Consider This Before Getting a Custom Blog Design
Today I’ve received an email that made me think about this subject. Somebody asked me to confirm that a design agency that I’ve never heard of before, has done the design you see on Blogsessive. Obviously, I replied and told him that Blogsessive is a custom design done by yours truly, and any agency (with one exception) that would proud themselves with Blogsessive’s theme would be a fraud.
After hearing the price for which that agency was going to create something similar, the following thoughts started taking shape:
- Why would you proud yourself with the work of someone else?
- Why think these things would not surface?
- Why roll out a low-ball quote for something that’s worth much more, or that you cannot deliver, but still state you can.
Before getting a custom design for you blog, here are some things you should consider.
Do you really need it?
You know my view on this one. I personally like having a unique looking blog, but than again, I’m a happy case. I can do my own designs.
Those who cannot have to relay on the skills of people like me and many others. In this case, there are some things you should base your decision on:
- Can your budget afford a custom design?
- Will this design generate profit? (Profit can be either traffic, awareness, money…)
If your answer is ‘yes’ to both questions, than you should go ahead with the design. If you answer with ‘yes’ to the first question only, then it’s only a matter of personal choice and willingness to invest in a hobby. The choice is obviously yours.
Looking for quotes
If you’ve decided to go ahead with the design, make sure you write down all the things you need. Otherwise, the quotes you’ll receive won’t reflect the reality.
Ask around for quotes on site like Elance, Get a Freelancer or Rent a Coder or simply contact the owners of the blog’s that you like and ask them to recommend you their designer.
Choosing the designer/agency
You’ll probably receive quite a bunch of quotes. Some will be very low, some will be too high. The ones that are too high will be pretty easy to identify, but the lower ones can be pretty attractive, considering the restrictive budgets these days.
The best advice I can give you is: Don’t be fooled!
From my whole experience I can guarantee you that there’s no such thing as a bargain when it comes to a job well done.
We all know that – for example – Darren Rowse’s blog, Problogger.net is an excellent design incorporating so many custom areas, like the Job Board, custom archives, best of zone and so on.
If Darren’s blog is such a hit, then you’d probably want something similar in terms of structure and accessibility (bare in mind the design is not everything and Darren is a great blogger, theme aside). Would you expect to get such a well done job for $300, or $400, or $500? Ask a real pro and the answer will be ‘no’. But then again, there are those people quoting these amounts, claiming they can get the job done.
The good: It fits your current budget.
The bad: Lack of professionalism in communication. Delays in delivery. Lack of attention to details. Bugs, and the list can go on and on.
Some of you would probably say I’m wrong, but consider this. A really well done premium theme sells for $49 to $99. Multiply this with the total sales and see the real price of that really well done design.
Fitting the project into your budget
Forget the bargain, start the negotiation. At this point you probably don’t even need all the features that Darren (Problogger.net), or Brian (Copyblogger.com), or I have on our blogs.
Does your traffic and exposure justify a job board? Do you really need so many custom page templates?
Instead of trying to fit everything into a tight budget and probably getting low-quality works, why not fit the custom concept along with the most important features into it. Negotiate.
Let’s say your budget is indeed $500, but a good agency will ask you for $800. Instead of picking the lowest quote, rather extend the deadline. Taking pressure off the agency could result in a lower quote.
Cut down on the features. Will also reduce costs.
I assure you that you blog will grow naturally even without that job board, and when the time is right and the blogging income will allow it, add that too. Take it step by step and don’t cut on the overall quality.
Rather put a smaller budget at work to get real results and build on that, than throwing your money out the window on something that will require constant fixing and attention and in the end, a whole lot of extra money to get done.
This is not the view of a designer. This is what I’ve concluded based on previous experiences, folks coming to me to fix work they previously had done as bargains. It’s not worth it.
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I get plenty of customers who had their original site done by a cheapo fly-by-night and now they understand the value of having a pro do it right from the get go. As my last customer put it, “If it sounds too good to be true…”
Alex,
As far as pricing, I disagree with the comment that there is no such thing as a bargain with a job well done.
On the contrary, I like to think MNP Hoppal does a great job with web design, and our base price is $*** for the most basic, with copywriting, SEO, link building, and logo design adding to the cost. I can afford to do this on such a low charge because our rent is really low and it only takes a couple days for me to complete a static website as all I do is install my own pre-built content management system and customize it if necessary.
Mind you if a designer is from San Francisco, or New York, or anywhere else where living costs are higher, you won’t find such a great deal, but seeing as I only pay $450 + food per month, I don’t really need to charge more.
Michael, sorry for censoring the price, but I do not want to turn this topic into an advertising spot.
Everyone prices himself however he wants. I too have a lower base price with QBKL, but that’s out of 2 reasons:
1. Life in Romania is a bit cheaper;
2. It doesn’t even put at use half of my skills.
But when someone sells you the “all-in-one” package for $500 – as an example – that I don’t buy.
Copywriting? Logo? SEO, Link-building, attention to details, fit that into the hours behind $500 and after, answer me 2 questions:
1. Can you still deliver the best you can do at this price?
2. How good is the best you can do, generally speaking?
There’s never a bargain, because with well done design jobs it’s not about the price and how many things you can fit into it. It’s about how well done are those that really fit into the price.
First, sorry for putting the price placement in there — didn’t even think before doing it.
Now, the best work I can deliver usually depends on two things: How I’m feeling that day, and how the client is limiting me. For example, if they demand a flash website, I frankly won’t do it. If they hate my designs but love something short of aesthetically pleasing, then I fail to do my best work, as I have to please them first and myself last.
The all-in-one package shouldn’t be bought, and this is why I use a sliding scale for how much I charge. I refuse to do a website for $500 flat; no more, no less simply because it’s overpriced for some websites and far under-priced for others. Things like this have to be adjusted according to work done and skills necessary.
