A great logo can help a business project a positive image while a bad logo can bring a negative impression about a company. If a logo is the company spokesman, how much is it really
worth? Cheap logo designs are all over the Internet - logo designs under $150! $99 logo designs, $75 logo designs, $49 logo designs and even lower! You will easily find a wide range of prices for logo design on the Internet.

Be careful of cheap logo design offers, some designers may be using clip art. A logo design that includes a royalty free piece of clip art cannot be copyrighted. That same piece of clip art could be used on dozens of other logo designs. A designers portfolio should be displayed and there should be a wide variety of logo samples. Some logo designers charge one flat fee for a logo with no questions asked. Can you imagine Coca-Cola purchasing a logo design for $99? All designs are not equal. Some logo designers charge additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra preliminary designs. How much is a logo design really worth? A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot illustration. A logo has more value than just the hours spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity.

Professional graphic design rates average anywhere from $30 to $75 per hour. If you see a logo design priced at $125 and that designer charges $50 per hour for design work, do you assume that they spent 2.5 hours on your logo? That price would include the time spent to contact you, the research done on your company and competition, the preliminary ideas, the changes, the finalizing of the logo, the file prep for each different format, sending the logo, billing and allowing you to have all rights to the design. So how much time was actually spent creating your logo?

Many professional graphic designers would be hard pressed to create a top notch illustration for under $150 let alone a creative, well designed logo. So beware of logos priced under $150, you may get what you pay for. There's even more confusion about logo pricing. Some designers base their logo rates on several of these factors:

Logo Modifications - You could get charged for each time you want a change or modification to your logo. If a logo designer asks the right questions, does the research and stays in close communication with the client there should be no need for major changes during the creation of a logo design. Be a good communicator and explain to the logo designer exactly what you want your logo to be saying about your business.

Extra Colors - Printers charge more for extra colors. If a logo designer charges more for a two color logo than they do for a three color logo, get a detailed explanation as to why.
A logo designer should be able to decide for you the correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create your perfect logo. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo
design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.

Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.

There is a standard reference for pricing graphic design and corporate identity projects. Any logo designer can purchase the book. A professional graphic designer would have a tough time supporting a family and a studio designing all of their logos below $200.

I'm not writing this to give exact prices for a logo design because each logo designers circumstances are different. The standard logo design rates are based on two major components,
company size and application or distribution size. The majority of logo designs created over the Internet are created for small companies and individuals with limited application and distribution uses. Fortune 500 companies normally pay much higher logo design rates and use advertising agencies.

My conclusion is that the value of a logo should be based on a few important criteria:
1. Experience of the logo designer
2. Size & budget of the company using the logo
3. Scope and usage of the logo
4. Difficulty of the design

An individual or small company with small to average uses should be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 to $1500 for a top quality, professional logo design.
What's included with your logo? You will then have to pay another graphic designer or printer to create the correct files. Be aware of what file types you will be needing and ask your logo designer what file types are included in their price.

The most common file types needed are AI (Illustrator) and EPS for most professional print jobs. These are vector format files. These files should be in a CMYK color format. Be aware that not all colors translate well on the Internet, especially GIF files. Ask if the logo designer used web safe colors. You should receive crisp 72 dpi files for the Internet. Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. You will need this information each time your logo is printed. Ask your designer how long they keep your logo on file in case you lose your
versions later down the road.

You should also receive all rights (copyrights) to your logo. How long have they designed logos? In closing let me say that the information above is a personal opinion and is taken from years of searching logo design web sites and reading books on graphic design. An advertising agency handles logo design on a larger scale and incorporates an entire corporate identity service. Their logo design rates are many times higher than a graphic designers.

A. How to Manage Your Graphic Designer to Get Great Design for Your Nonprofit
Nothing is as compelling as managing the design, of a printed piece or web look for your organization, service or campaign. It's challenging to manage a designer's creativity into a design take that meets your organization's needs can be challenging. Over the years, I've devised a few strategies that ensure that the design process goes smoothly. When you do, you'll generate the design results that make the greatest impact for your organization:

Step One: Take your time to find the RIGHT designer.
The question is how do you find your stable of RIGHT designers? You're likely to need relationships with three or four designers. The number depends on the volume of design work, the range of looks you're trying to achieve, and the diversity of materials and online projects to be designed. Because I work with many clients with diverse needs, I require more of a range of design skills and price points than would any single nonprofit or foundation.

Here's how to find your designers:

Step Two: Gather favorite design samples Keep a folder of favorites, printed materials you identify as good design in the same range as your organization's image or the image you want to establish. Bookmark website designs in the same way.

Step Three: Compile your list of prospective designers Contact communications colleagues (make sure you like their design sensibility first, judging by their products) and ask for designer recommendations. Get basic information on pricing, work style, and client base.

Step Four: Hone your list to the top three or four by interviewing ten to twelve designers Contact the top ten to twelve before you have a design project ready to go. Here are some of the questions I ask prospective designers:
How long have you been designing? With this firm/working freelance?
Have you worked with nonprofit organizations? How did you get into design work for nonprofits?
Do you design for print and online media?
What is the average size (dollar-wise) of your design projects?
Take me through the design process for a brochure? Will you personally be designing our work, and be my point person? (for non-solo designers)
These are the quirks you'll face in designing for our nonprofit (explain any, from the Executive Director thinking she's a designer--and putting her stamp on every piece--to a boss who always changes his mind completely on what a piece should feature when he sees a design concept)

Step Five: Write a creative brief the moment you get a whiff of a pending design job
An effective creative brief gives the designer direction and provides your team with benchmarks against which to evaluate design concepts.

Spending the time to complete a thorough creative brief will save you a lot of time up front, and ensure that you get the design product you envisioned.

