Making Changes To Your Website When You Pay A Company To Design It For You?

Melissa

So, I just got off the phone with a Web Design company, and I was all ready to give them a deposit, until he told me that I wouldn't be aloud to make changes even on our "About Us" page or add pictures myself, that I would have to pay them either $45/hr or $45/mo for a maintenance package. Is this the norm?

I just assumed that once you pay to have your website designed they would tell you how to access it to make minor changes or at least to add your own pictures. I used to do the maintenance of our website at my old job and it wasn't difficult AT ALL! This guy is telling me that you have to know how to use Front Page (which isn't hard) and HTML. What?

realpurty2

I turned down every web designer who even mentioned a maintenance program. When buying a design, make sure you are buying the complete code copies and all associated files, photos etc. Atleast that's my opinion.

__________________
Woman in a Man's World.

MinConst

I would hesitate on a company that builds website using Front Page. I use it myself for my sites but would not consider myself a professional web designer.

__________________
Paul
Minichillo's Construction
Website
I will never leave you hanging!

MinConst

I would hesitate using a company that builds websites using Front Page. I use it myself for my sites but would not consider myself a professional web designer.

__________________
Paul
Minichillo's Construction
Website
I will never leave you hanging!

hatchet

Yes - be careful there. Many web design companies are selling you a package deal where they own the domain, webspace, and the design.
You should register the domain name in your name and your name alone and then find someone that will provide the design for you. Try sitepoint.com or elance.com or designoutpost.com for the design - then I can help from there on how to update it and get it uploaded to your site.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Double-A

Graphic design students at the local college are also a great bet. Call or ask around for the correct building, put up an add on the bulletin board and wait for the phone to ring.

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Mike Finley

Sounds like the company you are talking to is in this to make a good living. If they can get it, great for them. If it isn't the way you want to do things you probably need to talk to somebody else. What you are experiencing is nothing different than what customers experience looking at contractors, keep looking hard enough and you will always find somebody willing to do it cheaper or in a way more suitable to you.

While FP might not be the most 'professional' program it is a program that would allow you to do what you want if your website was created in it. It does allow people without a tremendous amount of knowledge to be able to update professionally created sites.

Website design is no different than any other creative medium, there is copyrighted work created for you where the originator owns the work and there is work for hire arangements where you own the work.

RowdyRed94

+1. Any site done in FP is cluttered with extra code and proprietary junk. They're a major pain to work on and generally suck.

To the original question: negotiate to buy a completed website, not some sort of lease.

__________________
Clint - carpenter, coordinator, webmaster

Grumpy

First thing is go out and buy a domain name. www.godaddy.com now you own this name. Next find a designer that will allow you to make changes, infact will give you total ownership of the files.

Front page and any WYSIWYG type editors are all cross compatible. However FP spits out some really sloppy code. I personally use Dreamweaver which is one of the top shelf editor programs. I really like that it will clean up FP code and make it "tighter" however no WYSIWYG editor gives as good of code as coding from scratch... therefore I usually go into my files and clean them up manually and remove redundant tags and so forth.

RobertWilber

I agree
register your domain name first
Go buy a book called "HTML in 24 hours" - 24 easy 1 hour lessons
Get a copy of cuteFTP-it is cheap and works well
go to SIMPLE sites [with your browser] and right click and [view source]

Do it yourself!

I paid someone WELL to build and maintain my site. They dropped the ball and the site went off-line because they didn't pay the $10 annual server fee, so I ditched them.
That is when I found out that the reason I couldn't have robert@wilberelectrical.com as my email address was because they couldn't figure out how to charge me for something I had already paid for that had to be done at MY computer.
So, I dumped their logo from my home page, added 6 or 7 or ten pages, photos, links, added FAQs, rewrote my homepage and cleaned up the ugly code he had used.
For Christmas last year, I wrote a new website in 2 hours.
Piece of cake

Grumpy

Problem with designing your own website is that it looks like a contractor did their website, same as if a web designer built their home. You can imagine that one for yourself. Pay the few bucks and have someone do it for you, someone who has sites in their portfolio that you wouldn't mind calling your own.

Robert correct me if I am wrong, but you were able to use their layout and design and you just added content? I personally feel the overall layout (tamplate) of the site is the hardest part to build, adding content is apiece of cake.

Remember this is how people see you and do you want them to see you as an amateur or a professional? If you want them to see you as a professional, your site shoudl look it. Because of my site people always assume we are a much larger company than we really are, and that is the goal (for me anyways).

Melissa

We have a domain name from GoDaddy, and I just found out that .com is avail Well, the person has 45 days to renew. We currently have .net.

We have a website too, but it's pretty sad, and I don't have time to mess with it, although I would love to learn how to do it one day.

Think I'm going to try Design Outpost. Our logo was done by them, and I like all the work I see on there.

RobertWilber

Actually, what is wrong with having a contractor website look like it was built by a contractor, rather than a manipulative marketer?
There is about NADA left of the original design.
I am glad I built most of the site
...especially after seeing what "professional" sitebuilders turn out ...

