When we get calls from new clients we talk about a lot of things, but most of the time this is the big question on their minds, how much will a website cost me? The answer is very different depending on several things: who you ask, what kind of site you are talking about, the overhead of the agency you are talking to, the mood of the person on the other end of the line, or a million other little things that you have no control over. So, to frame our thinking here, lets talk for a minute about the value put into a site first and then talk about the cost of a website.

A Websites Value

The value of a website is hard to measure, but we think there are a few things that are important that we want to mention briefly here:

1. Design – A website must have a great and unique design. One that represents the company well and is in line with the company’s brand. The design of the site must also appeal to the company’s target market. The look of a website is the thing that draws the user into the site and great design is a huge asset (while poor design is a huge liability).
2. Function – A website must serve a purpose. The days of a static site that stays the same for the next five years are gone. A site needs to do something, convert visitors to customers, or perhaps invite them to signup for a newsletter. A good website solves a business need, the value of this is huge and can be a game changer for a company when they begin to think this way.
3. Architecture - Having a website that is built in such a way that you are dependent on someone else to make all of your updates is pointless and painful. That is a situation bad for everyone. On the other hand, there is huge value in a client being able to update their site all on their own. Having control over your own site is critical and of immense value.
4. The Architect - People asking about price often overlook the value of the person on the other end of the call. The company you choose to build your website could be of great value to you or great cost. A company that is easy to deal with, easy to get in touch with and genuinely interested in your best interestes has a good deal of value attached to it. Not having to fight with a designer, not having to leave 20 voicemails to get one little thing accomplished, these are things of value that few potential clients think about, but it makes all the difference.

A Websites Cost

Finally, we are ready to talk about the cost of a website. First let me say that this is a great article about the subject and I will likely be rehashing a bit of what is already written here.

In our opinion over our experience in this industry website costs break down roughly into the following categories. Let me also say from the outset that we are biased against template websites because we do not think they can appropriately reflect the personality of a company, appeal to the target market, and serve a business need. Some templates can do two of the three, but very few ever accomplish all three of these things.

Template Website – $100 – $1500

This is the kind of site that you would see with a GoDaddy Website Tonight button at the bottom. They are created by a customer that wants to do it themselves or by a web guy that is lacking in skill, time, or both. There are a lot of companies that fall into this price range saying that they do custom sites, but in our experience that is just not the case and in the end the client ends up with another template website that looks like just another template website.

We try to avoid this kind of work. Even though templates abound on the internet at low cost, time and again we have seen how a custom website is better for our clients and ultimately helps them in the long run.

Custom Designed Website – $2,000 – $8,000

This is a website where a designer that knows about your company and your goals for your website, and about how people interact with websites, sits down and creates a custom design from scratch. There is a good deal of discovery and thought that goes into this type of site and it usually results in a beautiful site that suits the company, appeals to their target market, and meets a business need (can you tell we are biased here??).  Typically this is the price range for a custom designed site with no crazy add-ons like ecommerce or user forums, etc.

Custom Designed Website with a Content Management System – $3,000 – $10,000

This is a website that gives you all of the perks of a custom design (in other words it rocks) and you have total control over the website content. The days of relying on some guy in his mom’s basement to not answer your emails and never update your site are over, you have total control over your site and can update it every three minutes if you want! This is what we do and we do it well! We love designing custom sites that really fit our clients and we love building the site so that the client has full control over it. We like happy clients almost as much as we like beautiful websites (I said almost, no offense ).

What do our sites cost?

You know you have been wondering. And I’m not one to disappoint. Of course, this is a perfect time for me to stall, or for me to say “click here to contact us” or some tom foolery like that, but I wouldn’t do that to you. So here it is. Our websites usually start at $3,000. We are glad to tell you that because we are proud of what we do. We add a ton of value to our clients and we are good at what we do, so we charge appropriately for it because hey, we have families too.

