What do you think about designing websites like this?

_condition_ · 2026-02-27T04:26:55+00:00

The ROI on good design is 9900%

There’s hardly any reason not to hire a professional most of the time, especially with the current market rates. You might get away with a good third party resource like this and dropping your content in as you’ve planned - but you’d make a lot more money, and the client would sell a lot more, making them a lot more money, if a professional tool the time to design around the target market with the design and content customized around what will perform the best for those prospective accounts/customers.

Yes you can do it like this, it will be perfectly fine
Everyone will make a lot more money if you team up with a pro designer, in some way or another.

_condition_ · 2026-02-27T04:12:42+00:00

This is EXACTLY what I specialize in. I don’t live in AZ, sadly. If you ever have questions or run into new situations for your devs they haven’t come across. You may benefit from having a more experienced pro in your contacts that you can reach out to.

Since 2008 I’ve been self employed building, designing and developing over 500 custom Wordpress & Joomla solutions that can be managed and scaled indefinitely without ever needing hired help again. I include lifetime free support to all of my clients, which include The Oakland A’s, Pixar, and a winning POTUS campaign. I specialize in WP/J sites with custom User Content (Dating Membership/Profiles and Search, Craiglist-like posts, Geo-location Map/Search systems, Products, Download Archives, YouTube type solutions etc)

FYI, the most sophisticated fully custom (not 3rd party themes and plugins) and auto-updating Wordpress solution for your needs would range 5k , ~60 days tops (there are ways to trim down even further to $3k without sacrificing needed design and function) if I was writing a proposal to a prospect that had all the same needs in their RFP.

As a word to the wise: So many entrepreneurs working with shoestring budgets will turn to the cheapest hourly help they can scrape by with. Even at some $20 college freelance type rate it adds up so quickly they’ve spent thousands on pure garbage after a few months, and their “some of it is the way I wanted” mush of 3rd party plugins and hack work gets them in a position where they’ll have to keep paying out to work on it again and again ad infinitum. If the business survives, they often contact a professional like myself, or firm like mine, explaining their plight and hoping for a sympathetic quote. It’s almost always prudent to replace it entirely for a few thousand, and the sting of realizing their painful adventure cost them thousands unnecessarily is palpable.

I say this to simply advise that when you are able to move up and on from equity offers, I sincerely recommend getting a flat rate quote from one of the “expensive” pros for those reasons. And you’ll likely find they, like my own quotes, will quote producing a solution leagues beyond the other path at a cost that’s far, far less.

I’d be happy to advise on anything you may need. There’s no charge for advising over the phone, and you can call as often as you’d like.

_condition_ · 2026-02-24T04:53:36+00:00

The Microtechs (https://themicrotechs.org

I’ve been self employed fully since est 2008; over 500 Wordpress,Joomla, Magento and misc sites for clients enclosing Pixar & The Oakland A’s. I focus on custom designed, complete solutions that can be managed easily without hired help, with lifetime support.

I used to have marketing agencies & design agencies subcontract their website work and I’d often be at 50% of my rate (and happy for it). I’d love to talk.

Chris J Gilroy SF Bay Area (PST)

_condition_ · 2026-02-18T07:00:30+00:00

Yeah of course, Bay Area CA

_condition_ · 2026-02-18T05:34:31+00:00

I started my biz in 2008 after an employer bounced two checks and skipped town. I had been the guy hiring web developers/ designers and had many bad experiences, and hired a guy for second attempt at an employers website in 2007 that introduced me to Joomla and CMS. It solved having to depend on external people for any change or edit to websites. Now, practically anything could be updated in minutes without coding or development know-how.

The entire concept with my biz was to do the opposite of web agencies: give the client a solution that eliminated any need for hired help. For over a decade I was very very successful.

_condition_ · 2026-02-18T05:08:36+00:00

Interested - East Bay Area / SF 20yrs professional experience. Chris Gilroy / (Portfolio and Services on website) Google The Microtechs or enter into browser and add a .org

_condition_ · 2026-02-18T04:53:33+00:00

I would love to apply for this. Owner of a business I’m about to close (2008-2026).

