What would take priority on my website?

I think, for design, the portfolio is more important.

I would want to see a finished product from a web designer. I would look at all aspects at once.

@Hawaii_Jake – based on my quote: ” I could launch it all at the same time…”, thats what you’re recommending? No “coming-soon,” or the dreaded – “Under construction?” I do want something up there. The original site sucks and I’m almost better off having nothing up there.
Maybe just a redirect to my blog? Maybe just my contact info? It would be nifty if I had one of those boxes where people to type in their email, to be notified when the site relaunches?
(I think I can probably get the whole thing done in a week or two, as I already have all the images for my portfolio, and my resume typed up, so this is not going to be a long stretch for the re-launch. However, design can be unpredictable, so something small might be time-consuming, if I hit a bump. Grrrr.)

@serenityNOW Yes, I’m recommending doing the whole thing at once. How likely are you to have visitors between now and launching a new site? If your current traffic is very low, I would risk it by leaving up the old site and working on the new one.

There may be an alternative: Could you launch either the resume or portfolio right away with a link to contact you for what you didn’t put up yet? That contact link could then be modified when the site is finished.

@Hawaii_Jake – I think maybe I’ll do the second suggestion. (Simply post the resume.) If I have any inquiries, I can provide links to work I’ve done. I also have some shots of other sites I’ve done in the past. I can always slap those on a blank page, if anyone asks. Thanks!

I can’t really get too specific without seeing any work, however, I can tell you if I was going to hire you, how I would go about it.

First I would want to have a basic chat with you, to see if you know what I want, and to see if you can do it. Then I would want to see an example of your work, that I would judge on looks and functionality.

Bad color schemes, misaligned areas, and function errors would be what stop me from going ahead with it.

If I see a site that looks ok or good, and it works without problem, then I would want to know how long it takes you to complete work.

Seeing “coming soon” or “under construction” would make me assume you are as slow as me, and would stop me going ahead with anything.

If everything is ok, I would then want to know what your hourly rate is, and would want to know if you are willing to work on results, being paid for each thing you complete rather than by the hour.

At this point, if I was satisfied and confident with what I had seen, I would place an order, otherwise, I would tell you that I will get back to you, and do the same process again with another person, then pick out the best one.

Portfolio is the priority for me. I want to know what you do, not what you say you can do.

@poisonedantidote – Thanks for the practical advice. I’ll definitely bear that in mind for the future. Like an answer for something I didn’t necessarily ask for, but needed to know. (Hopefully others can use it, too.)
@wundayatta – Makes sense to me.
@Hawaii_Jake – I did post my resume last night, so now I’ll work on the portfolio stuff. Now’s an ideal time, as things are somewhat slow.
Thanks all! (If there’s anything else anyone wants to add, that would be cool.)