Low cost web design. Is it for you?

My friend and I flew down to Miami for this cruise I go on every year. When we booked the hotel it said “free shuttle from the airport”. I text her right away and said “score, we got a free shuttle, what a money saver”. Fast forward to when we landed. The shuttle was running every hour or so. We got there just in time for the shuttle and it never showed. So we waited and we waited. I made several calls to find out what the delay was and all they could tell me is that it was coming. After continued calls and waiting for several hours, our “free” shuttle arrived. By the time we got to our hotel room, we were so exhausted, we just wanted to nap.

So what does this have to do with a web site?

A lot! I hear people say “so and so can build me a site for $500”. Well that’s great but I’m of the old saying “you get what you pay for”. “Free” or “low-cost” is not always a good score. Actually most often than not, it ends up costing you more in money, time and resources. I’ve had several clients take this route and hire an international company to build their site and code it. What you have to think about is that most people that are getting you that $500 template, don’t generally have a background in design or development. So if trouble arrises, they can’t “fix” the issues. One client had a site so badly coded that they wanted me to fix it. It was much better for them to scrap it and start over. It’s a hard lesson to learn. But you want to make sure that you’re getting a good quality design as well as a clean coded website, regardless of who you use.

So think about that for a bit when making a decision. Just like my friend and I who waited for that shuttle. The hours we waited could have been better spent by the pool.