Good news! 1stwebdesigner, a popular blogzine for the Web designer community, just published my second article for the site: Client Handling: Finding your Client’s Pain Points. As I state in my article:

In my years of dealing with a variety of different clients, I have noticed one curious trend. It is amazing how many other Web designers have left a bad taste in people’s mouths from previous experiences they’ve had. I think this boils down to two things: lack of experience and lack of awareness.

I want to cover the second point today. As a Web designer/developer, you have an amazing opportunity to shape your clients’ perceptions of what the Internet and online technology can do for them and their business.

I think it’s new. It’s new to me anyway. I just signed up for AskMe, so go ahead and head over there and ask me anything you want about Web design, programming, Internet, tech, business, whatever. I’ll do my best to come up with something useful to contribute. I’ve answered several interesting questions already, such as “what is a Creative Director?”

So, what do you want to know?

Something we are wanting to emphasize more and more as we work on growing our business is that in certain cases it really does make sense to “buy local”. The very nature of what we do — design Web sites — is geared towards a global playing field and infrastructure, and we really are happy to work with clients outside our local area (and we do).

However, there’s nothing like sitting down, face to face, over a cup of coffee and talking about an idea, a vision. In meeting with lots of different people in Sonoma County from places such as Santa Rosa, Windsor, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, I feel like I’m part of a real community, and ultimately we’re all in the same boat together. I like that feeling. It’s exciting to me to know that there are folks living within a 30 mile radius that are going after noble goals and exceeding the expectations of their customers. It’s all too easy to see the hard work and innovation of top companies like Facebook or Apple, and forget about “the little guy” who’s working just as hard and trying new things every day.

So, in the spirit of Buy Local, I’m encouraging you to Partner Local. If you live and work in Sonoma County, or even Napa or Marin counties, I’d love to talk with you and meet one-to-one. An initial consultation is totally free, and I always enjoy the opportunity to share what expertise I can and to ask questions to help you get where you need to go.

There’s an interesting discussion going on here at Signal vs. Noise blog regarding pricing of Web design services. As a company that charges upfront by the package, we fall squarely on the side of showing potentials customers right away what they’ll be getting for their money. Many design firms have no indication of their pricing on their marketing materials and require you to contact them for a custom quote. Granted, a project of large size and complexity, or with certain business criteria outside of the norm, may require us to provide a custom quote based on our hourly rate and an estimation of the project’s timeframe, but in many cases, we can give a clear indication of what they would have to pay in order to get a Web site with various degrees of features and benefits.

What do you think? From a client perspective, would you be more inclined to work with a Web design company that offers package pricing? Or do you think you’d get a better deal through a custom quote?

I’m in the Web design business, so you’d think my biggest source of competition would be other Web designers, right? Well, there’s a certain amount of logic to that, to be sure, but one of the biggest challenges we face as Web designers is helping potential clients understand how important it is to (a) get a Web site up and running (period!), and (b) have a site that looks clean, attractive, up-to-date, and personalized to customers’ needs.

One argument for focusing on this area as part of an overall business strategy is this: if a customer came to your office or retail outlet and the floor was messy, products or informational materials were scattered around haphazardly, hired help was unfriendly, lighting was dull and depressing, etc., would you expect the customer to return and give you lots of repeat business? Would you expect them to be really excited about your services and tell all their friends? No? Then why would you expect that when your Web site’s content is poorly organized, news is old and stale, colors are dull or garish, and presentation is sub-par compared to other popular sites (especially ones in your market segment)?

Local bookstores know how big of a deal the Web is: witness the rise of Amazon. Make sure you’re thinking ahead and take the time to formulate your online strategy. It will cost some money, yes, but perhaps not as much as you might think. And the returns can be significant.

One of the things I love about being a Web designer is when a project first gets underway and my client realizes “wow, this is really happening!” — that they are on the road to getting an engaging and useful presence on the Web. It’s what I call the “light bulb effect,” when the potential of being able to present your vision and your professionalism online really hits home, and you are excited about how you can interact with your customers or supporters in new and dynamic ways.

I really enjoy the collaborative process, the going back and forth and bouncing around of ideas. There’s nothing like seeing something get built out of nothing.

Speaking of which, I have a mockup to attend to. Until next time, ciao!