We had a client today who came to us for help. He outsourced his web designer to an overseas web design company a few years back. Today he received a legal letter asking for compensation for the images he is using on his web site. The copyright owners are asking for compensation from him for the misuse of their graphics.

He did not know anything about Web Design. The web design company asked for $50 and gave him a mediocre site. But from what I see $50 is really cheap even for such a web site. But now the expensive thing came. He is being sued tens of thousands for copyright infringement.

The web design company? They closed down and disappear long time ago taking the money with them and leaving the troubles for my client. He had to pay no matter what. Coughing out tens of thousands for something which seemed like a bargain was an extremely painful lesson. We managed to contact the copyright owners and helped the client explain his situation. Basically the copyright owners understand and slash the prices. But it is still an extremely substantial sum.

The dangers of outsourcing web design is that a lot of great images aren’t free. Professional web design companies paid for their uses. Fly by night companies steal such images and used them for free. Whatever consequences are to be borne by the client.

The client learned an extremely painful lesson, “You get what you pay for”. For him he got more than his share of the bargain. Web Design isn’t cheap. Creative designers aren’t easy to find. Great images aren’t cheap to buy from the stock image vendors. Great design software are expensive. All these adds up. We are seeing web designers quoting $5 per page. For these, be extremely careful. It is very difficult for you to find out if the designer is using a legal image or not. Use them at your own risk. I would suggest pay for a good design from a reliable web design company. The money will pay themselves off as a good web site generate hits and revenue. Never never never get it cheap and lose out in the end like my client. There are many of them out there who were burned and a lot continue to be burn.

Tags: Dangers of Web Design Outsourcing

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