Monday, May 10, 2010

Ouch! Dont' worry this happens all the time to the nicesr people.

It all started when I was sent a copy of an invoice that was being used as a contract to build a website for a client for review. For some reason, but all the wisdom sprites joined hands and encouraged me to share the wonderful stream of advice that I had been accumulating for some time. Don't worry the names have all been changed to protect the innocent, but let me tell you, the guilty and you know who you are will be judged at the pearly gates after you pull your last scam.
Please enjoy.

....I am typing everything out here because it is so hard to read the graininess of the invoice. This is not a real contract, its an invoice of which you need to get out of ASAP. The reason I say this is, every agreement I have ever seen for a responsible legit company with real legal contracts have at least 4 pages single spaced with lots of legalese.

Engaging a website designer involves your trade marks and basically means you are entrusting your legal entity to someone. Here is how it would be in the medical world,

"I, the Dr. will have possession or your body's health for x amount of months, now give me your money and don't ask any questions."

When I was an agent I wrote and negotiated contracts, so when it came time to evaluate contracts for the internet I was primed and ready. I am attaching a few here so you can see.

This document is Dated 2-1-10,so that means that they have had your money for 3 months and the site is still not working.
You gave them $1k, but are expected to pay a total of $5,580.

-Website Program 36 months
> I am not certain what they mean, unless they call "this" a website program? You should pay for a website to be built $1k for a simple billboard/pamphlet website (no bells and whistles) is fine for the whole site that you can maintain yourself. The 36 months doesn't make sense? Once they build it and it works,you can have a minimal hourly maintenance fee if you don't want to anything yourself. But as I explain later, they are all being built now for you to do them or have an intern update them, like leggos, that simple.

-Takeover Domain Hosting
>Takeover from where and why?

-Purchase 3 additional URL's
>Why? Did they explain that to you? More URL's, more websites for your brand to be spread over and more and more upkeep? I don't agree. URL's only cost $10 each a year if that much, so I am not certain where they are doing their math on this part.

-Monthly updates/offers
>A website has to have new content added on a regular basis...remember me writing a manual. I learned that if the website is created by Joomla, wordpress, drupal software, very common and easy to use....you can upload the content yourself with very few instructions. A blog, best case scenario is updated every other day...you need not write more than 2 paragraphs, is the best spider bait. Monthly updates are a death sentence.

-Complete website- copy and photos
>A complete website to me should be
>a template-$75. That is the framework, the boxes that make up the pages.
>Customizing it to fit your brand and uploading initial content $120 an hour.
You provide the content,
>Photos-professional/celebrity photo shoot for photographer, hair stylist, make-up artist, photoshop touch up frugal $1,500-$2k depending on how much each of them are paid. Remember the product of the photo shoot, the photos are used well beyond the website, (press kit, EPK-Electronic Press Kit-you pay a graphic artist to lay these out-maybe $500), posters, ads, magazines, newspapers...I recommend doing a shoot once a year.
>Articles, blog entries, white papers, you should be writing some of it, otherwise you get a writer to do it for you, priced for each job.

-3 months of SEO
This would cost you $1,500 from a pro, SEO folks usually just do SEO because it is specialized.

$1k deposit due 4-27-10
2nd payment of $1k due 5-29-10
Starting 6-1-10 charge $145 per month for 24 months.
>For what? They need to explain what they are charging you for. Since you charged it on your Amex, you can get the money back anyway.

You need
1. A website developer/programmer. They are the tech folks that build the machine and keeps it, the website running. Like a computer, they build it , we use it and if it breaks they fix it.
2. The SEO guys, are paid to provide an ongoing service to keep your site "findable" on the search engines. They keep you plugged into the electricity or current of the internet circuitry of systems. Without SEO, you are a sitting duck and you can say, "I have a website, isn't it pretty." But it is not a business tool.
3. Social Networking gal, finds, harnesses, connects you with all the social networks online that are "brand2brand," "brand2consumer," "brand2consumer2consumer".
4. Online Advertising network, they have assembled the most likely places, groups of websites for you to be found by people who need your services. You pay them to place your ad, you pay someone to create the art to be placed. This is an ongoing cost, just like SEO. Prices ranges and are very competitive. The best part about advertising on the internet is you can be very specific about where you want to be seen and why. The other part of this is you can track everything.

BTW-They did not mention anything about Data, Analytic's, Traffic, Reports, Ranking? How do know how everything is working? You can't just look at the number of patients that are coming in the door right away as there is no right away, remember my 90 days? The internet is about 90 days + 90 days + 90 days+..........

SEO+Social Networking+Public Relations+Marketing+Advertising+ a website that works/is functional is never ending, it is ongoing and interconnected.

+ The internet is a river, going somewhere whether you are in it or not.
+ Your website is your raft, you have to build a good one and maintain it so you don't drown.
+ SEO is your guide, tells you where the best rapids are to where you want to be found, gets you there and keeps you there.
+ Social Networking understands how the internet, your website, SEO, online advertising and all of the users/consumers/patients of such interact and how to use it to your advantage.

Well, that was fun. I have no idea why I got into rivers and rafting....I would break a nail and it would be all over. The internet, no problem, bring it on. Any questions?

1 comment:

  1. Very good point on contracting a website. If I may, as someone who learned the hard way (getting ripped off by a programmer to the tune of 40,000 Euro) I could definitely add a few things. The first is the contract itself. It must have milestones listed within it and a clear price structure attached to each milestone. The programmer cannot proceed unless client approves each milestone as they are completed. The other (very important) issue is who actually owns the programming code at the completion of the project. This must be clearly stated in the contract.

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