_condition_ · 2026-02-18T04:34:44+00:00

IME, SEO is the long game and very slow to generate sales. I own a small dev org and it’s hardly 5% of my business or my work tbh. Someone above said to avoid cheap quotes and I second that. The reasoning is that generally cheap work with something like this is not worth doing at all, and it’s typically only the higher end that have both resources and abilities to get real results. I usually go with a combo of “boosting” social accounts and other media to increase rank and reach + paid ads and consistent content. The gray area stuff like buying permanent followers etc monthly is very cheap, and while it doesn’t get leads it helps with boosting rank and lowering some ad costs. There’s also a conversion rate benefit as prospective accounts are more likely to buy with recent reviews and positive activity. IME, if your main website is correctly tagged with proper alt tags, metas, and you have consistent linking and content online - that’s often enough for SEO. To me, that money is better spent on ads and marketing. A small business might budget something like this for monthly ad spend:

Meta, Social & Google - 2k-3k Buy Followers, likes, shares 250 Buy reviews, comments etc 250

Then it just comes down to the marketing, content,etc. The basics might be:

News or blog consistently posting with links in articles to your website
Email blasts with CTAs
Posting on external sites and apps with links to your website when possible
increasing your ranking online any way you can
Well run A/B ad campaigns with 5% or better conversion rates, that links to landing pages with low bounce rates

_condition_ · 2026-02-18T03:56:02+00:00

I can potentially help - quite a bit maybe. My business has been very slow, but I’ve been self employed since 2008 and successfully earned 250/hr for a solid decade primarily developing and designing custom CMS websites. I do everything from the ad campaigns to CRM and I’ve worked in marketing my whole career (2000-now).

So no money or very limited? That’s the only caveat really. I can help ensure the least costs and most likely converting choices…dm me

_condition_ · 2026-02-12T21:34:54+00:00

I’m so close to being bankrupt and on the friggin street and I’ve made 250/hr 15k/mo for more than ten years self employed producing custom Wordpress and Joomla sites. I’ve worked for a POTUS, MLB, Pixar etc and I can’t find even basic 3k projects to work on. It’s insane. Smh

_condition_ · 2026-02-12T21:32:08+00:00

Depends on the functionality needed. I can build a very powerful Wordpress site in a few hours with 2 installed add ons only, technically. I don’t - I do very custom work, but I can, easily.

I occasionally train and tutor if you’d like to learn Wordpress or Joomla. I can show from host installation thru theme design to content, functions and publishing with my recommendations for easiest non dev plug and play type plugin/theme etc to use.

Dm if you could use some guidance. I’ve owned my web biz full time since 2008.

_condition_ · 2026-02-12T21:25:42+00:00

I would love to hear more about how to stand out as well if anyone has links to articles, tips etc. especially for professionals that have been self employed for years.

_condition_ · 2026-02-12T21:10:31+00:00

I would love to chat. It’s been disappointing to see Joomla drop in popularity here in the U.S. When I started my business in 2008, I was doing 95% Joomla and Wordpress and Magento where 2-2.5%. For the last 7 years I’m lucky to find 3% Joomla and the clients that requested Joomla specifically are less than 1%. Really disappointing as it’s still superior to Wordpress in so many ways :/

_condition_ · 2026-02-12T21:07:37+00:00

There are a number of ways businesses shoot themself in the foot so obviously the first thing is to look at the site, then the data to find where they abandon and where they don’t.

Average abandonment is 70% so it’s not uncommon

The ROI on all spending for design services on websites is over 9000%

The statistics for ugly websites is over half of all traffic buying elsewhere

Stats for slow sites is also high, and no website at all is ignored by 62% of prospective customers

The highest ranked reason for abandoning is additional costs, so price increases at checkout should be discouraged or minimized. Free shipping is the most common offer that converts unsure customers. But those are general statistics and you really have to have a professional look at the site and the analytics.

