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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.