Cut And Copy

By Jeff Rivera

 Choosing a company to design your web site should be similar to how you choose who you make friends with. A good web development firm should be trustworthy, stable, readily available, and capable of helping your business reach its full potential. Just as with a friend, you need to become familiar with a web design company and know how they operate before you can trust them; especially when it concerns the financial security of your business and your employees.

A great web site will reflect well on the business it represents; unfortunately a poor web site will have the opposite effect. When choosing a web design firm, make sure that the firm you choose is able to provide acceptable and comforting answers to any questions you have regarding your web site. To help business owners to know what to look out for, and to ensure that every business gets the service they deserve, we have compiled a series of questions that everybody should ask their prospective web development firm. Make sure that for each question you ask that the web design firm can give you a satisfactory and clear answer.

1. Does the potential development firm have the ability to program in multiple languages? Can the firm explain clearly why they are recommending one language over another?

Often times development firms will choose the program that is most convenient for their staff to use. Make sure they are willing to use the languages that are the best fit for your business model; and that they can show you at least two or three real examples of effective programming language use.

2. Does the firm have the ability to slice using cascading style sheets(CSS)? Are the sites they create friendly to all types of internet capable devices?

Using CSS has many advantages for a web site’s functionality. In many instances it can decrease the page loading time by half while allowing for a clean and organized layout on both desktop computers and a full range of handheld devices. It is very important that the site is fully sliced, not just partially. Also, make sure to test their sites out on a mobile device to test how the look.

3. Does the potential firm have not only the ability to build your site, but also the ability to get it ranked on the major search engines? Does the firm have a team dedicated completely to search engine optimization?

A web site might look beautiful, but if nobody sees it, it doesn’t really matter. Make sure that the firm can show you at least two or three examples of where they have managed to get their clients highly ranked on the search engine results pages. Even more importantly, have the design firm show you their own search engine rankings.

4. Do the web sites designed by the potential firm have a backend tool that allows you to fully administer the web site? Does this tool make uploading images, files, and text easy?

5. Does the potential firm have analytic software (web site statistics) that will help you understand how you can increase your ROI and conversion rates?

6. Find out what sites they consider to be their top 3 biggest/greatest projects. Ask them to explain to you why they feel each of the projects is so special or why they cost as much as they do. After evaluating the functionality of the site, ask yourself whether or not you were impressed.

7. Does the firm have a clear process laid out from the beginning of a project up through the site launch and beyond? Does the firm clearly define in detail what you can expect from them, who you will be working with, who are their project managers, and if you can meet with them?

8. Does the potential firm own any assets, such as their own building, servers, and databases, or do they rely on outsourcing?

9. What kind of support can the firm offer? Do they have any staff dedicated solely to customer support? Can you meet with the support staff and speak with them personally?

Knowing that a firm has employees dedicated 100% to customer support means that you’ll always be able to get proper attention with troubleshooting issues.

10. Does the company show its own personal access stories on the web? Is there evidence online that support the firm’s claims of quality and success?

11. Will the firm provide you with a quote that clearly states everything you will be getting and exactly what you’ll be paying for? Can you see actual examples of what you will be receiving? Can they build something specifically for your site?

12. Will the perspective company show you a wire-frame (flow chart) of your site before it enters programming? Can they show you a logical plan for building your site?

13. Does the firm have worksheets and tools to help them extract additional ideas and thoughts from you before starting the design process? Can they show them to you upon request?

A well-organized firm should be able to show you these tools upon request, don’t accept excuses as to why they might be unable to.

14. Did the firm come up with ideas that you feel went above and beyond what you had expected? Did the firm encourage ideas that could make your company more money?

15. Can the firm tell you the last conference or seminar they attended in order to stay on the cutting edge of their industry? Can they name some of the benefits they found in attending conferences?

16. Does it feel like the web design fir’s focus is mainly on site creation? Is the wed design aspect of the business merely a part of a larger business?

17. Will you own the own the code that is written for your site once it has launched? Will there be any licensing fees?

Make sure you are clear that you are the owner of your new web site. Make sure that you don’t end up paying more to maintain and license your site than what you paid for it in the first place.

18. When you meet with the designer, are you also speaking with the same person that will be programming your site? Can the firm tell you roughly how many employees will be involved in your project? Can they name their designers, programmers, project managers, support members, SEO team members, etc.? Are they often the same people?