Here are a few reasons why we think the value of our sites is at or more than $3,000:

• Our sites are custom designed and look great. Not good, great. Our job is to make our clients’ web presence the best it can be, and we work hard to do that.
• We understand our clients. We take the time to talk to them, to get to know them, and believe it or not we even like our clients. Our understanding of a client guides everything we do for them, it is essential!
• We hand code our sites in this country. Our team consists of people that we are actually connected to, not some guy in another country churning out code that doesn’t really care about us or our clients.
• We are responsive to our clients. This is huge in this industry as most “web guys” will take on a project and then stop answering their phone and emails. When we get a call we take it, and if we can’t take it we return the call that day. We like our clients and work hard to communicate well with them.

We believe that a company’s website is its front porch, its first point of contact with a customer that will draw them in or send them away. And we believe that a good front porch is worth a ton. If you are willing to spend $1,000 a month on rent, or $1,500 on a computer, or even $100 a month on some other business service, don’t you think that your website (the front porch of your company) is worth a little more than that? We believe it is.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I do, designing and developing websites for businesses. Everyone wants to do something that matters,  and I’m no exception. I’m at a point in my career (and life) where I care more about my contribution toward things that matter than I do about the money that it makes me. I want to create things that last longer than I do and really make a difference.

I think this is why I’m so finicky about our website projects. I don’t just want to throw something together, grab a check and run. I want to create something that I’m proud of, something that has lasting value to my client and that really matters as a core part of their business.

Of course as a business we want to make money, after all we have families to feed and kids to buy shoes for, but that is not our only motivation. We are motivated by a need to solve problems for businesses, to create something both beautiful and functional, and to impact and help real people  as a byproduct of our labor. We love what we do, we believe in what we build, and we plan to continue serving our clients with great products for a long time to come.

So many businesses fall into short-sited thinking looking solely to generate profit. And, in this thinking they put on blinders to other things that really matter, like people. Caring for clients as the people that they are rather than looking at them as a revenue stream is difficult for a lot of web developers and businesses, but its essential to longterm growth.

Businesses are run by people and referrals come from people knowing more (you guessed it) people. So, in working with clients, taking care of people, considering their needs and how to best connect with and communicate with them is extremely important. And, the funny thing is, when you actually do take care for people that you work with, it grows your bottom line, so its a win win anyway.

Our goal in working with our clients is to create a partnership with them, so that they know they can come to us and that we will be helpful, rather than trying to nickel and dime them like so many web companies try to do. We want lasting relationships with our clients so that they will use us again and refer other business our way, knowing that we will take great care of anyone they send to us.

We believe that people matter, and we work hard to go the extra mile in showing it. If you are a business person, you should too.

During a web design project for a company there are several stakeholders, some with more say than others. The first and most obvious stakeholder is our client (the company paying for the website). They are the ones we tend to want to please, first so that they are happy and pay us, and second so that they recommend us to other companies.

But, here is the rub, if we are really doing our job we can’t just design and develop a web site for our client, we really need to think about our client’s customers, the stakeholder with no say. Of course, usually the client is aware of what their customers wants, so there is no conflict here. But on occasion, there is a difference between what our client is asking for and what their customers will be drawn to. These are not fun situations to be in the middle of, but navigating them well is important.

The main thing we do is work to educate our client on the best approach and on why we think a certain direction is a good one to take in order to meet their business needs and appeal to their customers. Usually once the client really understands our thinking behind something they are more open to moving in that direction. We try to look at this process as a partnership with out client, recognizing that they know their customers better than anyone, while remembering that our expertise is in custom web design and user experience.

Everyone knows that Facebook has fan pages for companies to use to promote their brands. They are easy to setup, you can sell ads to bring traffic to them, there are thousands of blog posts about them, etc. What I want to look at today is how to use your personal profile to promote your business.

First, let me say this, a personal Facebook profile is just that, personal. It should be your profile, with your information, sporting your smiling face in the profile picture (not a company logo). So, don’t make a profile, put in your company info and then start friending people. This is a bad idea because it breaks Facebook’s policies and it makes Facebook users annoyed.

