Marcs.ws

9 years ago, when I started building websites for others, I never thought I would do what I have done this summer. I turned down a web development/design request, TWICE actually. 1 was for a project that I couldn’t do by myself with a timetable so short that I would not be able to sleep for 3 months. The other was when a Realtor asked me to design and build the site for free so I could possibly get revenues when he sold something.

Then today, I happened up this list of (10 Reasons to Politely Decline a Web Design Gig) at Web Monkey (http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/10_Reasons_to_Politely_Decline_a_Web_Design_Gig), and thought I should share it with my audience. Please note, that I did not create this list or label the client as “He.” My past two clients have been females and very nice to work with thank you very much. My comments will start with “~”:

10. He can’t stop telling you about how horrid his last developer was.
~ We know, and that is why you are talking to us… But more realistically, this makes us wonder WHY you couldn’t really work with your last developer. Trust me, we’ve seen more clients that gum up the works than you could believe.

9. He wants to make sure you can build his site so it will show up first on Google.
~ I hear this and I want to respond with “Think of a number that you would pay to show up once at the top of the list when the perfect client would ‘Google’ terms that led them to your site. Now take that number and quadruple it. That is how much a week it should cost to get what you want.

8. He’s already got a list together of 100 words for his meta tags.
~ This isn’t so bad. Tells me that they are willing to do some research, but that they have some misconceptions on how things work. Lets me know they are willing to invest time on their site too.

7. There isn’t much money for this job but it could really lead to a lot more work down the road.
~ Depends on the site and the person. If I like the person, sure. If there will be more work down the road sure.  Just don’t expect the world when you say things like this.

6. He wants to know if you are flexible about your deposit.
~ NO.

5. He explains that you will be responsible to his organization’s “website committee.”
~ Not unless you put me on pay role. And I want benefits…

4. He wants to know if you know how to “do Flash.”
~ I hate flash, because truly, it is used poorly in 99.999% of instances it is used

3. He wants his start-up site to be “kinda like eBay.”
~ And people in Hell want ice water (My grandma used to say that all the time)

2. He could actually build the site himself but he just doesn’t have the time.
~ Ask to see examples of work that he has done to get a sense of their style. If you don’t like their style be sure to let them know up front, that yours and theirs are different and won’t conflict. Then strongly enforce number 6.

1. He’s looking for a new “webmaster.”
~ Saying webmaster to us is like saying stewardess to a flight attendant. You sort of expect to get “that look.”

Here is a list of 10 things you should ask/do that can help you get the designer/developer or help you qualify them:

10. Can you show me some of the most recent sites that you have done and your role in them
9. I understand things I do can affect your turnaround time, if I was the perfect client, how long would my project take
8. Do have examples of what you would like to do ready to go.
7. Know what you are willing to pay.  Yes there can be room for some haggling, but this isn’t a yard sale or a flea market.
6. Do ask the process your possible developer/designer takes to complete their projects.
5. Do gauge the designer/developers ability to communicate verbally, via phone and e-mail.
4. Do know as much about your business process as possible. Business logic rules the world.
3. Do read over your contract.
2. Do NOT be afraid to ask questions.
1. Understand what you are getting yourself into for this web developer. E-mail me for more on this one.

A lot of people focus on the aesthetics of a web site. As soon as people are presented with their proposed site, a decision happens at a glance. After surveying the site, you either love, hate or really just don’t care about what you are being shown. So how can we make sure that love is the emotion you feel when you see that site.

1) KNOW WHAT TYPE OF GRAPHICS AND FEATURES APPEAL TO YOU – Know what type of web site designs you like.  Better yet, look at other web sites and discover different web pieces that you like. Want to go one step further? Look at your competitors web sites. You’ll generally see effective design and navigation.

2) KNOW YOUR NAVIGATION – This is key.  If you don’t then you don’t have a site.

3) HAVE SOME TEXT AND EVEN SOME GRAPHICS PREPARED – When you ask a designer to create a design for you, it is generally for a home page.  But how are they supposed to know your business and products.  The fact is you know your business better than anyone else, so give them something to help represent it and see how they work it into your design.

Now go do it!

While in college at the semi-prestigious Stetson University in 2001, I took a course that showed us how to create a custom shopping cart application. In doing so I had a thought: “If I can use a database so someone can enter product information and have it displayed on the web, I should be able to do that with web site content as well.” After being invited to work under a frat brothers small web company, I coined the name Custom Online Database Management Systems, or CODBMS for short.  Well in that 3 year time frame, I wasn’t the only one that had these ideas.  Many people did. Now there are about 10 or so big name Content Management Systems (I still prefer CODBMS…) out there that are widely used.

The philosophy is simple from a business standpoint. Managers say, I can pay a little more and in return, my staff and I get control over my web page and its contents. No having to contact the “webmaster” (that name is for a different blog) or firm and get a quote, send them an e-mail with what I want changed, and having them get it wrong. This makes sense when most changes to websites take less than 15 minutes to do.

There is an inherent problem with this though. That is what I call job role competency.  The idea is similar to business core competence: You business focuses on a set list of defined roles and is competent at executing them. It is competent because it does it every day. If you have a random member of the staff be trained in updating the content on their site, its wonderful, generally, until the second time they have to do this, typically, several months after they attempted this in the first place.

The problem is it isn’t part of a person’s every day job task to update the web site.  While this is normally not a complex operation, it can lead to several issues.

-The update being completed in a less than satisfactory way – Employee excuse #1 – “Its not like I do this every day.  I can barely remember my password to that damn thing. Its been forever since I trained on how to do this… maybe I need more training?”

-The update being performed in an untimely manor – Employee excuse #2 – “It just takes way too long, I couldn’t call someone else because I was busy doing…, and I really couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do.”

