Develop an RFQ
First, as the owner of your business, you need to have a clear idea in your mind of what you’re looking for from your website. Perhaps you just want an internet presence for your business, or maybe you want something more dynamic. If you’re not sure what you want, then take the time to do some research. Take a look at what other similar businesses are doing and write down what you like (and what you don’t like!). Start to make a list of what features you feel your site must have (request form, forum, etc.). You should also start to list out the individual pages you want to see developed (about us, services, etc.). You are now creating an official RFQ (request for quote) document that you can present to a potential web designer for review. Once you’ve developed an outline for your site, you should also make some notes about your preferences when it comes to the site design and layout. If you want a flash intro or background music or some other design element, you need to note that. Put all your notes into a Word document and save it for later.

Next, you’ll need to solicit bids from interested web designers. Include a brief description of what you want your site to be, and invite interested designers to contact you with their information.

At this point, you should not expect full-blown estimates or proposals. No professional is going to be prepared to give you a quote on a project without having talked to you or seen your RFQ. Instead, you should concentrate on weeding out the designers who don’t meet your expectations.

So, what should you expect?

Good Communication
Right off the bat, any communication from a potential designer should be professional, clear, and friendly. It’s extremely important that the designer you choose is a good communicator. First, you have to work with this individual and if they can’t communicate well with you, the project will prove more difficult to complete. Second, you will be depending on him or her to independently create certain aspects of your website. You cannot write everything for them. If they aren’t able to communicate well, it will be reflected in their work and therefore make your site, and you, look unprofessional.

Previous Work
Next, your interested designer should be able to present some examples of their work, preferably in the form of a portfolio page within their own website. Assuming they have their own website, look at that first. Do you like it? Does it look professional? Would you consider them based solely on their website? A website should be a reflection of that business. If a web designer’s own website is poor, then they do not understand the purpose of a business website and you can move on.

Assuming their own website is up to snuff, then you should check out their portfolio. Take a look at the sites they’ve done for other businesses, particularly if there are some sites similar to your own model, and see what you think. If, on the whole, you’re not impressed with their work, move on to a different designer.

Personality & Knowledge
If you’re comfortable with the quality of work from a particular designer, it’s time to talk to them on the phone. They should be comfortable talking about themselves and what they can do for you, and pleasant to deal with. Remember, this is someone that’s going to become an integral part of your business, at least for a while. You need to feel confident that they can do the job and that you’ll be able to work with them.

Price
Once you’ve articulated exactly what you’re looking for, the designer should be able to give you a quote on the project. Certainly, the price needs to be an important consideration, but don’t let it make your decision for you. If someone gives you a particularly high price on a project, you need to consider the quality of their work and decide if it is marginally better than everyone else, and if they’re worth it. Similarly, if someone gives you a particularly low price, you need to consider their motivation as well. Do they simply produce cheap work, or are they trying to establish themselves and therefore charging below market rates. If you’re lucky enough to find someone in that situation who meets your other requirements, hire them immediately!

Local vs. Remote
Because of the nature of websites, most projects can be easily completed without ever having any face-to-face meetings between designer and client. Business owners should not feel any hesitation in hiring a remote designer, at least one within the U.S.

Certainly, there are specific projects which may require face time, but in general, those clients that insist on dealing with local designers are only limiting themselves to local talent and rates.

Business Experience
In your emails and conversations with your designer, you should also gauge their business experience. You’re going to be depending on him or her to give you suggestions on how to build your site to better your business. If, for instance, the designer has no sales experience, how can they ensure your website fits into your sales process? Additionally, a good designer will question every aspect of the site from a good business perspective and offer you advice to that end. For instance, the flash intro you wanted for your site may look outstanding, but a good designer might suggest that, while attractive, it does not actually benefit your business, and could potentially do more harm than good by deterring visitors who cannot view flash, or preventing search engines from searching your website. If your designer gives you a suggestion to improve your site, but one that will end up reducing their fees, then you know that this designer truly has your best interests at heart.

Search Engine Understanding
Finally, your new designer must understand how to build a site so that it is search engine friendly. This is typically where inexperienced designers fall short, so don’t skip this step! Ask them how they plan to make your site optimized for search engines. Going back to their ability to communicate; they should be able to explain what they’re going to do in a way that you can understand without any previous knowledge of SEO.

