Low Price Web Design – Advertising and Marketing

If you have some experience in web site design and want to make good money you can try acting as IT-outsourcing partner. Learn more what you should know and how to start.

Why offshore web design and development?

Offshore web site design and development help to keep prices at least 3-5 times less, for example, average hourly rate of web development services in USA is $35-75; in UK – $25-50, in Ukraine – $5-20.

How it works?

Typical plan is like that:

• You find a client who needs a web site, ask his/her requirements for the project and send to your offshore partner company.
• The partner makes a proposal and gives you the project estimation basing on his hourly rate, for example, $10.
• You mark up the rate $10/hour as high as you wish (and can – taking into consideration competition in your region, level of demand for web design services, and other marketing factors), for example to $30/hour, and sends the proposal to the client. So if the web design project is estimated on 50 man-hours of work, you charge the customer $1500, from which $500 you pay to your offshore partner company, and $1000 is your profit.
• The partner company works on the project and delivers it to you along with copyright for the work.
• You deliver the site to the customer.

Result – you have a satisfied client and good profit from the marked up price.

How to start?

The first and most important step is to analyze market in your region and decide if it’s worth to start this business.

If you already have your own web design company it is easier for you because you already know situation in the market, gain certain reputation, have clients list, etc.
But don’t be afraid if you are new to web design business. Believe in yourself and work hard and finally you will be rewarded for all your efforts. As in any type of business, starting the one in web design area, you must ask yourself general marketing questions:

1. Who will be your customers?
2. Why they will order the web design services exactly form you?
3. Where and how they will get to know about you?

Without having clear answers to these questions you shouldn’t try to start anything.

The second step is to find trustful and reliable partner – offshore web design company – that will work as “development center” for your business. This company must have good experience in web design and development area, good reputation, top level of customer care and communication. There are many resources in the Internet where you can find necessary information – search engines, web design directories, outsourcing portals.

For example, you can try searching in search engines for appropriate key phrases “offshore web design”, “offshore web site design”, “offshore web development” and analyze sites of your potential partners.

Also here are several sites where you can find lists of offshore web design companies sorted by country.

http://web-designers.bluegeckonetwork.com/
http://www.theoutsourceguide.com/
http://www.1234-find-web-designers.org/

How to choose the right offshore web design partner company?

There are 2 main factors that determine your choice – cost and quality of web design work.

Cost
Basing on the average web design prices in your local market and your competitive abilities you set prices that you will charge to your customers. There are several methods of web design price calculation, most used are flat price for fixed web site packages, and price based on man-hour rate. Most web design companies operate with both and choose one depending on each project type and requirements.

Then you decide which profit you want to have and narrow down your search choosing companies with appropriate price range.

Quality
Consider the company reputation, portfolio of previous works, testimonials of previous customers, level of communication. Pay attention to payment policy and method, conditions of ready projects delivery, warranties, post-development support and maintenance.

If all details are agreed you may start partnership. Sometimes the first project is quite simple to test abilities of both parties and if everything is going well the partnership will bring mutual benefits.

Julia Ramyalg
Marketing Director
IT-Inventors

IT-Inventors is a professional offshore web site design company.
We are located in Ukraine and due to local economy we can offer your affordable rate $10/hour for custom web site design and web development services. It’s at least twice less than average Western European rates and more than 3 times less than USA rates.

We have developed more than 130 projects for dozens of satisfied customers, established strong relations with partners from USA and UK.

Services we offer: Custom web site design, E-commerce web site design, Content Management Software integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design, Flash sites design, Logo design, SEO.

Many people end up hiring either a friend or relative to get their web site done. Maybe it will be free, maybe you will get a discount. Either way, if your friend is a professional, it can be a great deal. If they are not (and sometimes even if they are), it may end up being more hassle than it is worth.

There is some blurry line out there that distinguishes professionals from amateurs. Not only is this line blurry, but it’s somewhat different for each person. I might consider someone an amateur, but you might consider them a professional.

The position of that line is based primarily on two things: Level of skills and level of conduct. Someone can be much stronger in one than another and still be considered a professional by many.

Let’s talk about two mythical web designers. Joe and Suzy Web design web pages for people. They gets paid for it. They makes a living from it. So far, we don’t know enough about Joe and Suzy to decide if we would consider them professionals.

Joe is a people person. He’s great at communicating. He is able to figure out exactly what a customer’s wants and needs are, and the customer knows that he understands. Joe’s actual design skills, while not great, are competent.

Suzy, on the other hand, is a fantastic designer. She feels more at home working on the computer than she does interacting with customers. While she is uncomfortable meeting with clients, she knows that it is necessary, and still acts very polite and tries to communicate well with clients.

Who is the more professional? If you were just looking at portfolios, you might say Suzy. If you were to meet with both designers, you might say Joe. But if both of them have an appropriate amount of skills in both areas, they’re both professionals. The difference of opinion generally comes in what is an appropriate amount of skills.

If you’re lucky, you get one person who’s great in both. Or one design firm that both Suzy and Joe work at.

Of course, running a good business enters into the equation also, but unless specific details are known by the client, that does not necessarily have an effect on perceived professionalism.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.

No question about it, web design is an art.

Finding the right blend of style and usability is a delicate balance that few, if any, fully master.

Which is why I am so tired af reading bullet-pointed lists demanding what you should and shouldn’t do while building your website. These dictators of web design are under the mysterious illusion that they have stumbled upon exactly the right balance of functionality and beauty.

Do you think Michelanglo painted his Sistine Chapel after reading an article entitled, “10 steps to perfect renaissance art”?

Hmm. What these designers are really saying is, “My view of what makes a good website is more valid than yours and any opinion to the contrary is doomed to failure”.

There are no right and wrong ways to design a website. Every technique you have ever been told is wrong, can be utilised succesfully in the proper setting. And, equally, every technique you have even been told is right, can be a complete failure in the hands of the inept.

Next time you read an article on web design, remind yourself, this is just one opinion. Not the right one, not the wrong one, just an opinion.

In fact, better yet, stop relying on the articles for ideas. Instead, spend your time visiting websites that exist in reality, not in the mind of the imaginationless writer.

Visit web sites designed by the amateur coder and visit websites designed by professionals. The internet is brimming with original ideas and they are not the sole domain of the expert. Anyone can come up with something new or different.

If you are building your own website, visit a few hundred others first. Pick out the good, the bad and the ugly and use this as a springboard to create your own masterpiece.

If someone with more experience wants to offer you advice, listen to it, but don’t automatically assume that they must know better. Have the courage and conviction to experiment and decide for yourself what works.

Because although the techniques of art can be taught, the imagination of art cannot.

David Congreave is owner of The Nettle Ezine, the newsletter for the home business — online.

David lives in Leeds, in the United Kingdom with his wife Leanne.