How to Find a Freelance Web Designer

Want a website for your business? There are a wide range of choices you can choose from, so how do you go about deciding who's the best web designer for you?

Although we're web designers ourselves, given our (humble) experience in our industry, here are our candid thoughts on how you can find a web designer best suited to your needs

1. Decide your niche area

Are you looking for an e-commerce site, corporate website, blog or portfolio site? Web designers will come from different backgrounds and will have their strong points and weak. Decide on what type of site you're looking for and look for a web designer specializing in that area, so you'll be sure to get the best out of his/her experience.

2. Look for style

Sense of style is a subjective thing, and although a designer's past works may be based on client's requirements, some hint of the designer's own personal style is going to come through all his/her past projects. You want to look for a designer with a similar taste to yours, so that you can achieve the style you want with him/her.

3. Locality

In today's web-paced world, you don't necessarily need to hire a designer in your own country. There are many talents all over the world and some may be able to deliver just what you need and at a lower price. The issue however is will you be able to communicate effectively with a designer not based in the same locale as yourselves?

The answer is if you're someone who needs face to face then probably a remote designer is not such a good idea. Sometimes having a designer in your same country will allow you to, if not meet up, pick up a phone easily to clarify any questions or get quick help. Payment and handover will also be much easier with proximity.

4. Budget

Of course, for everyone, the lower the cost is better. But face it, there will be price differences for how different designers and design companies charge, and some pretty big variances at that. The important thing is - first do your market research. Find the range and average price that most designers offer for the work you're looking for. Then, ask yourself where you can afford to stand on this scale. If a designer is asking for more than the average price, does he/she have qualities that justify the price? And if a designer is below the average, are there any shortcomings along with this price benefit?

From our own experience with customers who've had us re-do their sites following a bad previous encounter with another designer, we'd suggest that never let price be your only determining factor in choosing a designer. Because you have to consider that if the designer does not deliver what you want, that "low price" would be money and effort gone to waste. Instead, do your homework and communicate with the designer to make sure you're on the same page before any commitment.

Finding a designer is not easy, important thing is doing your homework, browse other projects and not being afraid to ask questions and communicate prior to the start of the project. But the process of builidng a website of your own can be a wonderful and exciting project that you'll embark with your designer, sometimes making a friend in the progress. It's also that sense of satisifactiona and pride at seeing our customers' success that keeps us going here. So here's all the best to your web designer search and a big welcome to the world wide web!

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com