Website Design Is Dead

[Justin Bilyj]

I will have to say that Gravity Forms is by far the best contact form available.
The form allows for tracking, emailing, and "smart" options.

 

[wilkin]

Is anyone familiar with the SmallBiz Theme offered by expand2web.com?

Experts...what do you think? Is this a legitimate way for a WP novice to get a site, optimized for local search, at a reasonable cost?

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

$97? why spend money on that one theme, for $125 you can get all of WooThemes themes for that price.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Premium WordPress Themes | Elegant Themes - all themes for $39.

 

[wilkin]

$97? why spend money on that one theme, for $125 you can get all of WooThemes themes for that price.

I guess because they say they make it easy to customize and tailor to local search, etc.

Is customizing a WooTheme pretty easy to learn how to do?

 

[Justin Bilyj]

You can find all the themes for download for studio press at BHW

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

Justin, these people have issues with "freebies"

 

[wilkin]

You can find all the themes for download for studio press at BHW

Sorry for sounding ignorant, but what is BHW?

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

here you go: Black Hat Forum Black Hat SEO

 

[ltcadviser]

Yes...it is. It's dead. It just hasn't been buried yet. Before I get blasted too hard, there's always going to be web design when what you're looking for is very unique and requires a lot of customization. That would not be anything relating to this industry, however.

I can't go a few days without an angry email or call that all goes something like this; "3 weeks ago I paid a designer $800 and *&%$@#!!!!!" This is not towards anyone on this board - just general website designers agents find on the web.

If you need an agent, agency or quote site, you do not need a web designer. You need to simply find a nice Wordpress theme and either set it up or pay someone a minimal amount of money to set it up.

There are so many issues with traditional web design I don't even know where to begin:

*Typically have to pay the entire amount in advance
*Obviously can't see the final project until it's done
*Typically you cannot make changes on your own which means you bleed more money and are on your webmaster's time frame to get anything updated. You can make simple and quick changes in Wordpress in minutes.
*Website design takes days to weeks. You can get a WP theme set up in hours.
*Wordpress plugins. I don't know what to say except they rock and can perform functionality almost no webmaster can create - contact forms, autoresponders, SEO packages, etc...

There are a lot of theme sites:
WPZOOM â€" Premium WordPress Themes, Best WordPress Themes
Premium Wordpress Themes | Templatic - WordPress CMS Themes
WooThemes | Premium WordPress Themes
Premium WordPress Themes | Elegant Themes

Pick a template. They're sharp looking - sharper looking than anything most web "designers" can put together. Your website is your store front. It says everything about your business. It either says "low class and no money" or it says "wow, GREAT looking site."

I speak to people with really bad looking sites all the time and they claim they convert nicely. Define that. So if your site was better looking wouldn't you convert more? They can't answer that since they're unwilling to test it. You like 15 leads a day? Ok, then how about 30 leads a day with a sharper site?

If anyone tells you that your site's appearance doesn't matter...ummm, well, ok. I'd like to hear that explained. It matters. This is all relevant since getting a very sharp looking website in the past typically meant forking over a lot of dough. Now it's clicking "buy now" for a $30 theme.

The nice thing about picking a WP theme is - there it is. There's the end product. Yes, it has to be configured properly with content added. You would be able to farm that out for around $100 flat. Maybe less.

I respectfully disagree. I paid $13500 to a web designer. Initial quote was $9000 but i went over budget. Website generated $20,000 in first 30 days. You get what you pay for in life, sometimes.