List, characterize and prioritize audiences Present Unique Selling Proposition(USP), one sentence about what makes the organization, program or service unique
Specify budget and time frame Outline internal review and approval process These five steps will lead you to strong relationships with the right designers. As a result, I guarantee that your print and online design work will be more effective than ever in engaging and spurring recognition from your target audiences.

It's likely that, when you do, you'll find some great design samples that will lead you to more effective (and maybe even less expensive) graphic design for your organization.

B. Should Creative Freelancers (Graphic Designers) Collaborate in How They Price Their Services?
I know this is a hot-button issue with freelancers; like owing a MAC or a PC, if you're a freelance designer, you probably have a strong opinion either way. That being said - no, creative freelancers should not, and in many cases can not collaborate over pricing services.

Over the years I've found the creative freelancers that are the most adamant about establishing price standards are the ones who have difficulty getting paid what they want. These freelancers see the problem of not getting paid what they think they're worth is due to other freelancers that aren't charging enough and "cheapening the industry". Assigning blame is always easier than accepting responsibility.

It's upsetting and frustrating not getting paid what you feel you're worth, and if you're in that position - I feel your pain. I would caution you not to blame other freelancers for the pricing challenge you're having. It should be up to each individual freelancer to ensure she/he gets paid what they're worth, shouldn't it?

Now that's out of the way, we'll look at some of the reasons why collaboration among designers to keep prices higher isn't such a practical idea.

Reason 1: Who gets to establish what is fair price for freelancing services?
Let's say you have 2 freelancers: Jon and Jane. Let's say they both agree to a universal pricing structure and charge the same $2000 price for developing a web site. If you're Jon you're thinking this is a pretty good deal - if you're Jane you're thinking this deal sucks.
As much as some freelancers would like to standardize pricing, it's too difficult when you incorporate the variables:

Cost of living
Experience and skill level

Reason 2: Ultimately clients decide what you get paid
If you're living in the States (as I do), we have a capitalistic, free market system whereby value/price is determined by supply, demand, needs and wants. Even though you're free to set whatever price you'd like ($1/hr or $1000/hr) the consumer market is going to dictate whether you can stay at that price level. If you can't, you'll have to drop your rate until you get to a point you can convince them you are worth your rate. Price is determined by perceived value - value seen through the eyes of the client. This means that if your clients see you as valuable compared to other options, you'll probably make more money.

Reason 3: It's Illegal, at least here in the States
Depending on the lengths freelancers, gas stations, the music industry, or any other group of business professionals try to control pricing is considered illegal. The term for this is price fixing or price collusion. Even if you were able to convince all of the freelancers in the world that they had to charge a minimum rate for their services, there are parts of the world that would consider that activity illegal. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing to see how Wikipedia defines the term, notice that "setting a minimum price for goods/services" is included in the definition.

Reason 4: It's impractical and impossible to police
Even if freelancers were able to somehow get the majority of their colleagues to charge standard pricing there are always those that are willing to break the rules and charge whatever they want. There are always going to be designers that can't compete on value so they'll compete on price - they'll drop their price to get business.

Bottom Line:
If you're a freelancer that has a higher rate, don't worry about the cheaper options, if you can show your clients that you're worth more, you will get the business.

Beginning interior design is a challenging, exciting adventure that one must be willing to endure sacrifices and even at times costly mistakes in order to complete this learning successfully.
If interior design is an activity that you are thinking about as a potential career, you owe it to yourself to invest the proper amount of time and energy into educating yourself in the field of creative design. If you are interested in learning about creative design for other reasons, such as designing your own space or home, it is better that you focus your attention on the particular area of design that is pleasing to you.

A good starting point for beginning interior design is the object of much controversy in the industry. The best designers possess the ability to design before they are even able to understand the concept of interior design.

Beginning interior design to them is a natural process. If you feel as if you are not part of this group of gifted individuals and still have a yearning or driving force to learn about this growing industry, then beginning interior design is a very doable activity as long as you are open minded and dedicated to improving your knowledge and understanding of design.

A very bad reason for beginning interior design are money related motivations. I have heard countless people comment on their interest in interior design due to the income potential associated with the industry.

The higher salaries in this business are almost always associated with talented, well-established designers who have made interior design their life’s work. Talent and knowledge are keys to success in any industry and one should apply these rules when considering interior design as an income earning activity.

Interior designers come in many forms, backgrounds, and experience levels. Hard work, dedication, and creativity are values that you will find in any successful interior designer. Keep this in mind when beginning interior design work of any kind and it will aid in your ability. Work of any kind is exactly as described…work.

A. Learning Interior Design
Learning interior design can be a simple or complicated task depending on a wide variety of factors including exposure, ability, creativity, and willingness to learn. This article is dedicated to explaining the basic elements that interior design is based upon so that you will have the ability to go out and research these elements on your own in order to advance you ability and perspective of the interior design world.

A good beginning point for all of those interior design newbies would be television shows dedicated to the subject, books, magazines, other interior design professionals, ect.
Your eyes are wonderful tools for learning interior design and successful application of it. They are such terrific tools because eyes are the ears of the interior design symphony. They possess the ability to look upon any element of design and transmit information to your brain concerning the colors indicated in the design, textures, layout, and whether or not the overall effect is pleasing.

Close your eyes. The first item that your eyes focused upon is considered to be your focal point. The point is, is that the focal point of a room is the area of the room that demands your attention upon arrival in it and generally you base your placement of activities that take place in that room on the location the that focal point. This is the reason why so much strategic planning is normally based on the focal points of a room when designing the creative outlay of the room. This is why your fundamental understanding of the focal points of a room is dramatically instrumental in learning interior design.

Throughout your journey of learning interior design, you will come to understand the importance of balancing the understanding of architecture focal points, and living ones.
Certain people are naturally going to elevate towards different activities and objects in a room. Once you have a basic to medium understanding of focal points and placement of items in and around those places, the other key feature of learning interior design is visual representation of objects.

