So Seth and I had a couple conversations with this web designer and really like her. She’s creative and has designed some pretty amazing websites. We decided to hire her and her programmer to design our site. Seth and I have have worked tirelessly on a schema for the site we want, complete with layout, page flow, graphics, and text. We’re handing it over to her as our road-map/blueprint for what we want. She’s going to put together some preliminary designs so that we can review, tweak, and then have her programmer start actually building the site. We’ve already purchased the URL at www.oncardmarketing.com a while back when we incorporated (highly recommended), so I need to hand over the info to the website programmer who will make sure that things are working smoothly on the actual site as the project moves along.The big thing that we want in our site is a pretty complete demo of the service we’re hoping to sell to merchants. It’s complicated, but Seth and I have a good idea of what we want it to look like. I just hope that our design team can make it look as good as we envision it. We’ll keep you posted… Bottom Line: When choosing a web design firm, pick somebody who has a large portfolio of sites that vary in look and feel. This shows that the designer has versatility (good thing), meaning that you’re more likely to get a site that is as original as possible. Also, if the designer has a personal relationship with somebody you know (i.e. they’ve done good work for somebody you trust), all the better. With designers, you don’t really need referrals. Their work speaks for itself. If you like the websites they’ve designed, and they’re willing to do it for the right price (don’t spend over $100/hr), then go for it. This is your corporate identity, so don’t skimp. If the site looks like crap, you’ll lose credibility, so spend the little extra to make it sharp. JT
