Feedback on Design

[bjett92]

After nine years of web design as a hobby, I want to try to start a small business doing it. Any feedback on the design and anybody know roughly what I could charge for a website like this?

I'm going to show my works on the iMac monitor.

Thanks.

 

[AFPoster]

After nine years of web design as a hobby, I want to try to start a small business doing it. Any feedback on the design and anybody know roughly what I could charge for a website like this?

I'm going to show my works on the iMac monitor.

Thanks.

Is this your site: http://brianjettdesign.com? And are you currently updating it to the image you attached?

Site looks great, however, non of the images under About & Portfolio work. Also your contact form under Quote the submit button isn't centered. I would also bring out a lighter gray color to make it look like a button.

Make your text on the home page have shadows using CSS. Let me know if you need this code, it will spruce it up a bit.
No buttons work that take you to additional pages, and your Contact.html page doesn't exist.

As for pricing to build sites for others it's hard to say. I'm currently in the market in hiring a web designer / dev and at the same time I'm teaching myself to avoid paying high prices so this is what I look for and the price I would say you should ball park:

Site Done In:
HTML5, CSS3 & JQuery - dynamic, with the ability for the purchasee to upload content on their own using an FTP or admin page log-in. (me personally I prefer the whole site to be hard-coded using a Text-Editor (Coda, TextMate, BBEdit) I wouldn't pay more than $1,500.

In saying that it doesn't mean you can't get more, you just need to establish yourself in the marketplace and have a great portfolio with a wide variety of site creations.

It also wouldn't hurt to do a pro-bono with someone who can market you to thousands of people...like me,
What tools are you currently using?

 

[bjett92]

Is this your site: http://brianjettdesign.com? And are you currently updating it to the image you attached?

Site looks great, however, non of the images under About & Portfolio work. Also your contact form under Quote the submit button isn't centered. I would also bring out a lighter gray color to make it look like a button.

Make your text on the home page have shadows using CSS. Let me know if you need this code, it will spruce it up a bit.
No buttons work that take you to additional pages, and your Contact.html page doesn't exist.

Yes, that is my current design. It isn't meant to be public yet, so i know there are a ton of not working links. I got that design done then scrapped it for the new one that I just finished. Thanks for the tips though!

As for pricing to build sites for others it's hard to say. I'm currently in the market in hiring a web designer / dev and at the same time I'm teaching myself to avoid paying high prices so this is what I look for and the price I would say you should ball park:

Site Done In:
HTML5, CSS3 & JQuery - dynamic, with the ability for the purchasee to upload content on their own using an FTP or admin page log-in. (me personally I prefer the whole site to be hard-coded using a Text-Editor (Coda, TextMate, BBEdit) I wouldn't pay more than $1,500.

In saying that it doesn't mean you can't get more, you just need to establish yourself in the marketplace and have a great portfolio with a wide variety of site creations.

It also wouldn't hurt to do a pro-bono with someone who can market you to thousands of people...like me,
What tools are you currently using?

Thanks for the tips on pricing, let me know if you are interested in maybe working something out!

I'm currently using Photoshop CS6 for the design work and Espresso for all of the coding.

 

[AFPoster]

Just shot you a PM.

 

[fig]

Site Done In:
HTML5, CSS3 & JQuery - dynamic, with the ability for the purchasee to upload content on their own using an FTP or admin page log-in. (me personally I prefer the whole site to be hard-coded using a Text-Editor (Coda, TextMate, BBEdit) I wouldn't pay more than $1,500.

In saying that it doesn't mean you can't get more, you just need to establish yourself in the marketplace and have a great portfolio with a wide variety of site creations.

It also wouldn't hurt to do a pro-bono with someone who can market you to thousands of people...like me,
What tools are you currently using?

I've had a client ask me what I'm coding in maybe once. Other than a few requests for Wordpress or another CMS 99% of clients won't know nor care what you're using.

As per the work in your portfolio, while it's beneficial I've learned that most work I get isn't because of the work I've done or because they liked something about me...it's because I'm the designer they know or got put in touch with. If you've got ridiculously good work or get a particular piece highly publicized then you can get some conversations started because of that (I've gotten lots of e-mails about one particular piece I designed that's made it onto a lot of gallery sites) but to most people a designer is a designer.

And no offense, but if I had a dollar for every person that said "I can't pay you but do this and I'll get you more work because of whatever" I'd have more money than I ever made off any of those projects.

 

[AFPoster]

I've had a client ask me what I'm coding in maybe once. Other than a few requests for Wordpress or another CMS 99% of clients won't know nor care what you're using.

As per the work in your portfolio, while it's beneficial I've learned that most work I get isn't because of the work I've done or because they liked something about me...it's because I'm the designer they know or got put in touch with. If you've got ridiculously good work or get a particular piece highly publicized then you can get some conversations started because of that (I've gotten lots of e-mails about one particular piece I designed that's made it onto a lot of gallery sites) but to most people a designer is a designer.

And no offense, but if I had a dollar for every person that said "I can't pay you but do this and I'll get you more work because of whatever" I'd have more money than I ever made off any of those projects.

Good points, most of the designers / developers I've hired have been from networking, same with my contacts.

As to the no offense we can definitely pay, but when I reference people to you I'd expect to get a piece of the pie. That's when I work out a deal that if I bring 20 clients, just wave a fee or however it may be.

 

[fig]

As to the no offense we can definitely pay, but when I reference people to you I'd expect to get a piece of the pie. That's when I work out a deal that if I bring 20 clients, just wave a fee or however it may be.

I hear ya, I'm just used to people who would claim I'd gain widespread recognition for designing their logo or website.

I've started asking people like that who designed the logos for Nike, Target, or Apple. After they're unable to answer I give them a quote and they usually go try to find someone else

 

[AFPoster]

I hear ya, I'm just used to people who would claim I'd gain widespread recognition for designing their logo or website.

I've started asking people like that who designed the logos for Nike, Target, or Apple. After they're unable to answer I give them a quote and they usually go try to find someone else

Haha smart. The last guy I used was a freelance designer who constantly hooked up my site from the referrals I had for him, unfortunately he took a great job so I lost that little connection. Since this has been a passion of mine for years I've decided to pick it up I just don't have the time I would like to have to dedicated to learning.

 

[tn9design]

Looks great. I think i'd like to see the top nav and footer spread out a bit more so it stays a bit closer to the content's edge/grid. (see attached image)