Color, texture, and shape are the fundamentals in this category. Shape is the basic makeup of the object reflected visually. Let’s imagine a few terms you hear when associated with design. ‘Simple’ would generally refer to the use of light, neutral color schemes in combination with small interjections of light texture and straight lined shapes. Simple, in my opinion is the basic ingredient to a successful recipe of design. To wind things up, the road to learning interior design is filled with information and visual perspectives that will open both your eyes and your mind to an entirely different world.

B. What You Should Known About Interior Design Schools
Getting degrees in interior design is becoming one of the more popular degree options available today and constantly being offered by different colleges and universities. Interior design is regulated in almost 24 states of the United States and anybody who is intent on studying for a degree in interior design course should pick up a Bachelors degree in Interior Design first before they opt for an interior designers license.

Interior design degrees are extremely important and so is the knowledge of CAD software which is all about Computer Aided Design. Both are equally necessary for the new interior designers. What an interior design degree provides is that it gives the student the knowledge and the practical experience to cope with the different demands and requirements that a busy interior designer constantly has to cope with.

An interior design degree is the primary step in establishing a career in the field of interior design. In order to become a force in the field of global interior design it is always essential that you have the requisite formal degrees from a college that offers interior design degrees and qualifications.

Successful graduates in the field of interior design will employ their creativity and imagination in order to design homes for people as well as corporate establishments and order institutes of commerce. Interior design degree programs focus on sharing and teaching skills in various areas of graphic drawing, construction technology, color theory and space planning. You can visit http://www.interior-design-school.com to find out more information on interior design education.

Anyone studying in the field of interior design should try to get the best world class training available.

We know a good company name is very important. Some would even spend a tidy sum to get a renowned marketing research company to discover a good brand name to synergize the name of product/service with the market place. Instead of going to a branding expert, marketing specialist or graphic designer, many run to a local printer whose specialty is print production, to do a logo design and quickly whip up their letterheads and other stationery.

Recently, my designer friend was infuriated with a distant cousin’s request to create a logo design plus a set of stationary comprising business card, letterhead and invoice for under USD150. While I can empathize with her outrage, but honestly, a Google search will yields thousands of websites offering cheap logo design, as low as USD39.

One other possibility is for the logo designer to up-sell you when you sign on the dotted line. To illustrate, you might be asked to pay for an extra artwork for the logo to be rendered in black-white, or you need to pay for the logo usage guide to state all the specifications that you’ll need to produce a brochure or TVC later on. How much should you pay for a company logo design? To us folks that firmly believe a logo forms a formidable part in the formation of the corporate persona, corporate branding, marketing and public relations; the logo is definitely much more than just an illustration or graphics! You have to pay for research, concept, design assembly and production execution.

Your hired help has to look into your corporate mission, philosophy, beliefs, objective, goals, and aspiration just to understand your company, and probably you if you are the boss. Without such in-depth understanding, the logo experts will not be able to translate any corporate values into a coherent, creative graphics. The logo will be soulless.

Did you know the winged logo of Nike has a story behind it? Now, can you see the relation and association between Nike the sports good company and Nike the Goddess? Even the expert and the client agreed on the concept “wing”, but how should the wing look? Should it be Pegasus’ spreading wings or something more stylized as seen on the logo of Singapore Airlines? So much work? Yes, it is that much work. After all, your logo design is supposed to help you:

- Elicit immediate recognition (especially if the company has a “common” sort of name)
- a visual short-cut to convey the company’s personality, character or attitude (in short, corporate persona)
- Relate to your clients by conveying a feeling of familiarity and credibility
- Association with quality and satisfaction

You might like to have a further understanding on the importance of a logo, which is discussed in another article, “Why Logo is That Important” .
(Branding Expert, Advertising Agency, Graphic Designer and Freelancer all command different price tags)

Always get a logo that can reflect your coorporate branding and persona. Talk to several respectable creative agencies or freelance logo designers and hire the one that understood you best. Bear in mind that if you want the branding works, be prepared to fork out at least USD10,000 and more (and that is considered cheap).

If you want a professional logo design package that calls for original design, production guide on all imaginable surfaces, all workable softcopy files for print and web plus full release of all font and graphical elements, you are looking at least USD20,000 and up. If you are a start up or small business owner, tell the logo design expert specifically what you want and don’t want. Lastly, don’t lose the logo files you were given. My client lost his logo files and I had to get my people to manually trace a 16KB 72dpi logo, horrendously printed on a Micosoft Word document; and do touch-up.

A. How Much Is A Great Business Logo Really Worth?
A great logo can help a business project a positive image while a bad logo can bring a negative impression about a company. If a logo is the company spokesman, how much is it really worth?

Cheap logo designs are all over the Internet - logo designs under $150!, $99 logo designs, $75 logo designs, $49 logo designs and even lower! You will easily find a wide range of prices for logo design on the Internet. Be careful of cheap logo design offers, some designers may be using clip art. A logo design that includes a royalty free piece of clip art cannot be copyrighted. That same piece of clip art could be used on dozens of other logo designs. A designers portfolio should be displayed and there should be a wide variety of logo samples. Some logo designers charge one flat fee for a logo with no questions asked.

Can you imagine Coca-Cola purchasing a logo design for $99? All designs are not equal. Some logo designers charge additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra preliminary designs. How much is a logo design really worth? A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot illustration. A logo has more value than just the hours spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity.

Professional graphic design rates average anywhere from $30 to $75 per hour. If you see a logo design priced at $125 and that designer charges $50 per hour for design work, do you assume that they spent 2.5 hours on your logo? That price would include the time spent to contact you, the research done on your company and competition, the preliminary ideas, the changes, the finalizing of the logo, the file prep for each different format, sending the logo, billing and allowing you to have all rights to the design. So how much time was actually spent creating your logo?

