Though I'll not enter into conversations, let me say on the basis of what posters have said about themselves, I'm pretty certain I've met some of the individuals herein, and so my wager was made with analogue knowledge. Now, freelancing over the net is cheaper, but requires that the client knows what they want, otherwise such a process is doomed to failure, albeit iterative. One advantage of the sciptlance aproach is that many {Philippines & India for example} are conversant in English, something here that is less common. One other advantage s getting individuals who are building kudos and ranking in which case they are effectively working below cost, looking to build on their reputation later.

Given what the OP is asking for the I think 200 USD is low end, unless one goes the 100% net route, then it's medium I guess, A sensible all in budget would be around 350 to 400 {let's not forget the SEO element here either} in my view, after all one does want the webbie to still be around when one wants updates, design refreshes etc..

By the by having acted as a consultant to the entities mentioned herein, I would suggest that Web presence s not their forte,since both have not updated their copyright tag since last year

Regards

PS No I don't but I know people who do.

Eh - Still want to bet?

PPS: I love the biz contacts with gmail

Gmail's SPAM filter is the best I have ever found .. simplified my life .. YMMV. A bit of snobbery?

I use gmail for personal use - really like it.

However for business using gmail, hotmail etc makes you look like an amateur.

Not if your work is top notch. Maybe corporate types .. who cares?

A lot of companies are using Gmail as the backend to their email via Googleapps. But yeah kind of expect people seriously involved in web design to have a site/domain or two of their own and a portfolio to look at too. I'm sure the OP will have received plenty of offers via PM, unfortunately not many of them will be from professionals.

Frankly I think its better to go lookup a registered commercial company if you want a site designed/built, rather than go with freelancers picked up off a forum.