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I am interested in starting a web design and hosting service. So, I am here asking for tips and warnings from my fellow WA members.
If any of you have some info to share wi
Hi Lindsey.
I've done (am doing) web design and hosting.
My tip would be to never assume that what you like is what your client would like, and get carried away spending time developing the site, without them approving it first.
I tend to do 3 very quick designs - send screenshots to the client and let them choose which they prefer. The last one I did for a mountaineering club, I was over the moon with one design, they went with the one I really didn't think was that great.
A previous one I did for a local toddlers group - I was certain of what they wanted, and spent a lot of time producing it - they said "hmmm that's not what we want it to look like"... so I had to spend more time redeveloping it. I should have got a detailed spec first (I thought I had, but should have checked with them more often during the build).
Never underestimate what your client is looking for - get as much detail as you can up front, before agreeing prices/payment plans etc.
Another example... a local business wanted a site for selling their hand-made products. My website quotes a "price per page" - and that's what I quoted them. However, what they actually wanted was a webshop - and just one of their products (because of size, design, etc etc) had over 800 combinations or variants to setup.
I grossly underestimated the time involved - and I then had the choice of absorbing the costs, or going back to them and saying it's going to cost you 3X as much. I went with the first, as the monthly hosting I would charge them over time, would make them worth keeping as a customer, as opposed to annoying them and losing their business. I learnt a lesson!!
Linked to the last example - try to work out how much a customer is worth to you over time. If you get a customer who wants a website - chances are, if they are serious about their business, you will have them as a customer for a long time, making them worth a lot of money to you each year. Recurring income is far better than one off payments.
If I were to charge £25 hosting (not for sites here, but on my existing host before I came to WA), and I offer 1 hour of work to update the site per month, then even if no changes are needed, I know that over a year, that customer will be worth at least £300 to me. Over a few years, that adds up. In 5 years (a business is unlikely to change their website host often in my experience), I've gained £1500 from one customer.
If you are up front, and you know that your customers spec for what they want will need a paid for theme, or paid for plug-in, then add that on at the start. It's easier to ask for a higher amount up front, than to try and renegotiate a quoted price later on.
I hope some of this helps, and I wish you every success with it.
Cheers Lindsey,
Mark
Awesome info Mark - thank you! I just don't want to go in head first and then end up on the bad end of things. These are great tips. The main gist is to get as much info as possible from the customer before you start. I also like the idea of building three sites and then letting them choose. How do you have three choices when there is only one domain? May be a dumb question, I just don't understand how that works.
Barry also mentioned that it's a good idea to set-up a marketing site for my "business", that way I can have a showroom of sorts for customers interested in my services.
I am most concerned with how much I should charge for these things. I believe I may already have a customer, I just have no idea what to charge him. His site will be simple, minimum number of pages and no extensive content will be needed. I guess I'll just have to look around and see what others are quoting for these things.
So much to figure out, step by step I'll get there, especially with the help from you and the other folks here at WA.
I appreciate your help and support.
Thanks again,
Lindsey
Hi Lindsey - you're welcome.
You're a premium member here - so you can setup as many sites as you like.
For the example I gave, I setup 3 siterubix sites:
a1.siterubix.com
a2.siterubix.com
a3.siterubix.com
Obviously ask them up front if there are any sites they have seen which they liked the look of - and tell them (this is what I've done anyway) I'll come up with 3 designs for you to choose from - are you ok with that?
I then looked around for good, but different themes, installed them on each of the siterubix sites - and spent maybe an hour at most, putting some dummy menus and content - plus the company's logo - then sent them the links and said "these are 3 designs I've come up with - which would you like to go with?"
Then once you know what they prefer, you can say ok, are you happy with that design, or do you want it tweaked... that's when you start getting into the detail - not after you've spent a few days building what you think they want.
Setting up a showcase site is a good idea. I've done this (but I'm guilty for not maintaining it as much as I should). I used the banner carousel to show screenshots of some web sites and web applications I've done.
You can have a look here if it gives you any ideas: http://fixitks.co.uk - that site, and the sites shown on the banner carousel are not hosted with WA - but as a premium member, there's no reason you couldn't setup all of yours on WA hosting. It's not just a training centre - it is a properly supported, very powerful and fast web host.
