Just letting you know I’ve built a new website where I’m sharing all of my information on building websites, internet marketing and online business.

It’s called eCommerce Economy.

Check it out!

Cheers,

Luke

Related posts:

1. Make sure you have a phone number on your website
2. 8 questions in an ecommerce conversation
3. Top 8 reasons you should have an effective website

When I worked for him, we got his site to #1 for a pretty competitive keyword, and we also setup an Adwords campaign for him.

A few months ago, they asked me to quote on a redesign for their site. I submitted a quote, and apparently so did the 19yo grandson of the boss.

Well the bosses grandson won.

Over the last few months, the new site was made, and a few days ago it launched.

So the e-mail I received today was to the effect of: “Our site is nowhere on Google! Our organic listings and Adwords have dissapeared. Now I’m getting blamed from my boss for not having any sales!”

So I investigated the issue, and what I found was this line in the code in the new website:

For those that don’t know, this line tells Google that it shouldn’t keep this page in it’s index.

The Adwords issue turned out to be that the landing pages were removed, and the ads were disapproved accordingly.

This is why good web designers are important.

Making a website is relatively easy.

It’s the extra stuff that newbies will mess up.

• They don’t pay attention to detail
• They don’t understand important issues (like the noindex one!)
• They don’t take the time to make sure the integration will be seemless (like forgetting pages that were used as landing pages?)

My client said it best:

I’ve always trusted your work and advice, but times are tough with us and why i couldn’t get you to do the website last time. But now we’re learning from the mistake because it was done by an amateur!!

Related posts:

1. Google Adwords Quality Score Explained
2. Conversion rates don’t vary much based on Ad Position
3. 6 Adwords Landing Page Design Tips and an Example

I am not optimal in a number of ways at the moment.

• I don’t bill a very high % of my hours (I think mostly because I have been outsourcing a lot, which is ok since it’s marked up, but I want to get back to basics)
• I spend 3 hours outsourcing a 10-15 hour job that I could do myself
• I have heaps of projects on the go at once, and hop between them
• I get distracted by the phone and email all day
• My design skills have stopped progressing

Of those, the main thing I want to change is the outsourcing. I’ve advocated outsourcing on this blog, and I still am an advocate. But it does have some downsides, the main one being, it pushes out the turnaround time on projects something fierce. It’s innefficient, which is fine for big companies with big projects, but for a small company like me, maybe I can make more money not doing it (I’ll see).

Another reason I want to try this is that when I’m outsourcing a lot of work and just managing the projects, I’m spending more time sending emails and less time doing actual work. I like doing work, and as much as I like sending emails, it isn’t as fun.

It could be just one of those stupid phase things I seem to go through, but whatever the reason, I’m setting myself a ‘back to basics’ challenge for the next month:

• Plan what days I’ll be doing tasks so I don’t overbook myself
• No outsourcing design work on my projects
• Work on one main project at a time
• No interruptions to the main project
• Small jobs get batched and done while waiting for feedback or input for the main project
• Finish all projects by the planned time
• Track time spent on projects
• Setup an answering machine and batch phone calls/emails

All pretty basic stuff, but I believe doing them all right will result in better results for clients and better results for me. I’ll post results as I go.

Related posts:

1. Charging more for your freelancing
2. The #1 key to happy freelancing
3. Outsourcing for freelancers

1. The client is quote shopping. Government departments are great at this. They send you an email with a 20 page brief they’ve prepared, and want you to send back a quote to go along with the 20 other quotes they’re collecting.

Have you ever gone to a government website and seen how crap it was? Well it’s because they go with a cheap company that invariably don’t care about anything but fulfilling the conditions of the contract.

My advice: Save the effort and don’t even bother reading their brief. As soon as it’s clear that they’re collecting quotes, turn it down. My one exception is if you’re in a state of growth and you’re happy to take a pain in the arse job for the sake of building credibility.

2. The client wants too much. A small startup contacts you and wants you to do a site for them. They have a huge feature list which you know to do properly will cost $50k and they want to “just start small and build from profits”.

These jobs should come with a scope creep warning attached to them. You’ll do the job and a list of revisions come back that look a lot like features. You say it’s not part of the scope and suddenly they realise the brevity of the job they’ve asked for.

These jobs aren’t worth it. The exception is if the buyer is experienced in dealing with developers and understand things like scope.

3. The client wants it cheap. Cheap like this non profit business. The problem with doing work cheap is that if you always do it, eventually you’ll figure out that you’re not making enough money and you’ll end up in a cubicle working 9-5 because that actually pays the bills.

Buyers that want cheap work can pull their hair out trying to speak Indian.