About the Author
Michael is the lead web designer and owner at Stadia Studio (http://www.stadiastudio.com/), a web design firm in St. Louis, and has been helping businesses get online since the 1990’s.
Source: ArticleTrader.com

If the essential purpose of a website is to generate money, then the prime step should be to turn site visitors into customers! When internet users land on your website, what do they do with it? The answer is simple - Whatever you want them to! To make this a reality, you need to lead them by hand. Define a clear Action Path for your visitors, which includes precise visual clues to lead them through your information to the prize shopping cart, or subscription plan.

Here is how to define an appropriate action plan for your website.
Space is a powerful element in website design and can be an influential factor in how visitors use your website. The appropriate placement of elements can play a vital role in defining user behavior on your site.

The prime rule in defining Action Paths is not to make visitors scroll to find actions. Keep all the call-to-action tabs like ‘Click Here’ or ‘Subscribe Here’ above the fold. The majority of the world population reads from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. So, keep all the vital elements within these areas. Also remember that elements of design supersede text elements, that is to say that images are more important and prominent than words. In a split second that users take to scan through your text, they take in scattered bits of data such as the headings, pictures, search boxes, links etc.

Balance is not the same as regularity. While regularity ensures a clean layout and consistency in the web page, balance is essential for users to concentrate on certain elements. It’s better to create an asymmetrical space when you are trying to draw attention to specific actions on the web page. And the best way to do this is by creating a balance between images and white space. And an obvious consequence of making visitors at ease with their pathways, is retaining them on the site and generating further business.

White space is the space between columns, the space around images, and the space between text blocks. Leaving certain sections of your website empty makes visitors concentrate on other areas of the page. Lending space to the design gives a flow and allows for a comfortable user experience. A comfortable user-experience promotes your credibility and prompts them to invest their faith and money in your company. Thus, your visitors will convert to be your customers.

The colors that you use on your website play a vital role in its online success. It not only sets the tone of the web page but also calls attention to specific sections. And colors influence the psychology of people too. Different colors trigger different emotional responses in people. So a wise choice of colors can help you make the users do what you intend them to do. For example, setting your call to action in red, or a color that contrasts the general scheme of the page, stands apart and focuses visitors.

Create a noticeable pattern through your website. This way you create a sense of expectation in the users and they become more comfortable. Patterns can be of several types like ‘title-content-title-content’ format, lists or tabular data, etc. Blue underlined links are perhaps the most powerful pattern type in recent times. A major advantage of adhering to web standards is that visitors know what they are meant to do immediately.  This is not to say that you cannot break the rules.  But only after understanding the rules… can you then know when it is advantageous to break them.

The web hosting industry has become increasingly competitive and there are a myriad of companies out there battling for your business, but some won’t have you or your business interests in mind. Cheap web site hosting doesn’t mean the best hosting, and neither does signing up with the most expensive companies that “guarantee” you the best service. It is a confusing world of solutions with a lot of smoke and mirrors.

Competition is a great thing, but the frenzied levels of promotion have also forced a number of hosts to use questionable marketing tactics and a heavy load of activity with restricting fine print in their contracts. Many webhosting companies don’t make profits by establishing a solid customer base, but rather by having a high turnover. The more customers they have signing up and then dropping off… the more dollars they make.  Of course, not all hosting services take this attitude and there are some solid companies that respect their clients.

2. What are your excess bandwidth charges?
(Although unlikely you will get excess traffic during the start-up phase, it is important to know how much you will be charged if you use over and above your quota of data transfer. Data transfer or “bandwidth” refers to the amount of data going in and out of your site e.g. (every time someone visits your website they are downloading data).

3. How often will my site be backed up?
(In a number of cases, you’ll find that the cheaper the price, the less likely your site will be backed up on a regular basis)

4. Do you offer secure server and ecommerce capabilities (shopping carts etc.) included or as an upgrade?
(You may not want this in the beginning but it is quite handy to have)

5. Do you offer an affiliate program or referrer bonuses?
(If you settle with a host and you are happy with the service, no doubt you’ll tell others. Why not profit from that as it can subsidize the running of your site or even turn into a good earner for you!)

6. Is your free tech support available 7 days a week?
(A VERY important point - many offer this but sometimes all you’ll get is a recorder or autoresponder message on the weekends. Telephone support is not a necessity for everyone but very nice. A good email or online ticket based support system can often work efficiently too as it provides a record for both parties.

