Work From Home

Many people are now starting to realise the benefits of having a website as a way of promoting their business. The growth in online sales over the last few years has been some what breathtaking and the prospects for future sales are extremely positive. Due to the recent recession and the continued financial pressures that a great majority of businesses are facing, they are reluctant to spend too much money on any form of marketing of which web design and web marketing form a part of. As you can no doubt tell this is a very competitive area and where there is competition there are bargains to be had.

I do not personally design websites however I do offer an SEO Service. I also have a number of my own websites which are to do with DVD authoring and poster printing.

I have no doubt that many of the readers of this article will believe that it is not possible to obtain a professional looking website for an affordable fee; I am pleased to report however that you can. Due to the financial mess that the western world has faced over the last couple of years people are well aware that money is some what tight and that they have to adjust their prices accordingly. Some others have the philosophy that some work is better than no work and are therefore happy to quote a price which will virtually guarantee successfully gaining the business.

So where do we find these cheap and cheerful web designers and web design companies? I would try the auction website Ebay as my first port of call; this is a well known starting point for many web designers who are just trying to establish themselves. Then there are the bargain newspapers such as the Free-ads papers and there is also the Yellow Pages which is still fairly popular with advertisers. Finally conducting a search on a search engine such as Google for the key phrase of “cheap web designers” should also enable you to find a multitude of additional options.

As well as looking for cheap we are also looking for professional; how can we do this? Quite simple really – always ask to see a sample or portfolio of the previous work of the designer or company. From this you should be able to decide whether this is the right person/company for you. 

Most of us at times need advice on different aspects of life and the thought of obtaining a website can be quite a daunting task for many people. There are so many people offering cheap web design services, therefore how do you know who to choose and what to look for.

Within this over competitive business sector there are certainly some bargain to be had. I personally would suggest that a professionally built website should cost on average no more than one hundred pounds.

I am not a web designer myself; I am actually involved in the training for foster carers, external doors and Voucher Codes industries – these keep me busy enough!

So where can I find some a person or company to design and build me a site at such a cheap fee?

These are the places I would be looking:

internet search engines

yellow pages

asking family and friends

newspaper advertisements

shop window advertisements

internet auction websites such as ebay

When you have found a designer who is going to build your website, you need to find the content for your website, choose colours and graphics and think of the page titles for each page. I personally like to name the pages of the site as the key phrases that I believe people are likely to search for.

So your high quality website is now live on the internet; it is now time to start thinking of the best ways to promote it. Building up your backward links is becoming increasingly important and will eventually lead to higher search engine positions and therefore more traffic to your website.

Writing articles like the one you are reading is also of value as people are able to use them for free on their website, thus creating you an additional backward link.

There are additional opportunities to make money from the site via a program such as google adsense. This is where you agree that Google can place their clients adverts on your site. When a visitor clicks on the ad you earn money.

OK, so you have come round to the idea that you need an internet prescence. You have started to come to terms that the internet is the future of advertising. The old favourites of paper based business directories, newspaper adverts and media advertising may soon be a thing of the past. It is purely a case of moving with the times.

What is often scary for the new website owners are all of the initial costs involved with setting up a site. I remember all too well just how expensive it was around ten years ago when I had my first website designed and built. It was based on the subject of speech therapy for stammering and I was investing in this new site at a time when I did not have a great deal of money. I have to say that it has proven to be one of the best investments that I have ever made. The website certainly enabled a lot of people to find out about the stuttering therapy service that I offer.

The initial costs of setting up a website include paying for the design, the domain and the web hosting. Then there are the ongoing costs of web promotion; there is of course no point in having a top notch website if nobody ever visits it.

So how can we obtain a web design service for an affordable fee? Just like it is in other forms of business it is not so much what you know but who you know. It is prudent to ask people that you know if they are aware of any web designers. This may well help you to obtain a quote on what is referred to as mates rates.

The second way is to speak to freelance web designers as these people usually offer cheaper rates than the web design agencies. Many up and coming web designers start up on their own on a self-employed basis and are normally happy to offer a discount whilst they are building up their portfolio.