Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
It’s not unreasonable to suggest that someone who has rarely, if ever, done something will be less good at it than someone who does it for a living.
Of course, there are arguments against this.
For one, the free website builder applications use templates designed by professionals.
For another, just because you’ve been doing something for years doesn’t actually mean you’re any good at it. You might just be very persistent.
So let’s address those two points.
First, the quality of the templates. Yes, your template might look fantastic. But design is about creating a fine balance between form and function that is conducive to a particular goal. In the case of making a website, that goal is usually either to make a sale or to initiate a sales lead.With a website builder application, you start out with an attractive template, but then you obviously have to customise it to your own needs. That will immediately upset the fine balance established by the original designer. And it’s not all about being arty-farty. There will be some practical difficulties to overcome. For instance, the template might be designed for a white-on-black logo but yours needs to be black on white. So now you’ve got a big white box in one corner of the site that immediately ruins the look. Or the template might look great with a short-and-sweet company name at the top like “The IT Consultancy”, but your company name is The Association of British International Petrochemical Importers. And it really doesn’t want to fit.
Second, I might not be any good at my job. Maybe I’ve had a succession of unsatisfied clients who have ultimately left and gone elsewhere.Well, no. I have been in business for 14 years and I have a number of clients who have been with me almost that long, including travel company the Sherpa Van Project, VIP hospitality company Mark Butler Associates, biochemical equipment suppliers Biogene, entertainer Allan Stewart and TV audience company SRO Audiences.
Anyway, according to Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers, the key to success in any field is to practice a task for about 10,000 hours. I started making websites for money in 1995, pretty much the first year anyone would even consider paying for such a thing. I’ve been doing it full time since 1996. Based on a 35 hour week, 48 weeks a year (and frankly, like most of you, I work a hell of a lot harder than that) for the last 17 years, I am now past the 28,500 hour mark. I’d say that qualifies me to claim some degree of competence.
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Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?
Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...
Read on...
Don't just take my word for it. Have a look at some of the many free online website builders you can choose from.| 1&1 | 350.com |
| bravenet | devhub |
| doodlekit | google sites |
| imcreator.com | jigsy |
| moonfruit | snackwebsites |
| tripod | ucoz |
| yola | webs.com |
| webstarts | weebly |
| wix | yola |
| zoho |