-The employee calling the CMS implementer asking for help – Employee excuse #3 – Generally a combination of #1 and #2 with a pinch of salt and frustration.

So am I suggesting that you not get a CMS… NO!!!

First of all I get more money when I install them into your site. Secondly, they aren’t bad. The major problem arises with their use when they aren’t used on a regular basis. So if you are constantly adding or modifying your site, that is when you really need one. If it is just for the occasional website update, save the time and frustration and forget about the CMS…you’ve got better things to do.

This is something that often times gets overlook in the excitement of a new project. Many people don’t think about if they are starting their project at the right time. So lets list a few times that it is critical not to start a new project:

1. During the winter Holidays: Lots of new businesses and sole proprietors will attempt to start their businesses and web projects during this time. The problem is that most employees (yours and your web firms) are taking much needed time to spend with loved ones and travel. This causes delays, rushed work, and worst of all poor communication that can really hamper your projects beginning.
2. Right after internal staff changes – This goes for both you and your web firm’s staff with the exception of promotions in the web firm. Major staffing holes in companies delay day to day operation and cause large amounts of stress.  Don’t cause another problem by starting your site now.
3. When you’re not ready to start the site. This is obvious, but not always adhered too. I’ve seen companies start new websites while still developing their logo, not having content ready, and even while still identifying who there target market is.  Talk about nightmare.

One way to get your site off to a great start, and probably decrease you site development time while increasing your site’s efficiency and effectiveness is to get your employees excited about your web project. Of course you are thinking, why do they need to get excited about it, and how will those claims from the first sentence come true… Get ready to say DUH.

Consider this. You walk in to an employees work area and say to them, we are redesigning/creating our website. They probably look back and say something to the effect of “I haven’t used Frontpage since college.” Your purpose with this type of interaction, whether it be in a 1 to 1 meeting as described or at a group meetingis to ramp them up by listening to their ideas. Doing this will allow you to get a different perspective and ideas on the direction you would like to go with on your site, it also gives you a good idea of what people know about your company and who you can draw on to get certain pieces of information.

Doing this before the FIRST few steps will really help your project work in a more streamlined fashion allowing you to get your developer ideas for your content areas, and the content faster and will allow you to make a site that better meets the needs of your customers. DUH.

All too often I see sites that are out of date, blase, or so ancient that even the logo on them is wrong. Why? Everyone believes that web sites are essentially mission critical in our business culture. Although they are only passive marketing, they do provide an excellent arena for your stakeholders to get information, utilize your services and engage in transactions. They are generally the only place this can be done at 3 am on a Tuesday morning when you have insomnia… . No that insomnia crack isn’t out of the scope of this article because your web site should be working pas the normal business hours of 9 am to 5 pm (Go I wish I only worked those hours).

Sites are not kept up to date because it is no one’s job to keep them up to date. No this does not have to be someone’s full time job, but there should be someone in your organization that should be incharge of coordinating web site updates online either through a 3rd party development firm/developer or through a content management system. What more this person should have the power to request any information from an entity in your firm and have that request become a medium level priority. THIS PERSON SHOULD HAVE MANAGEMENT BEHIND TO ENFORCE THIS.

Why did that get all caps? Because in some instances management intervention is need for someone to spend the 30 minutes to an hour needed to review their content and get updated content to the coordinator.

Ever have an older person say to you “If I had a penny for everytime [insert statement here]… .” Oh yes, that applies here too. One of the main reasons that web design and development projects get slowed down is due to several different end users all trying to be 100% satisfied with the end product…actually, most could care less about the end product, they just want to feel a site looks pretty.

THIS IS NOT A BAD THING.  It shows that your personelle want to show pride and ownership in your site, I mean after all isn’t it supposed to accurately and definatively represent your new business and appeal to to existing as well as new clientel?

So what is wrong with getting (and hopefully not getting too) many opinion? The problem is letting all those opinions have an equal voice in the life of the project. This is not saying that others thoughts can’t be extremely valuable and potentially great ideas. The problem is when everyone attempts to have their suggestions carried out you start to seem time delays. The statement of “You can please most of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time” is true.

To combat that I suggest the following rule (disclaimer – I have never served in the armed forces…not my cup of tea):

Take an example from the armed forces. The person that pays the bills, or the comittee that selected the designer/developer should act as president (yes, many people as one) and select a general. This general should be tasked with seeing the site to it’s implementation.The general gets to make the important decisions about what is used, where how and when.  The general can have his soldiers involved with each of these tasks as long as the general knows that the general, and only the general, has the final word in the matter.

Will everyone like this…no. Can some of the soldiers hold resentment for the general for not implementing, or implementing other’s suggestions, sure. Is this different from anything else in your business today? I hope you can answer yes, but for the majority of firms it is no. Abiding by the General and Soldiers rules will allow you to more efficiently and effectively carry out these types of projects. Just don’t start any wars.

We’ve all seen them. You click a link on a site, type in an address, and/or use a result from a search engine and finally arrive at a page that looks like it is straight out of 1996 that says “This page is not found – Error 404.” Don’t you just hate it.

I’m going to ask you a question. “What do you do when you see this awful page,” aside from cringing. Do you stop searching for what you were looking for? Go to another resource? I usually get very frustrated and say something like “I wish these people had a better site.”

It usually comes as a shock to customers when I say we can edit your 404 error page so it won’t be so cryptic, annoying, and possibly allow you to save some business. Customizing an error page like this is very easy and if you think about it, you can probably put some very interesting things on it. After apologizing for the problem, show the viewer a site map. Present them with your latest RSS feeds and news releases. Give them facts about your business. Show initiative and turn this negative situation into a good one.

Just by adding this little bit of info, you might be able to save a business relationship.