By Tim Knox

Who Should Build My Website

As a Site Designer, you can guess what my standard response to that question is. But to be fair, just let me say this: building and maintaining a website can either be a pleasure or a pain. It all depends on who's doing the work.

A doctor I consulted with had a website that was going to require frequent updating and he couldn't understand why I was trying to sell him on the concept of a site maintenance contract instead of trying to teach him to do the work himself.

"You show me how to do it and I'll keep it updated myself," he said.

"Fine," I responded. "You pay me in antibiotics and next time I get a cold I'll just cure it myself." He went for the maintenance contract.

It is true that nowadays you can purchase software that will walk you through the process of building a simple site yourself. However, if your site is going to be anything more than a page or two of static text or is going to require frequent updates, your money will be better spent hiring a competent web designer to at least do the initial design work for you. After the site is up and running you can pay the designer to teach you how to update the site on your own or work out a maintenance agreement with the designer for the updates. Digital Graphiti offers site maintenance services for a very reasonable fee.

A word of caution regarding web designers is warranted here. While it's true that website design is best left to the experts, be warned: these days everybody thinks they're an expert!

"What do I do for a living? Well, I recap used truck tires during the day, but I'm a web designer at night! Here, let me give you one of my cards in case you ever need a site designed."

Shop around for a web designer. Estimates can range from $500 to $500,000 for the exact same job depending on who's giving you the estimate. Why the wide range of cost? You're paying for the larger design firm's reputation and track record.

As the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for." That is never more true than when it comes to website designers.

NEXT: Who Is My Target Audience

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Tim Knox is an Internet designer, developer, author and teacher. He is the Creative Director of Digital Graphiti. In a prior life, Tim was an award-winning humor columnist and cartoonist. His current writing projects include a book on web development for SAM's Publishing.