Ramblings from the side

This is the first of many articles that will be posted on webby things, but from my views.
The following comments and suggestions will not be anything new to many of you but I think some of them need to be said with the hope of possibly saving the odd one. By odd I don't mean that readers of this blog are expected to be odd, but in the minority. There are enough of us "odd" ones out there already without promoting strange and unusual behaviour.


Communication ! 
(image courtesy of jmorganmarketing.com)

Communication is essential when attempting to break into any field of work. Web design, media marketing etc are no different. If you have a client that says " I want this and this, in green and purple. To do this and that." and you don't see how it is going to come together with that in mind, SAY SOMETHING. Communicate clearly why green and purple should never be put together apart from braille, or why their design may be better suited to other colours and components. They won't bite your head off, they won't boot you out of their office and they won't tell you to never contact them again or call you a colour nazi. They WILL at least listen to you, after all, if they could do it they would and wouldn't need you. I have personally declined a job because the client refused to budge from an obviously ill thought out concept with disgusting colours that did nothing but offend the sight. As long as your reasons are sound and you have some kind of compensation, by way of better alternatives, in mind that again can be communicated clearly to them all should be well.

 Slow Thinkers.


So you scored an opportunity to submit an estimate for a job. Research your topic. Research your potential client. Research your potential mode of delivery. All that said and done, time to estimate away. One thing to remember is this. When preparing your estimate put an expiry date on it. For instance if you deliver the estimate via email or wherever, on the 14th of September 2011. Make the offer expire in approximately 4 weeks or so. The reason for this is that some clients will be all hyped up, get the quotes from a few designers, push to get the prices etc and go all manic on you then want 3 months to decide. If you put an expiry on it you have the option to decline the job or reprice it if they come back to you in 5 months time expecting the same price for the same work. Your costs may have gone up. Your rent etc may have gone up. You may be too busy to fit it in now. Whatever the reason it is your choice on time limit. Another thing is this may prompt the potential client into action within a reasonable time limit. Do you want to be left hanging for 6 months for a small job? I don't. They wouldn't. Most won't do this to you but some will. Slow thinkers and procrastinators are not needed to me, and as such will move on to a more reasonable client. If it takes 6 months to make up their mind, imagine how long it will take them to pay you.
 (image courtesy of http://akbari-art.com )
I'm an artist! I need 3months to complete your work.

Although you may be a latent perfectionist, not all jobs need to take a long time to complete prior to handing over to the client. Wordpress is one that springs to mind immediately when I say this. A wordpress site can in fact be completed in very little time if the client wants to do, and is capable of doing, their own updates. A basic Wordpress site complete with a few images and a bit of formatting ready to take comments on a news topic etc can be achieved in a relative short time. Once the images, basic content, minimum set of pages including a contact form etc is set up and the client is happy with format, colours etc your done. This is however a simplistic view but one that is a reality. I for one have before approached someone as a test subject that was looking for a Wordpress site to keep people informed of events etc with a few pages for different things. A contact form was added, the colours and a couple of pics were obtained from the "client". This took place all within 30minutes. The "client was told he needed a dot com, which I registered for him. 5 minutes. I did my magic and installed Wordpress on the site for him. 7 minutes. Next came the hard work. All images were loaded into my "special secret bucket of herbs and spices" and voila, 1 website was spawned. 30 minutes. Upload time, 15 minutes. "Client" was telephoned and visited the site while I was on the phone, a happy man. DONE. The cost to the "client" was $15 - dot com registration 1 year. $10 a  month for hosting.

That was it.. He was a test case. Normally this would be charged at around $500 depending who does the job etc. Cost on average to "client" for all work done around $625 for the 5 pages. Time spent on project 1 hour 22 minutes. This equates to $7.62 a minute or around $457 an hour. So when I hear about people spending 4 months to deliver a website that is database driven like Wordpress, consisting of 5 odd pages and the client does all their own updates being charged out at $4000 plus, I am amazed that there are such gullible people out there. My example was an extreme case but should never have taken more than a couple of weeks with a revision.
When I hear the old " I'm an artist approach and it's all far too complicated to explain to you" type of attitude all I can think of is that this person has some type of cranial rectal syndrome (Urban Dictionary).

Collaboration...
Image courtesy of wikispaces .

This seems to be a sticky one. Let me give you an example.
A client (or prospective one) walks into your office, lounge room, bus-stop or wherever you conduct your web design business. States he wants a website he can update himself but must have a certain feature built into it. This could be a talking dog. You're first impression or possibly expression may be one of complete horror. WTF ? A talking dog? Then you hear that he has just inherited the main island of Greece, they had to sell it to cover the internet bill in Athens. What do you do? Who do you tell? Do you laugh, cry, dance a jig? You have a client standing there with access to spending money and he wants a talking canine to guide you around a website. Maybe you could phone a friend, is that an option? Anyway I digress. The answer is simple really, you need to sit down with him and discuss the job. Get you details and tell him you will do research, always a needed activity, and get back to him in the very near future. You DO NOT say " Are you out of your head? Nobody has talking dogs guiding you around a website".

By now you should have guessed what I am going to say. You get fair into your network of friends, associates etc and find an animator. Let me say this. If you are unsure of exactly how to do something, ask! No web developer or designer will think your a goat for not knowing. That is what developers do. They work with animators, graphic artists and the like. So Ask. There is also no point in having a network of people if you can't involve them in the network. They are not there to look at, well maybe some are, but this is the entire purpose of a network. Back to the silly rich client with his dog fetish. One good resource to get your animation done is..... wait for it.........Uni students. Who else would be keener to get down and dirty with something in the field they are studying. I know there are many great artists out there, unpublished, unappreciated, unpaid unemployed going to uni. Mix it up with a professional, get some ideas how to do this from them, research your arse off for a couple of days. Find out what is involved and with research behind you make an informed decision on what is needed to complete the job. Do the quote and submit it to the client. NOW. If you get the job I imagine that the client has already been informed that this is a new concept, probably why he wants it, and is heavily reliant on man hours therefore he may have to be patient. After all, you do this and you get his website leaping ahead on Google and the hit metre then YOU have YOUR name on something groundbreaking. YOU will be the go to person. YOU will be able to charge more for your expertise. YOU  have made money and become a legend. Even if you end up putting 300 hours into this venture, make $300 for your self (not an attractive wage) and have paid all your blood sweat and tears to everyone else. YOU are still 'da man. My entire point in this extended dribble is Collaborate. Build up your  extended "friends" list. Do it with style and grace and you too can become uber infamous for your achievements.    ------ End of Transmission --------