Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Web Design - Hiring A Professional To Save Money

By Stephen Grisham, Sr.

It might seem like it's saving you money to design a website yourself, but it will end up costing you more money and time in the long run. If you are busy running your own business, then it will be obvious that as a business owner, you don't have time to learn how to create good web design on the side.

The cost of a web design master (aka webmaster) is offset by the time saving he or she does for you. How much is your time worth? What could you be doing in all those hours? What sales might you cost yourself if you are away from your business for hours, days, weeks, or months?

HTML coding does look easy up front, but most people don't know that there are many other programming languages necessary in a business website. Do you have all of the time you need to create an attractive, functioning and secure website? If you think your business needs and deserves more than a shoddy, pre-fabricated website, you should hire a professional web designer.

A web site designer should at least be proficient in the four best-known web programming languages, which are HTML, SHTML, Java, and CSS. Most professional designers with a lot of experience can work with many more languages, which can help you get a better website, but the more training a person has, the more the design will cost.

If you are really in a budget crunch, consider hiring a student. There are many professional and 2-year institutions that teach computer courses, and often some will be design students who need to build portfolios. Some will work for free. Others will work for nominal wages. All will ask for a reference.

It is also vital for a business ownder to consider what their online website is going to have on it, and what you need the website to do. If you have more features on your website, it will take up more space, and extra space costs money. As a result, it's important to minimize your rpace to what your company needs.

Some designs will require programs. If you have a highly skilled designer who is very expensive, it may be cheaper to buy a pre-built module for some parts such as your online shopping cart. On the other end, a student may not know how to build a bomb-proof shopping cart, so a module will be needed to prevent scripting errors.

The most important consideration is hacker safety. Neither you nor your customers want your site or the private information on it to be stolen. Be sure that your webmaster offers support, and be sure that your budget allows for those emergency calls that are sure to come. - 15246

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