I am not a professional web designer. I have never taken a class, attended a conference, or read through an entire book on website design. I do not make anywhere near the bulk of my money by doing this, and I doubt that I will ever be able to find full-time employment as a designer. I like telling the truth, so we should go ahead and get that part out of the way.

I design websites because I like to. I am a very early riser. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. roughly 360 days of the year. Unless something crazy is going on, I always fire up my computer first thing and start designing or reading about design. If I have a paying client, I design for them until the job is done. If I don't have a paying client, I design for myself. I work full-time as a high school English teacher, and when it's time to go to work, I go and am there until I'm not there anymore. I don't do non-work-related things while I'm at work.

I have been designing websites for two years now. Google and I have become even closer friends than before with all of my searching for things like, "CSS changing fonts between divs", and other things like that. I don't have Dreamweaver or any other supposedly critical and ridiculously expensive program like that. I use Microsoft Notepad, Filezilla, and Gimp for all design purposes.

In other words, there are many things that I can't/won't do for you. I won't run any type of website that deals with large sums of money since I can't be available 24/7 to deal with inevitable problems. I won't design for people who are doing things that I think are shady (if you have to ask, it's probably shady). I can't design super-dynamic, graphically-intense websites because I don't know how to do that yet. I can't develop sophisticated server-side processes and applications. Etc. I think you get the idea. Somehow, in spite of these limitations, I have several regular clients who continue using me for design. I think I have an idea why.

First, I don't rip people off. I charge a flat hourly fee (currently $25) for all work after the initial design. I keep a timer going, and I stop the timer when I am not actively working on the site. End of story. The web design market is a bewildering place. For people who don't know how long it takes to create a simple graphical link button, it can be an expensive place. While it may be unfashionable, I have a conscience, which prevents me from doing mean things, like scamming people for cash.

Second, most people don't need an incredibly expensive/complicated website. Unless you are running a business that generates a very large cash flow, you do not need to spend very much money for a website. Web design firms chase those large contracts, so you are small potatoes to them. To me, on the other hand, your $200 website is a priority. Furthermore, I actually create custom sites. Larger design firms generate a few templates and spend the bulk of their time and money on marketing. Now, for some people, one of those "larger design firms" is a better choice than using me. If you are in that group, I'll let you know. My marketing is all word-of-mouth, so I don't want unhappy clients.

I think that about does it. If you are still interested, shoot me an email at carl@robertsfreelancing.com or click "Contact" on the right.