Melissa

I agree Robert. A lot of websites I see look mass produced. I'm hoping to achieve something in between that and the obvious do-it-yourselfer job we've got going on!

fez-head

I have had good luck with Aaron O'hanlon from Footbridge Media. I was skeptical at first and did not want to pay the upkeep fees. Now I am glad that I did.

Aaron puts up with all of my little changes every week or so and never complains....which is good because that is why I pay them. The news letter for my clients is pretty nice also


Aaron O'Hanlon
Marketing Consultant
FootBridge Media
Aaron@FootBridgeMedia.com
www.FootBridgeMedia.com
322 Bleecker Street, PMB #444
New York, NY 10014-2980
Phone: (888) 818-7215
Direct: (850) 748-7673
Fax: (815) 550-5376
LOOKING FOR REFERRALS We invest 100% of our time and energy to delivering
first-class service to our clients. As a result, we are always looking for
new clients in your area. We're interested in building strong life long
relationships one person at a time. For more information on our referral
program go to: http://www.footbridgemedia.com/referral_program.asp

mickeyco

What's wrong with a homeowner reading "Learn how to wire your house in 24 hours" and then wiring their own home. Besides the obvious, electrocution and house fires. You hire a professional to get professional results. While a bad website is not dangerous, it can cost you business. A good website can be a very effective tool. Marketing is not a bad thing, look at Mike Finley 's websites, done well it pays off. I think most people expect you to have a website these days. I know I always look at a companies website, if they have one, before calling them. Some companies have more work than they can handle and don't really need a website but it's still a good idea to have one to answer questions and show your work, it helps prevent lot's of wasted time on the phone answering questions; do you do electric?, what's your warranty? Are you licensed etc.

I'm all for doing it yourself but it should be done well, I have seen many of the websites done by members here and some are great and some are not. I think it all depends on the amount of time you can spend learning. For a good website you really need to know two disciplines, graphic design and html, and it takes a bit of time to learn both. Sometimes it's good to do part of it and farm out the things you can't do.

As far as someone else hosting & updating your website, I don't like it myself (control freak), but it's great for some, if you don't have a lot of time to learn and can make more money concentrating on your work than doing your website it might be for you. I would only use a hosing company that's been around a while, many of the small ones or resellers disappear and make it difficult to get control of your domain name. It's always a good idea to make sure you are the owner of the domain name, you won't know it's a problem until it's a problem and then it's too late.

My first site was for kitchens (over ten years ago), I worked for two years in three buildings in Chicago, on Schiller, just north of downtown. Most of the work was referrals from neighbors and the website, it was just a portfolio showing finished kitchens and choices for customers, types of cabinets and finishes, appliances, faucets etc. that I offered. That website saved me so much time and aggravation and probably got me many more jobs. I have been a big fan of websites ever since.

I do my own work, but I've been doing it for over ten years, I started out of necessity, I needed a website and back then the prices I was quoted were over $9000.00 (that was the lowest) for a small remodeling business. Now you can get a very nice site from $500-$1500 for a small/medium size contractor (more to a lot more if you're real picky), so you have to decide if it's worth learning graphics and html or paying someone to do it. Good software is also quite expensive.

If you do take the time to learn (it can be fun and all the information is on the web, free for the taking) you can also make some extra money doing it for others, I have done many websites for engineers, architects and tradesmen in exchange for work. I also turned it into a part-time job (starting to become full time) doing websites for a very large food company and a few small magazines and local businesses.

I also like the idea of hosting it your self with someone like godaddy (I have several domains with them and have been very happy). You should learn at least a little bit of html to be able to update or add pictures, change your phone number (another new area code), add newly offered services etc.

The websites " sitepoint.com or elance.com or designoutpost.com" hatchet listed are great resources and there are limitless tutorials on the web for graphics and html, just do a search at google.

Kevin

Tscarborough

Let someone else do it. You are a contractor, not a webmaster. Register your own domain, though. Unless you are comfortable with terms such as "css", "FTP", and "browser compatability". Make sure that you request that the site be formated for easy online updates to areas that require it, like job photos, contact info, and service offerings.

How they do it is irrelevant, kind of like asking what press system is used to print your business cards.

alexfung

Ever try Yahoo sitebuilder. I tried the first time and it works great. Took me about 2 hours everyday for 4days to completed my first website. And it only cost $10 everymonth, no hidden cost!

Stone Mountain

I hired a member of my local Mustang club (I'm a member, so I thought we'd be "brothers") to do my site. He turned out to be doing the same thing. No changes without paying, he owned the domain name, not me, yearly maintenence, that sort of thing. He was also supposed to upload 4-500 pictures, but only did 70.
And, when I needed something to be done, it would take 3 weeks of ignored emails and phone messages before he would even answer, let alone do.
I had to threaten a law suit before I finally got my codes and my ownership.
Got a new guy now who is much more professional, if not as creative.
He was one of my customers.

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Residential Deck Specialist: Vist our Website
www.fenceanddeck.ca

RemodelMania

If you can spend the time to learn it yourself, it pays huge dividends in the long run. my dad even maintains his own web site and it blows people's minds when they see how fast he can make a change!