Consumer Beware
Fakes are everywhere!
DON'T BE FOOLED!
When searching for a web developer it is easy to find an endless
list of under-educated people claiming to be web designers, developers, and programmers.
Often-times it is someone who simply read a tutorial online that explained how to
make a web page. These fakes will usually talk themselves up using terms such as
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), or Java Script.
Despite those being big words, a real developer knows those skills are not enough
to create a truly presentable and professional website. Don't be fooled by all the
computer terms; fakes use them to sound intelligent and keep you in the dark. In
fact, the bigger the words and the more often they use them the more likely they
are frauds.
Web design is a work of art. Make sure the developer has a strong
portfolio that you can look through. What does the work say to you? Does it make
you comfortable and at home as you click through the pages of their past websites?
Or does it make you want to scratch your eyes out? Web design is the art of pleasing
the eye. A true designer takes his/her time to carve out every pixel of your website
just perfectly so that visitors feel welcome and are impressed by your dedication
to your company image. Amateurs do the bare minimum in hopes of taking your money
and moving on. Very few web designers see their work as a passion, merely a job.
Their work reflects that and you are left with a sorry excuse for a professional
website. Make sure they build websites because they want to, not because they have
to. Look for the passion and the artistry in their work.
Another sign of an amateur is when they are promising the world
and not asking for much. A few hundred dollars for your five page website sounds
good. In fact it's probably too good. Sometimes they will even come down in price
if you, the consumer, are hesitant in accepting their offer. That is a very bad
sign when searching for a web developer. Professional developers take pride in their
work and understand that it is worth something. No passionate artist would let a
painting go on display that he/she was not truly proud of. Web development is hard
work and it takes many years of experience to become a competent designer and programmer.
Anyone that has taken the time required to learn and master the art of web design
& development will tell you that it is not easy or cheap.
Another cheap alternative you might find online is the "Do It
Yourself" services that so many websites offer. These services usually allow you
to sign in and use a set of pre-defined tools and resources to build a small site
from a template. This can be a very tempting offer because it seemingly gives you
full control over the content of the site. If you were to actually use one of these
services you would notice one fatal flaw. Every finished site looks the same or
similar. Anybody who has utilized that service got to pick from the same list of
templates and tools that you did. This results in a slew of similar-looking websites
and no way to truly stand out. In addition to the "cookie cutter" problem with these
services, customers often find that it is not so easy to create a web page even
with a set of pre-developed tools in front of them. Problems like slow loading images,
smooth flow of content, bandwidth, and even your domain name suddenly become issues.
Things you may never have thought of before suddenly cause problems and because
you were essentially the developer there is nobody to help and you are out a couple
hundred dollars.
Even if you can manage to live with the quirks of your new site
you will likely find that it just doesn't feel the same as those big websites do.
That's because, as I said before, web design is not an easy task. Web design is
the art of pleasing the eye and making visitors feel welcome and comfortable. If
you have ever been to a poorly designed website then you know what it's like to
try and sift through a mess of images, animations, and text that was never even
spell-checked. It's a painful experience. Don't be tricked into giving away your
hard-earned money for nothing.