?I recently searched Craigslist for San diego web designers, and finding the best designers was not the easiest of tasks. I wanted to find a quality local San Diego freelancer to work on an e-commerce website I had envisioned. It was important to me that I find a San Diego local because I wanted to sit down face to face and discuss and develop my ideas. So I decided to post to my favorite local San Diego job posting hub, Craigslist (CL). Here is my basic posting:
The response was both overwhelming and underwhelming. Though I did receive responses from some talented Web design freelancers, I also had to wade through 50+ emails from companies that were neither in San Diego nor freelancers. It would really be great if CL would require users to type out a CAPTCHA word or two to prevent bots from spamming posts. Some sites were just plain funny because they appear to have been done by a DIY individual, rather than a professional web designer. Here is an example of a site I was not impressed with lol:Local Web Design ExpertHello Designers!I am looking for a local San Diego web designer to create a new ecommerce site for my old brick and mortar shop. We sell clothing and accessories. It shouldn't be a huge deal for people who knows what they are doing. I haven't priced websites before so please send me some quotes because I do have money set aside for this. Also of course send me links to samples of your work. Thanks!
Ouch! Anyhow, the range of skills and price quotes were astounding. A couple emails were from internationals who somehow missed the strict "Local" requirement displayed in my add. Some designers were talented, others not so much, and quotes for my basic ecommerce site ranged $250-$50,000. The larger companies typically charge a good deal more than freelancers trying to scratch a living. What I was really looking for was a talented San Diego web design freelancer who had a hip, modern design sense and the ability to program functional websites at a competitive price. Unfortunately, most of the "web designers" seemed to be only graphic designers, lacking any real programming ability. And its imperative that every employer who needs a website built understands the difference.
Websites have evolved to become much more than just plain static pages with pretty colors. Websites now often house complex code that can save user information in a database and recall it at a later date. When you run a search on a website, you are interacting directly with their database. Websites also need to be coded correctly to load quickly, and they need to be coded effectively to appear at the top of a search engine listing. Eecommerce websites requires a modest level of sophistication. If I was just looking to add information about my business to the web, any local web designer with a slick template would have sufficed. But to integrate great shopping carts, credit cards, inventory, and an easy to use administrative user interface a web developer with some programming knowledge is essential.
But how can you know if your San Diego web designer really understands the in and outs of web design? Well to start, ask them if they have a technical degree in a relevant field such as computer science. If a designer has no formal degree, you should take a look at their past websites. Do these websites load quickly? Do they appear on searches engines' listings? Do all the links and buttons work? Take a moment to send an email to the website owner asking how they felt about their web designer and website.
These are some parameters that really helped me find a quality San Diego web designer. Probably the best San Diego ecommerce web designer who replied to my add was Rose Reyes. Here is a little info about her and a pic of an ecommerce site she has designed.
About Unik Motif:
Based in beautiful San Diego, California, Unik Motif is a boutique web and graphic design company that was founded in 2008 on the principle that our most important job is to make sure that everything about your project goes smoothly for you, and that you end up with a shop, logo, or blog that is perfect for you.
Find out more about Rose Reyes and her design company at http://www.unikmotif.com/. Her eccomerce sites will run you about $1500. The websites she has designed are very successful which is a great compliment to her work and skills. Have you had any luck hiring web designers on Craigslist? Please review.
1 comment:
That's the problem with posting ads online, people do not read the details and just send their offers. I have had that problem many times where most of the responses end up coming from other Geo locations. I usually like to save time and use craigslist posting service to post ads on Craigslist
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