Many professional graphic designers would be hard pressed to create a top notch illustration for under $150 let alone a creative, well designed logo. So beware of logos priced under $150, you may get what you pay for.

There's even more confusion about logo pricing. Some designers base their logo rates on several of these factors:
Logo Modifications - You could get charged for each time you want a change or modification to your logo. If a logo designer asks the right questions, does the research and stays in close communication with the client there should be no need for major changes during the creation of a logo design. Be a good communicator and explain to the logo designer exactly what you want your logo to be saying about your business.

Extra Colors - Printers charge more for extra colors. If a logo designer charges more for a two color logo than they do for a three color logo, get a detailed explanation as to why.
A logo designer should be able to decide for you the correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create your perfect logo. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.

Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.

There is a standard reference for pricing graphic design and corporate identity projects. Any logo designer can purchase the book. A professional graphic designer would have a tough time supporting a family and a studio designing all of their logos below $200.

I'm not writing this to give exact prices for a logo design because each logo designers circumstances are different. The standard logo design rates are based on two major components, company size and application or distribution size. The majority of logo designs created over the Internet are created for small companies and individuals with limited application and distribution uses. Fortune 500 companies normally pay much higher logo design rates and use advertising agencies.

My conclusion is that the value of a logo should be based on a few important criteria:
1. Experience of the logo designer
2. Size & budget of the company using the logo
3. Scope and usage of the logo
4. Difficulty of the design

An individual or small company with small to average uses should be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 to $1500 for a top quality, professional logo design. What's included with your logo? You will then have to pay another graphic designer or printer to create the correct files. Be aware of what file types you will be needing and ask your logo designer what file types are included in their price.

The most common file types needed are AI (Illustrator) and EPS for most professional print jobs. These are vector format files. These files should be in a CMYK color format. Be aware that not all colors translate well on the Internet, especially GIF files. Ask if the logo designer used web safe colors. You should receive crisp 72 dpi files for the Internet. Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. You will need this information each time your logo is printed. Ask your designer how long they keep your logo on file in case you lose your versions later down the road.

You should also receive all rights (copyrights) to your logo. How long have they designed logos? In closing let me say that the information above is a personal opinion and is taken from years of searching logo design web sites and reading books on graphic design. An advertising agency handles logo design on a larger scale and incorporates an entire corporate identity service. Their logo design rates are many times higher than a graphic designers.

B. How Important it is to have a Professional Logo Design for your Business?
Having a good quality product doesn't necessarily assure the success of a business. Here comes in the importance for having a custom logo design. I think it is absolutely important for all corporate bodies to realize the importance of having a custom designed logo. A professional logo design goes a long way to establish the identity and exude the attitude of the company. Now, when we say 'professional logo design", we must understand that it is not a child's play, its a specialist job and better if it is assigned to a professional logo designer.

A logo, if done properly can leave a long and deep impression on your customers mind. They go a long way in depicting the image of your business. Just think about the IBM logo or Swoosh of Nike, do you even take a moment to think, to whom does that logo belong? That shows how powerful impact a logo can create in the mind of your customers. Wouldn’t you like your company to have an equally powerful logo?

A professionally designed custom logo can be very powerful in representing the company profile, the nature of job they do and the attitude of the company. There are so many logo design firm that offers excellent custom logo designs at unbelievable low rates. There are even companies that would happily do a quality logo for you for just $60-$80. Some companies would even allow you to quote "Your price" for "Your Logo" and they will do it at whatever price you quote.

The good news is, these days the corporate houses have started to realize the importance of establishing their brand and they are acknowledging the crucial role that a company logo plays in this process. The sooner the business houses realize the importance of professionally designed custom logo and stationery the better it will be for them and also for the graphic designing industry.

Web Designing
Web designing should be the ultimate combination of Art and literature or in other words graphics and content. The front end deals with the page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio.

Designing Essentials
Balance is essential when designing the site.
Usability - The usability of your site is important to help you achieve the ultimate goal, which is to sell your product or services.
Navigation- A good navigational system is crucial for your web site.

Designing Elements
There are some crucial design elements which determine the success of your web site. Text- It is very important that the correct font size, style and color be used in a web page.
Content- Relevant content in accordance to the users need is an important step in web site planning. Loading full pages with complex graphics and animations can take considerable time and wear on the reader's patience. Graphic Images- graphic displays should be kept small. Tables-Tables can provide an efficient means of organizing and displaying complex information.

A successful web page should have the following elements to ensure its success.
• Attractive design
• Fast loading
• Easy navigation
• user friendly
• Resolution friendly
• Search engine optimized
• Back office support
• Browser compatible
• Relevant content
• Defined protocols for each webpage

Designing Disasters
Just as some designing elements spell success, certain designing errors prove disastrous.
Huge font size - Unless it's a site for the disabled, please refrain from using huge fonts, really most people see quite well.
Small font size - No one has 20-20 vision either, so small font sizes are equally, bad.
Overlapping layers - Layers can be very useful up to the point. Don't try to force your user to read your messages. More flies are caught with honey than vinegar.
Popup windows - this is the ultimate annoyance for visitors.
Broken links- this is the fastest way to drive visitors away. Keep checking links on your site.

A. Web Design And Development Service Providers
If you are looking for Web Designing services, your first step will probably be to search for "Web Designing services" on Google or another search engine. Which one will provide quality services?
• Offer 24 hour availability
• Improve customer Service
• Save time and money

Criteria to select Web Designing and Development service providers

Reliability
Check out whether the company is holding any international certification like ISMS or ISO 9001:14001.To implement these certifications companies have to maintain certain values and standards. Also standard companies will sign agreements like SDA or NDA before starting the work.

Judge the quality of services provided
Check the web sites they have designed and verify the efficiency of their work.

