In the cut and thrust, ever competitive market that is web design, there is always a good deal to be had. This is especially the case in the current financial climate as the recession has meant that many people are “tightening their belts” so to speak. The web design service industry has felt the full force of the credit crunch in the same way that many other business sectors have. As a consumer you can turn this to your own advantage by ensuring that as well as having a website designed and built that you also have six months of web promotion thrown in for free.

Now I am not a web designer; I actually run stuttering treatment speech courses here in the UK and I also help people by offering a DVD authoring service.

Now there may be a number of you; the readers of this article, that believe that to request a free website promotion service to go with the web design is some what cheeky. I would have to agree with you however it has to be worth a go – we are in a recession after all.

It is similar to when you a buy a car, this is something that my father did recently. Now we have all hard about the problems in the car markets; the demise of General Motors being a prime example. My dad decided to make the most of their woes and went about securing himself a great deal. He knew the car he wanted and stated that he was only willing to pay a certain price, a price which was well below the car dealer’s asking price. He went around a number of car garages and put in his offer, eight of the dealerships turned down his offer but the ninth accepted it.

What I am saying is that when you make these requests a lot of web designers will turn you down but there will be at least one that will accept. It is important to ensure however that the person who accepts to build you a website and is happy to throw in a web promotion service for free is capable of producing the goods and isn’t just some fly by night novice.

You have decided that the time has arrived when you need to have an internet prescence for your small business. You are fully aware that the future of advertising and gaining new clients will be internet based. What has worked in previous years such as newspaper advertising may well now be a thing of the past. It is purely a case of moving with the times.

The scary thing for many new webmasters is all of the initial costs of setting up a website. I remember all too well just how expensive it was around ten years ago when I had my first website designed and built. It was based on the subject of speech therapy for stammering and I was investing in this new site at a time when I did not have a great deal of money. It has however one of the best investments that I have ever made. The website certainly enabled a lot of people to find out about the stuttering treatment service that I offer.

The initial costs of setting up a website include paying for the design, the domain and the web hosting. Then there are the ongoing costs of web promotion; there is of course no point in having a top notch website if nobody ever visits it.

So how can we ensure that we receive a web design service at an affordable price? Just like it is in other forms of business it is not so much what you know but who you know. It is a good idea to ask your friends and colleagues if they know of any professional web designers, especially if these friends or colleagues already have a website. This may well help you to obtain a quote on what is referred to as mates rates.

A second idea is to search for freelance web designers rather than going to a web design agency. Many up and coming web designers start up on their own on a self-employed basis and are normally happy to offer a discount whilst they are building up their portfolio.

Whether you want a web design for your composite front doors business or your anger management therapy business, in fact whichever business you have I am sure that the above tips will help.

I wish you every success.