Actinic designers

[erix]

Hi,

Im thinking of giving up creating the site myself - I've had a look at some of the actinic sites around and they look fantastic. I'm seriously thinking of gettting our site developed professionally.

Has anyone gone this route too? And can anyone reccomend a good affordable designer?

Any comments would greatly be appreciated,

thanks

Erika

[Bruce]

Erika,

I have moved this thread as it does not deal with an issue in Actinic. You will get a better response here.

Kind regards,

[chris ashdown]

Erika

Dont loose heart keep on going you are nearly there, Although there are many great designers here who will do it for you, in the long run you are much better doing it yourself

I would suggest keeping it simple with a basic theme like smart to start with, fill in all your products and data to get up and running and then join the rest of us in a constant tweak every day or so

The site does not have to be Great just easily usable by your potential customers and present a clean image of your company

Give it a few more weeks and then if no further on give the designers a ring

[Legends]

Hi Erika

We are currently undergoing a redesign and I am hopeful that it will bear fruit in terms of being a unique and interesting site together with increasing customer confidence in our professionalism and thus improve our conversion rate.

I have spent more than 2 years tweaking our site and have got it to a stage where I am not able to take it further, our designer has produce a provisional site in one week and it is streets ahead of anything I could do given years - I am not too creative.

I would first establish that you have a business model that is worth the investment (good design work does not come cheap) - but I certainly would consider a redesign as essential to any growing company that wants to improve its web crediblity.

Now that said, Chris is right - if you can do it yourself then great, but if you are like me and do not have the design/creative ability then look round at sites you admire and if you can acheive that level design yourself then go to it.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[pinbrook]

you may find this thread an interesting read...

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...ghlight=design

[erix]

Hi all thanks for all the input -

Chris - thank you - you have renewed my inspiration. I'll give it a little more time.

Ian, did you design Legends as it stands? It looks good to me!

Jo - thanks - I did see the thread - and to be honest thats what has been putting me off. The pure actinic example seems good enough for my needs.

I think that I will persist a little more - and I guess its time to really read the user handbooks...

Guess that means I'll still be posting lots of noob questions on the noticeboard...

Here I go diving in again...

[Legends]

[QUOTE=erix]
Ian, did you design Legends as it stands? It looks good to me!

[QUOTE]

Hi Erika

Yes thats my effort to date - took about 2 years of constant tweaking but I find it limited by my lack of programming knowledge and design flair.

When my new site goes live - you will see the difference.

Good luck with yours

[george]

When my new site goes live - you will see the difference.

C'mon Ian, you know we need a cheeky wee preview now....

[Legends]

C'mon Ian, you know we need a cheeky wee preview now....

Would love to George - but I only have jpeg mockups at the moment - so you are going to have to wait a wee while till something more concrete is available.

cheers

[acompton]

Erika,

I can understand your position. I spent about two months and acheived a design I'm quite pleased with, but it lacks that real design flair. I has gotten me started, and I get favourable comments on useability. I'm planning to look at a redesign when funds allow it.

Alan
www.greenknightgames.co.uk
Great board games and cards games you won't find in the High Street

[erix]

Thanks guys - morale boosted a little now

btw Alan, have to say I liked the games on your site. What a great idea for a niche market - nice one.

[george]

Would love to George - but I only have jpeg mockups at the moment - so you are going to have to wait a wee while till something more concrete is available.

cheers

One always wonders the cost if such an upgrade, both in finance and in search engine placings (hopefully better eventually). Mind you it maybe is a good time of year to redesign I imagine, with any text/listings settling down again in plenty time for your busy Christmas period.

[acompton]

Erica,

Thanks for the morale massage, too. I never thought of myself as in a niche market as there are dozens of game shops. My tagline has worked well on PPC even though I don't display it on the website.

If its any help, my starting the shop has been largely inspired by a friend who started one about 2.5 years ago (not Actinic). He's not in a particularly large market, and has competition. He hasn't got a 'designer' website and didn't put much effort into SEO, but his shop has been a success story with business growing steadily. He now has a part-time employee and is thinking about proper premises.

Alan

[Legends]

George

you are absolutely right - this is exactly the time to do the redesign (our quietest time). However you try to combat loosing ranking on the search engines (redirects etc) it is bound to have some effect but everything should be sorted in say 2 to 3 months (crossed all my fingers, some toes and most "other things"), I started considering the redesign mid last year but decided it had to be completed and in place before mid year to make sure Christmas had a clear run - hence we have left it till now to get going.

As to the financial cost - well good design does cost but we expect to recoop the cost, via improved conversion rates, in one year.