I guess I simply go for such a low price because I can afford to and because I feel like I’m ripping off people by using skills I learned two weeks into learning PHP to build their entire sites. I think we’re pretty much in agreement here.
So to sum it up, flat-rate: bad. Adjusting rate: good.
Well, I’ll surely contradict on this point. Sorry Alex
I know we’ve been a pain for you already 
Well, there are lot of things involved in pricing and choosing the right person. I live in India and it becomes way to much easier for me to deliver a similar job at lesser price as compared to someone living in US or UK.
What do you have to say about that?
Mayank, we’ve discussed this topic in private before and you know my views. This post was generated by a quote that someone received. The quote was for basically re-doing the ProBlogger blog structure (just in another design) in $500.
I still think that anyone doing something like that for $500 will not provide the same quality, be it from India, Pakistan, Romania, England, US or any other country for that matter.
As said before, living in Romania has its advantages too in terms of pricing. But there are other reason too for not lowering the price that much. Among them:
1. Fair competition;
2. Level of experience and quality;
3. Respect for myself and the years spent investing in my education.
Out of respect for the quality work that YOU do, I really don’t want to get into the topic of previous experiences with Indian freelancers, and I really don’t want to generalize, so I will not approach this matter. Hope you understand.
Alex, this is great advice which can apply to any product or service. As a writer, I have seen the same things happen to clients. It is important to be realistic about your budget and not be taken in by promises that seem to good to be true. If you can’t afford what you really want, a stepped approach is a great way to go and a motivator for earning the income to be able to reinvest in your business. I think sometimes people are swayed by the bargain (which is not a fair price but one that is much lower than the market) without stopping to think of what they are really getting for that price.
You have great advice. Anybody could apply these. Thanks for being a big help to us.
My blogging budget was about $20…thankfully it went pretty far with elegant themes
I would love a custom design for every single site, but the thousands it would cost (i have many sites) would be pretty expensive…maybe someday i will learn to do it on my own, i’ve been getting better little by little with css and such!
Yes. I agree. Great advices… hope I will buy my new custom design soon.
Regards!
There are a lot of free WordPress templates out there wich yu can choose from. The designer gets benefit from the 100′s of backlinks he gets and you get the template. As easy as 1,2,3.
Chelle, premium themes are currently an acceptable compromise between price, quality and originality. They at least insure a better quality and less users than the free themes.
regalos originales Free themes are used by thousands of bloggers. They will not help you too much in developing a brand around you or your blog, if that’s what you’re looking for, and basically, that is the topic of this post. Otherwise, why would you want a custom design?
I’m not – by any means – a blog designer – but I’ll offer a comparison from the two main periods of my professional life: as a private investigator, and as an attorney.
- some people, young and hungry, price too low and get hurt. They learn, or they fail. It’s hard for many people to ask for money. In legal and investigative work – it’s sometimes very difficult to estimate cost. Two examples: a missing-persons case I resolved in under five minutes; a ring of thieves stealing entire truckloads of a famous consumer product. The drivers were taking turns, and stealing every tenth load, more or less. Hundreds of trucks; millions of dollars stolen. Bill for case 1: Zero – for a friend. Bill for case 2: $250K USD or more.
But – since the field is filled with mystique, and subcontracting – another firm might have done the same quality job for half that. The firm I worked for was known as fancy, expensive, and effective. And our presentation skills were among the best among firms in NY.
So “market price” – it’s complicated.
Second point – some excellent “custom” sites are a bybrid of a template – free or paid – and some tweaking, coding, and graphic design.
Since I’m a nonprofit – budget being an issue – I’ve split the difference. I mostly use Thesis (Chris Pearson) or Ian Stewart’s ThemeShaper and child themes. But I’d be really happy if I could afford to pay a designer to critique what I’ve done – and to design a logo. And the occasional information graphic.
I think it’s a big, complicated, fluid market. And one of the reasons I use a paid theme (and I’ve paid for several I havent used) is that I want theme designers to be able to eat – even if I can’t afford to hire them exclusively. So Chris Pearson – whose Thesis platform has been the basis for many brilliant customizations – has had one or two meals on me. Better that than NO meals from me. Also why I donate for plugins and the like – I wish I could do it for every plugin i use.
On the other hand – if someone gave me a good logo on spec, or for free – for moral reasons, I’d have to pay them eventually.
Sorry for the long response. I hope it adds something to the conversation.
Jon Soroko
For anyone that thinks design is more important than content. I suggest you checkout thegaryhalbertletter.com its all black text on a yellow background but see the traffic stats for that site.
Some people might argue that he has some nice- looking post cards on it but even if they are just posted as hyperlinks I bet there won’t be much difference in traffic.
Jonathan, no need to be sorry for the long comment. It’s really appreciated as it is a good display of how market prices can vary under many circumstances. It’s been know for a long time now that people and agencies are not only selling their work, but also their brand, their image.
Better images are built in many years, through many projects which add up to the experience. Quality, experience, brand, result, they are all related and reflect themselves in the price.
I consider it a “risk reduction” cost.
Mano, I am designer. I’ve been a designer for so long. It’s impossible for me to say that content is much more important than presentation. At the same time, I cannot state that design is more important than content, because it is not.
The website you mentioned, from where I stand, couldn’t keep me on it for more than a second. And you wanna know why? Because I’ve never been able to see as advisers those that cannot do the whole makeup for themselves first.
It’s like going to a delusional psychotherapist.
I love content. I love even less “thoughtful” content, as long as it is “charming”.
Thank you so much for this post. I have a lot to think about and so will my friends. Custom designs will make a site different but we must have the right resources and ideas.