Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Inexpensive Web Design Services

One of the things new authors are always told, especially those of us in ebooks, is Get Yourself A Website. It's usually number one or two on the list.

Now, there's a lot of ways to go about creating a website:

You can do it yourself, using a free site and some web templates. I've seen some rather decent websites designed that way, but I've seen some dreadful ones too. I tried to go that route at first myself, because I have other sites I built on my own and they look pretty good. Not good enough, unfortunately, and I found the kind of site I wanted to build was beyond my abilities.

You can pay a fancy design service to do it for you. Sure, you'll have a flashy site and look marvelously professional. Unless you're like me and have no money. (Honestly, what brand new or aspiring author has money?)

Or there's a third option: Much like the fledgling e-publishers, who saw what was being done and knew they could strike out on their own as well, there are quite a number of new free lance web designers out there, just getting their start. For not a lot of money, they can design and maintain a serviceable website for you, hassle free.

I'm lucky. One of those people is a very good friend of mine, and she offered to do my website. She's done a hell of a great job. Not only does she keep it up to date whenever I send her new information, but she's full of great design ideas and usually all I have to do is give her an idea of what I want and she runs with it, making it better than I had imagined. And if I don't like something she's done? She's more than happy to change it.

I happen to know she's eager for more clients, and since a I know a number similarly strapped authors read my blog, I thought it would be a great idea to promote her here. Below is all her information, and samples of her work - if you're at all interested, please drop her a line, she's a dream to work with.




DawnChaser Web Designs
Dawnchaserwebdesigns@yahoo.com

Keeping it simple and straight forward, Laurie offers easy access to anyone who wants a fresh look for a reasonable price. Most webpages are just $50.00 and include Laurie's design services, domain registration and prompt updates as you need them. (More labor intensive and extensive web pages and designs will be slightly higher in price, based on requirements.) Laurie designs for individual, business/professional and for the fandom world and strives to make sure you are happy with your webpage.

Examples of some of her work can be seen at:

Business/Professional-
www.cnyyogacenter.com
www.positivelypinkpackages.org


Individual:
www.elleparker.com


Fandom (under the business name of MaD Web designs- Designs by Mel and DC)
http://www.tourofdutyvids.com/
http://www.doc2sjournals.com/

4 comments:

joe doaks-Author said...

Hi, Elle, so, I liked the design work, I especially liked the DHTML nav menus very cool.

I was wondering, however, the link from your website to your blog is found under, Links. Don’t you think your blog rates a button on your website all its own? Lotta good stuff here, don’t want to hide it, or make it hard for website visitors to find. If you wanna follow my link below, you can see how I did it. Not self-promoting, just sayin…

Best Regards, Galen.
P.S. Thanks for the RT about the house. Need to get rid of that thing.

GalenKindley.com

Elle Parker said...

That's actually a really good idea, Galen. When we did the original design, I hadn't gotten into the blogging as much and I didn't expect to be doing more with it than just announcements and such. I think you may be right, and I'll talk to DC about that.

Thanks! Elle

Alexis Grant said...

Cool! I had the guys at http://upstatement.com do my site: http://alexisgrant.com

Enjoyed hearing about your process.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Promoting small business is a great thing to do on our blogs, Elle. It was nice of you to give that pat on the back to your designer (who has done a really nice job, by the way).