7 Ways To Choosing A Website Designer
By Dave Nienberg, President/CEO
Copyright © 1998 Dave Nienberg. All rights Reserved

Your competitors all seem to have Web sites and you're itching to start increasing business with one of your own. You've made the decision to go forward but you have one small problem; you don't know who to choose to design your site. You realize that this decision will have the greatest impact on your success on the Web. So, how do you begin?

STEP 1: Do your research
The very first step in getting on the Web is to get a general idea of what you want your site to accomplish. Don't concentrate on details such as where graphics will be placed, what colors to use or how many pages there will be. Instead, try to determine your overall objectives. At a minimum, you need to resolve the following:

  • The goal of your site.
  • The budget range.
  • Who your audience is.
  • Required features.
  • A site similar in size to what you want.
  • A site similar in look and feel to what you want.
  • A list of your competitors sites.
Keep in mind that this is the document which you'll send to prospective designers in order to get an estimate. The more details you can provide, the more accurate the pricing will be.
    We have a much more detailed questionnaire to help determine your needs. Feel free to download it at http://www.4guys.com/project_profiler.rtf and use it for your project.

STEP 2: Search for qualified groups
Finding qualified site designers is an incredible challenge. Due to the tremendous shortage of good designers and the large demand for sites, many groups have waiting lists of up to six months. There are still people out there who can help you now, you just have to look hard to find them. Here are some places to start your search:

The Yellow Pages - Look through your local yellow pages under Internet Services. Pay particular attention to the quality of the ads. In general, good designers will have good ads.

Search Engines - Search for "website designers" on any of the major search engines, such as Infoseek, Alta Vista, Lycos, etc. You'll find literally hundreds of designers, both good and bad.

Directories - There are several directories on the Web that list site designers. Two of the most likely to help you, are from NetMarketing and Yahoo.

As you can see, you can quite easily become overwhelmed with choices. Start a list of the groups which somehow get your attention (good design, marketing skills, past performance, etc.) and write them down. Try finding between 5 and 20 groups before moving on to the next step.

STEP 3: Eliminate the bad
By using any or all of the methods in the previous step you should now have a fairly long list. Your goal at this point should be to narrow it down to the three most qualified firms. The easiest way I know of to do this is to simply eliminate the bad ones.
    Go through your list by visiting the Web site of each company. Is their own site well designed? Do they do great work for their clients? Can they help bring publicity to you? These are all questions you need to ask yourself. Start crossing out the companies which you don't have a good feeling about, until you're left with three.

STEP 4: Contact the best three
At this point you should have some pretty good people on your list. Call or email to let them know that you're interested in having them design a site for you. Show them what you want using the document prepared in Step 1, and let them know what you expect. You should also give each of them a deadline for a response (usually no less than a week.)
    Realize that these companies are now doing work on your behalf for no pay. Typically a firm will spend 1 hour per $1000 dollars preparing a response in order to get your account. You should not expect them to do any "free" design work or give you lots of ideas. If you show that you value their time and creativity, the relationship will get off on the right foot.

STEP 5: Check References
Now check the references (3 minimum) of these groups while they're preparing their responses to you. Try to find out what working with them is like. Ask the hard questions. No project ever works out exactly as planned and problems always occur. Find out how they handle adversity. A little bit of homework here can save you a lot of misery later.

STEP 6: Make the choice
Depending on the quality of the responses you receive and the impressions you get from the references, you should now have a good feeling for who you'd like to work with. Trust your instincts now. Don't make a judgement based on price alone. If you like the most expensive group much more than the others, contact them and see if you can come up with a way to get the costs more in line with what you can afford.

STEP 7: Follow up
Now for the final step: debriefing the losing firms in a timely manner. Let them know why they weren't chosen and thank them for their efforts. It's not fun to do, but it is classy. Even though they didn't get your business, the feedback from you will help offset the expenses they occurred preparing the response for your project and they will sincerely appreciate it.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of how to go about the process of choosing a site designer. If you take your time, follow these steps and trust your instincts you'll greatly increase your chances of having success on the Web.

For more information contact us at: info@4guys.com