Web design from elance and similar

glowgirl_2

I have a wordpress site that I need designed as none of the themes available are to my taste or incorporate all my needs, I'm not techie so I'm thinking about getting someone from elance or similar to design it to my specifications, does anyone have any experience of using such sites or a reasonably priced web designer to recommend, prices on elance are very cheap but I'm guessing that you get what you pay for - suggestions welcome:)

steve1980

What features do you need/want?

Unfortuantely people are not allowed to offer themselves or friends/associates on MSE.

The other thing you can do is to check peoples profiles and their homepages. You'll get an idea of who to look at.

Seraphim

glowgirl wrote: »

I have a wordpress site that I need designed as none of the themes available are to my taste or incorporate all my needs, I'm not techie so I'm thinking about getting someone from elance or similar to design it to my specifications, does anyone have any experience of using such sites or a reasonably priced web designer to recommend, prices on elance are very cheap but I'm guessing that you get what you pay for - suggestions welcome:)

I've used 99Designs before successfully. I didn't put a bid up though - I looked through the designs until I found a designer I liked and then contacted him directly through his website. He has since built me a full website as well as doing other design bits and pieces.

I do tend to think you get what you pay for - hence why I spent a lot of time looking at entries. As long as you are careful, I'm sure you'll be fine

glowgirl_2

steve1980 wrote: »

What features do you need/want?

Unfortunately people are not allowed to offer themselves or friends/associates on MSE.

The other thing you can do is to check peoples profiles and their homepages. You'll get an idea of who to look at.

Thank you, I am aware that people are not allowed to self promote on mse but they can recommend a service they have used themselves that they were happy with:)

I want a specific design I have in my head which incorporates some design features from some other sites I have come across and I would like a forum on the site, I know this is possible but its beyond my capabilities and above all I don't want the site to look rubbish which is why I want a professional to do it for me.

glowgirl_2

Seraphim wrote: »

I've used 99Designs before successfully. I didn't put a bid up though - I looked through the designs until I found a designer I liked and then contacted him directly through his website. He has since built me a full website as well as doing other design bits and pieces.

I do tend to think you get what you pay for - hence why I spent a lot of time looking at entries. As long as you are careful, I'm sure you'll be fine

I haven't heard of that site, I'm off to look around it now - thanks:)

property.advert

I never found any package out there which could do a professional enough job. I also had issues with third parties and ownership and control over content, despite written contracts. Lastly I found many designers unable to complete the full job, they being specialists in only one area.

I advise spending some time learning how various parts of a website work or you will be faced with the same proposition as the non DIYer needing a builder and receiving quotes you have no means of understanding.

glowgirl_2

property.advert wrote: »

I never found any package out there which could do a professional enough job. I also had issues with third parties and ownership and control over content, despite written contracts. Lastly I found many designers unable to complete the full job, they being specialists in only one area.

I advise spending some time learning how various parts of a website work or you will be faced with the same proposition as the non DIYer needing a builder and receiving quotes you have no means of understanding.

Thats my problem my mind doesn't work in a techie way sufficiently to do what I need, do you mean you had ownership problems with freelancers or companies you employed?

property.advert

glowgirl wrote: »

Thats my problem my mind doesn't work in a techie way sufficiently to do what I need, do you mean you had ownership problems with freelancers or companies you employed?

I used some freelancers, though some of those I saw were "one man band" companies. I suspected more than one would insert a trap door to allow them access even if all the master passwords were handed over. I got the feeling that this was run of the mill in some cases, sort of a right on their part if that makes sense. I certainly wasn't going to have my website held to ransom by some freelancer at some distance from myself.

Some wanted to retain control akin to copyright. Many were utter amateurs at business, irrespective of their technical skills.

I had to understand and learn the various ways of accepting and storing customer data received from the website as well as performing searches on variable customer criteria. Tedious and long winded but utterly necessary.

One thing you need to do as a matter of utmost importance is to have the website test driven by people who know nothing about your business and indeed nothing about websites. Why ? because you are too familiar with it to do it yourself and you need it to work from the viewpoint of the dumbest potential customer. What is intuitive to you may well be incomprehensible to others but if you don't test, you will never know and never understand why orders fail to materialise. This is a fundamental reason why off the shelf packages simply do not work.

Miss_Beaumont

Hello,

I'd also recommend Google-ing "Web Design" and then your area, town or city. Such as "Web Design Corby" or "Web Design Devon" etc.

Then having a browse through the companies listed, generally gaining an idea of their own company website, how good it is, and using it as a "first impression".

Then drop them an email, or give them a call, or visit the office, describe what you're after and ask them about the Forums you're after etc.

Also mention if you have any other requirements (number of pages, and if you wish to update it yourself etc) and see what they say...

Also ask for a portfolio if they have one (they should do, or at least tell you some links to visit!)

Also have a good idea of what design you wanted, with screen shots or pencil designs showing layouts. Just so you can be specific and say "I was thinking of something like this, can you do it?" ;o)

Don't let them blind you with tech-speak, they should be able to give you a rough idea of the price, timescales etc, so grab a few quotes ;o)

Hope this helps, and good luck

property.advert

As many websites have a rider on the bottom on who designed it, that may also be a good place to start when you find a website you like.

glowgirl_2

Thanks everyone:)