" />
| « 5 Games I’m looking forward to in 2007 | Cows » |
Web site design
August 23, 2007
I’ve often thought in the past that I should make a little money out of designing websites for small companies, but have always shied away from doing so. Even when someone has come to me and asked me to do it, I’ve always said no - for free or for payment.
Perhaps I don’t have enough confidence in myself to sell something I create, or to be able to design something that has to be liked by someone else. Whenever I do create a site it’s normally for myself or a friend, and normally something which I personally like the look of - not creating for someone else. The nearest I came to designing for others was when I did custom diaryland designs for a few people. Sure the people I did the work for seemed to really like what I did - but blog people are fickle and seemed to move on quickly to another theme. I haven’t bothered creating them for wordpress as there are so many good ones out there that do the job better than I could.
Yet, there are so many people out there on the internet that are making money from creating websites which, to be honest, I think I certainly could do better than them.
I hate to name and shame, but I will anyway. Here’s a website I found earlier belonging to a guy who is selling a basic website for £500. www.leonardmurphy.co.uk
To me the actual designers website just looks amateurish and would not impress me enough to consult them in an attempt to create my business presence in an online world. Then again, if I was a small business that knew it was best to get on the internet, but didn’t have a clue how, a clue what I wanted my website to do or what the options are, perhaps I would pay £500 for a site from someone random.
The thing that bothers me most about this site is that they don’t show a portfolio of any other sites they have created. As a designer you should be proud of your work and willing to show the diversity of what you can do, and to give a potential client a feel for what you are capable of.
I did find another site designed by this person. http://www.clivemurphy.co.uk/ It’s not great, but to be honest I like it more than the designers own site - it seems to be more subtle, and minimal. I do like white.
Now Leonard, if you happen to look at your stats page or do a Google search and find yourself on this blog, please rise above the fact I am openly stating my dislike for your work. I admire anyone that can go ahead and make money from personal ventures such as this, so I applaud you if you have sold just one site design and made cash from it - as it’s something I’ve never done, and nowadays I tend to use pre-written CMS systems and designs for my needs.
I do, however, often go back over things I designed years ago when I first learnt about the internet. At the time I thought ‘I am a god, this is amazing, look at what I can do. I will own the internet tomorrow!’ - and with hindsight I often just say to myself ’so…you thought that was good?’.
Imagine, if you will, a child colouring in a picture of an elephant in a zoo and going out of the lines a lot and quote proud of the fact the elephant is green with a purple trunk; as a teenager that child may look back on the drawing and realise just how bad it really is.
Still, the child isn’t making money out of it - whereas these web designers are and for some reason that annoys me a little. Probably because I’m not doing so myself - but then I know I’m not good enough, regardless of how much better than some other people I may be. I would have serious moral issues with charging someone £500 for something that wasn’t great.
Rant over - I’m off to search for more examples of bad web designers. There are plenty out there.
Comments
2 Responses to “Web site design”
Got something to say?
I understand…
I’m sure you do.
And you’re very much exempt I hope you know, due to the fact you’re desgining for friends, you’re listing other work you have done and for the fact you’re stuff is actually quite good. You know your limitations (thanks for the change of address email by the way
) and don’t try and rip people off, though you easily could.
Mxx