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.