• Do they have verifiable clients list or posted testimonials?
• Can you reach them when you need them after completing the site?
• If any legal or project delivery complications arise, can you hold them accountable?
• Can you verify them as a company/organization with state issued business license?
• If they are outsourcing company, will they provide free support for you, will they guarantee the code quality?
• Do they have free ongoing support?

These should be the first line of qualification verifications you need to check, before you even check their portfolio or designs. Because, if there is a red flag in any of the above points no matter how good graphics skills they have, your decision might not be the right one. Low price website designs are good, as a human we always tend to go that route, but I would strongly recommend comparing apples to apples by comparing your low cost quote with your other quotes to ensure you are getting the same quality deal. Finally, make sure there is always a formal proposal written and signed with the deliverables of your project.

It’s a combined effort between you and the company who developed your website. Most companies use opensource carts for e-commerce develpment to keep the initial development costs low. While that is good opensource carts are wide open to hackers as well. So how do you keep your site secure?

#1 Always make sure you have the recent version of cart installed, it will be easy to update it periodically versus every few years. As the configurations and tables might completely change and if you don’t upgrade for few years it might as well be same cost as developing a new site.
#2 Make sure all your files are properly secured, which means ensure none of the files have 777 as permission. Most of the carts work fine with 644 or 755.
#3 Make 444 as permission for your configuration or database files.
#5 Password protect your admin directory with directory protection from your web host.
#6 Install a contribution that blocks invalid IP, almost all opensource carts have this contribution to secure your files.

Web Hosting companies can secure all they can and want, but if the script is not secured, world’s best hosting company can’t protect your site.

In one word i would like to say “because we are awesome and create better websites”. But that’s not the right answer. Most of the time this question can be answered with a question. What do you want out of your website? i mostly hear one or few of this – unique, better than the “other” guys, better focused on search engines, you only have 5 seconds on average to impress your visitor. Now my question is does your template or DIY website meet or satisfy all the items on your list?, if the answer is yes you are probably better off with a template. But most of the time we hear some major items that do not meet your requirement or what you are looking for your website to do.

Custom website designers are not as exclusive or expensive as designer clothes but we can use that for a good comparision. Let’s face it, if all of us have an option between designer clothes and generic brand, we will go for the designer brand, why? we know they fit better, they feel better, they look posh,better personalized service, better quality. The custom website desgin service we offer is very similar, tailored for your business and your goals, 24/7 support to create/manage graphics or content, custom designed appeal, fresh new look different from all the “other guys” and a dedicated team to help you make the right call. All this without an expensive price tag.

Custom website pays off better than DIY websites, because your website will be up to date, not outdated, professionally designed and dont need to touch it for another 2 – 3 years.

What i learned from this experience:

1. Have your content ready. We all are busy and content is the last thing on the list, but i think this is the msot time consuming process and we need to have this done first.
2. Have a good idea of what stock images and graphics you like to use on the site.
3. Be ready to spend atleast few hours a day dedicated to review and provide feedback.
4. Delegate your work if you are busy. ( i hate deligation )
5. Don’t blame the designer for being slow, keep up the pace and he will be right there with you. You slow down he understands the project is not prioroity and jumps to another project. (But, i did warn him not to be slow because i am slow)