I wish to god that I was a good designer.

I draw. I paint. I like to think I'm a pretty artistic person. When I was young, I loved to draw so much that my parents would give me reams of paper and boxes of pencils for Christmas. My sister taught me how to make the U shape for a face and once I mastered the technique, I was sure I was fucking Rembrandt. All my friends would tell me I was a good artist. My art teachers always gave me a grade A. I thought I was the class Michelangelo. That was, until Dean came along.

"There's a psychology to profitable web design. The only way a novice can be sure a design is profitable is to hear it from those with proof."

Fucking Dean. That bastard. The first time I saw one of Dean's drawings, I felt sick. I was a hack. A pretender. I knew then, at that early age, that it would never matter if I went to art school. It would make no difference how many years I spent perfecting and practicing. Despite my passion and love, regardless of my creativity or ambition, Dean had more natural talent than I would ever possess. Dean was born to be an artist. I was born to be a wannabe.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. What is art? Blah. Blah. Blah. So what if Dean had mastered realism by the age of ten? I was creative. Inventive. The art teachers loved me anyway. I got to make the class mural for the big Halloween festival. I got glowing praise. The only thing my art teachers could say to Dean was: "That's very good, Dean...as usual."

I knew the truth. My art instructors couldn't teach to Dean because he was a better artist than they were. That's why they taught elementary school. They wanted to spotlight fifth-grade art that looked like fifth-grade art. Poor Dean. I bet he's in his million dollar beachfront studio, crying his eyes out over a glass of Crystal right now. Fucking Dean. That bastard.

I make my own webpages. I don't like to show them here on Cozy because frankly, I am ashamed. I look at Cozy Frog or Cozy Academy and it's Dean all over again. My boss, C-Pimp designs all the sites in the Cozy family. And I don't mean he does just part of the work like the layout or the HTML. C-Pimp does everything from picking the fonts, to choosing the colors, to creating the logos and graphics. He codes the pages, upgrades the look and chooses the placement of ads and links. He is completely self-taught and no matter how long I spend learning about PhotoShop and reading tutorials on sellable, professional-looking site design, my pages will never be as good as his. He was born to be a design God. I was born to work for one.

Are you like me? You know how to build pages. You can make a logo and buttons and can match colors for web sites. You can create a decent, quick-loading site. You have some of the talent but you know damned well your site would sell better if you had a real designer. You're tired to toiling over stuff you know will never be right and you're ready to pay a professional. If this is you, then you would be well advised to keep certain things in mind when shopping for a site designer:

Look For What Sells.

There's a lot of designers out there. All of them promise that their designs convert. They're supposed to tell you that but it doesn't make it true. Ask around. Other webmasters will tell you which designers make money instead of taking it. A site doesn't sell just because the designer uses bright colors and cool fonts. The good designer knows which colors and fonts sell your product. They know exactly where to place the hot model pics versus the JOIN NOW graphics. There's a psychology to profitable web design. The only way a novice can be sure a design is profitable is to hear it from those with proof.

Know Your Designer's Specialty.

All site designers are not created equal. Some are good at gallery templates. Others have perfected paysite tours. Some are good with blogs or Flash animations. There are designers that are fantastic when it comes to creating ad banners but they suck at site design. Every once in a while you find a designer that excels at all the specialties but most designers are only proficient with one or two. If you need a tour, find a designer that is adept with tours. If you want to buy good gallery templates, research gallery designers.

You Have to Spend Money to Make Money.

Granted, there are some designers that undervalue their services. The design biz is as cutthroat as any other. You'll discover a few designers that offer lower prices in order to get work. However, there's a reason why the exemplary designer charges more than the passable designer. They do it because they have proof that their works sells porn. They charge more because their clients will pay more.

Exclusive vs. Non-Exclusive.

Do you want a special design, made just for you? Make sure that the designer you choose can offer this. Keep in mind that if you want to buy a certain template, you probably won't be the only webmaster buying it. Lots of designers will sell the same template to several webmasters. Remember that the other webmasters buying your template are your direct competitors. You can't compete when your page looks like every other page on the web. If you can't afford to pay for an exclusive design, at least try to find a designer who sell templates to a limited amount of webmasters.

If you're like me and you know you'll never be Dean or C-Pimp, then maybe it's time to hire a professional site designer. Browse the online portfolios of the ones listed inside Cozy Frog's Design Listings. Compare prices. Ask other webmasters to recommend designers. Know the designer's specialty. Find out about exclusivity. These men and women are artists and our profession is lucky to have them.