That said, there are ways to use your personal profile to help your business. Here are a few ideas:

• Talk about your business in status updates. Just casually mention what you do from time to time, show off your work through pictures or links, or talk about good work days. Don’t talk about work too much, but enough so that people readily remember what you do and will think to recommend you when they meet someone that might need your services.
• Check in at work via Facebook. Same as above, this just lets people know where you are and what you do.
• Write status updates related to your industry and make them interesting so that people will actually pay attention.
• When you see Facebook friends talking about things related to your industry, chime in and share your thoughts, if you are an expert on a subject, offer those expertise.
• Offer to help your Facebook friends with no strings attached. Just be helpful, thoughtful and nice, it goes a long way and will help you grow your business in the long run.

Ever sold a house? I have. And, one of the first things any good Real Estate Agent will tell you is that your house needs curb appeal. If someone is driving by your house, notices the “For Sale” sign in the front yard, and then looks up to see a broken down, unpainted front porch with a shabby front door that looks like walking through it will take you right into the 1970s, that person isn’t likely to be chatting you up at an open house that day. But, if someone is driving by, sees the “For Sale” sign, and looks up to see a beautiful front porch, nicely decorated in a way that shows off the personality of the home, with an inviting front door, that person is likely to take a second look and come on in for an open house.

One of my favorite sayings is that a company’s website is the front porch of their business. It is the first thing that 90% of people will see first, and they will make a decision on whether or not to do business based on the company’s website. A company website can be warm, inviting, reflect the personality of the company and invite people to walk through the front door, or it can scare them away.

Does the front porch of your business welcome people in, or does it need some repair work?

I talk to a lot of business owners about websites, and submit a lot of proposals. It seems like there is often a lot of discrepancy between proposal amounts and this tends to confuse the business owner. Most people look at a website proposal and think a website is a website and that they are all the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. So, when looking at a website proposal it’s important to compare apples to apples in order to see if you are getting a good deal.

Here are a few things to consider when looking at a website proposal:

• Are they offering custom design from the ground up, or are they offering “customized design” based on a template?
  These might seem the same, but they are very different. With a custom design you are getting a website custom tailored for your business, created with only your business and best interest in mind. With a design based on a template, you are getting a site that was created with many businesses in mind, meaning that you get a design that is generic and may and may not suit your specific business needs.
• If the site is built on a content management system, which one is going to be used?
  Not all content management systems are equal. For example, we use WordPress as our CMS (content management system) of choice and we have found that the other two most popular CMSs used for websites (Drupal and Joomla) tend to be very hard for users to understand and effectively manage. In our mind, if our client can’t manage the site themselves with a content management system, then there isn’t much point in having a content management system in the first place. So, a proposal for a website using WordPress as a CMS is very different from a proposal for a website using Joomla as a CMS.
• Who is going to code the site? A computer? Someone overseas? Or the company that wrote the proposal?
  Most people would assume that the company that writes the proposal is the one that will code the site, but often this is not the case. Then you might wonder, as long as it is coded and looks good, why does it matter who codes it? Well, it matters because later, when you need something added to the design or functionality of the site, working directly with the people that originally coded the site and created its functionality will make things cheaper and easier for you.
• What level of support does each company offer after the project is done?
  Here is an interesting test for a potential company you are thinking of using to build your next website. Call them and see if they answer. If they do not answer, leave a message. If the company answered they are in the minority as most website companies are not easy to get on the phone. If you leave a message and they call back the same day they are still in the minority, this is rare. This is a great test because it tells you how engaged the company is with their clients and potential clients. If the company takes 3 days to get back to a potential client, imagine how long it takes them to get back to a client whose site has been finished and paid for. The availability of the company that you use will make a huge impact on how smooth your website project goes.

At Sideways 8 we are big fans of open source. Which, of course, is one of the reasons that we spend so much time developing themes on WordPress and developing new plugins for WordPress. We want to empower our clients to not only manage their own websites, but to really own them and build upon them.

A website shouldn’t be static, just built and left alone unchanging forever. A website should be dynamic, moving, growing and giving to potential clients and consumers. Websites were once online brochures for businesses, but that day is past. Now websites are community hubs, information centers, collaboration areas, community think tanks, education destinations and much more. They take on life with new and changing content. These are the sites we love to build and train people to use, sites that give back to the larger community.