Another piece of advice (please take it or leave it - everyone has to setup their business the way they want to) - I put a price on my time, and I estimate how many hours it will take to build what someone wants.
I quote them a price based on that. I'm not too concerned if they can get someone down the road to do it for half the price - if they can, and they want to go to them - fine. I'm not going to chase down a customer who expects me to work for half what I believe I'm worth.
That's a relationship in my experience, that will end with me being frustrated that I'm working for less - or the customer thinking they control me and can squeeze me as much as they want. They would be a nightmare customer, and better not doing business with them. I'd much rather quote a price I think is fair, and the customer says "yeah I'll go for that" - that way, I'm feeling valued, and I know they won't have a problem paying the monthly fees thereafter.
Also agree up front how you would like paid. eg. Do you want 30% up front, 20% when 3 designs are produced, 25% when first draft is delivered, and 25% when final site delivered - from that point, or a month later, invoicing for monthly hosting starts.
What you want to avoid is spending a lot of time working, with no payment. Remember, your time is being used - it's a service - so you should expect to be paid for that service. Don't seem too keen, and agree a price with a customer, and not talk about money. It's difficult to bring up initially, because you get excited and just want to get the business - but you are dealing with a business/business owner, who would not provide any of their services without payment terms.
All of the above is just how I work - I'd love to see what other members think, and how they work with customers.
I hope this helps a little?
All the best, Mark
In my opinion it is better to have a marketing business rather than a website design business. Hosting and Web Design can be part of your service but there is a hell of a lot more money in marketing and advertising.
Something to consider. Thank you, I was focused on hosting and design. I will definitely look into that aspect as well.
Thanks again,
Lindsey
Good luck to you with your new business. I'm sure you'll find the tips you need here in WA and I'm sure you'll be successful.
Dawn
Best wishes to you on your new business! This is what I'd like to do too, but I have a lot more I need to learn ;)
I'm not sure, maybe someone had an "oops" moment at one point that they could share. Just some things to look out for I guess
Lindsey
I took a class on this about a year ago. I remember one of the big things was to agree on a starting date for billing. It made the customer responsible for getting you the information on time, or they had to pay anyway. It helped the customer get you the information on time so that they would not lose money on an empty website!
I saw Barry offered to help. I can dig out the info if you need if, but if Barry helps I would sure prefer not to dig through my class notes. I will happily do it for you if you need them though.
Not necessary to dig up notes. That was a great tip, thank you. I never would have thought of that.
Thanks again,
Lindsey
One other one. Set up a day each week for your customers to contact you at a certain time. This serves a two fold purpose, one you are not responsible for tracking your client down and two is keeps you from being 100% available to them all the time. Set some kind of office hours and adhere to them. Do not answer the phone at their total convenience or you will find yourself a slave to it.
I have recently started to earn an income building sites for clients, with WordPress, its something that I really enjoy if you want to private message me you can, I also have some useful posts on all things WordPress that may help you
To your success
Barry
Thank you Barry. I will message you. I will also check out you posts. Appreciate the help.
Lindsey
I am sure you will get some good advice from the more experienced people hope it all works out
You might want to talk to BuckTaylor - a WAU member and Web developer. IM me if you have trouble contacting him Thanks Larry
Hey Lindsey. I have no experience with that ... looking forward to reading the feedback you get!
See more comments
I am interested in starting a web design and hosting service. So, I am here asking for tips and warnings from my fellow WA members.
If any of you have some info to share wi
Hi Lindsey.
I've done (am doing) web design and hosting.
My tip would be to never assume that what you like is what your client would like, and get carried away spending time developing the site, without them approving it first.
I tend to do 3 very quick designs - send screenshots to the client and let them choose which they prefer. The last one I did for a mountaineering club, I was over the moon with one design, they went with the one I really didn't think was that great.
A previous one I did for a local toddlers group - I was certain of what they wanted, and spent a lot of time producing it - they said "hmmm that's not what we want it to look like"... so I had to spend more time redeveloping it. I should have got a detailed spec first (I thought I had, but should have checked with them more often during the build).
Never underestimate what your client is looking for - get as much detail as you can up front, before agreeing prices/payment plans etc.
