Considering Hiring a designer, looking for input

[sanjaysahu]

Hello everyone. I recently started up a buisness and have very little capital to work with. I have to this point been doing everything on my own to which designing my own website is no exception.

I have been using microsofts OLSB site to develop and build a site which has worked out pretty well. However im starting to get frustrated with the lack of options ofr personalizing the layouts anstructure.

I purchased a domain and hosting service only a day ago and am realizing that i probably cannot just carry my exsisting OLSB site over. Im also realizing that i may not want to anyway.

So im considering hiring a web designer to do the brute work for me, however im not sure where to start looking. I need the service to be extremely affordable, but not look like a little kid put it together.

If anyone is intrested i can provide a link to my exsisting site which will give a good idea of what i need from my site.

Alternatly if anyone can recomend a affordable yet professional service please provide any information possible.

Thanks

easyway2host

[magnify]

Hello,

As a coder I've used http://www.rentacoder.com/

They allow people to post bids for work, suppose you have a project, you list the details, and coder's bid on the work. You then choose a winning bidder and he completes the work for you. This would probably be your best bet.

Make sure you review the peoples work, and don't just choose the cheapest one. Also make sure you have a deadline specified and very detailed requirements, in the event the coder doesn't complete the work to your liking you'll be able to get your money back.

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Jeb

[Justec]

Yeah, I have an account on rent a coder. I've never done any jobs there as I don't feel like getting paid $200 bucks to build a custom ecom site is for me...but if you are on a budget that's a good place to start.

[Kevin]

Just be careful. If you are hiring someone you don't know and trust, do not give them Administrator or root access to your server or your main account passwords. Create restricted accounts on non-production sites (subdomains work well for this). Once they are done, remove the test accounts and/or change their passwords.

If they need specific things set up, like databases, or configuration files edited, ask them for details, review their requests carefully and do them yourself.

[moonswamp]

very great thanks to kevin's post~~~
I lost my site files some time ago and that guy stolen it~

[Shadowknight]

Actually Kevin, I get this type of request and quite often don't know the exact words to say. I completely agree with your post here and will be using that as my reply from now on.

I like to think of the web designer business alike doing renovations to your home. If you get someone who is a con, they will eat away at your resources until you are wishing you didn't start business with them. This means that you have to hire someone else to fix the issue that someone else made (or maybe the original person did not finish the design).

It is best to get references on your designer, look at their work through their portfolio and see if they can provide you with the ability to talk to some of their past clients. If they are a good designer, then no one should have issues with recommending them to someone else.

[markspenser]

getafreelancer.com
getacoder.com
peopleperhour.com
elance.com

there are so many b2b market place from where you can quench your thirst.

[language101.com]

I suggest that you focus on how easy your web site is to use.

We used (and recommend) Usable Web Designs . This company can make an easy to use design for you.

Take a look at what they did for our Language Learning Software website. It's relaxing to look at, easy to use and very fast loading.

The price was reasonable too. I would hire someone who you like, who is a native speaker of your language and who is in or close to your time zone.

Usable Web Designs is located in Pacific time.

[arx707]

There is no low budget quality solution. My suggestion is to find some really good student in design or IT. But you must chose very well to get some decent result

[Johnny26]

I get my freelancer at odesk ..their are a lot to choose fro there.