7. Why should I choose you over other hosts offering the same sorts of features and pricing?
These questions and points are just to get you started in the reviews process and will allow you to weed out many of the fly-by-nighters. It may seem like a lot to ask, but an experienced staffer should be able to complete the questions very quickly. Always be polite when posing questions as the answers will be provided by a human being with feelings as well. By asking questions in a courteous manner, you will get the relationship off to a good start.

When composing the email, skip a couple of lines between each question to encourage the person responding to put their remarks under the relevant question. This will give you a good record to refer back to in the future. Lastly, it is definitely a good idea to respond to each response with a brief thank you note.

About the Author
Author has teamed up with ThinkHost, to provide you with a Special Offer. ThinkHost, is a provider earth-friendly, affordable, web hosting starting at $9.95/month. Use this coupon code on their package sign-up form: ThinkHost20,to receive $20 off any of their web hosting packages.
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Scientists have just turned on a machine that could forever change the way we think about physics, and possibly even trigger a black hole here on earth. The “Large Hadron Collider” (or LHC) is the largest and most complicated machine ever created, costing nearly 6 billion dollars, and taking 25 years to build. It is 17 miles in circumference and located 300 feet below French and Swiss soil. It is basically a circular cannon that runs in a massive loop, where protons will be accelerated to 99.9% the speed of light in opposite directions, only to collide with one another at 800 million times per second, in an attempt to recreate the “The Big Bang”. The first particles were successfully accelerated this morning at 10:28am… and scientists remain on schedule for the first collisions to occur in a few weeks.

Whether you want a new website designed for your company or are looking to re-design your website, finding the right web design company for your needs is the first and most crucial step to ultimately decide its success or failure. Unless your are an established business with an in-house web design team, the chances are that you will need to either hire a professional web designer, or contract a web design company to do this for you.

Most businesses small or large do not have in-house expertise to design websites themselves and have to contract the work out to an external web design company. The importance of a professionally designed website is essential. A poorly designed, or an outdated website, can have a negative impact on your company’s brand and drive customers away to your competitors. A company’s website is a window to its products and services and often the first point of contact with customers. It is vital for your website to present the right image and brand for your business.

Should you work with a Web design company or a Freelance Web designer?
Whether your website is designed by an independent contractor or a web design company, you will need to consider certain issues before you make the decision. Both working with an independent web designer or a web design company have their advantages. Working with an independent web designer can be cost effective and flexible. Working with web design companies on the other hand may cost more but offers significant advantages. They are represented by a team of web designers who often possess wider skills and experience. Each member of the team will often specialise in a distinct area of website design and development, and will often be able to solve complex business issues with ease. Working with a web design company will provide your business with easy access to support when required, or when something goes wrong.

Factors to consider when selecting a Web Design Company to design your website.

Experience and Skills
Analyse their experience and technical skills. Review the information on their website and marketing materials. Better still speak to them personally, as often a direct conversation about your project will give you a much clear idea of their knowledge and expertise.

Portfolio and case studies
Review and analyse their portfolio or case studies. This is usually available via their website. Reviewing other software or websites designed by the web design company can provide useful information and determine their suitability for your project.

A streamlined process with a fast turn around time
Understand the web design company’s process to see how it fits within your requirements.

Ask for a detailed proposal outlining costs, timescales and proposed solution.
A professional web design company will always submit a detailed proposal outlining theses issues.

One stop shop
Think forward. Determine what other products and services the web design company can offer. If you require web design now, chances are you will need additional services in the future such as web hosting, search engine marketing, content management systems, and so on. It can be daunting and an administrative nightmare to deal with many different companies for different services.

Long term relationship
Focus on building a long term relationship with the web design company. It is better to go for a company that offers excellent and timely support as required. Analysing the company and communicating with them will give you an idea of whether the company focus on long term relationship, or just a one off sale.

Taking the time to communicate with the prospective web design company beforehand… will enable you to select the right web design company to partner with that will meet your expectations. Finding the right web design company and forming a relationship can be a valuable asset for your business for many years to come.

For more information on this and other free tips and articles on web design and search engine marketing, please visit http://www.kronikmedia.co.uk/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-web-design-company-for-your-website/27/