Hi guys, in the past 6 months, the majority of my design projects have come from people who needed help fixing up blogs or sites designed by other geeks who either...
- didn't really know what they were doing
- didn't give a sh#t about what they were doing
- or took so long to reply to simple requests that the client gave up and moved on
When you hire someone to design or maintain a blog or website, you're trusting them with your business and your image.
Turning over your $$$ and passwords to someone you probably don't know very well takes a huge leap of faith.
This might seem like a really small detail but one of my pet peeves and a sign of what you can expect from the geek you're about to hire is what they throw together as a "Coming Soon" page for new blogs/websites.
The Bad
The example above is about as bad as it gets. You register a domain and while you're site is being put together, your "coming soon" page is filled with advertising and assorted other stuff that you probably don't want to see.
The Ugly
The example above is a "coming soon" page from a site I just took over for someone who has been waiting almost 2 months for their blog designer to get the work done. The typical response is "we're working on it, it should be ready soon". (yeah right!)
Duh! 2 months later and still nothing has been put online except this generic graphic.
A sign of things to come...
A few days ago I started working on a new project for Feng Shui consultant Laura Cerrano and her new website FengShuiManhattan.com
One of the first things I do when starting a project (once we get the domain set up and connected to a webhost) is to design and put up a decent looking coming soon page even if no one will ever see it except my client and their friends/family.
What's my point? You can tell a lot about the people you might hire for a project by their attention to detail. If your geek doesn't take the time to...
- respond quickly to questions
- answer your technical questions in plain simple English
- go the extra step to make sure you, your site and your biz look as good as possible online
...then you're having a preview a things to come. I know there is good and bad in ever industry but I'm really tired of hearing how badly some people are being treated by their techies. Before you sign up with someone to handle your tech stuff...
- see how quickly they respond to questions
- see if they respond to your tech questions in language you can understand
- ask for references that have sites/blogs live online
- contact their clients to see how they feel about the geek or company you're about to hire
- if all else fails, take a look at their client's "coming soon" pages to see if they give a sh#t
On that note I have to get back to work. Have a great week ya'll...
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