Web design and development is a curious industry. A lot of people would say that we deal in design. Or code. Or graphics. Or marketing. These are merely by-products of what we deal in. They are not the products themselves. Web agencies only have a few things that they sell: their relationship with the client, […]
Trust Is The Key To Great Web Design Projects
Why I Don’t Bill Hourly On Large Projects
For large projects, I don’t have an hourly rate. In fact, I don’t even worry about measuring increments of time until we get down to smaller things like maintenance agreements, or smaller projects less than a few hours in scope. A rate implies that you’re measuring effort in increments of time, not return on investment. […]
Favor The Long Road: Ongoing Client Relationships
If you’re in business in any way, at some point, you’ve had to shop for web design. You’ve had to figure out what criteria you’ll be judging a web development firm on, and then go through your list of candidates. Hopefully, that list is small rather than large. But here’s a question. What happened to […]
Establishing A Brand: Forging Your Own Path
It’s a fact that your brand is what other people say about you, not what you say about yourself. Sure, there are different micro-aspects to what comprises your capital-B BRAND. Pretty much every touch point that people have with your company or you is part of that. But at the highest level, your brand is […]
Providing Value By Referring Other Developers
If you work in web design or development, it’s inevitable that you’ll get inquiries for a project that is not a good fit for your skills. Perhaps the client budget doesn’t match with your project range. Maybe the client needs skills that are a different specialty than what you deal in. Maybe you’re just booked […]
There Are No Clients From Hell
ClientsFromHell.net is a popular site. It’s estimated to be one of the top 25,000 sites in the world, one of the top 10,000 sites in the United States. This site is most popular with people in creative industries, like design. It’s also one of the most detrimental sites to the health of the design industry […]
Get Punched In The Face, Get Back Up
On EP46 of the #AskGaryVee Show, from 1:23 to 3:08, Gary Vaynerchuk answers a viewer question about endurance. A viewer asks “How many failures and punches to the face can a person handle before achieving success?” Gary states that not everyone is an entrepreneur just because they call themselves one. He states most people take […]
Getting Help From People In Your Industry
This is about how to grow your business when no one knows who you are, and the right and wrong ways to go about it. When you’re just starting out, no one knows who you are. People who are beginning their marketing career, who want exposure will oftentimes cold email people for a shout-out or […]
Why Bundling WordPress Plugins In Themes is Risky
There’s a huge problem with the way many WordPress themes are currently built, marketed, and sold. The ecosystem is beginning to change, ever so slowly, but major changes need to be made for the good of the WordPress platform, theme marketplaces, and the agencies and clients that rely on themes. The situation currently illustrating this […]
Lessons from Canlis for the Web Industry
The other day I heard a podcast interview that blew me away. In this episode, Chase Reeves interviews Mark Canlis, co-owner of Seattle’s destination restaurant, Canlis. The restaurant has been operating at an extremely high level of quality and service for over 60 years. Do yourself a favor, go listen to the podcast right now. […]