More and more we are seeing that giving things away, without strings attached, for the good of the community at large is not only a legitimate way to grow a business, but an essential tool. It shows potential customers that your business cares and will take the time to educate and improve your profession or community. It shows your peers that you have a vast amount of information and expertise to offer. And, it shows the community and networks that you frequent that you have a great deal of value that you freely offer to everyone, implying that you have much more you can offer to clients.

I love custom designed websites. Which, of course is one of the reasons that is our specialty. My background is in marketing and over the years of marketing training and website development I have come to believe three things:

1. A website should reflect the personality of the organization it represents.
2. A website should appeal to that organizations target market.
3. A website should serve a purpose, meeting a business need.

Sideways8 just hit it’s second year this month, November 2011. We started working together before that, somewhere around May of ’08, and separately we have been doing sites on and off since 1996.

With that said, we have a lot experience doing what we do. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are perfect at what we do, but that doesn’t matter for this article. This article is about saving time and getting your project done, and done correctly.

We are now setting up all of our clients with Basecamp to manage projects. Very few people actually enjoy learning new tools that get you to the same end results. We didn’t even want to learn a new tool! We have work to do, right? But oddly enough, everyone likes to get the result that they aim for. At Sideways8 we strive to hit that mark.

Basecamp and project management software in general seems to be unnecessary step. Why is this? Email is sufficient for most things, right? We have realized though that it is not efficient when trying to hit a precise target, and sometimes, a moving target.

Often, our moving target is “text” on a site. Sometimes once you see wording on a page it just doesn’t fit. We understand that and are willing to change it. Sending an email about it, or an email about a certain word on a certain page, or certain words on certain pages and then having it changed shortly after can be confusing on our end. We just want to make sure we get it right. That is where to-do lists and tasks come in to play.

Tasks are the best way to make sure we make the mark. If we have a task, and a Word document attached we will know exactly where to place the content. When questions come up, we post a message, you get notified via email (if you choose), you post clarification, we make the change. Next, we mark the task completed.

If we have all of our tasks in Basecamp, we both see the tasks and the deadlines, and one by one we see the task list dwindle. That way you know that we are working on your project.

Files seem to be a very small part of project management, and really, a long list of files might just confuse things. But, when you combine a file with a task it makes it invaluable. Especially if we are making changes to a file. We can keep track of versions of the files.

Message tie into the core of project management. Instead of sending emails you can post a message to people and allow people to comment on it. It doesn’t seem that powerful, I know. But a record of things being posted is great, no more lost emails on either end of the project. And, if you are just trying to keep up with what is going on and do not to be directly involved (like a manager) you can get a daily digest of the messages. A pretty handy tool.

All in all, we are very glad we are using a tool like this. We feel that it saves the client time and effort.

On my personal blog I wrote a post about the importance of listening in business. I work hard to be a good listener in my personal and professional life and believe that good listening is critical to good business.

Read the Blog Post here.

We talk to lots of new clients that have issues with their current web designer or web company. The issues are almost always the same, here are a few:

• I can’t edit my own website.
• I have to pay them to edit my site, and they take forever to make updates.
• I can’t get the company to call me back or answer my emails.
• I am paying a lot of money every month for late updates and little else.
• And several more…

So, when I talk with a new client, I like to take some time to walk them through some tough questions that they should ask any potential web deisgner / web design company that they are considering. I additionally encourage new clients to talk to several companies so that they can really understand what options they have and what the costs and values are associated with that our company offers.

