When it comes to web design pricing I have long known there is some mystery to it. It’s not uncommon to find ads and offshore companies plugging $199 for a five page website to top brand agencies, only to hear later there is a “it costs $5,000 to even talk to us” retainer. Clearly it’s anyone’s guess as to how much it should cost to build a website, or is it? What goes into putting up a website? How much work does it take? Do they charge hourly or by the page or maybe even by the cheesy stock photography image? The fact is that there are many ways that companies sort out the pricing of a site project, and while some companies are on the up and up, some merely just shoot the moon. I think the age old motto still applies, “You get what you pay for!” Ultimately, the industry is diverse enough where there are a million different ways to categorize each company and likewise their pricing mechanisms. I can’t write that long and it’s almost my bed time, but I have done my due diligence to provide some insight to a few of the major categories that most web providers can call their own.

For $500 or less you too can have your very own personalized website. That is of course as long as you don’t mind there being 1.2 million others just like yours, albeit maybe with a few color variations. These types of offers basically have a few catches:

1. You have little to no say in the aesthetics of your site.
2. While you may not get charged a staggering amount for extras, these deals are for bare bones. It is essentially the car with no air conditioning.
3. I leave it to personal opinion as to whether this is a good thing or bad thing, but the odds are extremely high that the work is being outsourced.

The positive side of these providers is you get to have a billboard for your business for a relatively small expense. This is great for start-ups, small businesses and local business. It accomplishes just getting some basic information on the web and likewise gives people a fair chance at finding out who you are, what you do, and how to contact you. If you are trying to receive and/or market to a national audience this type of website will stand to hurt before it helps. Essentially, if you are driving traffic to your site that would otherwise never have heard of your business, it is essential to make a first impression that sticks.

The next main category is the “custom” web designer. Many companies attempt to exploit the word “custom” and essentially the word itself means little in regard to the context of the company that uses this moniker. At a minimum, a “custom” website should never mimic either the designer’s portfolio or any other website on the web for that matter. A custom design takes good and bad aspects of existing design trends and combines them with the client’s wants, needs, and objectives. Now what comes out on the other end depends on any number of potential factors from the company and/or designer’s artistic interpretation to the client’s desire to micromanage the process. As stated there are many companies out there that coin themselves “custom web designers.” To separate the gold from the dirt you have to consider one or all of several factors.

1. What is the process they use to get the final product? What kind of information do they gather? Do they do interviews, questionnaires, or a combination of both?
2.  Do all of the websites in their portfolio look the same? Did they actually do the designs in the portfolio or just update some text on the page at one point?
3. If needed, how is the revisions process handled?

All of the answers to these questions play into the final product you will eventually pay for. A good solid process backed with a company that has the skills to produce a truly unique web experience is going to cost more, but likewise it is the difference in separating your online presence from others. While a site my not always convert the masses that are only there to seek its beauty, a quality designed website creates an online branding and PR campaign not equally matched by alternative means. Pricing in this genre can really run the gamut. If a company is charging on the low end in this particular sector, there is usually a catch. Either they are a $499 web company in disguise or you are not getting the benefit of a process or team of skilled professionals behind the effort. If the price is on the high end, then it is important to make sure they have the portfolio and case studies to back it up.

The next and final iteration of a web industry sector is the full blown Interactive Agency. If the agency truly is representative of its place in this realm, this isn’t for the faint of heart, or pocket for that matter. There are very, very few agencies that are worthy of this categorization. With a true interactive agency a web site is no longer a project but a multi-faceted marketing campaign combined with print, social, branding, and traditional marketing elements. To get the most out of the cost of this type of company your place in the market share is now about brand awareness rather than traffic and conversions. You want the target audience to see and know you are there and the web is only a small part of this overall vision. Costs are a minimum of six figures if not seven and chances are about 99.9% your average five year old can name the companies that use a true Interactive Agency.

To make the best decision it is important to understand there is a return on investment through a carefully thought out combination of quality and budget. In the end with true Interactive Agencies aside, you are paying for quality, expertise, and current disposition regardless of their “marketing position”. A volume based company cannot truly fit in to the custom web design industry and an Interactive Agency can’t meet the pricing demands below that of a Fortune 500 company. In today’s web world you have traditional marketing companies experimenting with web, design firms pretending to be development firms, development companies pretending to be design firms, hosting companies offering websites, IT consulting and more, all trying to get their piece of the action. I circle back to the point that there are million of different factors that go in to web design companies and their pricing mechanisms. Any prospective web site client should hopefully understand the relationship between desired quality and budget, the rest is finding a prospective relationship that fits within those two elements.

