Web Design Company
Friday, February 18th, 2011As the national economy has faltered over the past five years, small businesses have been forced to bring a lot of work that used to be contracted back in house. For businesses in this situation, deciding what work can actually be done by staff and what work still needs to be outsourced is a real challenge. The last thing any company wants is a less than professional looking web site.
Fortunately, there are a number of easy to learn web design software suites and online tutorials that can help make your web site look as if it was produced by a professional web design company.
When it comes to off the shelf web design applications, Adobe Dreamweaver is both one of the best known, and the best on the market. Dreamweaver is priced at around $350 and required no previous knowledge of HTML or other programming languages. Using Dreamweaver an HTML novice can put up a basic site can be created in just a couple of days. One of the nice features of this software suite is its use of templates to make updating and maintaining a site very easy.
Another option for site and blog publishing that won’t cost your company anything is WordPress. WordPress is an open source software project that is constantly being improved and updated. All a new user really needs to get started is a web host that supports WordPress. Beyond that, users can stick with the basic set up, or customize the software as much as they need to meet their own needs.
The WordPress user base currently numbers in the hundreds of thousands including everyone from a professional web design companies to the Gawker family of blogs. This is a great option for companies that want to revamp their current sites, without spending a lot of money.
If your company does need to call in an IT professional, consider hiring a freelancer rather than going with a larger firm. Ask friends and families for recommendations and be sure to look at the person’s portfolio before working with them. Most freelancers charge a lot less than the big firms and, usually, provide more personal service.
Doing your own IT work in house is challenging and should only be handled by people at your company that actually want to the work. But if you’ve got an eye for detail and an interest in technology creating your own web site is a great way to cut expenses.