8 Questions you need to ask a potential web designer / web design company:

1. Can I see some of your latest work?
   You need to see the type of work that you are going to be paying for. If you don’t like their design style or the functionality of their sites, then you don’t want to hire this person or company. You can see our work here.
2. Do you do custom design?
   If you aren’t looking for custom design, then this question doesn’t matter. But, many clients are looking for custom design (see this post) and are sold sites that are “customized” meaning that they are templates that have the companies logo added to them, which is far from a custom site. When this happens, the client ends up paying too much for a website that is not customized to their specific needs and personality.
3. Do you hand code your sites?
   There are a lot of web designers and firms out there that will create a design and then run that design through some software to code it. This creates code that is poor, hard to edit later when changes are needed, and likely not cross browser compatible. A hand coded site will be done with better logic, cleaner, more manageable code and will produce better, longer lasting results.
4. Do you outsource work to people you don’t know?
   I phrased this question carefully for a reason. It is currently common in the web design world to outsource projects to coders overseas that the company doesn’t have a previous working relationship with. The problem with this is that the code, though it works is often a mess and hard to manage, update, and edit. This is not good business. However, outsourcing to people that the company knows well, and can verify their work, is actually advantageous to the customer because it  keeps the cost of the website down while providing a high quality product. All outsourcing is not bad, but working with a company that just outsources to anyone is not going to be best for your website.
5. What is your availability for communication?
   You can get an idea of this early on, when you called the company, did you talk to someone? If you left a message did they call you back quickly? If you emailed did they response quickly? Web designers and web design companies are somewhat notorious for being poor communicators. This provides for slow project turn around and unmet expectations on the clients part. Making sure you work with a company that communicates well will make a huge impact on your experience.
6. Can you send me some client references?
   It might be unusual to ask for this, but I highly recommend it. By talking to former clients you will be able to find out if the web designer / web design company really does what they say they do. It can’t hurt to ask, and you will learn a lot and feel much more comfortable working with the company going forward. You should also look for a testimonials page on their site.
7. Will my site have a Content Management System (CMS)?
   This question is essential and you want the answer to be YES! If your site is built without a CMS then you will be unable to make changes to it on your own and you will be subject to paying the web designer / web design company to make edits for you.
8. What are my hosting options if you build my site?
   Many web designers /  web design companies will make you host your site with them and will charge high prices. I have talked to people paying up to $50 a month for hosting! That is ridiculous. You shouldn’t need to pay any more than $100 per year for hosting. Of course this is assuming you are wanting a basic site that doesn’t need unusual hosting options.

I just saw an article about this new news app for iPhone Smartr on Lifehacker. The idea of the app is that it takes all of the links shared by the people you follow on twitter (both your main feed or lists, or whatever) and makes them into a news reader. You can star items, share items, save to instapaper, and plenty more. This is cool for several reasons:

• If you want to stay up to date with the news that people are actually talking about, this is ideal, as long as you are following good people, not spammers.
• You are effectively allowing the people you follow to be a filter between what is good, important news, and what is noise. In a society with ever increasing noise, I find this very cool.
• You can create Twitter lists for different categories of news that you want to filter and then follow professionals you trust in those areas, keeping you up to date with the news the professional find important, which makes you feel smart and at least “seem” well informed. Well, you probably will be well informed…

Check it out here if you are interested.

I’m a big believer that a business should have a custom website. This is not an entirely popular position considering the plethora of “do it yourself” web design and “cheap” designers out there that just customize templates. So, with so many cheap, template based options, why would a company choose a custom website instead? Here are a few thoughts:

1. As with many areas of life, you really do get what you pay for. A cheap website is cheap for a reason, because it doesn’t take a lot of work and experience, and likely because the ongoing support just isn’t there. When you get a custom website from a reputable firm you are getting more than just a site. You are getting a site that meets certain business needs, and seeks to accomplish a purpose; a site that is an extension of your business rather than merely an online brochure about your business.
2. When you get a custom site from a good firm you are also buying the firm’s support and expertise to guide you in the process of developing your online presence. That level of knowledge carries with it a lot of value as your site will be far more capable of serving your customers’ needs as a direct result of that knowledge.
3. A custom website will suit a company’s personality and branding. With a template site you don’t have a lot of control over the look of the site, what you see is what you get. With a custom site you will keep all of your branding intact, the site will reflect your logo, brochure, signage, etc. This is very important for brand recognition and for building consumer confidence in your business.
4. More often than not a cheap, template site looks… like a cheap, template site. And, your tech savvy customers are likely to notice. If your website is the front porch for your business (and I believe it is), you want to put your best foot forward and make a great first impression.

