Curtains Up!

Those three words are usually hard to find in the same room, especially when it relates to a contractor of any kind. But there’s hope for you if you need a new website. Even if your budget is less the price of a new car and you’d prefer someone who won’t take your cash and stuff it into his West African hotel safe.

First, let’s talk briefly about budget for your web project. “Affordable” is, of course, a relative term so you’ll first have to set your budget, and the more you can increase that figure, the more options you’ll have for finding the web design company or freelance designer that’s right for you. If, say, your budget for a website is $500, then there are a few sites you can visit such as guru.com or elance.com and get bids from web folks from around the planet. “You get what you pay for” usually applies here. If you have a small budget and don’t mind getting a cookie-cutter while experiencing a few miscommunication and language barriers issues along the way (you’ll likely receive bids from people in Philippines, Malaysia, Russia and India simultaneously) then this might be the way to go. It’ll be exactly what it is, and nothing more.

If you have a mid-range budget ($1,500-5,000) then you have plenty of flexibility to find someone who’ll be happy to take on your web project and give you a nice product. Our recommendation is to look around the web for sites you like. They don’t even have to be in related industries to you, though there are some web designers who specialize in sites for musicians or entertainers specifically and you may have some luck finding a colleague with a great site then hooking up with their designer to create something great for you too. So, find a great website then look for a clue as to who created it. It’s somewhat of a rite of passage on smaller websites for the designer or design firm to place a “created by” link in the lower right or left corner, so start there. If you can’t find the designer that way, see if there’s an “About This Website” page somewhere on the site. Usually that’ll give the name and contact info of the designer. If you’re still having trouble tracking this mystery being down, try doing a google search akin to: “xxxxxxxxx.com designer” or “xxxxxxxxx.com web design”. You can also get on the phone with the owner of the website and find out who designed it for them. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for after playing Columbo for an hour, move on. There’s other fish in the sea, and they likely want your business a little more than the hologram that developed the website you had your eye on.

Once you have successfully pinpointed the creator of a website you like, check out the designer’s portfolio. Snoop around and try to get as much info as possible before making contact. Then call the companies listed on the prospective designers’ website for references. Better to not ask for a list of references because they will obviously give you only the ones that went well on all sides. Remember, you’re looking for ethical, honest designers and your best bet is to do the research yourself in order to get unfiltered results.

-Steve