4. The client will be a pain in the arse. If the client has been through 5 designers already. If the client is controlling the quoting process. If you missed one of the earlier signs but have a gut feeling that it’s going to be bad. If you have no clear contact who is in charge of the project. If your contact has no authority within the client organisation. If you’ve heard bad things from the grape vine.

All signs that you’re better off sending an email saying

Thanks for contacting me for a quote on your website. After looking through the design brief I’ve decided that our services aren’t a good match for your particular needs, and that you’ll get a better solution from a different provider.

Best of luck with it all.

5. The project is going to fail. Sometimes I’ll get someone looking for a quote for a website, and I talk to them a bit about their idea, and it’s just a terrible idea. Maybe they need a shitload of money that they don’t have. Or something else that just sounds ridiculous.

My advice: Stay away from shitty ideas. It’s no fun being around someone who’s going to blow some cash, and it’s even less fun when they blow it on you.

Summary

Our job is to educate clients, but sometimes, it’s impossible. And when it’s impossible, you’re saving yourself time and money when you politely decline before the situation turns bad.

Related posts:

1. 5 reasons why job boards suck
2. Top 8 reasons you should have an effective website
3. Helping clients by thinking ahead and being flexible

Sometimes being easy going means that you just don’t care enough.

“We’re a non profit… Can you do it cheap?” Some people seem to think that everything in life is negotiable. They haggle at Harvey Norman, they haggle with their car dealer, they haggle in every shop they go into. Hell, people even used to try Haggle me when I worked at Big W.

Here’s the thing about freelancing – your customers are your boss – they pay your wage. If you work for a company, could you imagine your boss to come in and say, “our newest customer is a non profit so will you take a pay cut?”. It would be absurd.

Just because a freelancer’s income isn’t a fixed wage, doesn’t mean that they can do things “cheap”.

The conversation should be about value

Can you do it cheaper? NO! But I can do less.

Here’s an example. Today, a non-profit asked me for a quote for a website and said “We are a non profit company so can you do us a good price?”.

At first I was slightly insulted. I felt like saying “how about we take the difference out of your wage instead of mine?”

Instead, I said “How about, I will setup your site in a content management system, show you how to use it, and you can add all the content”.

Basically, I was saying - You can pay less if you want less.

Or alternatively, if someone asks for a discount, maybe they can pay in another way.

I had a client that was running a local music festival. They couldn’t afford the full fee, so instead of asking me for a good price, they pre-emptively offered some of the payment as a sponsorship package, AND also gave me a good discount for the sponsorship. Now THAT is someone that at least respected me enough to not ask for something for nothing.

Yesterday, I wrote about seeking out perfect customers. Here’s one more to add to the list of what makes a perfect customer. A perfect customer respects you.

Related posts:

1. The #1 key to happy freelancing
2. Freelance Philosophy Friday 4: Treat your clients like they are your boss
3. 4 lines you can add to a proposal that will get you paid in lightning speed

The perfect customer is successful. People that are winning are generally good at what they do. It’s far easier getting content and feedback and input from someone who is organised and on top of things than someone bogged down and incompetent. Successful companies pay their bills.

The perfect customer makes much more money from hiring you than they pay you. Here’s an example. Say you make a basic website for a small manufacturer and importer that has $5 million in annual sales a year. You charge $4k for their website. That website is leveraged by their brand and their business and will pay for itself 10 times over in the first year. Contrast that to making a website for a fish and chip shop. If you charge them $4k for a website they’ll be working it off for a year.

Perfect customers care about value not fees. They know they’re getting a positive return on investment, and they’re looking to maximise their return on investment by increasing the value side of the equation, not by skimping on fees. They themselves know “it’s all about the value” because they have the same philosophy with their own customers. They don’t like getting haggled, and they don’t haggle you.

Perfect customers talk lots and explain well. I am currently working on a website for a company that I worked 2 days a week for 12 months for. I have a good understanding already of what the company does and needs. I’m confident of delivering an awesome product because I know exactly what they need without them even having to tell me.

Contrast that to me going into a small manufacturer that sells complex heavy equipment parts. I’ve got no idea about their products, their sales methods or anything. To make a good solution for them, I first have to learn about all that stuff. If it’s hard to get that information from meetings with the client, I’m largely guessing what will work best.

Some customers will talk for ages and explain all the little intricacies of their business. Others are short and need coaxing to delve into the information.

The better a client can explain their business, and the more willing they are to spend time with you, the better they are to work with.

Perfect customers take on partners. They want solutions and support for the long term. They know that there’s a lot that they don’t know they don’t know, and they’re bringing you on to fill that void.

