5 WAYS TO SAVE MONEY ON YOUR WEBSITE BUILD
Following last week's post, here are five ways to save money when you hire a website designer.
1. HAVE THE MONEY DISCUSSION
Ask how the designer charges. Is it per hour (like me), per page, per site or in some other way?
Once you know, you can make a better decision about how your website designer can spend their time building what you want. For example, if you're happy to input the products on your eCommerce store, which is basically data entry, you can save money and the designer can focus their time where their skills are better used.
Do be realistic - for example my charge of £25 per hour may seem expensive to you, but it really isn't. Think how much a skilled plumber or mechanic charges (£40-50 per hour) - your website is just as important to your business as your plumbing or your car!
2. set a budget
Now you know how and what they charge, you need to think about how much you want to spend. Hopefully you have given your chosen company a design brief, so now it's time to ask for an estimate ...and when you are ready to give the go-ahead, see if you can negotiate a price cap.
A good web designer (cheap or otherwise) will be honest about what they can achieve for your budget. Again, be realistic about your budget and requirements. Is it really crucial that you save the last £25? Is there an absolute maximum above which you can't go? Have you asked for an insanely complicated piece of coding or a bespoke membership system? Let the designer know what your budget is and decide together on the best way of spending your money, and you'll stay in control of your budget and expectations.
3. Think it through
Think about how you want your site to look and feel, and outline the layout and content you want and tell your web designer before you start. Good designers should be having that conversation with you anyway, but getting your thoughts in order before you approach them saves both of you time, and time is money!
4. Get your content ready
I can't stress this enough. So many people come to me with only a vague idea of what they want to have on their site, and then we end up spending a lot of time going backwards and forwards chasing content. If you can supply your designer with the copy and images you want to use on your site at the start it speeds things up a lot. If your designer has asked for content by certain deadlines, get it to them on time! As I said above, time is money.
5. Get & USE a tutorial
I always offer a tutorial as part of my handover. It isn't always taken advantage of, but I definitely reccommend it should be. After all, the intention behind Wix is that anyone can get online with a website they are proud of. In keeping with that ethos I like to make sure my clients are happy with their site and can use it to update themselves when they need to - otherwise the point of using Wix is lost.
You should be able to tailor your tutorial to your requirements - for example if you have an eCommerce site your tutorial could be on how to manage the shop, and by adding products yourself you could save £££. If your designer won't offer a tutorial Wix itself has plenty of help and advice online. Check out this blog for a good starting point.
I hope some of these tips will help you navigate your way towards a successful and affordable great new website! And if you would like a free consultation, just give me a call on 07732 000906.