Another example... a local business wanted a site for selling their hand-made products. My website quotes a "price per page" - and that's what I quoted them. However, what they actually wanted was a webshop - and just one of their products (because of size, design, etc etc) had over 800 combinations or variants to setup.
I grossly underestimated the time involved - and I then had the choice of absorbing the costs, or going back to them and saying it's going to cost you 3X as much. I went with the first, as the monthly hosting I would charge them over time, would make them worth keeping as a customer, as opposed to annoying them and losing their business. I learnt a lesson!!
Linked to the last example - try to work out how much a customer is worth to you over time. If you get a customer who wants a website - chances are, if they are serious about their business, you will have them as a customer for a long time, making them worth a lot of money to you each year. Recurring income is far better than one off payments.
If I were to charge £25 hosting (not for sites here, but on my existing host before I came to WA), and I offer 1 hour of work to update the site per month, then even if no changes are needed, I know that over a year, that customer will be worth at least £300 to me. Over a few years, that adds up. In 5 years (a business is unlikely to change their website host often in my experience), I've gained £1500 from one customer.
If you are up front, and you know that your customers spec for what they want will need a paid for theme, or paid for plug-in, then add that on at the start. It's easier to ask for a higher amount up front, than to try and renegotiate a quoted price later on.
I hope some of this helps, and I wish you every success with it.
Cheers Lindsey,
Mark
Awesome info Mark - thank you! I just don't want to go in head first and then end up on the bad end of things. These are great tips. The main gist is to get as much info as possible from the customer before you start. I also like the idea of building three sites and then letting them choose. How do you have three choices when there is only one domain? May be a dumb question, I just don't understand how that works.
Barry also mentioned that it's a good idea to set-up a marketing site for my "business", that way I can have a showroom of sorts for customers interested in my services.
I am most concerned with how much I should charge for these things. I believe I may already have a customer, I just have no idea what to charge him. His site will be simple, minimum number of pages and no extensive content will be needed. I guess I'll just have to look around and see what others are quoting for these things.
So much to figure out, step by step I'll get there, especially with the help from you and the other folks here at WA.
I appreciate your help and support.
Thanks again,
Lindsey
Hi Lindsey - you're welcome.
You're a premium member here - so you can setup as many sites as you like.
For the example I gave, I setup 3 siterubix sites:
a1.siterubix.com
a2.siterubix.com
a3.siterubix.com
Obviously ask them up front if there are any sites they have seen which they liked the look of - and tell them (this is what I've done anyway) I'll come up with 3 designs for you to choose from - are you ok with that?
I then looked around for good, but different themes, installed them on each of the siterubix sites - and spent maybe an hour at most, putting some dummy menus and content - plus the company's logo - then sent them the links and said "these are 3 designs I've come up with - which would you like to go with?"
Then once you know what they prefer, you can say ok, are you happy with that design, or do you want it tweaked... that's when you start getting into the detail - not after you've spent a few days building what you think they want.
Setting up a showcase site is a good idea. I've done this (but I'm guilty for not maintaining it as much as I should). I used the banner carousel to show screenshots of some web sites and web applications I've done.
You can have a look here if it gives you any ideas: http://fixitks.co.uk - that site, and the sites shown on the banner carousel are not hosted with WA - but as a premium member, there's no reason you couldn't setup all of yours on WA hosting. It's not just a training centre - it is a properly supported, very powerful and fast web host.
Another piece of advice (please take it or leave it - everyone has to setup their business the way they want to) - I put a price on my time, and I estimate how many hours it will take to build what someone wants.
I quote them a price based on that. I'm not too concerned if they can get someone down the road to do it for half the price - if they can, and they want to go to them - fine. I'm not going to chase down a customer who expects me to work for half what I believe I'm worth.
That's a relationship in my experience, that will end with me being frustrated that I'm working for less - or the customer thinking they control me and can squeeze me as much as they want. They would be a nightmare customer, and better not doing business with them. I'd much rather quote a price I think is fair, and the customer says "yeah I'll go for that" - that way, I'm feeling valued, and I know they won't have a problem paying the monthly fees thereafter.
Also agree up front how you would like paid. eg. Do you want 30% up front, 20% when 3 designs are produced, 25% when first draft is delivered, and 25% when final site delivered - from that point, or a month later, invoicing for monthly hosting starts.
