A successful website project?
Many of our clients either have no idea what it takes to create a successful website project, or have had a really bad experience in the past. Producing a successful project requires a trusting partnership between client and designer. A good designer will help guide clients through the processes without adding to the cost at every turn. A good client will provide any and all information needed to the designer in a timely manner. Sounds simple enough, and it is if both the client and designer work closely together from beginning to end.
We hope the following information helps you understand the processes, if you hire FOTG or not.
Lets assume you want a website, where do you start? Business is business so the first thing you must know before you begin is how much money you are willing or able to spend on your website. Knowing this up front will enable your designer to give you what you need for the lowest possible cost.
Saving Money. Simply put, the more you do, the less a website will cost. Having your budget established, having your content, or message ready, knowing roughly what you would like your website to look like, Having your photos and or artwork ready all make a huge difference in the final costs.
The Design: A good designer can produce a great design from the smallest amount of information. The design process can go on though many iterations or just one. The more the client knows, and tells the designer will keep the costs lower. If the client has no idea what she wants it will cost more. So having a few examples of designs you like, ready for your designer will go a long way in creating a design you like and keeping the design costs to a minimum.
Content: This is a real killer for a lot of website projects. If the client doesn't have the content written and ready, it will either kill the project or add a huge cost to hire someone to write for them. If your business is already up and running you should be able to use your existing advertising messages for the website.
Pictures and Artwork: A great website uses great photographs and artwork. Nothing says amateur more than bad pictures of products or bad artwork within the site. If the client can produce the photography and or artwork they will save some money, but you don't want to cut corners here, It's better to just have well written text than stick a bad picture in. It won't produce the thousand words you were hoping for!
Start Small: Saving money means not spending money. The great thing about a website is it's easy to change. There is nothing wrong with starting with a few pages. Adding pages, more info, etc. over time is a great way to keep initial costs low and a reason for people to come back to your site.
Making Money: Unless you are planning on selling products directly from your website it's doubtful you will see any returns when your website goes live. Most business website's are for the business to point their clients to, for more information. To expect your website to come up on the first page of Google and have money rolling in is pure fantasy. Your website is a great advertising tool but you need to use it.
Proving Useful Information: Home, About, Contact. The standard buttons we all see. This isn't really useful in the long run. To attract viewers you need information that may not be available anywhere else. Depending on what kind of business you have a website is a great way to offer customers information to help them make informed purchases. Just like we are doing here!
FOTG Films offers basic SEO information to help you get better results in the search engines. We can teach you how to analyze your website's statistics or provide monthly reports.
Please feel free to contact FOTG for more information or any questions you may have, we're here to help YOU, as well as make money!
Website Project Check List
- » Establish Your Budget
- » Buy Your Domain Name
- » Find a Hosting Service We suggest BlueHost
- » Find Some Designs You Like
- » Decide How Many Pages You Need and Page Titles
- » Write Content, Place In a Text File, Like Word
- » Organize Your Pictures or Have Us Take Them
- » Hire FOTG Films To Design and Build Your Site!
- » Be Happy Knowing You Got a Great Site at a Great Price!
