Work from Hosting Companies?

[innovatek]

Does anybody know of any hosting companies that may outsource some design work or template projects? What do they require and how do you get involved with such programs? I am trying to gain some more experience and beef up my portfolio so that I can better market my business and continue to improve the quality of service that i am able to provide to current customers. You can check out my work at www.ntekdesign.com, please let me know what you think and any suggestions that you might have.

-David

[daybreak]

A couple relevant sites may have leads on this subject:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/

[Corey Bryant]

Another might actually be Sitepoint and International Web Developers Network

[bubbleshack]

You might want to try contacting Hostway (http://www.hostway.com). They are one of the major, and in some cases best, web hosting providers in the world. As we use them for some of our e-commerce clients, I noticed a spot in their online interface where they provide a directory for their customers covering everything from web design and credit card processing. According to them its extremely popular with their several hundred thousand clients. Unfortunately, they do charge an annual listing fee of around $1-$2k.

Another idea might be to spend your free time doing overhauls of well known websites that have plenty of room for improvement. This will give your clients a sense of your skill against places that they probably already have visited on their own. We try to do one quarterly just for the creative element of it, if not the promotional. The most recent example was an overhaul of the Wall Street Journal website at http://www.wsj.com. Our draft is available directly at http://www.bubbleshack.com/projects/wsj.

Hope this helps!

[(RL)Aaron]

I agree, the Wall Street Journal needs some serious help. They could take some tips from the International Herald Tribune.

[bubbleshack]

Actually, their opinion on the matter was that they want to be rich in content and that explains their current design and 300+ links on the frontpage.

Yes, this is actually what they said. p

[innovatek]

Thanks for your help, I will definitely be checking out all of of those options and will keep you posted as to my results.

[innovatek]

I posted this same question on another forum and someone brought to my attention that targeting a hosting company was the wrong point in the customer process. They said that hosting companies mainly get their business after a site has been designed, and usually do their own inhouse design if they offer it. Basically he said to contact an isp because they are at the other end of the client process. This has kind of helped me to rethink my aproach to marketing my service and some of the future ideas that I have. I was wondering of the feasibility of opening a reseller hosting company comprised of several web designers who compete for different projects. Instead of targeting customers after their site has been designed, Help them find a designer from our group of designers, consult them through the process of buying a domain name and using one of our hosting packages. With this company we would have total control over every aspect of the client process. If you have any suggestions please let me know, I am interested in any input that I can get!

[c3r3br0]

Well, I stopped doing design a couple of years ago to focus on back-end services and have partnered with two design companies in my area. Basically, I showcase their work to referrals who have not settled on a designer or are looking to change designers.

I'm sure if you keep at it, you will find some hosting companies that are not doing design in-house and wouldn't mind adding your company to their web design partners if your portfolio is up to par.

Where are you loacted?

[innovatek]

I am located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Most of my clients are local, however I have one client in Los Angeles that I met at a business program.