I ran across a post at The Blog Herald about hiring a blog designer and even though the post is a year old, its still very relevant today.

Feel free to go read the post in its entirety but I wanted to highlight the major points:

How to get the designer you want:

1. Be clear, concise, professional and friendly in your initial contact.

2. Explain your project in enough detail to pique the designer’s interest.

3. Give them adequate time to respond (at least 5 days). You can then follow up with an e-mail that quotes your original and reiterates your desire to work with them.

4. Understand if they aren’t able to begin your project right away. Someone in high demand obviously has other clients already in queue.

How to be a great client to work with:

1. Clearly define for the designer what you’re trying to accomplish with your site, what impression you’d like to give your visitors and what “brand image” you’d like to project.

2. Use lots of descriptive adjectives to help the designer understand what styles appeal to you. You can even provide some examples of sites that appeal to you to give further guidance.

3. Don’t say “I’m not sure what I want, so I leave the design completely up to your expertise” unless you really will be happy with whatever they create for you.

4. Don’t be afraid to provide constructive feedback about the design concept(s) presented to you. Designers know they’re not always going to hit on the perfect look for everyone on the first try, and expect feedback to help them ensure you’re perfectly satisfied with the outcome.

5. Expect to pay at least part of the design fee up front.

How to be a client they’ll want to work with again:

1. Be responsive and respectful of their time. A good designer will return the favor.

2. Recommend them to others. Write a post on your blog about your new design and link to the designer’s site.

3. Pay promptly.

With the exception of the 5 day email response - I think 2 days, at the most 3, is more reasonable - I do agree with what the author of this post has to say. I also have a few other suggestions to make:

Remember that when a blog designer or any freelancer gives you a turnaround time estimate, that estimate will be based upon their workload at the time. In the freelancing world, things can change quickly. If a freelancer tells you, on February 1st, that they can have your project complete by March 1st but you wait until February 17th to get the information (and payment) to them, chances are high that the March 1st date is going to change.

Give your designer the same respect and space that you expect from them. We’re all busy people and our time is valuable. We understand that things happen and it may take you a week or so to provide information or respond to emails. And we understand because it happens to us too.

Honor your designer/freelancer’s policies. Most freelancers have set hours which may or may not include weekends or evenings. On the other hand, if they have full-time jobs, they may prefer to work evenings and weekends. Many freelancers also prefer to work without interruptions which means that phones get shut off and emails don’t get checked. If you’re not sure what their policies are, please ask. They’ll appreciate your desire to be considerate of them.

Remember, most freelancers are invested in doing a good job. Their business depends upon it. While there are a few bad apples out there, most of us want to make sure that you are completely satisfied with our work and hope to develop a good working relationship with repeat customers.