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Are We Blind To Banner Ads?
Do expensive, flashy banner ads really work? Studies suggest advertisers attempting to draw traffic through banner ads could be wasting their time and their money.
Many advertisers are putting a great deal of money into the placement of...
Choosing a Hosting Service: A Checklist for Business Owners
For a website to appear on the Internet, you require a “server” that is usually provided by a web hosting company. Hosting companies are paid monthly, quarterly or yearly. Some companies come with guarantees, too. Recommendations from other...
"I'm just me" - An Overview of an Web er.. Designer, Developer, Consultant and Friend.
I am going to give you a breakdown of my ... er ... work ... playtime .... income .... I'm a UK based Web Designer, Web Developer, Internet Consultant. I build websites, content management systems and internet solutions for anybody who can afford...
Spider Friendly Web Pages
First off what is spider friendly navigation? Basically it is how easily search engines can read your website. This ultimately depends on the search engine that is reading your site. Some have the patience to dig deep into your site and promise to...
Trilhando outros mundos... eita sofrimento bão
Uma vez um amigo no estado de desespero, disse que iria abrir uma quitanda, para largar mão das coisas que parecem insolúveis da informática. São pequenos detalhes, que nada mais nada menos, são solúveis com a mudança do paradigma, mas quem quer...
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Hiring Professionals: 5 Things to Look For
So you've decided that it might be best to leave web design to
the professionals, have you? Well, the unfortunate thing about
web design professionals is that not all of them are exactly
professional. Some of them are working from wildly out of date
knowledge, and, well, some of them are working from their
parents' basement.
How can you protect yourself when you decide to hire a
professional? Well, here are some guidelines.
Qualifications are Meaningless
Web design is a new enough industry that what qualifications
there are have ended up being largely stupid and meaningless.
I've never met a good designer who has a qualification in web
design - a qualification in proper graphical design is, of
course, something else entirely. You can guarantee that most
people with web design qualifications did them at a community
college to try and get rich during the dot-com boom. These
people know nothing about web design.
What you should pay attention to when you're looking at web
designers is which of their skills they think are important. If
they're marketing their Flash expertise to you, you probably
don't want to hire them. If they can competently explain what
XHTML and CSS are and why they're good for your website, then
they're a better candidate.
The Portfolio
The easiest way to tell whether the designer you're considering
is any good or not is to take a look at their portfolio. Good
designers will have a diverse portfolio, with plenty of
attractive sites that they've built for all sorts of customers,
and they'll be able to explain to you why they built each site
the way they did.
If the designer doesn't have a substantial portfolio yet, you
shouldn't write them off there and then - but do say that you're
going to need to see something before you commit yourself. A
good designer will happily do a first-draft design for one of
your pages just to show themselves off. If you're happy with
what they've done, then the chances are that they've got the
rest of the design in their head, ready to code up and send to
you.
Usability is Vital
You should make sure that the designer you're talking to
realises that they're
building your website for users - all
users, no matter how they want to use it or which web browser
they have. Amateur web designers have a tendency to come up with
things that they think are impressive-looking, either visually
or technically, while ignoring who the website is actually for -
your visitors.
Some questions to ask the designer include: Which browsers are
you going to test with? (They should reply with 'as many as
possible'). What is the purpose of my website? (They should be
able to explain the point of the site simply).
Setting a Price
Many web designers simply have no idea what kind of price to
charge for their services. If you post a project to a freelance
site where designers can bid on it, you'll get bids ranging from
$50 to $5,000. Both ends are pretty obviously ridiculous. At one
end, you've got kids with no experience and Indians who don't
speak English; at the other, you're paying pointless committees
to have meetings for a week.
Your best bet is to find someone professional but independent,
experienced but not corporate, and with a price that reflects
the quality of their portfolio. As with all things in life,
though, don't be afraid to negotiate - and never agree to let
them do however much work it takes and pay by the hour.
Hosting Offers
Finally, beware of web designers who are trying to sell you a
whole package, together with a domain name, web hosting, and the
rest. Operations like this are almost always flawed in one area
or the other, since designers aren't really very technical
people on the whole. They'll either be web hosting specialists
who think design is so easy anyone can do it, or they'll be
designers who are reselling some cheap hosting package for a
premium. On the web, it's better to buy hosting yourself.
About the author:
Original Source: Eclipse-Articles.com -
Serving over 25,000 Articles.
Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of Eclipse Domain
Services
Domain Names, Hosting, Traffic and Email Solutions.
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