Five Tips for Hiring a (web development) Church Website Designer
No commentsBy Lynne Gabriel
Church website designers seem to be a dime a dozen nowadays. There are so many to choose from. But how do you go about finding the right church web designer for you? Here are several tips you need to know when hiring a church web designer:
1) Surf your church web designer’s website. If you have been referred to a church web designer and said web designer does not even have a web site, stop right there, back away from the computer for a moment and consider this fact. The very first thing a church web designer should have is a web site, and preferably one that they created themselves. So find a church web designer that has a website and take a good look at it. A church web designer may have a completely different website than you want, but that’s ok because their website is designed for a web designer and chances are, you’re not a web designer and may need something different…they know that. The point is to look for three universal things that make up a good web design: a) Usability: is it easy to navigate? Were you able to find the links you needed right away? Or did you go on a scavenger hunt and left without a prize? b) “The Clutter-Factor”: How organized is the website? Is it visually appealing? Or do you have to look away feeling the affects of sensory overload as if you just walked onto the set of a Beatles music video circa 1967? (this is asking if the site feels chaotic). c) Aesthetic: Much of the aesthetic of a website is psychologically based. So how do you feel upon seeing the color scheme, the graphics, the effects? Are you left wanting to see something a little more creative?
A church web designer’s website should exemplify their services and give you a good indication of their knowledge of web design. If you’re looking at a church web designer’s site that doesn’t meet the above criteria you may want to look somewhere else. I’m not saying a church web designer who doesn’t meet those three points couldn’t design a great website for you, but their site should be the first point of reference for their potential clients just as your website will be for your potential visitors. See how that works?
2) Technophile and Creative: Your church web designer should be both web savvy as well as creative. It’s a hard balance for some to achieve but great web designers typically seem to be amazingly both left-brained and right. You want your church web designer to know the ins and outs of all that technical stuff that makes your head spin but also have an artistic sensibility that allows them to create a website that suits you in both the visual aspect as well as usability.
3) Can your church web designer offer suggestions? You have some ideas for your site, sure, but maybe it’s not really your area of expertise. You just know you want a church website that brings traffic. A good church web designer should be able to give you suggestions rather than just doing exactly as you say. If it’s not your area of expertise, it’s likely that a church web designer can provide some insight and knowledge that you don’t readily have. Now, if you want a professional looking church website but they come up with a pink background with green polka dots then they aren’t listening to you or hey don’t know what “professional” means. It’s their job to create your vision but also to make it the best it can be so that you look your best as well.
4) The Functionality Aspect: Look for a church web designer who can provide the functionality you need. Do you need or want flash? Do you have need of an e-mail newsletter sign-up? Do you have products to sell? Do you want a forum or a blog? Contact forms? Photo galleries? Webcasts? If you need or want these things be sure your church web designer can provide them for you before you sign anything or shell out any money.
5) You Get What You Pay For: If you hire a church web designer based solely on the fact that they are the cheapest around, well, then you may as well just walk over to your fireplace, light a log and throw your money in. The old adage “you get what you pay for” is certainly true in the world of web design. On the flip-side, there are also only so many bells and whistles you can put on a church website so don’t go the other way and assume that the more expensive a church web designer is the better website you’ll get. Just find one that meets the criteria in the article that is within your budget and you should be good to go.
Follow these 5 Tips for hiring a church website designer and you should come out with a fabulous website that puts your church on the map and starts driving that coveted traffic.
Lynne Gabriel is the owner of TheChurchWebsiteDesigners.com - a church website design company based in Houston, TX. TheChurchWebsiteDesigners.com build visually-appealing, user-friendly, and easy-to-manage custom church website design.
Your Guide to Designing a Profitable Website
By Gyan M
Your Guide to Designing a Profitable Website
Your website is your business headquarters online, and risking it to amateur website designers can dash your hopes for a cash mill. But if you have the website design basics stored in your brain, you can try out your skill and hone it. A simple guide to designing a profitable website is your best tool to get your website off the ground.