Compare prices
After checking the quality of the services provided by various companies, compares their prices. Then select the company which provides the best combination of outstanding quality plus an affordable price.

Work Capacity
Etc.

B. Combining Web Design Business With Web Hosting Can Generate More Income For Web Designers
Web designers and developers are the foundation of the Internet. If you are skilled in web design or web development you can make a growing income on the Internet. The secret to making money with your web design and development skills is to include web hosting in your web design or web development quotes or standard packages.

You can add $50 a month to your income, hosting your client sites with more ease. Terms with "web designer"get more searches per day than terms with "hosting". People are looking for web designers to get their sites on the Internet.

Web designers and developers can incorporate the sale of hosting into their web development and design projects. As a web designer you can bill your customers for the hosting fees within the design and then host the account for a year or on a month to month basis. You will be surprised at how much extra income you can generate from your web design customers.

Providing hosting for your web design clients will give you greater assurance that your customers will come back to you to make changes or update their site. Let's look at some numbers, and how billing for hosting on top of your web design work can make you some serious money. Let's assume you get paid $500 - $1000+ for a site design. If you charge your client for hosting as well you could generate up to $50 extra per site, per month in hosting fees. With a little effort and focus you could generate a very healthy income in your web design business. Right now there are a myriad of powerful web applications, content management systems and shopping carts you can quickly install in your reseller web hosting account and produce a design for very quickly. The better way to do it and really maximize your profit is to get a reseller hosting account where you can host all your customer sites in the one hosting account. This works out much cheaper than getting a separate account for each customer site. For just a few hundred dollars per year you can host 50 or more sites. In our experience Windows hosting reseller packages are a good idea as a Windows reseller hosting account will give you the freedom and choice to run ASP, ASP.Net as well as PHP sites with MySQL or SQL Server databases. Linux hosting is incredibly efficient and gives you some of the cheap hosting options available but does not support ASP or ASP.Net applications. For an extra few dollars a month you can get Windows hosting and dramatically increase your options for your web design customers from a wider array of available web applications and freely available code in ASP and ASP.Net.

As a reseller looking at Windows hosting accounts make sure the host offers Multiple IIS sites and not just unlimited domains. To properly host multiple sites on Windows each site needs to have it's own entry in IIS (Internet Information Server - the Windows web server). Many hosts say unlimited domains and what they really mean is running unlimited domains on one site. Being able to put your customer sites in separate application pools means that if one of your customer sites get's busy or some crazy bug causes a problem it will isolate it to just that site and you wont end up with all your customers screaming at you that their sites are down.

Through booms, through busts, good times and bad times web designers and developers quietly rule the web. To make money from hosting your client work you really don't need to leap out and set yourself up as a web hosting provider with billing systems, hosting plans and support systems and processes. The best thing of all you can keep your focus on why you became a web designer - designing web sites!

Receiving an award for your business can increase your company’s credibility. Participating in events like these can generate valuable exposure to the business community and the media loves to cover these events and often interviews participants for stories. Your local chamber of commerce, small business administration center or trade association may sponsor an awards event.

Many contests charge an entry fee so you must weigh the cost against the value of participating. If the rewards and/or exposure are great, the entry fee can easily pay for itself. Winners will be honored at an awards dinner at a small business conference in Las Vegas with keynote speaker Jay Conrad Levinson (author of the ever popular Guerrilla Marketing series of books). Deadline for entry is December 31, 2005.

The Webby Awards
(http://www.WebbyAwards.com) are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence in website design. There are over sixty categories including Arts, Blog, Community, Events, Games, Lifestyle, Health, Sports, Travel, and Weird.

The Stevies Awards for Women Entrepreneurs
(http://www.StevieAwards.com) honors winners from 18 categories including Best Company, Best Entrepreneur, Best New Product, Lifetime Achievement, and Women Helping Women. This contest is open to all U.S. based women-owned businesses with fewer than 100 employees. The folks at InsideBlogging.com hosted their first.

Business Blogging Awards
(http://www.businessbloggingawards.com/) in 2005. Some of the categories included Best Blogs: Overall, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Marketing, About Small Business, and PR. Watch for updates from this site and an announcement on a new contest for Technology Awards.

While entering awards may not be a traditional venue for marketing your business, it can certainly pay off in exposure and other opportunities. Soon your advertising strategy may shift to hype your “Award Winning” business.

A. Top 9 Basic Web Design Tips For Small and Medium Enterprises
Building a website for a small and medium enterprise can be a stress free experience If handled efficiently. Follow these 10 basic web site design tips and they will make your task much easier.

1. Own Your Project: It’s your site, your investment on the line. Be prepared to lead and keep the momentum heading towards a realistic launch date. If you don’t have the time to manage the construction of the site, hire someone who does.

2. Choose Your Color Scheme and Layout: Search the web and choose a few sites featuring the colors and layouts you like and a few sites with colors and layouts you don’t like.

3. Decide on Theme and Images: Choose your images with a common theme in mind and make sure your concept is easy to understand. Merging light and dark backgrounds can make the best images look out of place. You can find a great variety of royalty free images on Fotosearch.com.

4. Plan Your Site Structure: Write your site structure down on paper or use an excel spreadsheet; otherwise, it might get out of control.

5. Hire a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Firm: Your developer should have SEO experience or be working with an SEO firm. You can find top SEO firms advertising on Searchenginewatch.com or go to Google and type in search engine optimization and visit some SEO sites.

6. Meet Suggested Deadlines: A good web design firm will give you target dates for images, content, keyword development and site structure.

7. Begin With Keyword Research: Participate in the keyword research but trust your SEO partner. Start with Google Suggest, a free keyword tool. Start typing your keyword phrase. Google Suggest will show you a drop down list with numerous alternative keyword phrases that might be valuable to your business. Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool provides free
results as well.

