The Truth About Web Design Companies Exposed

I've been seeing more and more web design companies popping up all over the place and thought I would share with you why you shouldn't go to them.

First of all, if your looking to have a website built for a new or existing company or you just want one for personal use, make sure you do a little homework first. Most people think, "let's call up this company because I saw there snazzy ad and have them build me a site". WRONG!!!

Web design companies are simply there to take your money...bottom line. Are they professional? Sometimes. Do they do good work? Probably. So why shouldn't I use them?

Well the simple answer...YOUR GETTING RIPPED OFF! There a lot of companies, especially in the Las Vegas area that will overcharge you for very basic work. I'm not going to list them on here because I don't want to discredit anyone but if you ask, I might just share a few. Let me say
this... I used to work for a company that paid me only $10 an hour to design web sites. I didn't stick around that long because that is horrible. Any designer/programmer will tell you that their skills are worth MUCH MUCH more than that. To us, that's a slap in the face. Do you want to know what they charge their clients? Anywhere from $90 to $150 per hour!!! Yeah you heard me. So while I get the sh*! end of the stick, they're making a killing! If the company decides to charge per project, it could be anywhere from $2,000 to $30,000, depending on how much needs to be done. Then you have to take into consideration any updates that need to be made in the future. That could get very pricey!

Now I could charge someone $30k for a website and work on it all year and that would be my salary. Let me tell you though, I could create a new Facebook or Amazon type site within 3 months by myself.

Did you know that a lot of web design companies out there will also create your site off of wordpress templates or other templates. This allows them do get done faster and start on a new one. These companies can't even take credit for their own work because they are stealing it from someone or somewhere else. Anyone could get a free wordpress site and tweak it to their style. If you want a custom made professional website, I highly advise against these so-called professional design companies.

Go look at a couple web design companies portfolios. Do they seem oddly familiar to you? Do they all look more or less the same? Same styles, fonts, etc? Now go look at wordpress made sites or google "web design template". Now do you see the similarity? So something you could get for free or really cheap just cost you $2k+ for a day of tweaking and content changes. Congratulations, now you've got "sucker" plastered all over you.

Other companies are still using "table designs". For those that don't know what table designs are, it's simply putting your website into table after table after table. If you right click on any web site and you see < table>< tr>< td> all over the place, that's probably a table designed site. That is the "Windows 95" way to create a website and that sucks.

NOW, If you're looking for a website, start out by looking around first. DO NOT go to the first company you see. DO NOT go to any company at all for that matter! Post an ad somewhere or ask around to people that know designers and developers. A lot of people do side jobs (like myself) who will give much better rates. It's very possible that the guy you hire would be the same guy to design your site if you went to the company he works for. So would you rather pay $10K for a site or $2K for the same exact site? The answer is a no-brainer.

You will also probably get better service with the local guy. Why? Well, if your not in a hurry, He's got the freedom to take his time on his own time and make sure that everything is 100% before he gives it to you. The company on the other hand will simply "Get it Done". Now I'm not saying that all companies do that, but most of them just want to get on to the next project so they can make more money. I see it going on all the time.


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UPDATE
So as I'm writing this, I just received a call to create a new website. This person was referred by a past client of mine. That was bizarre! So should I charge $10,000?
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It just goes to show you that you DO NOT need to go to a web design firm to have a site created! I urge you all to stay away from them! If anyone is looking for a new website, post a comment and let me know and I'd be happy to work around your budget.

Enjoy!