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Contact the Designer
Many designers' sites will have a "get a quote now" form
on their site. If you fill these out, they should end up calling you
anyway. You can fill these out, but it's best to simply call the designer
to save time. Phone time will also give you a sense of who it is that
you will be working with.
Calling the Designer
Avoid any designer that gives you a quick quote online, or verbally.
In order to give you a accurate quote the designer will need to ask
you many specific questions about your business and site needs. If they
don't ask lots of questions, it's a sure sign that you won't be getting
a quality, custom site.
Give the designer a call and expect a 30-45 minute call. You may get
a ballpark quote at this point, but don't expect a firm quote. A good
designer will have to do some research first based on your conversation
to give you a firm quote. The next section will talk more about quotes.
Don't be intimidated if you consider yourself to be a web novice. This
is why you hire a website designer. If they aren't interested in answering
all of your questions, move on. There are a lot of questions that you
should ask. Don't be shy. Asking these questions now, will save you
time and money down the road.
What You Could Ask the Web Designer
skills and experience
• What is your web experience and education?
• Are you experienced with the additional
site features, I need (flash, databases, e-commerce)?
• Do you consider yourself more of a artist or a technical person?
• What is your philosophy for designing a great site?
• Do you know how to, and will you perform search
engine optimization on my site?
• Can you show me results from sites you've optimized?
hosting and domain
• Who will be hosting my site, how
much will that cost, and how will I be billed?
• Will the host provide site statistics,
domain name e-mail, or anything else?
• Will you set up my domain name,
how much will that cost?
• Will the domain name be registered in my name if I want to switch
hosts later?
site design
• Can you send me a timeline outlining all phases of the work
I've requested?
• What happens if I don't like the way the site design or process
is going?
• Do you have a photo library, or can you buy stock photos for
me, for how much?
maintenance
• Do you offer site maintenance
for site updates, and will you be around in the future?
• Will I own all of the original site files and artwork if I switch
designers later.
• Can you send me back-ups of all of my site files after major
updates?
quote and payment
• Can you send me a working contract outlining the services you
will provide with your quote?
• Do you require a down payment
• How can I pay for the site, when is payment due?
• When can you have a quote and working contract for me?
• Are there any additional or recurring charges I should be aware
of?
What the Web Designer Could Ask You
• What is the objective of your
site?
• What is your business (staff size, products, locations, history,
etc.)?
• How many total main sections, sub-sections and total pages you
have in your site outline?
• Can you e-mail me your site outline
and written text in a Microsoft Word document?
• What additional site features
are required?
• What do you envision the style of the site visuals to be?
• Do you have a list of 5-10 sites with your comments on what
you like and don't like?
• Do you have, or need, photos and illustrations for your site?
• Do you have, or need, a logo?
• Do you have other marketing materials that the site needs to
match stylistically?
• Do you have a site host and domain
name already?
• If so, do you have the user names, passwords and ftp information
for these?
• When do you need the website completed?
Comparing Quotes >
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