vB Designers extincted!

[pank]

A few bad apples have hurt the reputations of others. While it hurt the overall reputation of "skinners" it really did nothing but help my business. Word of mouth is the best advertisement you can ever get. It can kill you are make you one of the best...

A lot of people really have no idea how it is to handle 100's of new customers a week or a month. It can easily be an overload. Personally I take care of my current customers before anything else. I turned down 5 custom jobs last week so I could get all of my current skins up to date 3.0.1 That was completed in 2 days. A very long 2 days but my customers appreciated it.

As it stands right now my bread and butter are my skins I have for sale. Custom 1 of a kind skins will be in my market very soon. Right now my focus had been on getting my site and current customers set up and happy. This means quick support, keeping skins updated, and just basically being around to answer questions. Now that everything has fallen into place custom jobs will come. I will finally start taking on some side work. But this has been almost 2 years in the making.

You will see a "lot" of new businesses popping up. The majority will either fail or bail. Or at least this has been the trend so far. The ones that actually care about the customer will succeed if they can stick with it and keep fresh.

And as far as "overcharging"... I still think it is true you get what you pay for

That is my 2 cents

[DrkFusion]

Originally Posted by DougCooper

vBmechanic.com (one of the newer vB designers, has some nice testimonials, but still lacks a portfolio with fully featured custom forum designs)

I have used VBmechanic.com constantly for the past 6 months on my site www.ukmusic.com and highly reccomend VBmechanic, fast , friendly, and fair prices.

Doug Cooper.
www.ukmusic.com

I do not think you were given permission to remove the copyright from
http://www.ukmusic.com/forum/links.php
:ermm:

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by DrkFusion

I do not think you were given permission to remove the copyright from
http://www.ukmusic.com/forum/links.php
:ermm:

lol

i have nothing to add really, just wanted to laugh, but i don't think no one can argue that folks who skin vB are very very very well paid and imo often too well paid but meh.

[vbmechanic]

Originally Posted by sabret00the

lol

i have nothing to add really, just wanted to laugh, but i don't think no one can argue that folks who skin vB are very very very well paid and imo often too well paid but meh.

LOL yes, we all drive Ferarris and live in the Hollywood Hills.

If you add in all of the hours we spend with the initial contact emails, followup emails, bug fixes, and updates... not to mention the actual skin and button design... it's not really that much money.

[rebelsrock06]

Originally Posted by vbmechanic

LOL yes, we all drive Ferarris and live in the Hollywood Hills.

If you add in all of the hours we spend with the initial contact emails, followup emails, bug fixes, and updates... not to mention the actual skin and button design... it's not really that much money.

LOL, until you made a style youll never really know :P

Styling is what i do but not ANYWHERE as nice as VBmechanics or Panks or any of them


BUT i still work my ass off

[C.Birch]

how can you say people that make skins are well payed?

$40 = about ?24 a good skin can take days to make and code so lets say someone does one fast eg 10 hours work thats only a hourly rate of like ?2.40 and dont forget about all the little edits and fix's and testing that as to get done.

But one thing i do see on alot of skin sites is alot of good designs put one big prob, its to much design and imgs, what ever happened to nice clean designs that dont take your eyes away from the posts and dont eat up your servers cpu and data?

I would like to think i know what im talking about because i have done designs for myself a number of times:

http://community.ultimate-music.net/

http://www.lisascottlee.com/ did this one this morning, forums still got to be redone to that look, the sites also got a vb backend, that being some pages you have to be looged in to view if not it auto take you to a login screen (eg try viewing the wallpapers page) it also has its own sign up forum.

[vbmechanic]

Originally Posted by rebelsrock06

LOL, until you made a style youll never really know :P

Styling is what i do but not ANYWHERE as nice as VBmechanics or Panks or any of them


BUT i still work my ass off

Not just the style production, but you also have to run a business, answer client emails, answer prospective client emails, update your retail skins, etc. I spend at least 2 hours talking to a new client, getting an idea of what they want and negotiating the project. Then another 1 to 3 hours at the end of the project getting it installed and making sure everything works as planned; and this is with a simple, normal skinning job and these are not billable hours.

Hey Pank, how's your new Porsche? I'm running out of garage room, I'll probably have to buy a new house soon with something more than this pitiful 6-car garage.. This house just doesn't go with my Enzo.

[vbmechanic]

Originally Posted by C.Birch

how can you say people that make skins are well payed?

$40 = about ?24 a good skin can take days to make and code so lets say someone does one fast eg 10 hours work thats only a hourly rate of like ?2.40 and dont forget about all the little edits and fix's and testing that as to get done.

But one thing i do see on alot of skin sites is alot of good designs put one big prob, its to much design and imgs, what ever happened to nice clean designs that dont take your eyes away from the posts and dont eat up your servers cpu and data?

I would like to think i know what im talking about because i have done designs for myself a number of times:

http://community.ultimate-music.net/

http://www.lisascottlee.com/ did this one this morning, forums still got to be redone to that look, the sites also got a vb backend, that being some pages you have to be looged in to view if not it auto take you to a login screen (eg try viewing the wallpapers page) it also has its own sign up forum.

I like them, C. Birch. Definitely more my style than what the typical vB skinner puts out.. clean, sharp, attracts the eye without distracting. One thing I would say is I'd like to see some padding in most of your div's-- give your text some breathing space so it's not always butting up against the edges and lines. Cheers..

[C.Birch]

thanx i have always thinked about maybe starting a skinning site but i step back and then think about the time everything takes and come to terms with the fact i just dont have the free hours in my life to do it.

what design where you on about with the padding on the cell's? http://community.ultimate-music.net/ on the forums and topic listing?

[msimplay]

Originally Posted by C.Birch

how can you say people that make skins are well payed?

$40 = about ?24 a good skin can take days to make and code so lets say someone does one fast eg 10 hours work thats only a hourly rate of like ?2.40 and dont forget about all the little edits and fix's and testing that as to get done.

But one thing i do see on alot of skin sites is alot of good designs put one big prob, its to much design and imgs, what ever happened to nice clean designs that dont take your eyes away from the posts and dont eat up your servers cpu and data?

I would like to think i know what im talking about because i have done designs for myself a number of times:
http://community.ultimate-music.net/

http://www.lisascottlee.com/ did this one this morning, forums still got to be redone to that look, the sites also got a vb backend, that being some pages you have to be looged in to view if not it auto take you to a login screen (eg try viewing the wallpapers page) it also has its own sign up forum.

true about nice clean designes when i came to vbulletin a year back i was all for flashy designs and i even have a flashy one myself
i converted myself from a free vb2 skin

however the point is i am quickly realising if i have a scope for my site in terms of getting larger eventually i will have to cut back on graphic designs and do more color designs
conserving bandwidth / serverload etc

i have noticed myself that the larger sites have good designs but are not graphic heavy