When you take your car into the garage you expect certain things. You do not need to explicitly ask for them, nor would you expect them to be actually verbalised.
What would you expect?
Well, naturally, you would expect your car to be serviced to an acceptable standard. If the tyres need to be pumped, for example, then you would expect them to be pumped to the pressure that suits your car’s make and model.
Of course the person conducting the work on your car is qualified. You don’t even have to ask about that!!
Or if you were getting your house renovated… Would you ask the plumber to do the wiring?
In the internet industry things shouldn’t be that different, though I sometimes feel like I am working in an industry peppered with snake oil salesmen.
How many times have I seen amateur web “designers” offering “competitive” prices?
What about the web companies that are supposedly experts in web design, graphic design, web development, marketing, hosting, seo and search engine marketing? And all this with a staff of two and for under €600 / year?
Why am I suspicious?
Am I naturally cynical?
Possibly, but I’ve actually been around long enough to know what is and isn’t possible. Remember that old adage? “Jack of all trades – master of none”
While that maybe fine in some contexts would you really want to entrust your website to Jack? (Not that I have a thing against anyone called Jack..)
If you put the costs of a website in tangible terms then you should be comparing it with other “real world” costs..
For example if you were to run a medium sized advert in the Sunday Business Post for one issue you would pay anything from €600 to €1200 depending on where it was placed and how big it was etc.,
If you are running print adverts with any degree of frequency then your marketing spend can spiral quickly.
So what do you put on your ad? Your contact details are bound to feature.
While an email address and phone number is perfectly acceptable a website might impress. Of course if the website was done on the cheap you might as well toss the money down the toilet.
Another cliche for you – build it and they will come.
In the online world that simply won’t happen unless you have both a search engine strategy and possibly an online marketing one as well.
Should you entrust that work to one of these polyvalent web professionals who supposedly is not only a competent designer, can debug your email problems AND can keep track of the latest trends and quirks in the SEO world?
I’d recommend against it
If you want a tasty design use a designer who can actually design.
You don’t see Coca Cola changing their logo every 6 months do you? Why would they? They got it designed properly in the first instance.
If you are setting up a company or business of some kind then skimping on the design / identity could cost you a fortune in lost sales. Is it really worth it?
Coming back to SEO….
If you invest properly in SEO and use an experienced professional with a proven track record ie. not a good salesman who can sell himself well even though he can’t actually deliver, then every cent you spend will be a worthwhile investment.
Sorry about the rant 🙂
Michele Neylon :: Pensieri
Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts
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I am looking forward to hearing the talk on SEO on Friday 🙂
While I agree with you on the original premise of your post, which presumably arose out of the discussion on eBusiness Discussion, I think part of the metaphor is missing: Yes, if you take a car to a garage you expect it to be fixed, but there have always been cowboys out there. More importantly, you don’t take a Lamborghini to a regular garage, and you don’t take a Fiesta to a specialist. As to taking electrics to a plumber, to be fair to clients, our business isn’t as simple as that. To extend the metaphor, do you ring a plumber or an electrician when the electric shower goes? It seems obvious, but sometimes it’s not.
On another point, I’m a jack of all trades, or at least a jack of all Internet trades (although I tend to have general knowledge about a lot of non-net subjects too, which has served me well). Specialising in any one aspect of the business is time-consuming and expensive, and detracts from my general overview of the business/community, which is my stock in trade. I actually use the phrase to describe myself, with pride rather than shame.
Adam
My main point is that you get a lot of cowboys selling snake oil and professing to be experts in a million and one things which, as you know, is impossible.
Michele
Take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard 🙂
Sometimes people just don’t want to be helped and will waste their money no matter what you do.
Concentrate on those who value and want your help and expertise. Less stressful and more rewarding.
Take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard 🙂
Sometimes people just don’t want to be helped and will waste their money no matter what you do.
Concentrate on those who value and want your help and expertise. Less stressful and more rewarding.
“Concentrate on those who value and want your help and expertise. Less stressful and more rewarding.” – Alan
Ditto!
Ah but they’re not jacks of all trades Michele, they’re self-described experts of all trades! And cheap too! 😉
Hey I am jack 🙂 And I am good at what I do – so where does that leave me in the grand scheme of things?
Very sensible. Actual design is a closed door to me, for instance…
It’s a fairly good rant all the same. I don’t think that regulation will work in this industry because 1) design is too subjective and 2) people involved tend to have a mixed bag of skills – it’s impossible to compare one experienced (or inexperienced) designer/developer with another in terms of skills, knowledge and talent.
At the moment, Web standards are as reliable a yardstick as we have. However, the ability to separate content from presentation, markup semantically and make sites accessible has been with us for so long now that there’s simply no excuse to not make an effort at least.
I said it on another blog (can’t remember which) but it boils down to two things – 1) client education and 2) peer honesty – if people are producing crap, they need to be told and helped along to bring them up the scratch. Ideally, one will compliment the other, with educated clients not commissioning the services of cowboy Web designers/developers/agencies.