Our Advice
DIY Web Design: Can You Do It Better Than a Professional
Starting a website can be very interesting and fun but many tines a lot of hard work. Think of the hard work that went into planning a website thinking of the domain name and thinking about what products or content that you are planning to put into the site. After all of that is said and done, there is still a lot more work ahead of you. You have to think of things like web hosting, SEO, web design, graphic design etc. Are these things that you have to be able to do yourself?
One of the most important things in a website is the web design. With the structure of the design, your site will not be successful. So, think, do you have any web design experience? There are webmasters who think they can do a better job than a professional so they can save money but in the long run does your design really bring in money from the site? At the end of the day, you want to make money but can your design really bring in the customers that you need to make money.
Think of web design like buying a car, you want to buy the car and the color of the car is great but there are no air bags, no power steering or power brakes. Would you buy this car just because it looked nice? Chances are you would say no and the same can be said of a website. It may look great but the inside is just a mess. Web design and Graphic Design often get confused with each other, web design is the designing of the site itself and think of graphic design as a way to make the site look great.
If customers cannot find anything on your site and you have bad navigation then chances are they are going to leave the site and most likely not come back. You could have the best products or the best content but if users cannot sail through the site and find things they are looking for then how good is the site. Think carefully do you really have a better idea than someone who has been doing web design for years? It is ok to say no, we understand that webmasters want to take the praise for the entire site but there is no shame in saying yeah I had to have some help.
The goal of your website is make money, and if you can make more money from a professional web designer than yourself as the web designer than what is the big deal. You can ask the web design for ideas and you can even tell them your ideas and there may be a great way you haven't thought of to implement those ideas. The concept of the site is yours so why not get a little help in the design of the site. There are classes that you can take or read some useful webdesign blogs in order to become a web designer, if you really have your heart set on designing the site yourself.


