website draft

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2 Jul 2005
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hi and first of all let me say that i don't get it. i know this may confuse you a bit but please read on. i called a professional website design company recently and said to them over the phone that i wanted them to design a website for me. it was quite clear to them instantly except they weren't very helpful to me in determining what i needed to do to get the process stared. i repeated several times to the person on the phone that i was only inquiring and trying to find out information they needed but i just wasn't getting any constructive feedback from them. the conversation stalled like we got suck in an empty void of space. its obvious that i need to make a plan or draft but i don't know what all the details the website designer really wants or needs. can anyone help on this
 
What's the website going to be for, what's your budget and do you have any graphics/logos?

This is all vital information, your budget and what the website is for determines what kind of person you want to hire, and having graphics/logos or not determines how much of the budget will be used for what.

Do you want just a design or a fully working website?
 
The problem is you probably won't know what details you want yet. A good designer will start off with a rudimentary set of questions and the process will revise those, expand them and build the specification for the site. So for starters do you know the answers to the following:

Why do you want a website?
Who is it for?
What should it do?
When do you need it by?
 
i'm thinking about starting up a business and online dating website and see how it goes. my budget is about £3000 and i definitely would like something simple to start with using sql database and filters with google adsense integration. i have a vision of graphics and layout that i want but nothing that i made myself.
 
i'm thinking about starting up a business
For 3k, a simple brochure website is fine

and online dating website
For 3k, no way, forget about it.

If you mentioned to them your budget was 3k of the bat, no wonder they ignored you (yes a crappy business practice, I would not contact them again). 3k for them would not cover much at all.

Assuming a very low £20 an hour rate, you are looking at around 18-19 working days (7.5 hour days) development time. That might not sound much to you but in a "professional" web development you will not have developers and designers time (you said you know what you want but have no layouts, colour schemes, "photoshoped layouts", this would have to be created by the agency and given to you for review) , but you will have other overheads such as sales, project management (in a professional environment they will not be a guy in his bedroom, they will have other projects going on, and time for them has to be managed). And after all that they would be looking to make a profit.

tldr; A dating website for 3k from a professional company? Forget about it, if you want to replicate plenty of fish, don't be fooled by how crap it looks. I can assure you it would cost way more then 3k for an agency to create in dev time alone.

Sorry to say that but would be looking for some grad student at that budget... but don't expect results on time... or results at all ;)
 
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Assuming a very low £20 an hour rate, you are looking at around 18-19 working days (7.5 hour days) development time. That might not sound much to you but in a "professional" web development you will not have developers and designers time (you said you know what you want but have no layouts, colour schemes, "photoshoped layouts", this would have to be created by the agency and given to you for review) , but you will have other overheads such as sales, project management (in a professional environment they will not be a guy in his bedroom, they will have other projects going on, and time for them has to be managed). And after all that they would be looking to make a profit.

tldr; A dating website for 3k from a professional company? Forget about it, if you want to replicate plenty of fish, don't be fooled by how crap it looks. I can assure you it would cost way more then 3k for an agency to create in dev time alone.

Sorry to say that but would be looking for some grad student at that budget... but don't expect results on time... or results at all ;)

A great post that tells it exactly how it is, clearly talking from experience there :)
 
For 3k, a simple brochure website is fine


For 3k, no way, forget about it.

If you mentioned to them your budget was 3k of the bat, no wonder they ignored you (yes a crappy business practice, I would not contact them again). 3k for them would not cover much at all.

Assuming a very low £20 an hour rate, you are looking at around 18-19 working days (7.5 hour days) development time. That might not sound much to you but in a "professional" web development you will not have developers and designers time (you said you know what you want but have no layouts, colour schemes, "photoshoped layouts", this would have to be created by the agency and given to you for review) , but you will have other overheads such as sales, project management (in a professional environment they will not be a guy in his bedroom, they will have other projects going on, and time for them has to be managed). And after all that they would be looking to make a profit.

tldr; A dating website for 3k from a professional company? Forget about it, if you want to replicate plenty of fish, don't be fooled by how crap it looks. I can assure you it would cost way more then 3k for an agency to create in dev time alone.

Sorry to say that but would be looking for some grad student at that budget... but don't expect results on time... or results at all ;)

+1. For 3k don't expect much more than a brochure website off a local agency.
 
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