Well, I’m four months into this thing and have a couple of writers that have produced/are producing good content. I have the ability to hire more if I need too…. It’s time to find a designer.

I’ve got my first project posted on Elance and after being up for 4 days I am not very happy with the bids I have received. The sites in the designer’s portfolios have all been faulty; from being slow to load, to just being plain old ugly.

My original plan was to outsource most of the content creation I needed and do most of the page design/coding myself using Dreamweaver. I’ve played around with Dreamweaver 8 for about a year, but only in the last month and a half have I really gotten into it. I went through the whole Lynda basic video tutorial, doing the exercises, and taking extensive notes (which I hope to have online soon). Looking back on it, the tutorial was only mediocre, and I question the expertise of the instructor. Too much time was devoted to tables and old ways of formatting text. Not enough time was spent going through CSS, and there were not enough elaboration that would be expected from someone supposed to be an expert.

Last weekend I went to the brick and mortar B&N and was faced with the enormous task of digging through the rows of computer books to find a quality book about Dreamweaver. I went through a bunch of books; Lynda had their tutorial in book format, there was a book on Dreamweaver and Flash, lots of choices, but nothing was jumping out at me. I stumbled upon Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual and was hooked after reading the first paragraph. The Missing Manual is written in a conversational format that is “comfortable” to read. It is full of useful tips, and has tutorial files that are freely downloadable from a provided link. I would normally write down the title of the book and come home and order it on Amazon (I’m a cheap bastard, I know), but because the book was so good I decided to show Barnes and Noble a little love and shell out the 44.95. The book is very much worth the cost.

In addition to Dreamweaver, I’ve realized I need to know more about basic code. I know the basic tags, link formatting, and using the div tag to separate different sections of a page. I can layout a basic page using div tags and absolute CSS positioning. I currently can’t hand code CSS or design a floating CSS page. I’ve found some good tutorials on basic HTML at Tizag.com (great name for a site, by the way).

So what next? Do I shell out the big bucks for a state-side designer? I’ve found some good designers by finding well designed sites and following the “designed by” links at the bottom of the pages. The one designer I’ve got in mind charges $40/hr though. Do I try my hand at an Elance competitor? Do I do the design myself? I don’t have a lot of free time right now, I work full time.. but I’m not rich either.. yet ? . I’m probably going to do the first batch of designs myself to save the cash.

Update: Shortly after writing this, I buckled down and over a period of 3 days knocked out my first basic website in Dreamweaver. I’d say it took 10-13 hours to complete. I am happy with the results and learned a ton by doing the design myself. The Elance bidding closed without anyone really standing out. I may try them again in the future, but am still disappointed with my first experience using them.