So, when thinking about whether or not to spend the money on a custom site, let me ask you one question. How much is a customer’s first impression of your business worth to you? Let the answer to that question guide your decision making.

This post was originally posted on my personal blog, found here.

The danger of self broadcasting is primarily in trusting the delivery of your message to yourself alone.

In an age when within 5 minutes we can record a video and place it on the web for millions to view, we tend to think a lot about broadcasting our message ourselves because, after all, we know the message best and we know the most effective way to communicate it.

The problem with this thinking is that in broadcasting our message so broadly we often lose the ability to communicate it in such a way that it penetrates the filters that most people have in place. People hear the message and think it’s nice, but it doesn’t change them.

The best way to spread a message is discipleship, or creating message advocates. These are people that have heard the message, understood it, been changed by it, and now want to shout it from the rooftops. They will not only understand the message well enough to spread it, but they will innovate and find new ways to spread it, taking it to places you never could have imagined for intended.

It you want to tell the World something, a clever Youtube video will get you seen, but sitting down and conveying that message to a group of people that will integrate it into their lives’ and spread it organically will have far more impact, though it is the less sexy route to take.

I think we need to be careful in how we broadcast ourselves, the medium we use might very well dilute the power behind what we say.

On a personal note: This is my first post on my new blog. Here I will talk about things that interest and challenge me, no more, no less. I hope that I will do more than simply create clever messages, I hope to create messengers, to impact readers with new thoughts and ideas that they can then take to the world. Its a bold goal, but I’m not aiming at a shallow impact, I want a long lasting one.

Out on the “interwebs” there is always a ton of talk about social media. You don’t have to look at many blogs, or major news networks for that matter, before you find yourself reading something about social media. Stories span from Facebook’s creator being Times “Person of the year” (or something like that) to a landslide of articles about ROI for social media efforts. But, there isn’t a ton of information out there about how Small Businesses can leverage social media in a way that will actually impact their business.

The fact is, social media can and should be a great asset for small businesses owner when used well; but when used poorly it is of no use at best and at worst it becomes a liability.

Social Media is a Small Business asset when:

• It is used to engage new and existing customers.
• It is used to help serve the local community.
• It is used to both create and participate in dialog.
• it is run by an intelligent person, not a program or half hearted part time worker.

Social Media is a Small Business Liability when:

• It is used for only broadcasting.
• It is used with no regard for followers or the social media community at large.
• It is used to sell, sell, sell, and nothing more.
• It is run by someone (or something) lacking understanding of the nuances of conversation, specifically of social media conversation.
• It is started, and then never used again. Customers see this negatively.

Considering the power of Social Media for Small business, this blog will be frequently discussing ideas on how to use Social Media to achieve great results for businesses small and large. Please come back for most posts about this and other web related topics.

Also, do you have anything you want to add to this list? We would love to hear from you, comment below.

Are you a web designer that sometimes need to SSH into a web site and make some changes but don’t know a Unix text editor? Here are some basic commands that you might need while navigating into the correct directory and editing a file using Vi, one of the best text editors around (if you can handle command-line).

Navigating in and out of directores:

To change directories:

pwd (shows you what directory you are in)

ls (lists all files)

cd www (gets you into the directory called www)

cd .. (gets you down one directory)

Editing files. I normally will use TextMate as a text editor, but for some quick fixes or if I am on someone’s computer, I will SSH in and edit file and use Vi. It is confusing if you don’t know it. I am by no means a Vi expert like some of my friends, but I can do a lot. Here are the basics:

use the arrow keys to navigate (you can use letters to move around, but if you don’t want to learn Vi, don’t waste your time)

vi filename.php (opens a file called filename.php)

i (gets you in the insert mode)

the escape key gets you out of the insert mode

x (deletes the character your cursor is on)

dd (deletes the whole line you are on)

:w (writes the file)

:q (quits Vi)

:wq (writes the file and exists)

:%s:bob:john:g (replaces bob with john in the whole file, i recently used that to replace text on a 42 meg text file, it came in handy. it took seconds to do)

Enjoy!