Website designer recommedations?

[makingitin2012]

Hi all. Very happy that I am finally at the stage of having a (very rough) website plan!
I have basically set it up myself on Wordpress, i.e. I now have (more or less) the pages / content on screen, in a format that is legible to now say to a professional website designer, 'this is a template of what I'd like, now can you do it properly for me please?!'
Can anybody recommend a freelance designer who could help me with this please? I'm aware that I could continue to do this for myself using wordpress, but in all honesty I would rather have it done by somebody who knows what they are doing! I do need somebody who will help me with the whole think, ie domain registration / hosting etc.

Many thanks in advance.

'whole thing' - not whole think!!

Oh my word and apologies for the incorrect spellings - just returned from the school run and obviously not thinking straight!!

Watching with interest as I will be in similar position soon.

As you have done a lot of the work yourself, do you think it will make it cheaper? How much does it cost for wordpress? I think I might that give it a go for the same reasons.

my home written website was revamped and upgraded and made compliant by Simon of UKSiteBuilder
its an information only site with pictures, information and videos but no shopping
it cost me a couple of hundred pounds
but
it works on all platforms and complies with disability access rules
and I get full web stats
worth every penny
I maintain it now myself but contact Simon when I have a panic
(he knows both this and my real name)
NB the earnings from the site pay my mortgage and bills

Bonnie - Hi, good luck with your venture! The reason that I began by doing a lot of the work myself is that I felt this would really help me to solidify in my own mind exactly what my business is offering. I didn't feel that I could approach a web designer, for example, and ask them to design a website for me, unless I knew 100% what I was doing, and knew what services etc that my business is offering inside out. However, cost is also an issue for me - I'm currently on mat leave so am trying wherever possible to keep setup costs to the minimum! Wordpress is free, more or less, though you do have to pay for upgrades etc, which I am looking at now.
TalkinPeace2 - Thanks for the advice. Would you mind me asking, 'the earnings from the site pay my mortgage and bills' - is that by way of the queries that you receive as traffic from the site? Or by advertising? Thank you.

Check out pink interactive. They did my website and I'm super pleased with it.

A friend of mine is a webmistress, PM me if you'd like her details.

My partner is a freelance web designer and has done some work for MNers in the past, although I was under a different user name then, and would be happy to talk over any ideas, even if you weren't 100% decided on what you were after.

Feel free to PM me if you want

making
the site has information used by customers to then email and book DH
we have NO adverts on the site
and an adwords budget of £5 a month
he's VAT registered ....

I'm a freelance web and graphic designer, I can offer hosting, domains, email addresses, basically the whole thing from start to finish. I offer mostly logos over at www.janeandphilbert.com and my web design is over at www.doslimones.co.uk, so have a look and let me know. Email addresses or contact details are available there, or PM me here : ) I offer full consultations, I've been doing web and graphic design for nearly 10 years now (scary thought...) and I can send you some links to work I've done/am doing at the moment.

Let me know,

gem

Thank you all, much appreciated, I will go over the replies again in detail this evening. Gem - I've had a very quick peep at your website, looks lovely, will hopefully be in touch soon!

Hi Making
This guy is currently setting up a website for me, he is very knowledgeable and helpful, def worth a chat.
www.gibsondesignworks.co.uk/

Hi,

Our website has just been built by www.orangecrushdesign.co.uk/ and they were fantastic - I can't recommend them enough! The design and branding itself was done by a friend who is a senior designer at a good ad agency. If you want her details please message me. You can see my website here: www.filmsinbloom.co.uk.

Best wishes,

Elise

My website was designed by a friend who is currently setting up a website design business. I was really pleased with how he understood what I was looking for and managed to translate it into reality. If you like my website - www.clarekingcoaching.co.uk - and want to make contact with the designer, feel free to message me.

All the best,

Clare

If you are going to get your web designer to just deal with the aesthetics you might want to research how to take 'backups' and enhance the security of your Wordpress website.
Plugins could help with both of these but not always best to rely on them (for these important items anyway).
Good luck ;)

Another recommendation is www.simonoliver.co.uk. I used him for two sites originally but own quite a few sites so did a two day workshop with him. I've built 6 sites since! I'd recommend learning if you are going to update your site especially if your business is in the growing stage meaning site tweeks here and there. I did that for about a year and it ended up costing A LOT! The workshop cost me less than my original site and my additional have been free, plus I've made some money from builds since!

Hi we would recommend speaking with a few web design companies and getting some quotes as they can vary wildy.

They can be quite costly but you shouldn't really try cut costs when it comes to web design as its 1 of the most important assets a business can have.

We would recommend getting in touch with ww.fabmedia.co.uk they are reasonably priced and are really clued up on actually getting traffic and customers to your website, I'd also recommend getting it built on Wordpress it will future proof your website and shouldnt need to have it built ever again iof done right the 1st time.

Good luck and hope you get sorted