8. Start Writing Your Content Now: You can edit their work before you site goes live and your SEO firm should have a hand in the final product. You can find a list of award winning content writers at TopSEOS .com. should you decide to outsource your content development.

9. Edit The Site Yourself: Once the site is complete, review every page for spelling mistakes, graphic mishaps, incorrect internal linking and unnecessary links to the SEO or developer sites. Review your site in Internet Explorer and Firefox to make sure it is consistent both web browsers. Anticipate delays in your project but keep the pedal to the metal until the site
is operational.

B. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Custom Web Site Design For Small to Midsize-Businesses
Quality of content-rich Websites are Needed:
Constructing superb content rich web pages may take a bit of strategical skills. Assuring a pristine architecture is crucial to the online world in marketing of web based content rich pages that will draw and also please consumers and fans. In simple terms, developing award winning web pages is not good enough to stay in business online. Web pages need proper visibility for prospects in order to be recognized as a credible, authentic and reliable place to either seek out more information or purchase products.

Implementing web design, development, and internet marketing with tunnel vision traffic generation techniques and strategies that are vital to the prosperity of your website. Focus exclusively on how to drive massive traffic online with internet marketing strategies through website design, search engine placement, search engine marketing, submission, analytics, email, backlinking and social media optimization. The bottom line is to achieve high quality traffic to your web pages that converts into multiple sources of revenue.

Search Engine Optimization and Web Design must go hand in hand:
A search engine optimization specialist is needed before the site is created, not after. Web page architectures normally should be created according to what the target audience seeks for online.

Search Engine Optimization Specialists should perform keyword research to find words and phrases being sought out on search engines to determine which keyword and phrases are best. A wide range of people have a difficult time searching a web page via the major search engines without campaign marketing and advertising.

There are a large number of web design companies in India, who are vying for your attention.

Analyze your Needs
Before you start searching for the perfect web designing company, you must first analyze your needs and requirements. Also, list down the secondary needs! You must also have a fair idea of your target audience and should be able to convey everything to your web designing company.

Making a List
Make a list of the designers and companies that are into this business. After making an initial list, short-list a few companies, which you think will be good for you. Ask your friends, or other business colleagues. Get a fair idea of the market and only then approach them and think about hiring specific web designing services.

The Portfolio
Every company has a portfolio of work that it has done in the past. You must ask to be shown the company's earlier work. Website designing is more of an art, then a science. Hence, put value on experience and previous work.

The Process of Web Development
The company that you finally choose must have a clearly defined process of web development. A haphazard process of web development won't create a successful website.

Security
You will provide the web design company with your confidential information. Before you choose a company to do business with, you should check whether they have a stringent data security procedure in place. So take your time and choose with care.

A. Why Do You Choose A Professional Website Design Company
Website design does not mean just make a layout and put some graphics or text. Few steps include in website design:
1) Book your domain name.
2) Hosting your domain.
3) Design and development.

So whenever you go to make your website by any professional web design company just keep in your mind that this web design company, along with the website design and development can also provide domain booking service, hosting facility.A professional website design and development organization does not bound its services just only in building up your website but also offers its services to proper marketing of your web presence to the potential online client/customer.

www.brandmantra.net is that kind of web design company where you can find all these services, alike a departmental store.
1. Website design.
2. Domain/Hosting and Services.
3. Website maintenance.
4. E-commerce solutions.
5. Logo Design.
6. Website Redesign.

B. Know The Need And Importance Of A Professional Website Design Company
Today's world demands an equal share of show as well as content in your website. Unless you revise your website design and update it regularly, it fails to attract new customers. Also, old customers are happy to have it in a renewed format.

You can always hire professional website Design Company to do your job. Nowadays, a large number of website design companies are rendering their services to be more consumer-friendly. Instead of giving just design, they give you a package deal. It includes website designing as well as maintaining it for a fixed time period. Whatever your specifications are, you need to inform your website builder team. As you are aware, the basic utility of a good website is for advertising your products. You can email the link of your website to the existing and potential customers. People get more confidence in you when they see a well designed website that personifies your services.

If you are unable to find a good professional web design company that fits your needs, for the time being, you can be your own website designer. Evidently it will lack the skillful presentation that can appeal the customers. This is the skill for which you pay your web design company. Self-help at the time of need is must!

Professional help for website designing may be just a step forward to initiate a good market deal. Definitely you can talk to your ecommerce web design company regarding your requirements and your financial position. To build a good website in a cost-effective way can be then easy. Developing your own pages to your website can look substandard and clumsy. Your customers are your winners of bread and butter. These are the people who can flourish or deteriorate your business. So, an investment for a professional web design is said to be the best outlay in the online world!

Whether you’re a novice to the Internet-based business world or a technology expert, it’s important to understand what is needed to take your business online. This article is designed to educate business owners on how to navigate the online process and assess an accurate value to Web design services.

Website Design
Before you begin your search for the right design firm, first consider your budget. If a designer claims they can build you a fully functional site for a couple hundred dollars, you can accurately presume that your site will likely be built around a template created by a fill-in-the-blank software application. If that fits your budget, fine—but don’t expect anything original, polished or fail-safe, because such mass-produced sites litter the Web and are typically rife with problems, including deadly slow load times, text bleeding into images, sloppy alignment, dead links and frustrating error messages.

• Next take a good hard look at the company’s portfolio, both its premium designs and its lower-priced examples. If the sites in your price range look amateurish, cookie-cutter, bland or in any way unprofessional, so will your business.

• Test the company’s own Website for design, content and ease of navigation. If theirs looks slick and works well, it suggests they have the resources to create quality work.

• Find out how long the company and/or its staff have been in business. Is the firm fly-by-night, or does its workforce boast experts who have been in the business for years?

