HOW TO PICK A WEB DESIGNER

Source Article : http://www.intuitive.com/articles/web-designer.html

Written by Dave Taylor for "Computer Currents".

I'm just guessing here, but somehow it seems safe not to start this article with an essay on the World Wide Web, how it's changing the way we do business and how it represents one of the most exciting competitive advantages to small businesses today. You already know that, or you're living your life under a rock.

If you have a small business or the biz bug because of your entrepreneurial spirit, you've already done the math and realized that if you don't have a web page, you need one. If you do have a web page - and there are more than a million of them on the Web today - then you might have grown dissatisfied with your home-grown efforts and have been contemplating a more serious online presence.

Deciding that you need an online presence is one thing, however, and actually creating the site, promoting it, and maintaining it as a vibrant and meaningful facet of your overall business is an entirely different proposition. I'll be honest with you; there are a lot of pieces involved in creating an effective web site, and odds are that you don't have all the skills and necessary time yourself.

Sure, you can go buy one of the dozens of "web page builder" programs like FrontPage, PageMill, Hot Dog Pro, GoLive Studio or HomePage, but they're tools without direction, and, worse, since thousands of other people are using the same packages for their basic web sites, you run the risk of looking too much like your competitors. Further, it's still a wee bit of rocket science mixed in with some artistic magic and creative vision. Y'know, that 'vision thing' that you keep hearing about.

But that's what being on the web and having a successful site, one that meets your business objectives, is all about; the vision thing. The vision to see how you can work with your existing customers through this new medium and even pick up some new ones. The vision to create a dynamic web site that helps you grow and expand. The vision to do it right.