Talking to your web designer can be like going into a coma, and waking up in China – alone. Sure some small percentage of us can understand the way they talk. The vast majority will however feel inadequate, confused and frustrated.
Your web site’s success in supporting your objectives is directly related to your ability to communicate with your web designer. If you cannot tell them, or they cannot understand what your vision and needs are, they can’t implement it and you will fail in your mission.
5.5 easy steps to improving your chances for web success
1. Stay away from friends, family and neighbors
Developing your web site and putting a web strategy requires a lot of hard decisions and some brutal honesty. Don’t put yourself in the position where you get your house toilet papered or your tires slashed by the boy down the street’s farther – just because you did not like his son’s logo he designed for you. The exception is where these people are professional developers and part of a web development company.
2. Make sure that the developer can meet your needs
The web has become a complex world with many disciplines – search engine optimization, graphic design, web copy writing, pay per click experts, flash developers, marketing experts and usability experts. Make sure that you know who is going to do what and that they are all experienced enough to deal with the task. If not, get other experts to do portions of the job or the whole job.
Your local Chamber of Business or BNI group is a good place to look for developers and designers. You can also list your project on http://www.elance.com. You can read the article Success with eLance – Everything you need to know to get what you want to get more information on how to use eLance.
3. Educate yourself and learn about some of the terms that is a part of the web domain
You need to understand the differences between landing pages, a home page and catalog pages. You need to understand the difference between forms and flash animations, understand the terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Pay-per-click, keywords, search engine ranking and page titles. You do not need to know how to create these objects but you do need to know what they are used for. You can read more about this in the article Six types of web pages you need to know about.
4. Make sure that your web developer understands your needs
As your developer to state your objectives back to you. Put your needs and requests in writing. The best vehicle for this is a statement of work (SoW). You can see an example of an SoW in the white paper Making sure you get what you want, not what you ask for.
5. There is a difference between cheap and value for money
If your only criteria for selecting a web developer are cost, you are doomed to fail. Paying less for something that you don’t want or something that does not accomplish your goals is foolish and will cost you more in the long run. Rather pay more upfront for somebody with a great reputation and references than having to redo everything. Everything has a price. If you find somebody that is willing to do the job for drastically less, tread with caution and find out how they can do it. Read our White Paper Getting value for your money by staying in budget for more hints and a discussion on Return-on-Investment.
5.5 Project manage, Project manage, Project manage
Just because you are not attempting to land on Mars does not mean that you do not need to use a formal project management strategy. Measure progress, deliverables, cost and mitigate risk. Document all of it upfront to avoid misunderstandings later. If you do not have enough time to do this yourself, delegate the task or ask your employee, family member, friend or neighbor.
If you follow these few simple tips, you will increase your chances for success dramatically. Unless you are dealing with particularly evil and dishonest people, you are responsible for your own success or failure, not the web developer and designer you hire.
If you need help with anything mentioned in this article or you need a project manager for your next web project, call Great Falls eBusiness Solutions at 1-888-473-3297 (in the USA) or drop us an e-mail at article@greatfallssolutions.com or visit us at http://www.greatfallssolutions.com. The author can be reached at cicero@greatfallssolutions.com. Comments are always welcome.
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