Contacting Designers and Getting Quotes

If you haven't already done so, please read the first and second installments titled Identifying Your Site's Purpose and Audience, Go-Live Date, Your Budget, and Your Technical Aptitude and Identifying Your Website Needs and Design Preferences a.k.a. Doing Your Homework before reading this week's article.

By now you should know what your site to have (at least have some ideas) and know which designers have worked on your favorite author sites.

It's time to write out your requirements to send to potential designers. Write out the timeline (when you want yours launched), the type of technical solutions you seek (CMS, WordPress, Joomla, template only v. installation included, maintenance needed or not, etc.), and deliverables (graphic files, actual codes, Photoshop files, training if any, other documentation, etc.).

Once you have this, you can email designers and ask them for quotes.

In addition, you can also use a site called eLance to get quotes from other web designers. The registration is free, and there's very little risk to the people who hire freelancers there.

Here's a list of designers I found by surfing author sites. The list is nowhere near exhaustive. If you're a professional designer and want to be included, leave a comment with your designer site info and/or where people can find your portfolio. I will not include you on the list if you don't have a portfolio and/or experience.

Disclaimer: I'm not endorsing and/or promising anything by listing designers here. The only designers I've worked with are Frauke from CrocoDesigns and Tara O'Shea, and I like them. If you want to ask any specific questions about either of them, contact me.

Next week, I'll talk about evaluating quotes and designers.


4 comments to “Contacting Designers and Getting Quotes”

  1. Stella Price
    September 16th, 2008 at 2:14 am · Link

    I’m a web designer!

    I do websites, book covers, myspace and Blogger designs, and I do promotional goodie design from bookmarks to ad design. I also do a promotional workshop called Promotions for the Frugal author, and teach authors how to do a full promo plan for under 200$ a quarter for a single title, and 350 for a 3 book series.

    Stella



  2. Laurie
    September 16th, 2008 at 3:19 am · Link

    I’d love to be added to your list too. I specialize in websites and blogs for small businesses and authors.

    (My site is vastly out of date and under construction, because my clients’ projects have come first. Expect a new site and an updated portfolio in the next week or two. :) )



  3. Laurie
    September 16th, 2008 at 3:45 am · Link

    Oh, and I guess it would help to tell you… My company is Elle Media, and you can view my portfolio here:

    http://getelle.com/portfolio.html

    Thanks!



  4. Amanda Church
    September 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Link

    Hey Nadia,

    I’ve been doing freelance web and graphic design for over ten years, specializing in artistic web design with coordinating blogs and portfolios for writers, artists, and musicians. A complete portfolio is available on my site.




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