Billyboard Marketing

Practice and a lot of patience! Apart from that there are all kinds of things to consider, and I’m no expert.
 
Speaking as a beginner, taking a look at the relevant competition is always a good start for me. And get yourself Photoshop if you can, it's the nuts.
 
Being a long-suffering web surfer more than developer, its clean lines and concise content with the right amount of well produced graphics and a good colour scheme that I generally look for. The site has to work well and have a good navigation system, navigation is key in my eyes.
 
When it comes to layout there's all kinds of ways you can do it. From my experience there tends to be some 'best practice' type guidelines I try to stick to.

Site/company logo in top left above everything else
tagline introducing people to what the site/company is and can offer (nothing too wordy). Relevant pics work well.
A search box near the top
A well thought-out navigation system with clearly defined hierarchy (sections>sub-sections>etc). Tabs are a tried and tested method and work really well.
Clean graphics, they don't have to be web 2.0 super shiny and colourful, just clean.
A colour scheme that’s works with the type of content and target audience. I like using a triad scheme.
Nothing too fancy like flash etc unless absolutely necessary
Keep it easy to use and obvious what does what
And I never thought I would say this but adverts. They don't have to be external ads but rather ad style graphics promoting things within the site that people may be interested in. It kind of gives a feeling of the site being established and 'in use'.
 

 
Of course, this is just my opinion and it depends largely on the type of site, content and audience you would be designing for.

Don't be such a **** yeah? You come here asking for OUR opinions and we give them, and get slated for doing it?
 
Maybe you should **** off to that other forum, you arrogant little rat...

I've seen a lot of posts here, where people are asking for scripts and such.
 
Take a look at http://hotscripts.com, they have pretty much every script you could imagine, some free and some are at a cost.
 
Hope this helps!

are you's taking the p*** saying that little?

There is going to be an external booking engine added but i wont be building it. if thats all you cost for a 5/6 page website your serioulsy under quoting yourself or else your designs are the greatest! how long would it take u to build from scratch? cos if all you charge if 300 pound for a site u would want to have it designed and built in a couple of days max! i quoted myself €1000 for this site and i know for a fact that if i was to go web design compnay and asked them to quote for a 6 page brochure site they would charge from 1500 onwards! i suppose it all depends on how much you think ur designs are worth

thats more like it! i was getting worried with the first replies of 250! i would never do a site for 250 even if it only had 2 pages! it wouldnt be worth my while. i do these jobs on the side as i already have a full time job so its good to get extra cash. i was a little suprised to see so many low prices to begin with, thats the problem with designers, especially around this site, there are too many people churning out low end designs and asking for any kind of money for it, i see it too frequently around here, people calling themselves webdesigners and then struggle to even design a half decent portfolio website for themselves.

there is soemthing very wrong if u reckon u could design that site and code it in 10 hours and your setill only charging 25 per hour? ur wastin a serious talent there if ur tellin the truth. can i have a look at some of you other sites that you have designed? a link to your portfolio? i wanna see your other work that you are doing for such a low cost, cheers

[reference to external sites removed by request of the site owner]
 
 
nah, i dont believe u could design and code that site in 10 hours judging by them sites. sorry. are they the only 2 sites u have designed?

ah god. im not gonna get into this. ur design skills dont look up to much so if u think u could design my site in 10 hours all i can say is fair enough. maybe u could code a couple of pages in 10 hours but u wouldnt be able to design it

i just think ur talkin crap sayin that u could design and code that in 10 hours. thats all. i have asked on a another design forum (which has a much higher standard of design as this place) and they have replied with sayin u should be asking for as much as €3000 for such a site. "A €450 designer probably doesn't know what he/she is doing, probably using a WYSIWYG editor, no thought about things like usability, accessability or findability. i suppose you usually get what you pay for (or in a lot of cases, less)"

I tell you what's hilarious, big headed pricks like yourself who consider themselves to be better than everyone else, MAYBE you do have more skill than others, maybe you don't. What gives you the right to treat the other kind users of this forum like something on the bottom of your shoe?
 
We've been in the printing and sign making industry for over 12 years, now I guess you also know something about those trades that we don't ye?
 
Lol

Don't be such a **** yeah? You come here asking for OUR opinions and we give them, and get slated for doing it?
 
Maybe you should **** off to that other forum, you arrogant little rat...

Don't be such a **** yeah? You come here asking for OUR opinions and we give them, and get slated for doing it?
 
Maybe you should **** off to that other forum, you arrogant little rat...