At the same time, they know they have to put in time and effort into the project as well. They don’t have an initial meeting and expect the project to materialise. They’re committed to getting it done, and committed to playing a part.

Perfect customers listen and ask questions when it comes to expertise and process, and they contribute and answer questions when it comes to content.

Perfect customers make for happy freelancers

Perfect customers make for projects that turn around quickly. Quick project turnarounds make for higher income for you and happier customers.

Life is good when projects cruise, money is good, and everyone wins.

The happiest freelancer in the world, whoever that may be, isn’t the most skilled, or the richest, or the smartest… he/she works with a bunch of perfect customers.

What are you doing to work with perfect customers?

Related posts:

1. Sell better by freelancing from a position of strength
2. Assuming; the way freelancing to success
3. Getting back into the swing of freelancing after holidays

You spend hours on a design, working on getting all the last little details right. The design is pixel perfect, everything has plenty of room to breathe, it looks great and it feels like you’re going to hit a home run. Then you show it to the client and the client says “It’s a good start”.

A START?! How on earth can the client think that? It’s the most awesome design, some of your best work ever. The client must be colour blind and dyslexic!

Two types of clients

There are two types of clients. Those that know how they want, and those that don’t know how they want. I know that doesn’t make sense… let me explain.

Most clients understand the message they are trying to convey through a website design. To use a current client as an example, Skydive Nagambie, a business built solely on the premise of giving customers a mind blowingly good time, wants the website to hit you in the face with fun and awesomeness.

What most clients don’t know is how. They don’t know how the use of colour can affect emphasis, they don’t know how the use of spacing can affect cleanliness, they don’t know how the layout of the page can affect how people will use the page.

But every now and then, you come across a client who knows how they want things. They want a certain element to be the main emphasis of the page. They then have 2 other elements that they want as ancillary information. Then they have other elements that need to be de-emphasised.

These customers know how they want.

So how can a client hate an awesome design?

Designers can lose site of page goals in the quest to have everything look how they want it. Designers can focus too much on getting the little details perfect.

The brief might say, “This section of the business is the money spinner, and needs to be emphasised the most”, but you put it alongside other elements because otherwise it doesn’t “look right”.

When a client hates a design that looks awesome, it’s because the designer has ignored the goals of the client. Whether it was lost in the pursuit of perfect details, plain laziness, or inexperience, it doesn’t matter.

The goals of a page are paramount. Clients hate awesome designs when the designer doesn’t realise that good design is about reaching those goals, not making the best looking page.

Related posts:

1. Dealing with painful micromanager clients
2. You aren’t designing for yourself
3. Helping clients by thinking ahead and being flexible

Let’s have a look what’s wrong there.

Wrong customer profile. As freelancers we have to have a clear understanding of who we can help. For me, I can best help small businesses that can get value out of a website. Generally manufacturers, importers, service providers etc.

For Frank, his customer profile is much different.

Lets compare websites and video dollar for dollar.

For $3k, you can get a basic and good website. For about the same amount of money, you can get a basic and good video.

The website adds value by being a source of leads and sales, increasing exposure, facilitating word of mouth, educating and informing prospects, branding, creating an impression, etc etc. There is so much value in having a website. I don’t think I’ve ever made a website that didn’t or won’t make substantially more money that it cost.

Video on the other hand enhances a website. It can educate and inform prospects, create an impression, aid branding etc.

Both have their places. But I am a small business. For me to create a video, I’d have to sped a couple percent of my annual revenue. My website converts well already. I can’t see an addition like a video to my website generating more money than it costs. My business doesn’t market to a mass audience. I can’t leverage the video because I can only show it to a few hundred people per month at best.

I am not part of his customer profile. Frank’s customer profile is companies that have larger audiences that can leverage it better.

Wait a second… I know some companies like that… my clients! Which brings me to my next point.

Wrong approach. Alan Weiss says it best: “Think of the fourth sale first”. When I meet with other freelancers, I don’t even dream of pitching to them. In fact, I’d be more inclined to give stuff away, and so would all other freelancers I know.

There is so much to be gained by just knowing other people. And let me tell you, knowing and being friends with someone else, is going to be enough to win you work when the need arises.

Pitching to people who can help you with is like preaching to the choir. It’s a waste of time for the preacher and a boring pain in the arse for the choir.

To be fair, Frank and I did also talk about making videos for my clients. And despite what I’m saying here, I very much enjoyed meeting with Frank. If the need arises, if any of my clients would benefit from a video, I will have him in mind. So I guess the lesson is, even if you completely screw it up, it’s still better to get yourself out there!

