MB Web Design will shortly be launching MyDesignerWebsite, a new service that will allow small businesses to design and launch their website within only a few days for a small annual fee.

The website will launch with 5 templates to choose from, with more added each month. At the time of ordering you will be able to customise the template to suit their needs – text font typefaces, header font typefaces, all text colours and background colours can be chosen from a set palette, or you can choose your own!

Once you’ve chosen your website package – which start from as little as £6.25 per month – we will contact you to establish the content you require on the website, and you can email us photos to use. In as little as 7 days your website will be put online for all to see.

Standard websites

	Micro	Simple	Extra	Premium	Pro	Deluxe
One low cost annual payment of	£74.99	£99.99	£149.99	£199.99	£274.99	£374.99
The basics
Number of pages	1	1	3	5	10	20
Website setup
Inclusion of your company logo
Website hosting
Domain name registration
Upgrades, backups
Complimentary annual website upgrade
Quarterly website backups
Support
Support – access to FAQ
Support – email
Support – phone
Email
Unlimited email forwarders
POP3 email accounts		1	3	5	10	20
Style
Choose your template
Customise the design
Number of template changes permitted per year					1	2
SEO & Web Traffic
Submission of your completed website to Google and Yahoo
Analytics – study your website traffic
Addition of your business to Google Maps
Website content
Supply your own information
Add icons (professional memberships, trade associations, etc)
Add photos – 1 per page
Option to change your featured image to a mini slideshow of up to 5 images
Flexibility
Changes permitted per year (e.g. changing page text such as your address, editing your opening hours, etc)		2	3	4	6	8
Facility for you to edit your existing pages
Complete content management – add / edit / remove an unlimited number of pages
	Micro	Simple	Extra	Premium	Pro	Deluxe
One low cost annual payment of	£74.99	£99.99	£149.99	£174.99	£249.99	£374.99

Extras

E-Commerce Websites

	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
One low cost annual payment of	£295.00	£495.00	£750.00	£995.00
About your e-commerce store
Number of products	20	50	100	Unlimited
Number of user accounts (for you and staff to manage your store)	1	5	10	Unlimited
Downloadable instruction manual
Product tagging
Option to sell digital downloads
Option to submit your products to Google Base and other product search engines
Secure SSL option
Payment methods
Paypal
Google Checkout
Chronopay
Bluepay
Protx
The basics
Number of informational pages	5	5	10	20
Website setup
Inclusion of your company logo
Website hosting
Domain name registration
Upgrades, backups
Complimentary annual website upgrade
Quarterly website backups
Monthly website backups
Support
Support – access to FAQ
Support – email
Support – phone
Email
Unlimited email forwarders
POP3 email accounts	1	5	10	20
Style
Choose your template
Customise the design
Number of template changes permitted per year				1
SEO & Web Traffic
Submission of your completed website to Google and Yahoo
Analytics – study your website traffic
Addition of your business to Google Maps
Website content
Supply your own information
Add icons (professional memberships, trade associations, etc)
Add photos – 1 per page
Option to change your featured image to a mini slideshow of up to 5 images
Flexibility
Changes permitted per year (e.g. changing page text such as your address, editing your opening hours, etc)	3	4	6	8
Facility for you to edit your existing pages
Complete content management – add / edit / remove an unlimited number of pages
	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
One low cost annual payment of	£295.00	£495.00	£750.00	£995.00

What Is Not (Yet) Included?

• Bespoke / one-off designs
• Online booking of events

These features are only available in bespoke, tailored website quotations. To enquire about such a website, please contact Mathew at MB Web Design.

The website requirements

What will the website do?

Is this a one-page, ‘business card’ style website, or is it a vast, multi-user, database-driven website? The former is obviously a web designer’s bread and butter and is achievable for a very modest fee; the latter falls more into the realm of development so will be subject to a four-figure fee at the very least.

As a general rule, anything that requires interaction from the user is expensive. (That includes e-commerce, scheduling and booking.) If it’s just a static website serving as an advertisement, the cost is low.

