: http://Coolsiteoftheday.com, http://Awardsites.com, NetGuide, USA Today, Lycos Top 5, http://GoldenWebAward.com, http://AwardSites.com.
To create an award winning website and access to more resources visit http://www.cobbwebdesign.com.
About the Author
To create an award winning website and access to more resources visit Web Site Development and Design Elements

Sensational Web Design Advice

Are you one of those people who would love to have your own personal or business website, but feel you are unable to afford it? In this article, I explain about how to obtain a quality web design on the cheap. There are also some superb website promotion tips.
How to obtain a website on the cheap.
Many people wrongly believe that you have to spend a huge amount of money to obtain an internet prescence. In my opinion for a basic website, you should only be looking to pay around £100, to have a website built. The amount of competition in the internet web design sector means that there are some great deals to be found, if you are willing to be patient and to make lots of phone calls.To find these deals, my advice would be to first of all, look on the auction website, ebay. I have seen many people offering affordable web design services here. You can also try internet search engines or the Yellow Pages.
Website promotion tips.
I am sure that most people who have a website are looking for an increase in traffic to their website or an increase in their google page rank. In general the higher the page rank you have, the more visitors you are likely to get.
To increase this page rank it is important to build up the number of backward links your website has. You can do this by e-mailing other websites preferably in the same business sector as your own and asking if they would be willing to exchange links with your site. This however can be very time consuming and at times can have little reward.
I believe the best way of promoting your website, which is also cost free, is by writing articles like the one you are reading here. By submitting these articles to article websites, other webmasters are then able to use your article on their website, thus giving you an extra link. This is because you are able to add your information and web address in the author bio at the bottom of the page. You also obtain a one way backward link from the article website which accepted the article.
You may also want to consider google adwords. This is a form of pay per click where you pay to appear on the right side of the search results in the paid advertising section of the google search engine for a specific key phrase. Always remember not to spend more on the advertising than you are likely to earn from the website.
If you would like to earn extra money from your website you may want to consider google adsense. This is where google put ads onto your website. When your visitors click on the ads you get paid.

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About the Author
Stephen Hill has a number of websites including: http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk http://www.free-poker-help.com http://www.cancer-therapy.com

Web Design Perth - Everything Your Web Design Needs to Help Your Business

Hello! If you haven’t noticed lately, new websites are popping up literally every second of the day. At some point, you are going to need to get a web site designed for your business. Web Design Perth is a necessity if you want to not only boost your company’s credibility, but add new prospective customers and higher profits.
Let’s look further into what a good web design must have in order to gain more credibility and customers for your business:
1. Immediately grab the user’s attention – This is very important! You must create a web site that immediately grabs your user’s attention within the first three seconds of them clicking. There have been numerous studies done that when a user is using a search engine to crawl the internet that they will click back and forth and stay on each website for an average of three seconds until they find what they are looking for.
2. Clean and crisp design – The average web surfer can tell right away whether the website they are on is worth staying on by the way the design is constructed. You must really strive to achieve a design that is clean, crisp, and easy to navigate. Anything other than that and you can count on the web surfer to click back and find another website to visit.
3. Give answers right away – You need to make sure your website gives the surfer what they are looking for right away. For example, a surfer looking for the best weight loss supplements wants to click on a website that ensures them they are on the RIGHT website. Pictures of your best weight loss supplement followed by a ten star user review and a link to buy would be an example of giving the user what they want RIGHT AWAY. That’s just one example of direct marketing that works – make sure your web design perth is setup to offer your users answers right away.
4. Build trust – There are many internet professionals who call the internet the “wild wild west.” That’s because literally anyone can put up a website and start an online business in 5 seconds with how the internet is setup. With this come a lot of scams, spams, abuse, and bad business. You need to ensure your surfer that they are on a legitimate website that’s there to give them what they want right away. With every web design perth I create I make sure there is links for the following:
- Contact us- Privacy Policy- Terms of Service- Disclaimer
By adding these links and giving as much detailed contact information as possible, I can ensure that any user to my website feels comfortable in making a decision to use my company for their web design needs.
5. Quick – If there’s one thing that can kill the amount of visitors to your website, it’s how quick your website loads. I know it’s tempting to put as many images, videos, and audios on your website as possible, but work to make sure your web design loads quick and easily for surfers.

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About the Author
Steve E. is the owner of Dead Pixel Media, a web design perth company that specializes in web design for small companies in Perth, Australia. Learn more about web design Australia and Dead Pixel Media's professional services at www.deadpixelmedia.com

