I think many designers get a little too bent out of shape sometimes with the whole crowdsourcing thing. Kind of a knee-jerk reaction. I know I did. Much better to focus on how you can adapt to the marketplace, I think.

I agree, great customer service is key. It’s probably the best differentiator between us and our undercutting friends.

You have hit the nail squarely on the head. Crowdsourcing websites are here to stay. That is an undeniable fact. Does this mean the end of design firms, agencies or freelancers? Absolutely not!

Whether these entities are around or not, as a business person, you have to constantly be prepared to expand and contract with the market. This includes making sure you have positioned yourself in a way that positively sets you apart from the competition. And, as you mentioned, that can be achieved in several ways from expanding your services, adding new skill sets and, most importantly in my opinion, maintaining excellent customer service.

These are all things that are always top of mind for us and I think it should be for our colleagues.

How can you call yourself a web designer and design sites for others when you can’t even design your own website?

Thanks for the reply!

Very true. That’s the main reason I wrote this post. I think we, as web people, forget to go over basic concepts with clients because we feel they probably already know. I think they call it ‘the curse of knowledge’.