What kind of design does the website require?

All too often I’m reassured that a website ‘only needs something basic’, only to be directed to a model website constructed entirely in Flash. Some examples of websites in a similar field, plus general websites whose design and layout is considered a good model, are good barometers of what the client requires. The difference between a basic design and a complex design is can run into the hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds.

Once the website is in place, what happens next?

Nine times out of ten, the client has not considered this eventuality. Who will update the website when items need to be changed? If only text-based updates will need to be made, it is prudent to invest a little more money in a content-management system for the website. Using such a system, the client gets an online admin panel to add/edit/delete content from their website, without having to contract a web designer (at a web designer’s hourly rate!) every time. Adding a content management system to a quote is usually a surplus of a few hundred pounds, but it’s sure to pay for itself in the long run as the designer is written out of the maintenance equation.

Other factors

Domain name

Does the client have a domain name already? Is it a good domain name like www.theirbusinessname.com or is it something less palatable like www.lots-of-needless-hyphens.biz? If the latter, suggest a better alternative along with a list reliable domain registrars.

Web hosting

Is the domain name parked, or does the client have an actual hosting account? If so, will the hosting provided be sufficient for their website needs?

Conclusion

No two websites are the same, so I don’t employ a one-size-fits-all approach to my pricing strategy. Most clients pick me because my pricing is different – that is to say I’ve carefully considered their requirements to determine the fairest quotation.

The content is outdated or there is new information to advertise

A common request, and not typically a substantial job for an established web designer. Rather than contract a web designer each time you need to make a change, why not invest in a content management system so you and your staff can update the website in-house?

The website is not optimised for search engines

One of the most frequent complaints a business owner will have about their website is its performance in Google. At best, they aren’t appearing in a good position for their search engine results; at worst, they aren’t listed in Google at all. A good website designer will also have a working knowledge of search engine optimisation (SEO) to help boost your website’s profile.

The design isn’t suitable

Perhaps the design is outdated, or doesn’t give the user the right impression. Either way, a redesign can be an easy or a complex process depending on a number of variables. If you’re using a content management system like Wordpress, then a new template is surprisingly straightforward. On bespoke websites, the customised nature demands more attention to detail, which is reflected in the cost.

Square up against the competition

Your existing website might be perfectly acceptable, but if a competitor arrives with a flashier, easier-to-use website you might want to consider your options. Some ideas I like to pitch include video testimonals, industry/staff blogging, photo slideshows, Google map integration… the list goes on and on. Have a look at what your competitors (both local and nationwide) are doing and see if there’s anywhere they are outdoing you. More importantly, are there any facets of their website that could be bettered?

Unreliable website availability or slow loading times

This isn’t a common problem, but can seriously impede your website’s impression. Hosting companies are often subject to unpredictable downtime, during which time your website is unavailable and prospective customers will be unable to reach your website. A good web designer will advise you on reliable hosting companies. On a similar note, if your website is slow to load, customers might turn away through sheer impatience. The slow loading of a website might not be the sole fault of the hosting company; a poorly thought-out website might have page elements like slideshows and images which take an unacceptable time to load. Your web designer will be able to help you identify such problems.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but there are over 10 sites here for you to get a headstart on the competition.

