Gold Coast Web Expert

Over at tailoredPodcast.com we have our podcast “Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix”.
If you listen to the podcast we’d appreciate some feedback on the shows thus far – take the survey over at www.tailoredpodcast.com.
Thanks
Brendon

Here in the business we often have long discussions regarding the various issues that crop up from time to time.
One we discussed today was how to ensure the best outcome for the client when they provide so many directions that it’s like they are going to ensure their web site fails.
Because I’ve had that recently – a client employed us to develop her web site, was happy all the way along and then decided she didn’t like the look of it.
And then she wanted to add lots of images….and change the word……and remove text. All the things we strongly advised against.
The Web Site Will Succeed
I’m not sure what the client’s motivation was – perhaps she thought, like many others, that a web site’s success depends on it looking pretty.
We finally managed to talk her around with a fairly direct “Leave the web site like it is and it will succeed. If we implement what you want the site will fail.”
Give the client what they want or what they need?
So, should we give the client want they want (and they’re happy) or give them what they need (and they’re unahppy….but the site succeeds)?
You would hope that the 2 would fit together, but they rarely do.
Regards
Brendon

I recently had a prospect in my office that had spent $6,000 on the development of her web site. Now she wanted to talk about the marketing of the web site.
Her first question to me was: “How much should I spend on my web site marketing?”
I started talking about her objectives. She wanted, unsurprisingly, to get to the top of the search engines for her very competitive key phrase. She wanted to be there within a month.
She also wanted to employ people full time to manage her site so she could start to ‘retire’ from her business.
(She was a bit like the client I once had who had $2,000 to spend on his web site and said “I don’t want much. I don’t want to run the web site. I just want enough from it for a house by the water and a new Merc.” And, I swear, he was completely serious.)
All this from a $6,000 web site that hadn’t been marketed yet, hadn’t made a sale and had been ‘live’ just two- (2) days. And it was a terrible web site.
And she kept coming back to that question: “How much should I spend on marketing?”
Difficult Question
It’s a difficult question of course.
She needed to be aware of visitor costs, conversion rates, profitability of her products, support required, offer testing, etc. But she wasn’t.
She thought that all web sites are gold mines just waiting to be exploited for full benefit.
Client’s often have an unrealistic expectation of their web site potential. It’s usually an expectation based up reading about how much the founders of Google have made!
But sometimes a reality check is the only thing that can be provided.
I explained to this prospect why her expectations were unrealistic withy the resources she had. That didn’t meet her expectation, so she left.
Disappointed With Me
She was disappointed with me.
Not her web developer who had produced a poor site that was essentially un marketable. But me, the guy who gave her a realistic view of the commercial viability of her web business model.
And as bad as I felt, I was pleased that I’d done the right thing and, hopefully, made her a little more aware of what she truly needed to know.
Cheers
Brendon

I was just flicking through this report I wrote in 2004. It’s still relevant today and is well worth the read.
10 Secrets Of Successful Web Sites is a 14-page pdf e-book.
Enjoy!
Brendon

One thing we try and do in our business is be a little different from our competitors.
One of the ways we do this is by keeping in contact with prospects when we don’t win the job. Because people move on in jobs, things change and things don’t always work out.
A good example is a web site development job we bid on in August of last year. The marketing manager we were dealing with ended up telling us he’d decided to employ a web developer in house to revamp their web site.
Over the past 5-6 months I’ve checked the company web site regularly to take a look at the changes. None have been made.
On Friday I called up the Marketing Manager to see if we could help or if he’d like us to revisit our proposal.
“He Doesn’t Work Here Any More”
When I asked for him the Receptionist said, “He doesn’t work here any more.”
So what that would mean is that the new person in the job may be receptive to us calling on him (we’ve emailed him to see if we can help and will follow that up with a phone call today). He may be working through issues left over from the guy he replaced and have not gotten around to the web site as yet.
So the moral of the story is to keep in contact. Things changes. People move jobs. Opportunities present.
Just because someone says “No” doesn’t mean you should stop contacting them. All a “No” means is that your proposal doesn’t meet their needs right at the moment.
Regards
Brendon

I have a podcast over at www.tailoredpodcast.com.
In this show – Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show #17 – March 29, 2006 – (in the player it’s BS-Biz-Mix-2006-03-29)I talk about why we got quotes for a prospect to compete against us.
It’s not as crazy as it sounds.
Brendon

I got involved in this discussion regarding developing offline portfolios for web developers. I think having a pdf file of your online work is a great idea.

We were discussing this in the office today and Tina mentioned that she worked for a company that requested proposals from web developers. She said the one that impressed them the most sent through an email portfolio,had an online portfolio and also posted over a hard copy.
That impressed her firm hugely. And they got the job.

…………that, as a web developer, your web site will generate you many leads. prospective clients will hardly look at it.
Web developers spend a huge amount of time developing web sites to act as a portfolio of the work they can do. I’ve found prospects rarely find web developers through their web site.
I’d even go as far as to say that, for a lot of developers, a web site would be the thing they spend the most time and money on and it gives them the smallest return.
If you’re a web developer you need to measure just how you get your clients. Is your web site working?
Regards
Brendon

This is always a good one that clients try and do to slow down the completion of a job so they have more time to get the money together to pay.
You’ve done everything on the site, it’s complete.
But wait……the client has one last look and decides he needs to add content to a page. They’ll send it through “shortly”.
2 weeks later your still waiting. You can’t send the invoice until the job is done.
You email and call. It will be there “shortly”.
It’s a tough one. As the developer you want the site up and going for a couple of reasons:
1. So it can strart doing some good for the client
2. So you can invoice tyhe client and get your money
The only lesson here is never put up a site live until you have money. If the site is up live there is no hurry for the client to pay you. You need to give them an incentive!
Cheers
Brendon