There is no such thing as a website overnight success. Mystery solved, blog for the week = done! Wait, I forgot to explain why! Let’s set the stage; in my experience in running a business for the past eight years there is no real overnight success in business, and even more so online. Fast growth can only come in one of a very few ways being:

1. A lot of capital.
2. An indescribable amount of man hours.
3. Really good people firing on all cylinders.

Sometimes its a combination, but its never without any of these attributes. The only overnight success in this world comes from gambling, the lottery or stealing, but I’m not taking my chance on beating Vegas, haven’t bought a lottery ticket in years, and likewise don’t feel like going to jail anytime soon. I don’t know where the average Joe stands but that is just me. Your Facebook, Myspace, Google, Amazon, Ebay or any other of the major apparently overnight online successes didn’t get their billion dollars a few days after their conception. Not to mention these ideas were unique at the time and have obliterated the competition for market share.

If you added the man hours of development and sweat equity for these gems of the Internet put together, you could circle the globe eight times. I can’t exactly prove that because the data doesn’t exists, but let me just tell you that none of these sites started out as even a reflection of what they are today. Facebook started as a crude version of Harvard “hot or not”, while Ebay was a cheap site for selling beanie babies (boy I’m glad I didn’t buy one of those) and Google is years worth of mathematical and search technology genius put together. The bottom line is you aren’t going to create a version of these sites and compete with these big dogs within the market place without a great idea and a truckload of benjamins. If you are still reading this and saying, “Duh, everyone knows that,” I will say that’s not quite true. Ok, so there isn’t an overnight success what now? A second part of this myth is that you can make money on the web with little or no investment similar to the California Gold Rush in 1849 that the money is just sitting there waiting for you.

While I will still contend that you can compete for a larger market share with less of a start-up cost of opening up a brick and mortar location, the online marketplace itself has become quite competitive. Simply put, unless you are a developer (or really good friends with one that is a pushover) the fact of the matter is that it’s probably going to take some capital and more than just a good idea to build a successful online enterprise. Driving traffic to your site is the second part of the equation and that takes an aggressive marketing campaign to get the users you need to find your site. The amount of money being put into online advertising year over year is growing by the billions. This means the marketplace is becoming more competitive, and unfortunately, to compete in a competitive market place revert to the three tools listed above.

If I burst anyone’s bubble I apologize. This doesn’t mean its impossible, its simply a matter of uncovering the fact that the web isn’t the haven for no cost, next million dollar ideas, those simply don’t exist anywhere. The web still remains a great place to invest one’s ingenuity, desire, and output of great ideas, this will remain true for long years to come. It just takes more work than the average bear might think to get there.

Many new clients get a project finished and then wonder what the next step is. To get a site from the development environment and into the great World Wide Web requires you to put your site up on a server (which is just a special computer designed to display Web sites). There are lots of different types of hosting accounts to consider, but here are a few.

• Free web hosting service: There are a ton of companies that offer up Free web hosting often with limited services and/or advertisements that you are forced to display on your site.
• Shared web hosting service: This is probably the most common way that people start off in the web hosting world. In shared hosting, one’s website is placed on the same server with many other sites. This could be a few to hundreds or thousands and, often, all domains share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive and it is usually a great place to start when looking for your first hosting service.
• Virtual Dedicated Server: (also known as a Virtual Private Server or VPS) This type of hosting divides the server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. This setup will frequently allocate resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship. The users may have root access to their own virtual space and sometimes customers are responsible for patching and maintaining their server.
• Dedicated hosting service: your site gets its own Web server with full control over it; however, the user usually does not own the server. This setup is typically unmanaged meaning the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated server.
• Managed hosting service: this type of dedicated server means that your site gets its own Web server but you are not allowed full control over it. Usually, you are still allowed to manage your data via FTP or other remote management tools. This is done so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems.
• Colocation web hosting service: this is a very common setup similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the server and the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. Often, the provider may provide little to no support directly for their client’s machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server.
• Clustered hosting: Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting since they are when you take a number of servers and connect them together to increase the power of the server. This is usually only reserved for very popular and highly used sites.