1. Another Gallery Not working as of 23 September, 2008
   
2. Best Web Gallery
3. Blandless
4. Boxed CSS
5. Ceeses
6. CESKO (Slovenian website)
7. Creative Pakistan
8. CSS 2.0
9. CSS Artillery
10. CSS Bag
11. CSS Band
12. CSS Based
13. CSS Beauty
14. CSS Blast (Russian website)
15. CSS Blaze
16. CSS Bloom
17. CSS Brigit
18. CSS Burst
19. CSS Clip
20. CSS Collection
21. CSS Container
22. CSS Cookie
23. CSS Count
24. CSS Creme
25. CSS Daddy
26. CSS Demo
27. CSS Design (fr)
28. CSS Design Yorkshire
29. CSS Drive
30. CSS Elite
31. CSS EM
32. CSS Exchange
33. CSS Flavor
34. CSS Fresh Blend
35. CSS Fuel
36. CSS Galaxy (French website)
37. CSS Galeri (Turkish website)
38. CSS Glance
39. CSS Hazard
40. CSS Heaven
41. CSS Hive
42. CSS Imagine
43. CSS Import
44. CSS Impress
45. CSS Leak
46. CSS Liquid
47. CSS Loaf
48. CSS Love
49. CSS Mania
50. CSS Mess
51. CSS Mix
52. CSS Nature
53. CSS Princess
54. CSS Reboot
55. CSS Remix
56. CSS Smooth Operator
57. CSS Snap
58. CSS Star
59. CSS Thesis
60. CSS Tux
61. CSS Vault
62. CSS Warfare
63. CSS Website
64. CSS Wrap
65. CSS Zone
66. Daily Slurp
67. Darkeye
68. Design 2 Day
69. Design Creme
70. Design Expanse
71. Design Grabs
72. Design Creme
73. Design Shack
74. Design Snack
75. Design Snips
76. FantastiCSS
77. Favourite Website Awards
78. Full Single
79. Gallerific
80. Genuine Style
81. HostPattern
82. Inspiration Folder
83. Inspiration King
84. Light On Dark
85. Lookom
86. Menthe Fresh
87. Minimal Sites
88. Most Inspired
89. My3W
90. Najdizajn
91. Nice StyleSheet
92. One Page Love
93. One Star Gallery
94. Perfection
95. PortfolioBase
96. ProWebArt
97. Screenalicious
98. Showcase Point
99. Siti Web Design Gallery
100. Stare At
101. Style Crunch
102. Style Gala
103. Style The Web
104. Submit CSS
105. The Best Designs
106. Unmatched Style
107. Urban Trash
108. W3C Sites
109. Web Creme
110. Webdigity
111. Web Doctrine
112. WD Gallery
113. Website Gallery
114. Well Done Sites

Lists of lists

http://cssmania.com/topics/portal/showcases/

http://zeniltuo.com/

• “Can you show me what the finished website will look like?”
• “Can you show me a preview?”
• “Can you submit one page for approval and we’ll take it from there”
• “Can you design me a website and I’ll pay you £XYZ if I like it”

What is speculative design work?

Speculative design work – the industry term is “Spec” – is design work for which a fair and reasonable fee should apply, but which has not been agreed upon. It requires a designer to invest time and effort into work without any promises or guarantees of getting paid.

You can read more at http://www.no-spec.com/articles/what-is-spec/

Why I don’t offer speculative design work

As with many professional designers, I won’t undertake speculative work because they take away time and effort away from bona fide projects with guaranteed revenue.

Since speculative work is done without a contract or financial obligation to the client, there is no clear representation of “rights” to the work between the client and the designer. Resultantly, clients may feel they can pick and choose from the ideas the designer has presented and either do the project themselves, or take the ideas to another, cheaper designer.

You can read more at: http://www.no-spec.com/articles/ten-reasons/

Some analogies

The No!Spec website offers an interesting paragraph on the matter that I’ll paraphrase below.

You wouldn’t go to a restaurant, eat the food, and expect to pay only if you’re happy. And you’d never go to a mechanic, have them work on your car, letting them know you’ll only pay them if you think they did good work. So why should the web design industry be any different?

You can read more at http://www.no-spec.com/articles/just-say-no/ and http://www.no-spec.com/articles/an-analogy/

In A Nutshell

Putting together a good website design concept takes time and effort. It simply isn’t reasonable to put such time and effort into a piece of work when there’s no guarantee that it will be paid for. It’s an even less attractive proposition when there’s nothing preventing the client from taking my design to another designer to undercut me on production costs. I pride myself on being a trustworthy and committed designer and expect the same traits from my clients – and such clients know that good design is worth paying the premium for.