Things To Look For & Look Out For When Shopping For A Website or Web Designer:

        Many web developers  have developed that "auto mechanics mentality," which is to hook you in and take you for all they can.  Websites are a purchase, a service and a subscription all in one.  You purchase your domain name, but you renew it every year. You pay to have a website made - you then own that website (although some web design companies might disagree with me on that). Web hosts, like mine, allow the transfer of entire web sites from your old host to ours. The biggest reason for moving your website from one host to another is price.  My web host has maintained the same prices for the last 3 years while giving more space and features at no extra charge.

        Many web developers are charging hundreds of dollars (because they can and because they think you don't know any better) for flashy websites that are not very customer friendly.  For all their so called "experience" they really leave you hanging. No one can find your website and they want to charge you a lot extra for website submission (to the search engines) or search engine optimization (to give you a higher ranking). If they have your interests at heart and want to see you and your website do better, come up higher in the searches, they would do the things you need to have done (most of them don't).  This is not rocket science, although they might want you to think it is.

        Some companies lure you in with offers of low cost or free sites only to charge you high monthly fees. Or a huge annual fee, neatly divided up into monthly payments.  Some web design companies give you what you pay for, but in some cases, your website looks like everyone else's.  Or they lure you in with those "flash" intro pages that take so long to load,  only to conclude so you can "click  to enter." Flashy, yet annoying and time consuming. Your visitor may run out of patience before they get to enter your website. Eventually you find that many other businesses use that same flash intro that your web designer paid a few dollars for. You want something more individual, more unique ... more personal ... more you!

        You need to be careful in dealing with  "Search Engine Optimization."  Also called SEO, this optimizing of your website is supposed to give you a higher ranking. I'd say the jury is still out on whether paying someone big bucks for this this is effective or not. Many businesses say they spend a good deal of money only to have their search ranking improve slightly or not at all. There really aren't any guarantees. Some web developers like to charge you a lot of money to submit your site to the search engines.  Most site submissions are free, although, in some cases,  it might do you more harm than good.  Most SEO things they can do for your website are a matter of doing it right the first time - completing the task at hand (rather than hook you for in for more fees).  I find that many very experienced web developers really have no clue about what makes your website come up higher in the searches - the ones that do know how just show they don't care (unless they are getting paid more money for it). One of the most disturbing scams you can see through is when they offer to submit your site to 100,000 search engines for a very hefty fee (this one gets the P T Barnum "there's a sucker born every minute" award).

        Who really owns your website and domain name?  Some web developers claim they own your website and if you took them to court you just might lose (creation of art ... dreadful, but true).  Some will release your site to you, while others  might want to sell it back to you (yes, sell you back your own website). When I design your website you own it - it's yours - no strings or hassles.  Did your webmaster register your domain (your web address) is his name? If so, you are screwed (sorry ... but it's another  thing some of them  do).  You may have some rights here ... yeah, another trip to court).  You need dependable, accountable service. Your website is too important to trust to anyone too busy, or non-caring,

... to be continued .... as the war heats up ...