So, the best advice is to analyze your site, determine how much traffic it might get and how much control you want over the management of the hardware. Then it should be as easy as just shopping around and doing your homework.

How to identify programmers and cope with their different coding styles.

Everybody has their only personal touch when it comes to pumping out code. Oftentimes the difference is negligible since similar work items are usually delegated to one programmer or department, minimizing the chance that you will ever have to sort through their source since it ‘appears to work’. Having to decipher another person’s code can be time consuming and runs the risk of erroneous implementation of code. Being able to recognize a particular programmer’s style is the first step to successfully utilizing their work for your benefit. Listed below are a number of different programming styles that you are likely to come across in your workplace along with their distinguishing traits.

The Clutter Bug:

More often than not this type of programmer can be identified by looking at their workspace alone. These ‘cluster-coders’ lack organization and are more concerned with results than upholding standards. Clutter Bugs are the product of loosely defined business requirements, poor fundamental programming education (or a personal indifference towards accepted programming methodology), and not enough team experience. The Clutter Bug gets a bad rap, because they often are the most intelligent programmers. Most Clutter Bugs know their code like the back of their hands and given a conflict can resolve it promptly. Other symptoms include inconsistent lunch schedules, late hours, and unkempt hair.

The Dungeon Master:

These programmers assume that others will adopt and follow their programming styles down to which data structures they use. The Dungeon Master is resilient to change and is always ready to defend their work with a lengthy list of reasons why their style is superior to yours. They are quickly irritable when dealing with other persons’ code, and will become quickly lost if too much or too little whitespace is present. Individually they might stand out from the crowd, but when working within a team environment they oftentimes become the nitpicker and inhibit work from getting completed by requiring that all deliverables meet their standards first and not the clients’. Some Dungeon Masters are the product of the Dinosaur mental block (can’t teach an old dog new tricks), but more often than not they are just prideful and have an insurmountable prejudice.

The Spatially Aware:

If there was a beauty pageant for code-writing the Spatially Aware would win every time, however they might fumble when asked how they would use their code to better the project. The primary flaw of the Spatially Aware is that they probably have spent more time organizing their code than writing it. Some of them are tightly bound by the instructions of their first programming teacher while others simply have some form of textual spacing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This type of programmer may make it extremely easy for you to find what you need from their code, but they will struggle immensely with your code if you have not mashed your “tab” button to death. They also tend to waste valuable time making code look presentable even though the client will never touch the source.

The Shape Shifter:

Always looking for a new and improved way to perform the same old trick, the Shape Shifter will solve the same problem three different ways in three different places. Their included files list usually has to be placed within a collapsible tag to keep it from taking up half the page. The hardest part about dealing with a Shape Shifter’s code is learning how their code works or learning the foreign resource they decided to pull in. Other programmers struggle with Shape Shifter code, because it requires them to learn alternative ways of implementing a solution that they are already capable of doing with tried and tested logic. Shape Shifters are usually technical bookworms, random bloggers, and tend to jump into a problem headfirst without analyzing the needs of the project first.

The T-1000:

In the brain/processor of the T-1000, coding standards are expendable. Opening up a T-1000’s code is like opening a Windows Media Video file with notepad. Class and variable names look more like serial codes than descriptive titles, lines of code run together, and commenting is, in the programmer’s opinion, unnecessary. These programmers are living machines and should be watched carefully when working on a team project, especially if you have employees with the last name of “Connor”. If you’re delegating an entire project to a T-1000 rest assured that it will function correctly, but do not expect great documentation. T-1000’s can understand anybody else’s code, but others will struggle to understand the simplest statement of a T-1000 program.