• Will they customize your site? A good company can use your current marketing materials, including your business logo, color scheme, literature and graphics to create a site that brands your business perfectly. If you have no such branding material, do they have the talent to create if for you?

• Does the company have sufficient staff to work with you directly? If you’re not satisfied with their work, will the company return to the drawing board until you are satisfied? Do they offer a no-strings money-back guarantee if they can’t please you?

The Supporting Services
In order to take your business online, let’s forget about “bells and whistles” for now and get down to the essentials needed to establish your company on the World Wide Web.

Domain Name – A domain name is your online address (URL), and the right domain name is crucial in enabling your current and prospective customers to find you. That’s why it’s vital to select a memorable, easy-to-spell domain name. Try using your business name if it’s unavailable; if not, try forming a name based on words that describe what you do or otherwise associate with your business. Untaken domain names can run from about $2-30 or more—however if the URL you want is considered a “premium domain name,” which is typically a name in high demand due to its simplicity, memorability and widespread market appeal such as homes.com, cars.com, food.com, etc., expect to pay a premium price. Web Hosting – Web hosting is the service of providing server space to Website customers so they can keep their sites up and running. The server space size required varies from site to site—if yours is large with lots of pages, graphics, traffic and/or shopping options, you will require more space than a 1-3 page brochure site.

No matter what your site’s size or ambitions, one important caveat when choosing a Web hosting provider is to make sure that it provides 99% uptime—companies with long or frequent downtimes mean your site is also down during that period, possibly costing you credibility, customers and sales. Solid companies will post it on their Websites or have a representative who can give you an exact percentage. All reputable companies have their stats available, and no company is up 100% of the time, no matter what they say.

A host offering 99% uptime allows your Website to stay up and running virtually 24/7, assuring your customers that your Internet doorway is always ready for business.

Website Content
The content of your Website is a combination of all the information and graphics on your site, most notably the text. If you feel inspired to write your own content, that’s great. All content should be proofread by an expert in grammar and punctuation before it’s published—otherwise your business will look as if it cuts corners and lacks quality. After all, if you don’t care enough to make sure your Website is professional, why would anyone trust your company to be?

Website Marketing
The first step is to figure out your action plan for overcoming the obstacles to your business growth, such as: How will your site get discovered by prospective customers? 1. Get your site listed in the top search engines – Internet surfers typically use the most popular search engines, like Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc. to find what they want using keywords specific to a service or product. 2. Place online advertising in relevant places. If you have the funds, you can pay search engines like Google to place your company at the top of certain keyword lists, so that a random search for say, “running shoes” places your site up top and in bold print. Less expensive options include placing banner or text link ads on the Web pages of companies whose products or services compliment your own. Also, don’t forget to put your URL (Website address) on everything, from your business cards to stationary to the company car, anywhere it will be seen.
If you’re not a writer, hire a professional to write this content for you. Take advantage of people’s love of sending forwards to generate some free publicity for your company.

Maintenance
For example, you might find a Web design service that touts its low prices, but always inquire what that low price includes. Ask up front if your design company offers everything you might need, such as search engine submission, hosting services, marketing consultation services, ad campaign creation, copywriting services, tech support and other elements your company may require to launch your online business. One company may give you a break on your Website design, then charge you a whopping $50 a month for hosting. Does their bargain-priced Website include any other services, like customization, graphics, branding elements or Flash animation if you want them? Will they allow updates to your site when you need them?

A. Build a Website for Your Business in 7 Easy Steps
You are obviously reading this article for a reason, you need a website for your business. In my personal opinion, every small business, large corporation, non-profit organization should have their own website online.

Why doesn't every business nationwide have a website?

1) Layout & Design
Now that you have a feel for what your competitors are up to on their websites, you can start to get together ideas for the layout and design of your website.

2) Find a Professional Website Designer
I would prefer to stay local, but like myself, I have clients nationwide that desire my website design services.

3) Request a Price Quote Estimate
Just like me, many other website designers (atleast the professional ones) will have some way to request a total cost estimate for your website project. This is normally a free service in the form of a web form that will ask you for basic information about your project such as number of pages, timeline, budget, design specifics, etc.

4) Decide on a Website Designer
Once you have received responses back from website designers look over all of them (there may be a lot depending on your area) and choose a designer that gives you the fairest price and expresses and understanding in the result you are going for. Like I said, I suggest staying local and requesting a face-to-face interview. Typical small business websites should only take 5 to 7 business days max from design to publish and should range in cost from $250.00 to $2,000.00 based on specific needs, turn around time, features and other factors.

Make sure your Website Designer offers the following:
Free Quote Request
Is capable of custom website designs
Previews of the work
Design revisions/changes to previews
Satisfaction Guarantee/Money Back Guarantee
Transfer of full ownership once work is completed
Provides a professional invoice for work completed
Offers multiple file delivery options, CD-ROM, uploading to server or zipped file attachment

5) Working With Your Website Designer
Feel free to be open and express your design needs and requirements. Remember, this is your website and you have hired the designer to do the work for you. This is similar to ordering business cards, you will need to tell the designer specifics like layout, page/category names, the goal your website is trying to accomplish and what info you would like on the site. Being specific will help get the design idea across to the designer which will allow him to be more productive and efficient in the design process. In turn, resulting in a more accurate design with a fast turn around.

6) Previewing the Designer's Work
During the website design process, you will be interested to see how far along the designer has come. I call these previews which are emailed to the client for approval of the work. The client can review and refine my work. Once the website design meets the client's requirements and the designer gets final approval, we can move on to the next step which is finalizing the entire website and publishing.

