These mock-ups should look like little flow charts, showing how visitors would progress from one page to the next, and where links to outside pages might be. Designers price themselves many different ways. Some charge by the project, some by the hour, and some by the page. Because it's a new industry, there's no pricing standardization yet. The cheapest designers are those without much experience, willing to take on their first clients at a discount rate in return for finished products to list on their resumes.
Many small companies gamble on untried designers.
But some get lucky. The site for Hot Hot Hot, a food store with a flashy online presence, was first designed by a firm called Profound, in Palo Alto, California. Hot Hot Hot got a discount. The colorful, eye-catching area got a lot of attention from consumers and the media. One of the most important things to remember about design is that most visitors will be reaching your site using modems, not leased lines.