While it is impossible to unite all coders under one programming standard, it is very easy to alleviate several issues that may occur between clashing programmer mentalities by implementing and enforcing rudimentary practices. This can be as simple as defining naming standards, having a logic flow associated with work items (aka use cases), or enforcing good commenting. Below are a number of steps that can assist in tightening the nuts and bolts on your development team:

1. Create a predevelopment process where overall project analysis and design is performed. This includes designing database schema, use cases, naming conventions, and business rules.
2. If your team is large, or your projects expansive enough, you may consider developing a business-specific software development cycle where project workflow can be custom-tailored to your business’s needs and methodology.
3. Getting your developers to discuss their ideas openly in Developer Meetings can help establish what kind of standards are necessary for your workforce, and will also promote constructive technical discussion between programmers.
4. Commenting is a simple and easy way to describe what your code does. This is the only reason commenting exists…so use it!
5. Documentation is painful to compile, but it will save your developers time, your end users even more time, and your customer support department 50% on their phone bill.

In order to get the most out of your developers it is important to recognize the differences and utilize the strengths of your team members. Being able to identify what type of programmers you are working with will save you time, money, and minimize the need for oversight. Taking some of these proposed precautionary steps can drastically increase the efficiency of your development team and also increase the conviviality of your workplace.

One of the most difficult parts of any Web project is establishing an accurate timeline for completion of the project. There are so many unknown factors that can creep up during a project that will inevitably delay the project.

So how do you try and account for these factors and establish a schedule you can count on? The simple answer is to break a project down to its smallest pieces and project those items.

It’s so much easier to put a time estimate on a task that has been broken down into its pieces. For example, let’s say one of the big project tasks is to develop a shopping cart. That’s a pretty daunting task to try and slap a time estimate on if you don’t know all the individual pieces that make up that task. So, the best thing to do is take that tasks, break it down and then project those smaller pieces. So in our shopping cart example, I might break it down like this:

• Build front-end shopping cart graphics – 4 hours
• Install shopping cart software – 12 hours
• Integrate software with merchant account – 8 hours

Of course, I can then break these tasks down into their pieces as well if I don’t think I can accurately gauge their times as well. Then I can simply add up my times to get an idea of how long a big task will actually take me.

When I begin working with a client, the first topic I discuss is the specific list of site features and the sitemap. My goal of tackling this subject is to get an idea of all the different components that will make up a project. My next step is to break all these items into their individual tasks. Only then can I accurately estimate a timeline for a project.

Creating a timeline can be intimidating. When you have some many items to get done and so many moving pieces that are always threatening to derail your project, the best bet is to deconstruct the project. Put times to items and then do your best to stick to them. That’s the key to effectively establishing a project timeline you can live with.

Creating a Web site that caters to the masses isn’t easy. Most of your broad-appeal sites like espn.com, cnn.com or similar monsters have the backing of major established companies willing to put down large amounts of capital to see them succeed. That can’t always be the case for someone who wants to start up a site and see it grow into a success. That’s why the key to online success is finding a niche market and giving them what they need.

The real beauty of the World Wide Web is that you have billions and billions of bytes of information dedicated to just about anything you can think of. If you look around the Internet, how many times have you thought to yourself, “wow, there’s actually someone out there that likes this stuff?” The best part is that there is still room for more!

Want to check the value of that vintage Partridge Family lunchbox that’s been sitting in your closet for a decade? No problem. Sites like www.collectorlunchboxes.com can point you in the right direction. Or maybe you just need to find out the date that Stan Musial played his last game for the St. Louis Cardinals. Yep, baseball-reference.com is there to help you out (September 29, 1963 by the way).

That’s really the key to success when starting up a new Web business. You have to ask yourself what need exists out there that you can fill. And in the ultimate example of finding a niche, there’s a whole collection of sites out there designed to just help you find a niche market!

The easiest place to find your niche is your own personal interests. In 1999, I started a Web site called rotojunkie.com. This Web site was dedicated to fantasy baseball and football. I started the site because fantasy sports was a big hobby of mine and just happened to be a huge niche market. After 10 years, the site had exploded with thousands of registered members and millions of views each month. It wasn’t rocket science.

Just find something you have an interest in, share that interest with the world and make it happen. The recipe for online success just might be that easy.

Ha ha ha, I just did a play on words. Get it? NET-working, you know the Internet? Anyone… (crickets – chirp- chirp – chirp)? Tough crowd. Anyhow, the subject of this particular blog is taking the age old practice of networking and deciphering how you can/should/better not ever do with a website to make it your networking clone. That way you can make contacts while you sleep, which is a beautiful thing.

I stole a few tips from a previous article, so like any good writer I will give this writer their due credit. However, we will take their networking tips and turn them into web related information.