Find Cheap Web Design & Web Development At Great Pricing

This article will show you how to find cheap web design, web development and other services at great pricing. Obtaining cheap web design, web development and web designers can be a tough task. All too often web design can be very expensive, and if you don't make a good choice you can be sitting on an expensive web design that didn't turn out how you wanted it. Therefore, comparison shopping for cheap web development services is a must.
I have been in the design industry for over 10 years and learned a lot about comparison shopping techniques for customers that want to find a cheap web design. Some of the tactics I would recommend are below!
There are several web sites out there that assist you in finding cheap web designers for your site. These sites help connect you with freelance design companies that compete for your business. The process works like this; you post your project online and several companies and individuals bid on your project. You will very quickly receive several bids; then you can review the companies and their offering prices for your cheap web development project. Now you can view the companies past reviews from previous transactions and you can view their work. After doing this you will then pick a winning bidder. Most all freelance sites will offer you the option to deposit the money in to an escrow account. Then once you are satisfied you transfer the total remaining amount of money in to the cheap web design companies account. This is one of the best options for finding a cheap web design for your website.
Another option is simply searching the web to find a company to help you with your needs. What I recommend is you ask what the price for the web site is, their turnaround time and ask to use an escrow service to handle the transaction. This will help protect your investment and assure you that the work is created to your preference.
Things to watch out for when picking a cheap web design company are as follows. You want to find a company that has a phone number and good customer support. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people is that their past designers would never help or respond. Or else they were not able to deliver what they originally promised.
Lastly, make sure that you create an outline of your entire web site just how you want it. To improve the time it takes for a company to design your cheap website you must give them all the content, images and site layout. This will help them to create a look, navigation and your entire cheap web site design quickly.
So apply some time to reasearching who would be best to work with for you. Find a reliable source as well as a great price on web design, web development, programming, internet marketing and more. Hopefully this article helped.
Joel McLaughlinDataflurry Internet Solutions

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About the Author
Joel McLaughlin is the owner of Dataflurry Internet. Cheap Web Site Design & Development Cheap Web Site Design Cheap Web Development

Best Web Design And Free Web Promotion Tips

This article gives free tips on how to find a cheap web designer and free tips on website promotion.Cheap web design services.
You do not have to spend thousands of pounds to have an internet prescence. In my opinion you should only have to pay between £50 and £100 to have a website built. The websites at the bottom of this page only cost me £42.50 each! The amount of competition in the internet web design sector means that there are some great deals available.
You can find these cheap web design companies by looking on internet auction websites, internet search engines or in the Yellow Pages.
Website promotion free tips.
Everyone would like an increase in traffic to their website or an increase in their PR rating. In general the higher the page rank you have the more visitors you are likely to get.
To increase this page rank it is important to build up the number of backward links your website has. You can do this by e-mailing other websites preferably in the same business sector as your own and asking if they would be willing to swap links with your site.
Writing articles like the one you are reading here is another way of obtaining backward links. By submitting these articles to article websites, other webmasters are then able to use your article on their website, thus giving you an extra link. This is because you are able to add your information and web address in the author bio at the bottom of the page.
You may also want to consider google adwords. This is a form of pay per click where you pay to appear on the right side of the search results in the paid advertising section of the google search engine for a specific key phrase. Always remember not to spend more on the advertising than you are likely to earn from the website.
If you would like to earn extra money from your website you may want to consider google adsense. This is where google put ads onto your website. When your visitors click on the ads you get paid.

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About the Author
Stephen Hill has a number of websites including: http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk http://www.back-pain-specialist.com http://www.stress-relief-info.com

e-Commerce Website Design vs. Web Design

Not all websites are the same. And while all webmasters need to take web design into account, those dealing directly with money and customers have extra considerations to make. After all, for owners of e-commerce (or sales) websites, “conversion” is the number one priority. Conversion refers to turning visitors to a website into paying customers, and the “conversion rate” of an e-commerce site is hugely dependant on how potential customers feel about the site itself.
This brings the question… When designing a website, what is the difference between e-commerce web design and regular web design? Can you design an e-commerce website just like you would an informational web page? The answer is no. Though they are similar in concept and execution, there is quite a lot of difference between e-commerce web design and regular web design-- it’s all in the details.
E-Commerce Web Designers
When an Internet user visits an e-commerce site, he/she is often looking to buy. But the truth is, if that potential buyer doesn’t feel good about the website, they won’t buy-- even if the items for sale there are just what they’re looking for.
Since turning browsers into paying customers is the way for an e-commerce site to make money, e-commerce website designers must keep in mind the importance of creating trust and good feeling with potential customers. Before deciding to spend money, most online customers look for security, convenience, and accessibility, and a successful e-commerce site must make all three a priority. Because of this, e-commerce web designers must put a special focus on:
Branding
In order to create trust and a feeling with security with potential clients, it’s important that an e-commerce website be well branded. This means that sales websites must put more effort into logos, mottos, designs, etc., than non-commercial websites.
Shopping Carts
The ease and convenience of e-shopping carts, shopping baskets, etc., is an important factor in converting browsers into customers. Because of this, most e-commerce website designers should offer custom shopping cart design for websites. This includes but isn’t limited to shopping cart appearance, databases, product display, and email receipts.
Security and Merchant Accounts
The biggest reason why online shopping is such a huge industry is convenience. And what makes shopping online so convenient is the ability to pay online securely with credit cards. Since paying online is one of the last remaining “sticking points” for reluctant online shoppers, it’s important to make them feel safe and secure when ordering from an e-commerce site. Because of this, e-commerce web designers are specialized in creating secure websites, and often help users to apply for and create secure e-commerce merchant accounts for credit cards.
Of course, all of this specialized knowledge requires specialized training, and an e-commerce web designer needs to be trained in this highly specific field. An e-commerce web designer must know both regular web design and the specialized skills in the areas listed above, as well as other e-commerce related areas.
About the Author
Train for your future as an E-Commerce Web Designer at triOS College located in Toronto, Ontario.