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Normally, if you want to have professional designers
custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few
hundred dollars. All this can change if you know where to find the best
deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here's a rough guide:
First, you must understand that it is a sheer waste of money to get
companies to design websites for you. Have you ever seen those
advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page
website at $500? These companies are established companies with
physical locations; therefore they have to increase the amount they
charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages,
advertising costs and so on.
Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from
home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a
high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they
will be able to design images with quality similar to those of
designers from big companies, so it's a "no-brainer" choice.
However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be
to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project
and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will
surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose
the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings,
so your value for money is secured.
Another route is that you can subscribe to a template design company’s
program. They would not custom design your web site. But, they would
continuously go on building new premium templates. You can download any
number of templates for the period for which you subscribe.
Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think
about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple
information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little
time to sit down and do it yourself. You'll be able to design your own
sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help
of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.
If you do not know how to fill in information in pre-designed
templates, you can try simple templates like what you are seeing here.
Mistakes to Avoid When Using Web Templates
Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort
and time when you want to create a new layout for your website.
However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and
using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the
image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid
those mistakes.
The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template
that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your
website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid,
different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear
generic just like your next-door neighbours.
To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You
just change the title and appropriate details and you're done. The
biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond
reorganization. While that may be good in the sense that you're
creating a unique graphic, you're defying the very purpose of using a
web template -- saving time and effort.
However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable
but some changes must be made to suit your site's theme, then you will
have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a
very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original
designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images
of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening
hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don't
redesign the whole template.
In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of
templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful
in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates
just because they are pretty; choose them because they serve your
purpose.
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