19. Are the firm’s sites coded by hand, or do they use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs to do their coding? Do they do all of the programming by hand?

20. Does the firm employ designers, programmers, project managers, and marketing staff in-house? Are you going to be able to deal directly with their staff by simply making a phone call, or is it going to be a one time deal?

21. How many clients does the firm have? Are they launching a high number of web sites at regular intervals?

Asking these questions is an important process that helps ensure that you end up with a site that fits your budget, is marketable, and will give you the greatest return on your investment.

Jeff Rivera is head of Internet Marketing at i4 Solutions (http://i4.net); a full service web design and Internet marketing firm based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Is Internet Marketing The Cure For Global Economic Woes?
By Doug Champigny

 Internet marketing is continually becoming the saviour for those caught out in the current economic crisis. And no wonder - just look at what’s going on out there in the world right now…

Just from today’s headlines, we find that Hewlett-Packard is getting rid of 24,600 jobs, nearly 8% of it’s workforce according to Jordan Robertson of the Associated Press. That’s on top of the 15,000 already forced out by the company’s restructuring in the last 2 or 3 years. FORTY THOUSAND JOBS GONE in one company alone, with half of those axed living in the U.S.A., the rest scattered around the world.

Remember how, not that long ago, we were all told that computing skills would make us indispensible? Ooops!

Also today, Yahoo! News reports that Lehman Brothers, the 4th biggest Wall Street firm, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - this is a firm that’s been operating for 158 years, and a shut down would put another 24,000 people out of work.

In related news, Bank of America is buying troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest brokerage. Both companies have already layed off thousands of employees, and no doubt more will follow where the two firms’ services overlap.

Pretty dire situation, but it could still get a lot worse. According to the Wall Street Journal, AIG - the American International Group - is seeking an additional $40 Billion USD in emergency funds, on top of the $20 Billion USD it already raised earlier this year. That’s BILLION, with a ‘B’…

But think of how many people, possibly even yourself, would be affected if AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, were to fail. While Lehmann is the biggest bankruptcy in US history in terms of assets, it would pale by comparison to the collapse of AIG.

These days, perhaps more than any time in history, people all over the world are experiencing the old Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times.’

Interesting times indeed! But how can you protect yourself, your family and your loved ones when the big ‘Blue-Chip’ firms are faltering, stock markets are spiralling downward, inflation is running amok in the fuel, food and related indexes, mortgages are no longer a safe investment for the rich or available at all to the middle class?

For a rapidly-growing number of people world-wide, the answer is self-employment through Internet marketing. While no firm numbers exist, there are at least tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands that are now making money online, from a few extra bucks each month to keep up with inflation to those earning 6, 7 and 8 figure incomes online.

Far from the traditional economic model of the ‘normal’ entrepreneur, the Internet marketing business model is gloabally based, providing something of a hedge from any country-specific economic woes. The industry operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so there’s no concern over when you work or where you’re online.

Most importantly, there are two major differences from operating a microenterprise or monoenterprise in the offline world. First, the industry is based on shared knowledge - no other industry is as quick to make the ‘business success secrets’ available to all and asunder. Thousands of Internet marketers write online newsletters - e-zines - that detail the steps to success in the industry, explore trends as they happen, and recommend the sites, services and products one needs to succeed online in Internet marketing.

The biggest difference, however, is the level of startup capital required - in fact, one can easily start part-time without any expenditure beyond their computer and Internet connection, and use the income they earn to build their online business into a full-time activity - often generating far more profits than they’ve ever dreamed of before!

And since no large startup investment is required, the people who need the income most are able to get started without going into debt, and debt-free companies always survive the ups and downs of entrepreneurship with less difficulty and a greatly reduced incidence of bankruptcy.

Think about it… No major investment, no ‘boss’ to fire you, no threat to job security from mis-management or fraud by someone above you, a schedule to fit your own desired lifestyle, and an income limited only by your own goals, effort and abilities… No wonder it’s one of the fastest growing industries world-wide - it really CAN be YOUR solution to the world’s economic woes!

Doug Champigny is a well-respected Internet marketer, e-zine publisher, mentor and speaker. Read more from Doug and join his mailing list at his Internet Marketing Blog

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