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From: Ben Stickland

Website Design
Melbourne

, Vic
Thursday, 11:07am.

Dear Current or Future Website Owner

Are you a business owner or key staff member who has the responsibility of organising the creation or further development of your web site? If so, this is the most important letter you'll read all year. You see, choosing the right developer or designer for your web design project is a critical decision.

If you choose the wrong web developer, you'll waste thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars on a website that doesn't work. Plus, to add insult to injury, you'll also spend hour after hour of your precious time tearing your hair out in the process and you'll miss out on the revenue and enjoyment of a successful website.

But...

If you chose the right web designer and developer, you'll be able to create a powerful tool for your business. Plus, by working with experts, you'll learn a lot and enjoy the process.

So, the question then becomes, "how can I make sure the web designer or developer I work with is up to scratch?" Well, to make your life easy, I've created a list of 10 simple questions. The answers to these questions will help you quickly find a web design and development team that will guide you to success.

The 10 Key Questions
You Must Ask Your Web Developer Before Wasting A Cent On Your Website:

The aim of this question is to find out how much your prospective web designer or developer really knows about using a website as a marketing tool.

You see, although the web now has millions (some estimate billions) of web pages, the simple truth is that unfortunately, most commercial websites are failures. Most websites can be categorised as little more than "online brochures" that get very little attention and do nothing to compel potential customers to become buyers.

If you're building a commercial website to attract customers, the only test of success is sales.

Insiders Tips:
As a minimum, any potential web designer or developer you work with should be able to show you working examples of

• Email marketing systems - tools that enable you to communicate en masse with your customer base. Specifically, ask about 'auto responders' - if your developer hasn't worked with these, they don't know web marketing.
• Traffic generation strategies - smart techniques around areas such as link building and search engine optimisation
• Referral and viral marketing systems - getting other people to do your marketing for you
• Split testing tools - fine tuning your offer to maximise customer response.

As a gambler might say, you want to be sure to "back a winner". You should only spend your money with a web designer or developer who's helped others succeed online.

If you're looking to make sales via your website, have your website developer show you websites they've built that make a lot of sales. And be sure to ask them to explain why the website sells. If you're looking for a highly technical website solution that automates your business processes - again, ask for examples of similar work.

This might sound like an odd question, but it's critical. Imagine you have a falling out with your web designer or website developer. Then imagine finding out that they own the legal rights to the 'code' that makes up your website and nobody else can work on it without their permission. I've seen this happen on a number of occasions!

You see, in Australia, the general rule is that without a written agreement, the Intellectual Property (IP) associated with any "code" a developer creates (e.g. a website) is owned by the website developer and not you. Even though you paid him/her to create it! So this is an issue you must clear up!

The underlying issue is that website designers make their money by taking solutions from one project to another. So developers who understand IP issues will generally not grant the full IP rights to you easily. This is because it legally stops them using any of the code used on your website on another project, even if it's code they've used many times before.

Insiders Tips:

• There is a middle ground on this issue. What you might consider asking for is a license that allows you to go on using the software that drives your website without restriction. That way, if the developer goes out of business or you have a disagreement, you can hire another developer to take their place.
• If you're creating something novel and the developer will be programming it from scratch, they may be willing to agree to assign the complete IP rights to you.

The use of tools to give clients full control over their websites is standard now in the web design industry. All reputable web designers and developers now give their clients software to enable website updates. Such a tool is generally called a CMS or Content Management System.

If your developer can't offer such a solution, go elsewhere.

Insiders Tips:

• You may still want to have your web designer or developer make fiddly changes for you (e.g. creating nice graphics, special borders or changing the web design). However, you don't want to be paying a professional programmer to make basic text changes to your site - this will cost you a fortune over time.

As a business owner or key staff member, it's not your job to keep up to date with the latest strategies and techniques that smart operators are using online to succeed. But someone needs to!!

You want to work with a web designer or developer who has a dedicated program of education and research to continually update their skills in web marketing and online promotion. Plus, great developers will continually feed you with ideas and strategies to make your website really take off!

Unless you've got strong technical skills, you really can be at the mercy of what your web developer tells you. The key is transparency. You want to work with web designers or developers who can openly show you the time they're putting into your projects and the work that's being done.

Most web design and development firms do the work themselves. However, you just want to be sure, because having work done by an unknown person on the other side of the globe has lots of problems.

Firstly, 'chinese whispers' are common - where what you request must be relayed to others. When this happens, critical details can be lost in translation.

Secondly, outsourcing environments have greater risk. It can be impossible to assess the quality of an overseas firm or some obscure operator. Plus, if your website design or development firm outsources work, you're relying on the stability of two firms, not one.

Insiders Tips:

• Be careful to do your due diligence before going into a website design or development relationship with a business that outsources key tasks.
• outsourcing can be worth the risk if you're recieving a major cost saving and the project is not business critical.

This question will expose the fly by night operators. Simply put, you want to be dealing with web design and development firm that can reliably deliver product on time and on budget. The only way firms can do this consistently is when they have proven systems in place to do so.

A common complaint leveled by long term website owners at their web designers or developers is that they get busy on other projects. This means they don't have the time to make changes to their website when they need them.

Think about it for a moment. Imagine you're running a new promotion and you need some minor changes to your website. You ring up your web designer or developer to find out they can make the change in 3 months time. This can be a disaster, because nobody else knows your system. You're stuck waiting!

Insiders Tips:

• Use a website design and development firm that has multiple developers who will be familiar with your website.
  
• Get a written agreement about the type of service you'll get over time

It may sound obvious, but many website developers don't have a great deal of programming skill. Some people sell their services as website developers, when in reality their expertise is limited to just HTML (the basics of a web page), using a few basic tools, and installing software that others have written.

This approach is fine for basic websites with common features, but it quickly leads to a major problem... If your website developer doesn't have programming skills, they can only provide you with generic 'off the shelf' solutions. Anything creative you think up quickly becomes 'too hard'. We've taken over a number of websites where the owners felt their previous website design and development firm was holding them back.

Insiders Tips:

• Unless you know you'll only ever want a very simple website, make sure your developer has a strong programming background
  
• If you want to be extra careful, ensure they've got a degree in computer science - universities teach 'industry standard' approaches to programming. University graduates are more likely to produce solid, reliable products.

As you can see, we've got both the skills and experience
to help you develop a truly successful website.

Click here to book in a FREE 40 Minute Consultation
with the option of a no-obligation quote.