What you want to avoid is spending a lot of time working, with no payment. Remember, your time is being used - it's a service - so you should expect to be paid for that service. Don't seem too keen, and agree a price with a customer, and not talk about money. It's difficult to bring up initially, because you get excited and just want to get the business - but you are dealing with a business/business owner, who would not provide any of their services without payment terms.
All of the above is just how I work - I'd love to see what other members think, and how they work with customers.
I hope this helps a little?
All the best, Mark
In my opinion it is better to have a marketing business rather than a website design business. Hosting and Web Design can be part of your service but there is a hell of a lot more money in marketing and advertising.
Something to consider. Thank you, I was focused on hosting and design. I will definitely look into that aspect as well.
Thanks again,
Lindsey
Good luck to you with your new business. I'm sure you'll find the tips you need here in WA and I'm sure you'll be successful.
Dawn
Best wishes to you on your new business! This is what I'd like to do too, but I have a lot more I need to learn ;)
I'm not sure, maybe someone had an "oops" moment at one point that they could share. Just some things to look out for I guess
Lindsey
I took a class on this about a year ago. I remember one of the big things was to agree on a starting date for billing. It made the customer responsible for getting you the information on time, or they had to pay anyway. It helped the customer get you the information on time so that they would not lose money on an empty website!
I saw Barry offered to help. I can dig out the info if you need if, but if Barry helps I would sure prefer not to dig through my class notes. I will happily do it for you if you need them though.
Not necessary to dig up notes. That was a great tip, thank you. I never would have thought of that.
Thanks again,
Lindsey
One other one. Set up a day each week for your customers to contact you at a certain time. This serves a two fold purpose, one you are not responsible for tracking your client down and two is keeps you from being 100% available to them all the time. Set some kind of office hours and adhere to them. Do not answer the phone at their total convenience or you will find yourself a slave to it.
I have recently started to earn an income building sites for clients, with WordPress, its something that I really enjoy if you want to private message me you can, I also have some useful posts on all things WordPress that may help you
To your success
Barry
Thank you Barry. I will message you. I will also check out you posts. Appreciate the help.
Lindsey
I am sure you will get some good advice from the more experienced people hope it all works out
You might want to talk to BuckTaylor - a WAU member and Web developer. IM me if you have trouble contacting him Thanks Larry
Hey Lindsey. I have no experience with that ... looking forward to reading the feedback you get!
See more comments
Have any of you seen "Blocked By Product Settings" in your Google Adsense account? I am trying to unblock a certain subcategory, and I don't have the option to do so because of
I have Adsense ads on my sites for over one year now and I still have not reached their payout thresh hold of $100 to get my money. Good luck
Hi Lindsey,
Google Adsense can be quite difficult to please and if, for some reason, does not like or approve of your niche theme it may sandbag you and leave you high and dry.
I hope that it is not the case and wish you every bit of luck getting this sorted out or search for a different way to monetize your site
To Our Success Online,
Jonicas
Thank you! I've been thinking about switching to Yahoo & Bing, looks like that is what I should do.
Lindsey
Lindsey,
As with everything in life, check, search, investigate, ask the opinion of people you value their knowledge and wisdom.
I am sure that there are many members of this community with similar experiences.
Type the term "Google Adsense" above and check out the articles/ discussions on it.
To Our Success Online,
Jonicas
See more comments
Have any of you seen "Blocked By Product Settings" in your Google Adsense account? I am trying to unblock a certain subcategory, and I don't have the option to do so because of
I have Adsense ads on my sites for over one year now and I still have not reached their payout thresh hold of $100 to get my money. Good luck
Hi Lindsey,
Google Adsense can be quite difficult to please and if, for some reason, does not like or approve of your niche theme it may sandbag you and leave you high and dry.
I hope that it is not the case and wish you every bit of luck getting this sorted out or search for a different way to monetize your site
To Our Success Online,
Jonicas
Thank you! I've been thinking about switching to Yahoo & Bing, looks like that is what I should do.
Lindsey
Lindsey,
As with everything in life, check, search, investigate, ask the opinion of people you value their knowledge and wisdom.
I am sure that there are many members of this community with similar experiences.
Type the term "Google Adsense" above and check out the articles/ discussions on it.
To Our Success Online,
Jonicas
See more comments
Mark Tait as always has good info for you