Help Wanted

[dsimon]

HI all

I think I have gotten to the point where I am thinking of using a consultant for help.
Anyone have anyone they would recommend?
Any idea what people are charging for help?
I am mostly looking to make the pages more "mine" not out of the box.
I have been working with the banners and such but when I look at some of the other peoples web sites mine looks so stock

Any help would be great

Thanks

Dave

www.thecoinopshopinc.com
v150

[RodG]

HI all
I think I have gotten to the point where I am thinking of using a consultant for help.

Hopefully this means that you are so busy handling sales that you don't have any time left to manage your store? :)

Anyone have anyone they would recommend?

For lots of good reasons, posting recommendations such as this is forbidden in these forums.

Any idea what people are charging for help?

Costs can vary wildly.

I am mostly looking to make the pages more "mine" not out of the box.
I have been working with the banners and such but when I look at some of the other peoples web sites mine looks so stock

You don't really need a consultant, you need a graphics designer.

This is good news for you, because designers a a dime a dozen, but consultants (those of us that work with the core code and/or additional functionality tend to be a rarer breed and as such charge more).

This is not intended as any disrespect to all the graphics designers out there, because personally I admire your skills, I'll never come close to matching what many of you do.

As for you Dave, armed with this knowledge don't limit yourself to ZenCarters to make your site look good, a good graphic designer will be equally at ease making any site look good, regardless of the ecommerce system being used.

A handy tip. Check the 'designed by' links at the bottom of most websites that you like the look of and approach them directly via said links. This way you'll know what they are capable off before discussing costs.

Cheers
Rod

[davowave]

Yeah your site does look very out of the box! It doesn't look like you changed much other than adding your products.

Costs wise, it depends on exactly what you want done. If it's just graphics to make things look nicer then you can spend anything from a few dollars up to a few hundred. Basically you get what you pay for. You need to be careful if you're looking to get a bargain, there are lots of designers out there who will quote you a wide variety of prices and some will be attractively low, but in my experience that's because the designer is from a 'poorer' country or not sufficiently skilled.

From experience I'd say you'll need to spend $400-600 for a good custom design job. The alternative is to find a template site and buy one for a lot cheaper - but it won't be unique and you also need to get a logo sorted.

[afo]

Have you checked out the free templates at http://(sorry, site offline)/. One of them may give you a jump start on what you want to do.