How to Design a Profitable Website
A clean website, read uncluttered, is easy on the eyes. It has a professional look about it that attracts readers who are on the lookout for reliable online stores. Since there is no face-to-face interaction between buyer and seller, the looks of the website must have the face value edge plus the navigation tools to make online shopping easier for buyers who are always ready to get away at the slightest hint of website inefficiency.
Before setting out enthusiastically to design your website, know what you want, your target audience, and grab an idea from competition, especially those with websites that bowled you over. Having a general idea of your goal, get ready to embark on a website design exploration.
The Rules in Designing a Profitable Website
Make it simple. At this point, do not be too ambitious. Stick to a simple yet effective layout.
Avoid lengthy content. Readers are easily bored with long text. The agenda here is to keep them glued to your page without drowning them in words and more words that say little.
Do not use small fonts. It is irritating for some readers to hunt for their magnifying glass just to read the words click here.
Keep images to a minimum. The more images you put on your page, the more it will load slowly. A time waster it is and a waste of bandwidth too.
Navigation should be clearly directed. Not all users can read minds, hence, make your navigation directions very clear and simple.
Do not use scripting language for images or visual effects. Scripting language is effective for handling data and that is that.
Lead your visitor to the Buy button. Be ready with the relevant information about your product/services and make sure that button works fast.
Do not be stingy. Offer free newsletters, discounts, and what else to get your potential customers names with their permission.
Make your website popular with all browsers. Limiting your website to Internet Explorer is the granddaddy of website design mistakes.
If you dont want to bother with all the technical details, you are better off with website design template. You can get this from reputable website design companies like GyanArt. All you do is choose the design and follow the instructions carefully.
Designing a website is not for the fainthearted nor is it only for the geeks on the block. You can design a profitable website following a simple guide and if you know the basics of XHTML or CSS. If you do not have any idea what an XHTML is, leave it to the masters to do the work.
Gyan
Graphic Designer
http://www.gyanart.com
Locate A Web Developer For Your Website Needs
The Latest Web Design Tips For You
By Peter Brittain
Websites are the soul of any organization. It represents the entire company and makes a positive or negative impression on the viewer. A website needs to create a neat image. It may be easy to come up with a website, but to make it appealing is a challenging task. To stay in the competition, upgrade your websites frequently. However, make it easy for browsers to navigate through the site by being simple.
Here are few latest web design tips for you.
To make it simple for browsers, keep the navigation easy. If browsers cannot navigate your website easily, they leave it. Normally a visitor goes through the home page and then looks for other contents or pages worth visiting. You can make an index and a navigation button on the title to make it easy for visitors to easily move from page to page.
Yes we all love graphics and pictures, however you can not upload too many of them on your website, as they make it difficult for the website to download and the visitor may lose interest. Your website should not take more then 30 seconds to download.
A website is not a place where you can show your skills to the audiences. When designing a web page, you need to keep your audiences in mind. Although you may be master of HTML language, you need to keep it simple, as the visitors will not be aware of the same. Remember you are designing a website for the first time users as well.
As newcomers in the market, we all wish to experiment with colors, and other animation to make our website look unique. However, too many bright colors and animation can spoil the look. To make your website unique you need to provide quality content.
Let there be lot of white spaces on your website to make it easy on visitors eyes. A black and white combination always looks neat. Keep the text size and font readable. Let there be proper space between the characters. Do not cramp your website by keeping little space between the words and sentences.
Make use of uncommon templates. Templates save you time and money, but using popular templates may be a risk, as several other web designers may also be using it.
After you have completed designing the website, make sure that it works in every browser. At times a website opens well in Internet Explorer but does not look good in Firefox. Thus before the final up loading, be sure that your website looks same in every search engine.
To help your visitors to keep coming back to you, give them something interesting every time they visit. However keep the main layout same unless you have a genuine reason to change.
If you learn HTML, you will find it easy to design your own website. However there are always professionals to help you. Every time you design your web page, keep in mind your viewers interest. A simple and appealing website will certainly makes a mark for your company.
Peter Brittain is a director of Slinky Web Design, a Perth based web design company, and writes a great web design blog.
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 11:15 pm and is filed under design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
