There are literally thousands of websites out there competing for the same slice of attention. The numbers of people using the Internet on a daily basis is growing, but not nearly at the same rate as businesses getting online.

While this is good news for anyone in the web design business, it is scary for a business owner with a tight budget. It means the pressure to create and maintain a professional looking website is even more important than ever.

Hiring a big expensive agency for the job is not always necessary. If you are trying to save some money on a professional looking web design, you can always hire an independent freelancer, use existing templates or get help from a web hosting company. All of this will help you to save money while maintaining a professional look to your website.

Hire a Freelance Designer

There are plenty of freelance professionals out there with the skills to offer cutting edge web development services. These professionals will charge you a lot less than you would be required to pay if you were to hire a firm to work on your site rather than the individual. Some designers are still in school and will take a job for little money for extra cash and to have something else they can add to their portfolio.

You can hire on sites like Guru, Elance and oDesk. Simply post your project and choose the most qualified individual to do the work for the budget you have set. If you choose the freelancer carefully, and with some luck, the results will look as if they were done by an expensive agency, but you will not be spending as much money.

Use Existing Templates

If you are feeling confident about your ability to copy and paste your way into creating a site, try using existing quality themes such as those available from StudioPress or Elegant Themes. These give you everything you need to plug in exactly what you are looking for and enjoy the results. You can find templates for free as well, although the premium ones tend to be of generally better quality.

Keep in mind, these templates will lack a little of the stuff web designers add behind the scene. They will however still have the outwards appearance of a professionally designed website. If you are of the mindset that appearances are everything, this may be the right way for you to go.

Get Help from a Web Hosting Company

If you are not feeling completely confident with your ability to create your own website from a template, you can always get some help from a web hosting company. While this will be a little more expensive than the free templates you can find, it is not much more expensive.

You will not get all the bells and whistles you will get from a professional web designer, but you will have the assistance of a web designer to assure your website has the right look. This is a perfect middle of the road for those looking to create a website which has a great look and excellent performance. Note that not all web hosting companies offer this service.

Conclusion

It’s clear that nowadays with so many options of building a WordPress website, spending a mountain load of cash is not needed. However, as with most other things in life, you have to carefully consider the creation of a new website as a business investment and dedicate monetary and time resources accordingly.

We are lucky that we can now build a website in minutes, but at the same time if you are going for a very specific look or functionality, you’ll most probably need some expert assistance.