(DISCLAIMER: I’m NOT looking for work from anyone here - just your opinions)
Ok - a few yrs ago (like the endless masses) I started playing with web design and a few friends said I should try and do it for money…so …I registered a business name, improved my skills, tried sending out fliers, advertised in the yellow pages (mind you, this is the first year of three that the idiots got my ad right!!) and i’m still not getting anywhere.
People I’ve talked to about this seem to think I’m doing things right and can’t explain where I’m going wrong.
I know my skills are very average in terms of what’s out there, but I live in a reasonably small community and I’m basically targetting small businesses and community groups in my local area (the Yellow Pages here covers about 5 major towns) . I should note that the standard of my only local competition is pretty poor…actually, some of them are downright horrific! I’d post a link to one of them that shows how bad they are but I know they use a site tracker on their site and if they see me saying nasty things about thier business they may do something nasty to me…but if you search the archives here for “scribex” you’ll find a link to their site they already know about so that wouldn’t hurt
I’ve done a number of community sites for nothing (although I will get some sponsorship advertising out of some of them at some stage) and I’ve offered to redesign horrific looking sites at really good rates.
Ok… so what else do I do? Is my website putting people off? Should I just give up because my skills aren’t good enough?
All suggestions and opinions welcome…although my feelings might get hurt if you say something REALLY nasty hehe.
oh…I guess you want to look at some of my work? www.anchorweb.com.au
I should also state that I have no money to spend on further advertising so it’s simply not possible to do any more of that than I already am at this stage
I found your website almost impossible to look at due to the black background combined with the choice and color of fonts.
As for drumming up business in a small community, I’d guess that you need to start pounding the pavement, making personal visits to businesses and convincing them they need a website, then walking them through the whole process. Network. Badger all your acquaintances for leads.
I do websites for corporates, and I promise you not one of them wants a background anything other than white, with black lettering on them.
I like your navigation, though I wouldn’t personally use frames, but, as lainaf says, the black background and white lettering make it pretty horrible to read.
Have you considered just putting a $15 small ad in the local paper? “Professional websites for a fraction of the cost” or something.
It’s weird, I have multiple vision probs and I find the black background easier. I have done more sites with white backgrounds than anything else though - I agree, that’s what most businesses want and I’d hope that they get as far as the web design page to see styles other than my own page.
I have several times run a small add in the local paper, but without sucess. Although, I admit the last one i ran was purely to compete wtih someone else (www.geocities.com/yourelusivedream) locally who ran an ad herself. I promoted myself as a registered business (which she is not) - no calls though, but I expected that, our local paper is a bit pathetic so I don’t think that many people acutally read it.
I just think theres too many webdesigners out there for the amount of business. half the population has their own copy of frontpage, and would prefer to spend some time doing it themselves than to pay someone.
I would tend to agree about the white lettering. if you are going to stick with the black, try going a tad greyer with the white. makes it easier to read.
other than its a very nice looking site, and easy to get around. keep trying. I’m sure you’ll find something soon
Tal, I suspect soulsearcher may have hit the button – so many businesses buy software for web site building that they see no need to hire a specialist.
The same thing occurs with desktop publishing, I’m afraid. Businesses buy software and get one of their employees to slap together a “good enough” sample. Many folks simply don’t understand the importance of good design, and that’s why you see so much crap out there.
It’s unfortunate, IMHO.
Here’s a possible idea for some free advertising – if there’s any way you might come up with a story about your business ventures, contact the local paper and let 'em know. Matter of fact, maybe you could write up your own story about how the industry of local web design is going down the toilet due to the proliferation of software on the market and talk about the importance of good design – become the “EXPERT”, and talk about how companies could drastically change their images, get the eye of the consumer more easily, and gain an edge with a professionally designed site – then type it up into a press release, send it to the paper and cross your fingers. A community news story is great free advertising. (This also goes for regional papers, magazines, etc.)
I used to be in your exact situation, though I was lucky to get hired by a company rather than have to fend for myself too often. Having to pound the pavement and doorknock just for websites in a tiny local community totally sucked, and this was in the ealier days of the web before the dotcom crash.
The problem these days is the glut of freelance web designers, the ease for amateurs to do it themselves or get their 12 year old nephew to do it for them, and the consistent fact that the average person doesn’t think they should have to pay for it.
The truth is the majority of businesses you’d find in a small community don’t have a need to be on the web, and they know it. It won’t garner them any new business or attention, which is what they’re looking for.
I had an idea that I now know I’ll never go ahead with that maybe you can steal and use yourself. Go to your local shopping centre, stripmall, or whatever, and go to each of the businesses individually with the plan of having a single website that encompasses the entire group of shops e.g. hubertstreetmall.com.au, with each shop having its own separate page. That way the shops only have to contribute a lower cost for an individual page each, and they don’t have to provide too much information - plus design-wise you just have to have a standard template for each business where you just fill in the blanks - name, address, photo, logo, hours of operation, etc.
If that is successful, you can spread out and do the same for other stripmalls or whatever, and the ball might start rolling.
Many businesses have an online presence just to have an online presence. Like having an ongoing ad in the yellow pages, it’s just there so people can find the business info.
This is the case for our business, it’s not an interactive site, it’s just there with the pertinent sales and contact info. It doesn’t require much in the way of maintenance or even updates. The last time we updated it was two years ago.
So, not alot of repeat business there even if you do get the original sale.
Portwest is right about setting yourself up as the local expert…but I had no idea that you could get any advertising for free. Our local business newspaper does “focus” articles regularly. However they are a thousand bucks a pop. They send a guy out with a camera and he also writes the article. And in our case, I ended up writing the article myself, his version just wasn’t what we wanted.
