Buying Software Vs. Hiring Designer

[Slojozen]

Hey Guys,

I'm going to need to redesign my site to be more professional looking (microsoft publisher isn't cutting it). Right now I could either spend about 400 dollars hiring a designer to put up a template for me with dreamweaver and photoshop and putting my content in so it looks good.

On the other hand, I could just use my student discount and buy dreamweaver and photoshop for $515, as well as:

"Flash® Professional 8, Fireworks® 8, Contribute™ 3, and FlashPaper™ 2 software. Illustrator® CS2, InDesign® CS2, GoLive® CS2, and Acrobat® 7.0 Professional software with Version Cue® CS2, Adobe Bridge, and Adobe Stock Photos." Included in a bundle.

Now I admit I have little experience in web design and dont' know what most of those programs do, let alone how to use them. In the long run, would I be better off hiring a designer to do all that for me, or spending a little more initially on the software and learning it to develop it myself, using the templates which I can find on my own? Is this software that hard to learn? Thanks.

--Daniel

[JAmieF]

Hi Daniel

It is great to meet you. It sounds like you have been thinking things over. If you are like me and have to have the latest and greatest even if you do not know how to use it then I would go for your second option.

You need to also think about how much memory does your computer have because running multiple programs with photoshop sucks up a lot of memory? If computer is not that great then it is not worth buying all those programs.

[Julia]

I would personally opt for hiring someone myself because my tech expertise is pretty non-existant, however if you are willing to teach yourself I think it might be wise to invest in the software.

That way if you want to expand your marketing campaign and create a lot of different sites, you have the tools to do it yourself and you won't have to keep hiring someone each time you want a site redesign.

Good luck

[Linda Buquet]

Do you have Office? I would go with Front Page or Dream Weaver to start. That's all you need. Then buy a search optimized affiliate web site template from www.goldenpinecone.com. Maybe use a generic desgn like this. http://www.goldenpinecone.com/catalogue.php?exp=114|119|396|&cat=397
Going this way you would hardly need to do much web design, but would learn as you go so you could be self sufficient.

Paying someone else puts the power in their hands, if you never learn you will not be able to make your own changes. You won't be able to scale. In the beginning you wont earn any money so it won't be cost effective to pay someone. PLUS hiring a cheap web designer - well you get what you pay for.
Most web designers aren't good at SEO either so even if the site looks good you may not get any traffic which is the name of the game.

[webshack]

Yes, learn it yourself. Besides the fact that you'll have total control over your site, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you can do it without relying on software. Programs such as FrontPage also add 'proprietary' code to your pages that is totally unnecessary, and that slows down page loading time. You can learn all the basics of HTML (like I did) at:

http://www.webmonkey.com/

p.s.... by "learn it yourself", I mean in Notepad