I'm in Ontario and need a professional website designer. I'm picky based on their portfolio. However of those I have contacted so far no one want to take on the design of my website because it isn't a "business" website but rather a video game website. Where can I find a web designer with great skills who'll make the kind of website I want? Are web designers only willing to make business websites these day?
Maybe because it's all Flash or something? Video game sites often are. Or, maybe you're offering too little for the amount of work?? My guesses as I dunno what the design is. You could test this idea by asking for designs with exactly the same amount of work and a "business" name.
wow, that's a really nice website and great portfolio. Do you use templates or do you do custom web design as well? I'll be sending you an email for a free quote. thanks!
We do templates..you can buy some from our shop too. We do custom design too, it depends on what the customer wants. Template customization, special design etc...thanks
The main concern if you are approaching professional "western" companies will most likely be budget. Preparing quotes/ proposals etc are time consuming and you dont want to be paying a developer £35,000 a year to do nothing but quotes (and to be honest with the volume of proposed jobs out there we could probably hire 3 developers to do nothing but this). Companies are therefore selective on what they provide quotes for. For example if someone came to us and asked for a high graphics website we would decline to quote as we know our strengths are programming not graphic design and so are unlikely to win the job. When an individual approaches the first concern is that they have the means to actually pay for the work. Saying you have a budget of $X will help them to see up front if you are in the right ball park or not but still some will decline as any one could email us and say they have £100,000 for a custom work force management tool when they dont have two pennies to rub together.
You know it's not always about the money. I got a client once who wanted a sliced PSD which of course is like a pain when you have a lot of work to do. but...i've told him...yes sure give it to me and give me 10$!!!. From that day i earned about 2400$ from that guy and his friends..and he is still contacting me... I value the client relationship than the real money..that does not mean that i would write 1$ articles for years..no...but hope you see my point. I myself earn almost 2000$ for a shop in Europe but if you look on my site the special offer is 500$...and i've done shops for 200$ too..
Hence the "most likely" aspect. The average company is paying a designer circa £25,000 and whilst you can do a loss leader for someone the majority of the time when you get a direct contact a significant concern is.... to give a full quote including discussing requirements is going to cost my company £30 ($60) on average. What is the chance of my company actually getting the contract as if we don't it is $60 down the drain. Of cause some individuals are willing to pay full rates for a personal site but most are much more price sensitive
Just lookup freelancer sites on google, post your job and let anyone interested bid for your business - simple. I've used getafreelancer dot com before and haven't had a problem. And, did I mention its cheaper?
A lot of companies are picky. Often on a portfolio business sites will look much better than other sites, and a good relationship with businesses is often much better than a good relationship with someone producing sites which make money from advertising only. There is also the strengths/weaknesses that AstarothSolutions brought up, and a few other reasons why companies do this. Often for sites like yours the best option is to get a freelancer or a web design company which is just starting out.