IMO, any free advertising could be good but just make sure it’s not a case of getting what you pay for, you know?
I spent some time a few years ago playing around with web design. I learned to write HTML, including frames and other nifties. Family members tried to convince me to make a business out of it, but I didn’t see the point, because I know that other people can learn web design just as well as I did, or use FrontPage and hardly need to learn anything at all. I don’t have an artistic background, so that puts me back a step, but still, I wouldn’t anticipate a huge demand.
I designed a web site for my dad, and continually offered to design a site for my cousin, which she keeps turning down. I’ve taught kids at school how to create personal sites, and started out several of my friends as well. People like me are stealing your jobs.
oooooh, i don’t like the site with a white background…probably about time I redesigned the whole thing anyway… about all I like of it now is the logo hehe.
Why not go to some of your local churches and other non profit organizations and ask if you can do their site for free? This will give you a portfolio to work with whenyou approach a business about doing their work. I think you would do best by dropping in on some local business instead of waiting on them to approach you.
Some thoughts. IANAAU and IANAAS (I Am not An Australian and I Am Not A Salesdroid).
As are positioning yourself as a local business to your customers, your location should be visible at first glance on the front page. Sale and Gippsland are mentioned in the <title>, but the way that <title> is displayed e.g. in Internet Explorer it is usually not read by surfers. You could e.g. mention your location in the top frame:
Anchor Web Design • Sale • Gippsland • Victoria • Australia • Earth
Your reference examples in the various fields are an asset, but they are hidden too deep in the content. You might think about linking to them from the main navigation menu.
re Web site examples: better don’t include the ‘under construction’ site (the words ‘under construction’ are a red flag for nonprofessional web sites IMO), and lose the disparaging remarks about the web site that you no longer maintain. Customers don’t like the prospect of being badmouthed if they should sever the business connection at any point in the future (the same basic reason why, in a job interview, you should refrain from saying anything critical of your previous employer)
Black web site background: a possible turn-off for some customers. Some may consider it elegant, others might be reminded of a Goth home page.
What I like: your home page’s extensive <noframes> section. You might want to disemphasize the “Your browser does not appear to support frames” mesage, though, as your main audience for this text are search engine spiders.
I thought about having more of a focus on the local side of things obvious on the site, but i dont’ want to put off any NON local clients… i figure focusing my advertising locally (yellow pages etc) is enough where that’s concerned
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “reference examples”
The site that is underconstruction is now at a point at which it is presentable to the public, that was there purely for a potential client i was speaking to a couple of days ago over the phone. As I’ve just got the domain for that site up and running, I intend to take off the notice about it not being complete.
THe reason I have the reference to the site i’m no longer maintaining is purely because they still have reference to my business on their site…which - because of the mess they made of the menu - reflects badly on my business. I will be contacting them this week and asking them if they would remove my business name from my site, once that is done, I will remove their site from my examples altogether.
Thanks for the comments on the no-frames. A lot of people complain about frames but i figure if they’re designed properly they can work well. I haven’t however looked at that in a long time and dont’ even remember what’s on there - thanks for the reminder to update it
As somebody who knows nothing about Web design, I find the white background/black lettering somewhat easier to read and somehow more…um…polished? Professional looking?
I HATE frames. Hate 'em hate 'em hate 'em. Given the choice on a site I always go to no frames. There are otherwise good sites that have irritated the heck out of me because of the intrusive frames.
[hijack]On a side note, I HATE when companies upgrade their sites and make them prettier but far less functional and slower to load. This has nothing to do with yours, just something I’ve seen far too often.[/hijack]
what is it exactly that you hate about frames? don’t you find that having the menu there nice and handy no matter how far you are scrolled down the page is helpful? I agree however, there should always be a no frames option, just for people like you
IMHO, I feel that your website is made up too much of words and too little of design.
The long paragraphs of words and descriptions drag the whole thing down-- think about making the columns narrower, bulleted lists, boxes and so on to make it snappier and more readable. You need to consciously design the text layout too, rather than just plonk the text in. Attention to detail like that will set apart a true professional designer from every other guy using Frontpage at home.
On the whole (IMHO, don’t take this personally), your website doesn’t demonstrate the “professional, clean look” that you want it to. Since it’s your showpiece, it needs to be more self-consciously neat, perfect, proportioned and designed. Colours need to be more harmonious too. Good luck!
make specific offers for firms. not “I can redesign your page”. Look what their problem is
don’t fixed fees like 50$ a page. that doesn’t work too well. I usually make a offer for a complete homepage (what that includes should be exactly determined) and adding to this I determin the max work-hours
rumraisin…ok, so what do you think would make it look more “clean”? i had kind of thought i’d achieved that… (you didn’t click on the second link i posted did you? that was a five minute changeover from the original site done after my OP and isn’t clean at all)
it’s good that you suggest it needs to be more “neat” but unfortuantely it doesn’t really help me if I don’t know what exactly you are thinking when you say that.
severin - if I am offering to redesign a page for someone, I’m very specific about it, and sometimes will mock something up to show them just how good their site COULD look compared to what they have now. I will point out ways that the site could be improved, rather than just say, “hey let me redesign your site”. Is that what you were thinking or did i miss your point on that one?
In addition to stating the $50 a page thing, I have given examples futher down the page eg, a basic 5 page site with domain name setup etc, will cost you $560 - I guess I could place that higher up the page or something
This might be part of your “problem”. Please recall the episode in The Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy where the Golgofrinchan(?) colonists agnonise over the reinvented wheel, “If you’re so smart, you tell us what colour it should be!”
