M5Media, Inc. –

What to Look for in a Web Designer…a beginners guide

Experience: If his/her answer to this question is “Yeah, I designed a website once” that should tell you something.

Online Portfolio: Your Web Designer should have some sort of portfolio online, take a look at it. Do you like what you see? Call up a website owner and ask about their experience with the developer. Did they get what they paid for? Was the developer easy to work with? Is the site doing what you need it to do? Etc.

Server Side Scripting: All but the most basic of websites have interactivity, without it a webpage is just an online brochure (which is fine if that is all you need it to do). However, to start working for you a website needs to have some sort of server side scripting. Do you want the website to collect information from people? Do you want the website to sell your products? Do you want the website to accept job bids, photo submissions, questions from customers? People’s needs are impossible to guess…here are just a few examples of things people needed server side scripting to accomplish.

• One client needed a website with an online dating service for its patrons (a nightclub),
• Another needed a way to upload and sell their photos online (a photography studio),
• Another needed to take job submissions over the internet (a construction company).

Aesthetic Design: This is a very subjective one but you can be the judge. Are sites that this Web Designer has done pleasing to look at? Are they functionally designed? Are they easy to navigate? Do they load in a reasonable amount of time? Do they have purple backgrounds with yellow text and jumping clowns? (Hint, this is not a good sign)

CSS: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, a language developed to separate content from markup. Your web designer should use CSS in some form or another. CSS allows all the text and some of the design elements for the site to be controlled from one document. When you want to change fonts or colors on a site, it’s a matter of minutes instead of hours, which is time that you are paying for.

A Private Server: Ask your Web Designer if they have their own server or if they just rent space. I’m not saying every web developer has to have their own server, but if they do, this should tell you two things.

1. They are serious about the business; nobody has their own server just for fun.
2. Your website will get better performance. Virtual hosts (companies that rent space to people for cheap) often severely overload their servers to make more money. Downtime, email problems, slow page-loading, and a million other problematic things are the usual result. You are less likely to encounter this problem with a developer or company that has its own server(s).

Monthly Fee: This should be a reasonable number, no more than $75 a month unless you are getting free consulting time or your website has special needs. A range of $15 – $35 is pretty standard for just hosting, depending on the needs for your site and what comes with it (expect to pay more for consulting time, extra storage space, etc).

Cost: Every website is unique, and most of the time you usually get what you pay for. If you want your site to do everything but wash your dishes and your budget is $500, you are not being realistic. On the other hand, if you just paid $5,000 for a site that doesn’t really do anything, your getting ripped off.

A Content Management System: You shouldn’t have to pay your Web Designer every time you need a few words changed, modern sites should be built with some kind of Content Management System (CMS) which allows you (at least) to make basic text changes.

Features: What comes with the website?

• Does the site include email accounts, statistics tracking?
• Does the developer or company backup the site regularily? Can you make backups? (this is especially important if your site holds important information)
• Can you make changes to the site without paying for them?
• Do you get consulting time? How much? What’s the hourly rate?

How to get Ready for a Website…

Plan: What do you want the website for? How will it help your business? What can it do to save you time or money? This information is critical to the success of your website.

Gather: A common misconception is that websites can be made from nothing, this is not the case. A website is a container for, or in some cases, a medium to transfer, information. However, that information needs to come from somewhere. Here are a few things any web designer needs to get started.

1. Logo – preferably in a vector format (adobe illustrator, eps, or macromedia freehand format). If you don’t have one, get one designed, it is usually the starting point for your websites design.
2. Photography – an all text website is pretty boring, have photos ready or arrange for them to be taken.
3. Information – Contrary to popular opinion your web designer does not know the details of your business, the history of the company, or what information you want on that contact form.
4. A Needs List – What do you want the website to do? What information will it gather… or present? What aspect of your business can benefit most from the website?

Define Your Terms: How much are you spending each month? Has everything you need the website to do been spelled out? Is there anything you’d like to add? What’s the quote amount? Are you working on a quote or hourly basis? How long till the site is finished once everything is supplied?

