Have you contracted for web design services or do you do that yourself?

[MichaelCorfman]

New GPWA member Messi started a thread earlier today titled Build a site yourself or hire a designer?

Having learned some basic HTML and CSS, I concluded that my time would be better spent researching affiliate programmes, learning about SEO, PPC and Social Media Marketing instead of trying to design my own site which somebody else could do a lot better.

In the end I hired somebody to set my site up on wordpress so that I could easily manage/add content.

I'm just curious as to who designs their own sites and who hires designers?

I thought the question was a good one, deserving of being our poll question of the week.

Besides answering the poll question, please share your experiences, either hiring others, or doing design work yourself. And do you do the same thing today that you did in the beginning?

Michael

[AusSi]

I think the more important question to ask is how much click tracking, a/b or multi variate testing is everyone doing?

Maybe its just me but, I do a lot of competitor research so am constantly looking at other online gaming sites, I have to say that my personal opinion is that these sites are all atrociously design from a conversion perspective, which could in part be due to an overwhelming amount of people doing their own design work (at the time of writing this post anyway).

[Messi]

Earlier the poll was 70% at "never" which suprised me, but now that there are more votes (and it will be interesting to see where things end up) things are around where I expected them to be i.e; around 50% just do their own and the remaining portion split between doing some stuff on their own but contractng other tasks out.

I don't know how "pro's" find things but from someone who only knows the nuts and bolts and has no intention of becoming a professional web designer (famous last words) I find building websites quite time intensive. Hiring a professional to help you out can save a lot of time.

[jondow]

I do my own as its what I do for a living (my day job). I have used external contractors before though from the likes of scriptlance and similar sites. I've generally had good experiences but have found that requirements need to be set out very clearly with with nothing left to the contractors imagination as gaps in the specification can often lead to gaps in the final product.

[usaonlinecasino]

We do it by ourselves in stead of using external web designers.

[laffit]

I'm not the greatest web designer, but it keeps me in the learning process - which is part of the fun. I know everything about the sites which helps me determine what works (clicks, conversions, traffic, etc...) and what's a waste of time.

I tried outsourcing some PHP work a couple years ago and it didn't turn out well. It took more time than I expected to "interview," hire and explained the project, not to mention the expense. And... I was never happy with the result. Maybe I went about it wrong, but I was disappointed.

[thepogg]

This is a topic that's really been on my mind a lot recently and i think i'm going to end up hiring in a pro to redesign my site. As proud as i am of all the work i've done, there are still too many things that i'm not sure how to implement and the result never looks quite as crisp as i would like.

ThePOGG

[baldidiot]

I get logos and graphics designed, but everything else I do myself (for better or worse!). My speciality is taking a decent looking template and then butchering it beyond all recognition

[thepogg]

I get logos and graphics designed, but everything else I do myself (for better or worse!). My speciality is taking a decent looking template and then butchering it beyond all recognition

I'm banned from touching CSS on my template by my web host (a friend) as i made such a mess of it the last time it took him two full days to sort it out.

ThePOGG

[jncnet]

I work very hard but I can say that I have so much pleasure to see in the end of my work the very good results. Take a look if you want at Jogar no Comunidades and Eu Ganhei no Comunidades.

[MichaelCorfman]

I think the more important question to ask is how much click tracking, a/b or multi variate testing is everyone doing?

I agree that is a good question. In fact, I've previously done a poll on a/b testing. You can see the poll and responses here:

Do you do A/B testing on your affiliate sites?

Michael

[michael1981]

I always do one of two things:

1) I find a free gambling template on the Internet
2) I hire a professional web designer

I'm not very good at designing or creating websites, so I generally don't bother In the beginning, I used royalty free html templates that I bought as a package lol Even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was pretty happy with how my first website turned out

[Messi]

I always do one of two things:

1) I find a free gambling template on the Internet
2) I hire a professional web designer

I'm not very good at designing or creating websites, so I generally don't bother In the beginning, I used royalty free html templates that I bought as a package lol Even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was pretty happy with how my first website turned out

This one is really cool I think; http://www.gamblingonline.net/

Do you have someone to do your graphics?

[CCJ]

Hi All,

Great and timely topic for me. We're curious what is better XHTML or HTML5?

I'm voting "yes" to contracting out web design because I don't have the time. I used to do my own when I did have the time, but not now.

Finding the right designer is extremely hard to do. I wish the designers would tell me what to do, not me trying to tell them what to do!

Thanks,

[michael1981]

This one is really cool I think; http://www.gamblingonline.net/

Do you have someone to do your graphics?

Thank you I got that template from gamblingtemplates.net. I sometimes use royalty-free gambling images from fotolia, but that's not very often.

[the strategist]

I'm not very good at designing оr creating websites, but I do everything myself -web disign,CEO and articles.

[Jay_v]

I do all my work. If I am stuck on anything I try my best to get it done my self or hire a freelancer for it.

I think it's best to let somone else to do it if you don't have the correct skills. They will do better job then you. That gives you more time to concentrate on what you are good at, time consuming for sure.

[ocreditor]

We do our design in house. Sometimes we partner with affiliate programs to design special landing pages - those are the only instances in which we "source" it, in a way.

[UltimatePokerBonus]

I have never contracted out any design work. I have thought about it but usually just hit the forums if I need something explained on how to do it.