Before you pay the first person you find in the phone book, there are some things you should know about the world of so-called professional web design. Like any business, you have your genuine professionals and you have your snake oil selling charlatans. The most important thing for you and your money is to be able to tell the difference between the real thing and the fake.

1. Brochureware: what they don't tell you in the advertisements

One popular thing for a lot of web designers to do is create brochureware. What's brochureware? It's when a company slaps its brochure and maybe an annual report or two into an HTML template and calls itself "online." Beware of the online brochure because it doesn't allow you to really have a presence on the web. While everyone else has lovely digital houses you're "making do" with a pixel shanty.

Putting your brochure on the web is a start, but isn't there anything else you want to say about your business or yourself? Compressing all the information about your company on four pages isn't really telling the world who you are and what you're about. What's the atmosphere at your company? What are your specialties? Who works there?

If you work for yourself, find what sets you apart from others and elaborate. The possibilities to get your word out to the world wide web are endless and really shouldn't be limited to a tri-folded piece of public relations propaganda.

2. Web Sites in Five Hours

Let's be honest. If you could build a quality web site in five hours that would define your company or your own business, would you be paying someone else to do it?

Web sites in a hurry are seldom worth the amount someone else is going to charge you do build them. If you needed a Web site yesterday you can do one of two things: bite the bullet and build it yourself of take the extra time that anyone you're going to hire is liable to need to get the job done well.

3. Beware of Ambiguity

Use caution when you're hiring out for web work. Force the people you hire to be specific about what they're going to do for you and when it's going to be done. That said, be realistic. Web sites aren't built in five hours. When they are, they're rarely even good, let alone spectacular enough to pay somebody for. You need to realize that it will take days, maybe months to do everything you want.

Speaking of doing everything you want, what do you want? Make a list. Plan it all out before you write a check or say "You're hired!" When you present a designer with a plan, they can't say "But you didn't say anything about that!" It's all on paper for you and everyone else to see.

Some final words of advice: get a contract. Get everything down on paper and make sure that whoever you hire strictly adheres to what you want. If you're not specific enough, you're going to end up with a site that you don't want to pay for, let alone throw up on the web.