7) Finalizing and Publishing
Finally, once you have given the designer the final approval he/she will create the entire website. It is very time consuming for designers to create entire websites and this avoids investing time and money incase the client backs out. Be prepared with the text (also called copy) and information, prices, descriptions, paragraphs, etc. that you want to display on your website. Some web designers will charge extra to create copy for you, but you can save a lot if you write it out in a Word document or email and send it to the designer. Once the site is complete, the designer may require payment before uploading or sending you the files he/she created. Make sure you get an Invoice for your records and request a hard copy back up if the designer is uploading the files for you.

B. The Plastic Web of Ecommerce Website Design
Ecommerce website design embraces the idea of the Internet storefront. Cash, checks, credit cards, and debit cards are all viable means to handle paying for services, goods or other. When it comes to ecommerce website design, this is an issue that acquires paramount importance.

The importance is highlighted when you acknowledge there are no cash registers or night deposit-drops on an ecommerce website design. Many ecommerce website designs do not limit their payment acceptance to just credit or debit cards, but also feature a way that customers can pay by check or money order. So what goes into the ecommerce website design to increase the functionality of accepting payments over the Internet? A merchant account can be a tough call because unless a company possesses a proven financial track record along with a solid financial backing, chances are the merchant account could be expensive. The official websites are packed with information for developers setting up their ecommerce website design. The drawbacks to independent acquirers are the fees and exclusions that the seller will have to cover. The age of the plastic web means that setting up an ecommerce website design has never been simpler. In order to make the best decisions during this phase of the ecommerce website design, check the fees associated with the merchant account or acquirer. For example, make a chart that compares the fees for application, setup, statement, discount rate, transaction and monthly minimums.

By breaking down these fees, the selection of merchant account will become easier. The determination of fees will also impact the way business is billed, including raising certain prices to absorb the cost of how payment is received. For standard ecommerce website design where the site boasts its own shopping cart and shipping calculator, the fee breakdowns would be rolled into the posted prices. The research will prepare the developer of the ecommerce website design model that incorporates a pricing model.

• Identify Products/Services

• Set Prices

• Determine Shipping Vendor

• Establish Shipping Prices

• Research Merchant Accounts

• Obtain Merchant Accounts

• Give All Data to the Designer

Costume jewelry became known as “costume” jewelry because of its use in stage costumes. Unlike precious jewelry, costume jewelry shouldn’t be considered to be an investment but some pieces may be considered worthy of being called a keepsake. Coco Chanel may have been the most recognized designer of costume jewelry pieces, but Kenneth Jay Lane created costume jewelry pieces that may have been among the most recognizable pieces. For instance, Lane created the three-strand pearl necklace worn by Barbara Bush at the inaugural ball.

Costume jewelry has a look, a style, an attitude all its own. This artistic movement is easily noted in costume pieces in the geometric designs. Flowers, military insignias, bows and sunburst designs were very prevalent in the costume jewelry of the period. Modernist artists followed the Retro period with styles that were understated and quietly classy. Theme based costume jewelry such as holiday specific pieces became so popular that there was a move toward mass production of the beautiful costume jewelry pieces.

Recently, however, there has been a move toward bigger, more elaborate new costume jewelry pieces as well as collecting older, vintage pieces. Style, fashion, and attitudes that are remarkably personal in their costume jewelry fashion statements.

A. Costume Jewelry They Look So Good On You
As the name implies, vintage costume jewelry is old imitation jewelry. Beaded costume jewelry is a fun and funky way to express yourself. Some wholesale costume jewelry is just for fun and very fleeting. Nowadays, costume jewelry is considered as jewelry articles to wear with specific type of clothing to improve the appearance and personality levels. Vintage costume jewelry frequently mimicked fine jewelry designs and, if made by skilled craftsmen, was thought to be "real" at first glance.

Some jewelry is unsigned and some is by well known vintage costume jewelry designers or companies. Necklaces are also going large thanks to this vintage costume jewelry trend. Most of vintage jewelry can also be called costume jewelry. Even trained eyes cannot distinguish the difference between gold costume jewelry and solid 14-karat gold jewelry.

The versatility of this handmade designer costume jewelry transcends formal and casual, young and old. Costume designer jewelry gives you the lavish feel and delicate twinkle that just doesn’t appear with cheaper types of costume jewelry. Great designers create vintage costume jewelry that can be worn by fashion-forward women of every age.

The vintage costume jewelry is absolutely beautiful. Vintage costume jewelry is fun. Today's costume jewelry is fun, fabulous and inexpensive - perfect for casual wear or dress-up. Jewelry that is brass plated, as most costume jewelry is, can cause an allergic reaction or infection. Now inexpensive and costume jewelry is also considered as fine jewelry which are available in bargain price too. Most of the costume jewelry of today mimics the jewelry of the 30,40 and 50s.

B. 6 Tips For Estate Costume Jewelry Shopping
Let’s face it – us women love to and buying that estate jewelry is no different. Buying estate costume jewelry is a whole lot of fun. Now that said it can also be exciting and very confusing and especially if you are searching for quality affordable estate costume jewelry.

Whether you are shopping for an estate jewelry gift for someone very special or you’ve decide it’s time to treat yourself, you need to know how to get the best estate costume jewelry on the market.

1. If you are looking for an estate costume jewelry piece that is specific you need to be sure to shop around and do some price comparison. By purchasing online you can save a lot and find a great deal.

2. Even estate costume jewelry comes in a variety of qualities. Some very high quality made with the best materials including rhinestones, Swarovski crystals, and sterling silver.

3. If you don’t know the return policies ask. If you are buying online read about their policies and if you can’t find them then you need to email and ask.

4. You can buy awesome faux pearl estate costume jewelry and it will fool your toughest critics.

5. If you are purchasing designer costume jewelry pieces like Grosse, Trifari, or Cine, ensure the pieces are authentic and you are paying fair market price. Shop around and make sure to shop online.

6. If you aren’t familiar with the company do your homework on the company before you buy. If you don’t like the warranty don’t buy. Their store their rules.