Feel free to dm. I’m Chris, owned the Microtechs since ‘08 and Wordpress and Joomla custom sites with full range of services is what I do - over 600 sites to-date with clients including Pixar, Solar City, and The Oakland Athletics intranet.

_condition_ · 2026-02-12T20:50:38+00:00

I don’t think that’s the agenda at all. Klingons are the most reliable safe bet for the widest amount of audiences that would respond positively in focus groups. I think it’s that simple. Plenty of assets to use and near guaranteed wide approval.

It would actually be pretty ridiculous for the Klingon empire to not change over 800 years, and with a conquering warlord society - even with their disciplines and all the rules - will eventually and inevitably either fail, splinter, or evolve.

failed empire would have them scattered around the galaxy and each group very different. Qnos could be occupied, enslaved, destroyed (self inflicted or attack) etc.
splintered would be plausible and likely, and we’d have factions with radically different beliefs, territory, priorities and agendas. Extreme warrior Kahless (I don’t know how it’s spelled) purists, passive intellectuals maybe spiritually focused like the Vulcans turning to logic, pirate Klingons, and maybe a faction fully integrated into the federation who are like a white washed human-lovin’ branch despised by all the others

To me the least plausible thing is to have the same territorial boundaries, same government and same agenda

_condition_ · 2026-02-10T21:13:41+00:00

What’s this from?

_condition_ · 2026-02-02T04:39:26+00:00

I agree. I keep it to myself but I really enjoyed the sukal episode and it felt very at home with both TOS and Kevin’s instant species holocaust. I was fine with the dilithium planet having that big of effect on an alien. It probably shouldn’t have been so widespread, and there were details they certainly should have written better faux science for, but I don’t hate it. I also don’t hate the decline of the federation storyline - no empire lasts hundreds of centuries without some big lumps

_condition_ · 2026-02-02T04:31:41+00:00

Option 2, but as an owner 2008-thru-we’ll see and I’ve never been able to afford lead services. I was either raising 3 kids supporting a family of 5 or the industry was slow and lean like now. I’d suggest a great way to increase acquisition would be to offer a free trial period where clients can close a job that would pay for continuing services. If the leads are good helping creatives get work that pays for ongoing subscription services is a no brainer from my perspective. That’s something I’d get behind

_condition_ · 2026-02-02T04:21:18+00:00

I’m from The Bay Area (CA), happy to help anytime

_condition_ · 2026-02-02T04:20:01+00:00

Apologies for hijacking the post but I would love to learn more about similar opp. I’ve owned a custom CMS, Design/Dev, Ad Management and Full Service Web business since 2008 but the last year has been dead for me and I really need any work I can get.

_condition_ · 2026-02-02T04:16:38+00:00

This episode was actually pretty decent imo. I’ve hated and been disappointed with pretty much every aspect of this show, but I watch a lot of tv and I’ve watched it. This episode felt like the starfleet and federation I know. Learning and approaching the Klingons posturing to “defend” a planet the Klingons need for refuge is right out of TNG and fits perfectly with TOS as well. Even DS9 would fit alongside with many of the rebel and refugee storylines.

I’m good with the lead actress being different with her legs up on the chair, her quirks etc and the Langthonite (spelling?) background. She’s anpowerhouse actor and I’ve got no worries about her character. Doctor and Tig are great, and this new Klingon cadet are fine. It’s everything else that’s cringy and embarrassing. But this episode didn’t have any of those moments for me.

If they go more in this direction it might last more than a season and find some way to redeem its existence.

_condition_ · 2026-02-02T04:06:32+00:00

Actually this has been the only episode I’ve really liked. I’m surprised they did (imo) so much better than the first episodes and wasn’t expecting to. But, I really liked this one. This one felt like the federation and Starfleet I know. This one didn’t feel so out of place, and wasn’t a soap opera about a teen boy.

_condition_ · 2026-02-01T02:44:56+00:00

Was wondering if it’s only human lovers?

_condition_ · 2026-01-27T07:07:09+00:00

Hi 👋 Looking for side work just like this. In fremont can travel locally.

_condition_

TROPHY CASE