#1 - Select a few key associations or organizations and participate actively. This is certainly a big one. There are good times and bad times to promote other websites. I probably wouldn’t advise posting a link to a direct competitor’s website, but if you have a valued-added way to do this then I am all for it (your price is lower, see here kind of thing). Likewise, don’t let your site become a highway of billboards 70 miles long for everything from baseball to knitting associations. I am also going to say this: DO NOT EVER DO RANDOM LINK EXCHANGES or link exchanges period for that matter. There is no real long term value and in the end if someone comes to you with this offer you are going to get the short end of the stick! The key here is to create a “network” of associations, groups or companies that are directly related to your product or service and are widely known as the experts of the field you are in (if you are not). It’s okay to send people away from your site, if you are giving them good information. I promise they will come back to you. With this handful of great websites, find out how you can cross promote each other by adding content about what they do and likewise if they can reciprocate it’s a win/win situation.

#2 - Get to events early and plan to stay late. - Hmmm… I got nothing. Good news is your website is up 24/7. What a party animal!

#3 - Greet people you’ve met in the past. If you know there is another website that you can benefit from a networking partnership with, then “ask and ye shall receive.” If not keep asking and keep “greeting”, so to speak, until you can find the magic button that is a mutually value added relationship between the two websites. Now it goes without saying there is a fine line of persistence and pestering, but if you know you can provide value then it’s just a matter of getting it to the right person and/or seeing it through your eyes. Back up your reasoning with facts, data, pictures, stats, etc and just make sure you are always conveying the value of your proposition. Likewise don’t be cliché and send a poorly written email request. Find a way to get on the phone with someone, the right someone.

#4 - Follow up on leads. Always, always, always follow up with leads from your website. There is nothing worse than someone begging you for help and just ignoring them. It is likely that 50% of your web leads will not be looking for the exact service/price you are offering. If you have a good network and are good at what you do, then you can refer this potential customer to somewhere that can better assist them. Someday that lead might be looking for your services again and can now afford your prices. If you helped them when they were nothing, I promise you they are going to use you later.

#5 - Be generous about sharing business tips, referrals and leads with non-competitors. If someone is good enough to be part of your website network then they should be good enough for you to confidently send them any potential leads (see#4). If they are not then see #1. Its basically the ole’ scratch your back you scratch mine sort of thing. Its just good business.

Well I hope this has been beneficial for you. Always remember to stay on top of your networking and your NETworking duties.

Emails can easily be ignored, probably even easier than fast forwarding though commercials while trying to catch up on your 100 hours of DVR back log. However the power of email marketing cannot be ignored if there is a perceived value in its content or purpose. Informative, beneficial, concise, simple but useful, are just a few of the adjectives that should describe what you are or should be sending out to your consumer base.

Here are a few powerful reasons what and/or why you should be effectively using an email marketing campaign.

Targetization - Yes, that is a made up word similar to George Bush’s “strategery”. But that doesn’t detract from its effectiveness. Not only can you simply target your respective customer base but you can segment your market into different demographics whether it be age, sex, interest, etc. Most quality email campaign service providers, such as Constant Contact or Campaign Monitor, allow you to create different mailing lists. Thus you can customize different campaigns to the needs of those various demographics.

Personalization - Most effective marketing strategies today given the rise of social media are about personalization. Have your email campaigns be more than a few lines of text from a do-not-reply@dontevertalktous.com address that people cannot identify with. Whether it is from your CEO, PR Manager or someone else within your company, give it personification and a direct message. This will only increase the effectiveness and likewise show that there is a person behind the curtain and not just a sterile company.

Consistency - Whether its annual (not recommended), weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. You need to do it consistently. If its an information based email campaign, then consistency is even more important so readers can begin to look forward when they will receive your interesting piece of email magic. Sales/Ad campaigns need to be done regularly but are not quite as necessary to be on a rigid schedule.

Action - Any effective email should involve some type of action. Even if you are just providing information what is the call to action to get someone to take the next step. Depending upon your type of business this can either be subtle or very obvious.

As a final thought always remember that no one wants to be sold therefore you must always show value in what you are sending to people. Determine what your “email value” is and stick to or find ways to tweak until you see the ROI you are looking for. Always remember that it will never be perfect.