We all know that the fastest and most affordable way to do anything is to do it with your own hands and brain. That is why professional writers are often the most successful online marketers: high quality content is extremely important and they can create it for themselves (cutting expenses dramatically). This logic is often applied to web design when new entrepreneurs want to set up a website. They think they can just teach themselves the skills to set up the website, saving a few hundred or more that would otherwise be spent on a web designer.

Unsurprisingly, many of these entrepreneurs end up hiring a web designer within a few weeks or months because they realize how difficult it can be to actually create your own unique website design. While it is possible for most people to learn web design on their own or through an inexpensive class, it takes time to get to the level of expertise that is needed to design a high quality site that is all it needs to be.

A website design has to be all of these things if it is to work out for the owner in the end:

Functional

Visually Pleasing

Easy to Navigate

A website design that falls short on any of these points will need to be redesigned before it can ever be successful. It has to be functional for the intended purpose of the website or it will never meet the needs of owner or visitor. If it is not easy on the eyes when reading and visually stimulating it will never grab a visitor's attention long enough to make them stick around awhile. If it is too difficult to navigate from one page to another visitors will leave in complete frustration.

So, let's go back to the original question here now that all of this is well understood. Can you just teach yourself web design and make your own custom sites when needed? The simple answer is yes, but learning the basics of web design is not enough to cover all the above listed bases with a custom website.

Learning how to design a website that is functional for all intended purposes of the owner while still being very easy to navigate and visually pleasing on every page takes more training. Some of it just comes with experience and trying new things but there is also a lot to be learned before you can set up functional, well designed websites in a reasonable amount of time.

This is why most people interested in setting up their own sites will hire one good web designer to work with them. This allows them have great websites designed while they build up their own knowledge of web design. They can also learn more about the design process and different design options through their work with a skilled web designer. Eventually, these people will have the knowledge and tools needed to design great websites for themselves.

You can save money by creating your own websites, but you have to obtain the knowledge and skill needed to make your sites functional, beautiful, and easy to navigate. If you can't make them all of those things, you are simply wasting your time by doing it yourself.