Who should you go, if you want a website made?

fiveub

fiveub

fiveub

OcUK Staff
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I am wanting a website made for myself. However, I do not need to go to a massive company. As it is only a personal website for myself... However, I do want the website to be made properly, coded correctly, everything to work, design looks very modern and nice, and it is all up-to-date.

Where do I look? - I do not want to pay £1000+, I would rather it be in the £100's.

Anyway, is there actually a website where I can browse different companies for designers/coders, to see their previous work and so forth?
 
Theres quite a few ways to go about it :

Go through forums that allow this kind of thing(no one is allowed to pimp themselves out here but I am sure you will get a few emails about it)
You could try getafreelancer.com

or you can google "stoke web designer" or "uk web designer" in google and find someone with a good portfolio, similar style to what you are looking for or even a recent graduate/someone starting off who is looking to undersell themselves.

Finally you could google "web design forums" or similar to find websites like Smashing Magazine, CSS-Tricks, Noupe and maybe find a designer via their comments/forums!

Hope you find a designer/developer :)
 
Please for the love of god do not use 99designs or crowdspring or anything running on the same basis.

Be warned, if you expect to get the world for £200 don't come running when it goes balls up because you can't upload an image etc You really do get what you pay for, and if you don't understand the costs of a website than a proper/decent designer/developer will go through all the stages with you, giving estimated hours. Then you sit down and work out where the cost is coming from. If you paid £200 for a 5 page website design that is £40/page. That is 8 hours on less than minimum wage or 1hour of a half decent designers time per page, that's not even including brain storms/mind maps/idea sessions etc etc

I'm not saying you need to pay £1000s for a personal website, but anyone offering £200 is either a crap designer or fresh into the industry with little/no experience which a lot of the times results in yet again crap design/coding. Sorry about being blunt but there just seems so much rubbish going round about how much a website should cost and people offering their services for £200, detrimental to the industry.

Anyway, just my 2c :)
 
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I would never do spec work. It's not like you can walk into a restaurant, order a steak and eat a bit - then say, no no, bring me a hamburger instead - then change your mind again and again and in the end settle for a glass of cola, which you pay for.

However, for the sad people actually doing it, they just might give him the price he's looking for.
 
Tripnologist said:
I would never do spec work. It's not like you can walk into a restaurant, order a steak and eat a bit - then say, no no, bring me a hamburger instead - then change your mind again and again and in the end settle for a glass of cola, which you pay for.

However, for the sad people actually doing it, they just might give him the price he's looking for.
Click to expand...

Exactly, on 99designs it states:

* 35,534 designers
* 1,846,309 designs
* 22,298 contests
* $5,058,503 awarded

Wow thats amazing, $5million worth of designs, must be awesome designers on there, and 35k to chose from, WOW!

$5million between 1.8million designs, $2.73/design. Is that a fair wage and not damaging the industry? Anyone advising or partaking in spec work is a fool.

Ridiculous and enough said.
 
I'm going to be honest and say like the others, a couple of hundred isn't really going to get you the whole package, I wouldn't be surprised if what you get is a template (not saying this is bad) with a few adjustments here and there.

If I was you I would go hunt for some free templates (theres plenty out there) and get something like nvu (its free) and then edit it yourself, basic web work is fairly simple if you're computer literate and you'd more than likely get plenty of help on here if you get stuck.

If it doesn't work out, the only thing you've wasted is some time, but if it does work you can save yourself some money.

The hardest thing I've found in my web work (I'm not fully trained by a long shot) is getting to grips with php and damned forms (hate the bleeding things)

I seriously wish there was something like iweb on windows as that would be idea for you I would say.
 
my only advice would be don't goto a web designer who retains ownership of domain / hosting... so many do this, maybe not officially take ownership but they will drag heels if you ever want to leave them and cry like babys.

so reg the domain yourself, buy the hosting yourself, then goto web designer if you must... that way you retain total control of everything

if it's just a personal site, how about try and make it yourself, there are tons or free templates on the net, and they are easy to edit.
 
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I have my own hosting and domain. I want someone to build me a website and then let me upload it. The website is to be owned by me, and tailored for me. :)
 
I don't mean to be rude but the OP specifically requested modern looking design and the two examples you've posted look very very dated.

Also, and this is me trying to save you a vacation, pimping yourself out is against forum rules. You might want to edit your post.
 
Smoke has just proved my point, if you want to spend £200 that is what you will get. if you want something up-to-date, managable by yourself, nice unique design tailored to you then it will cost a good bit more.
Nice ideas by other people saying find yourself a template, you could try WooThemes. They provide WordPress themes for a small fee and you could even get Wordpress installed, get the theme online an then find a developer to change the theme to your needs. Might not be completely your own design but it would be quite a bit cheaper.
 
tsinc80697 said:
Smoke has just proved my point, if you want to spend £200 that is what you will get. if you want something up-to-date, managable by yourself, nice unique design tailored to you then it will cost a good bit more.
Click to expand...

I do offer a lot more professional design but over time I come to realize not everyone can afford a full blown website when they first step into the web,

EDIT i took this part out, read it and looked like i was advertising again Sorry EDIT

it not because I am "crap" lol, as you kindly put it above
 
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Smoke-a lot said:
...so I now offer theses simple designs to to get them going, it not because I am "crap" lol, as you kindly put it above
Click to expand...

Either way, you've still helped prove our point. A low priced website is priced as such for a reason.

As you yourself have said, you over a more 'professional design' but at a higher cost.
 
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