Related posts:

1. Sell better by freelancing from a position of strength
2. The #1 key to happy freelancing
3. When SEO turns to Spam

One thing I’ve realized a lot lately as I’ve been outsourcing more and more, is that good planning saves lots of time.

Yesterday I was working on upgrading a site for a client that I made when I first started freelancing in 2007. The css was coded terribly, and as a result, doing the work to the site was an absolute pain. The type of pain where paragraphs weren’t lining up, and font sizes were everywhere! How I coded it so badly is beyond me and to be honest it’s also a bit embarrassing. I was a bit like the polar bear in the photo here – I wasn’t thinking ahead.

Anyways, the point is this: every designer knows how important it is to have clean css. It’s important to have good css so that the website has consistent styling and is flexible.

Similar situations popup for coders all the time. Should they do something the quick way, or do it in a modular and extensible way. The concept of doing things fast or doing it right I’ve seen referred to as “technical debt“.

My assertion here is that our solutions to clients have the same trade-offs attached. Rather than build something that works for the specific instance it’s in, we should build solid solutions that can change and grow as the client changes and grows.

Here are some examples.

Taking future goals into consideration. One of my clients wants an ecommerce store in the future, but only wants a brochure website now. To save work in the future, the product line information pages on the initial site are actually going to be categories in an ecommerce system. A little more work now, but saves redoing work in the future.

Taking growth into consideration. Ever had a situation where you used a top based navigation, and everything was fine.  Then, six months later, the client comes back and says “we need a new page”, and suddenly you realize there’s no room for new pages. Gah.

If the site is likely to grow, keep some “outs”. Using a left nav generally gives plenty of outs. Styling in a drop-down gives some outs if you’re using a top nav. And having outs isn’t just restricted to new pages. It could be new features or forms or whatever.

Lorem Ipsum designs. You see these on deviant art all the time. Designs that look absolutely stunning, and then you realise, they’re stunning because no real website could ever work like that. They have the exact right amount of words in every part, and the reason they can do that is because it’s all Lorem Ipsum. Put those designs around real websites and watch them fall apart.

Time for some solutions.

Get all information up front. Take extra time to talk about what the client wants before starting work. I remember once I had a client where I had just pitched a proposal and got a cheque, and then as soon as I received the cheque, the client started talking about new pages that I had heard nothing about that would come off the site but be part of an entirely different domain!

Probably just hearing that is making your blood boil, but situations like this are often our own fault for being too hasty to start the project and not letting the client flesh out ideas earlier.

Involve yourself in planning for the long term. Why not jump in on the ground floor and have a say in what changes the site is going to go through? Before you’ve finished a project, come up with a 12 month plan for the site with the client. That way you have more control over what might be needed of the site in the future.

There are future proofing issues in everything we do. Thinking ahead helps us tackle them before they happen, and have outs for when we are unprepared.

Related posts:

1. How clients can hate an awesome design
2. Dealing with painful micromanager clients
3. Interview with Tristan Judd from Able Net Design

At first I thought I would just tell him that I can’t do his job, because I thought there’d be no way he’d be interested in my services at the new price. But then I thought, ‘why not?’. Instead of just turning down the work, I talked about some of the improvements I’ve made over the last year, what that would mean for him, and told him about the increased price.

I haven’t banked the cheque yet, but it astounded me how easily I could have cost myself a few thousand dollars.

Other self imposed limits

Price has always been the biggest self imposed limit for me because I was brought up in a tight-arse environment. But self imposed limits can be about anything. Here are some examples…

• ‘I’m not good enough to work for a company that big’
• ‘The client will never agree to that’
• ‘They don’t have the budget to do it right’
• ‘What I can do isn’t worth it for them’
• ‘No-one would hire me when my portfolio looks like it does’
• ‘The client won’t pay 100% upfront’
• ‘There are so many other people better than me’
• ‘If I raise my hourly, clients aren’t going to hire me’

These phrases all have the potential to be completely true in our minds, but completely false in reality.

The solution

One thing I’ve found is that it rarely hurts to ask questions.

Self imposted limits can easily be lifted by finding out if the limits actually exist. And the way to find that out, is to ask.

Ask for payment up front. If you don’t ask, you’re not going to get it anyway. So asking is a ‘freeroll’. There’s an upside to asking but no downside.

Don’t think a client would find a new offering worthwhile? Ask them. Again, there’s no downside but there’s a nice upside.

Are you imposing limits on yourself that are costing you money?

Related posts:

1. Outsourcing for freelancers
2. Charging the right price: Price optimization for freelancers
3. Freelance Philosophy Friday 5: Relationships are resources