Get your information to the designer ASAP to help get your site done ASAP: Stick to some kind of structured time schedule with the developer. All pictures need to be turned in by this day, text information needs to be turned in by this day. The site will be completed in x amount of time once all information has been collected, etc. The sooner the site is finished the sooner it can begin working for you.

1. Check in with your web designer on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for changes or progress reports.

Get Involved: Check in on your website while it’s being built, voice what you like and don’t like. Ask about changes as soon as possible. Is this changeable? What if I want to add this? Will it cost more? Etc. A good web designer will keep you informed about changes or modifications they need to make to make the website function better from a technical or aesthetic standpoint. If you don’t like something, ask about it. Maybe it was done for a reason, maybe it is just a difference of opinion.

Build your Website in Stages: If you are not sure what you want but know you want to bring your business online – start small. A small basic website should cost you no more than $500 – $800. Start with this, wait a few months and see what you (or your customers) are requiring of the website. If you have already determined exactly what you need the website to do, make sure you relay all of this information to the developer.

* Taking care of these basic things will insure a better overall experience for both you and the web designer. It will help insure that your website can be working for you as soon as possible and doing what you want it to do.

• Listed in the Duluth, Minnesota Web Design Services Directory at Marketingtool.com
• Finding Web Designers
• Sun Website Promotions
• The Designers Network
• Web Design Directory
• Web Design – SightQuest – Web design tools such as graphics, javascript, and resources for web designers.
• SitePoint. Ltd. excellent source for the web developer
• The Web Development Community
• SEO Companies – Directory of top Search Engine Optimization companies
• ZAESY.com – Web Directory
• Lawyer Directory
• Small business web directory

Modules available for your website, these are usually customized specifically for your site.

Newsletter

» Used For – Keeping in contact with, and marketing to your customers.
» How it Works – Visitors to your site can sign up to receive newsletters on your homepage. You log into your website administration panel and type in what you want the newsletter to say. The newsletter system sends out both a plain-text and newsletter so no matter what your recipients have installed for a mail client, they get the message. Our newsletter system allows people to signup for multiple newsletters on your website, and for you to keep track of those lists. Although our newsletter system allows you to import mailing lists, but we have a strict no-spam policy in place for using it.

» Example – M5Media.net Web Tips – Allows us to send out tips on using the internet to people who have subscribed to receive them. Members can opt-out of receiving tips at any time via a link in the email.

• Newsletter Campaign Pricing

Quick Poll

» Used For – Getting in touch with your customers and site visitors (market research).
» How it Works – You can create a question and up to 8 answers for that question. Surfers see the question on your homepage, then answer according to the multiple choice answers you have created. The system logs the results, you can replace the question as often as you want, and you have an unlimited amount of questions. To keep it honest, the system only let’s people vote once.
» Example – Integra Financial Services – Allows Integra to conduct market research on what are the most popular loan programs and what features people like about them.

Search

» Used For – Google powered searching of your site, a convenience for all surfers.
» How it Works – We harness the power of Google to search only your site, results are “packaged” and displayed on your site.

Calendar

» Used For – Displaying special events or date specific information for your site.
» How it Works – Your admin allows you to put in events for any day of the year and any time of the day. people can sign up to be reminded of the event via a text message or can sign up for a time slot via the web (for example – booking a function room at a restaurant).

Authorization System

» Used For – Only allowing people with certain credentials to access parts of your site. For example, a members-only section or a different page meant for certain clients.
» How it Works – You control who has access to what by assigning them a username and password to get access to certain parts of your site.
» Example – Splashbeachclub.com (splash profiles) – only people who have signed up for Splash profiles have access to email other members and access the members only photo gallery.

Ecommerce

» Used For – Selling Online! Whatever your business sells.
» How it Works – The database tracks your products and facilitates the sale of goods online!
» Example – www.eddievegas.com – Allows the store owner to upload and manage vintage guitar sales and keep track of orders, inventory, and other data.

Offline marketing is just as important as the online stuff.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that they simply don’t do any marketing for their website and put all their budget into building it.  So I ask thee the age old question…

“What good is building a website if nobody know about it?”