Q. Are simple Web publishing tools pushing the average designer out the window?
A. If you're a web designer, you're more likely to lose clients to foreign competitors than to Web publishing tools like Weebly or SynthaSite. Yes, these programs have significantly lowered the bar for the technically challenged, making it easy to setup a page in a matter of minutes. They're great for firts time users and small time entrepreneurs.
But to get to the next level in the competitive Web 2.0 market, they'll need a unique site, not cookie-cutter pages fromprepackaged programs. They'll need an easy-to-navigate, high quality homepage to build brand identity - which only a Web designer can provide.
"There's a lot of hand holding, and it doesn't pay as much as corporate gigs, but small business is a huge market," says Adrian Chan, a design consultant for sites like GoingOn, Trustedopinion.com, and MicrosoftLive.
The biggest threat that designers face today is not from Web software, but from competitiors in Eastern Europe and South America. "You may quote a job at $10,000, but your client has $3k in his mind," Chan says. "You hear these low rates from offshore competitiors, and people get it in their heads that that's all they're willing to pay. But we still have one edge over foreign competitors - we're local."
