I am interested to know what web designers that design many sites, and try to keep their costs down for the customers think.

I started out designing sites with html and tables for a while, then I found out more about the whole 'keeping information sepperate from design/layout' issue.

I know that web compliance says that using css to style the pages and html to input the information, but I find that getting the design to be cross browser flexible is quite a struggle, especially if you don't have access to each browser and each version, and there are many!

Also, upon a search, I found that the majority of web designers use tables to do the whole site, and just use css to 'finesse' the design. And these sites certainly don't get penalised by the search engines for not being 'web compliant'.

What I want is to design websites for customers who want a web presence without paying a lot, and for that website to be cross browser compliant without spending a lot of time on it. Time is money after all.

Thanks for any feedback.

Right now the problem is we are still in an age when people think just because the bought the car they can handle it. I'd say at least one a month someone will tell me they want all this garbage on their site and when I tell them it's costly and impractical, they get some junk design program. The muddle through it and Voila they've posted carpet.jpgs for menus and some other stupid designs. Another guy purchased a flash ad maker and posted the demo on his site because it looked cool. It had nothing to do with his site which was for business.

Just show them what you can do. Ask what they want. be fair and don't promise more than you can do. You will build a clientèle.

I think the using tables idea is a good one it is the way I design my sites though I am not an expert and have a long way to go I like the look of the tables and one day would probably want to add some CSS but for now I am all about the tables.