As a result, most web developers fail to grasp their customer’s true requirements, and most times, they rush to ‘close a sale’ and fight to stay afloat in the ever-competitive web industry.

Clearly, this situation and the disputes that usually follow, aren’t ideal for business owners or web developers. The seemingly endless design corrections and frustrating arguments that go back and forth will make the business owner think that the web developer is incompetent, and the web developer will start to label the customer ‘fussy.’ When the web developer doesn’t deliver on time, or the customer holds the payment, it becomes yet another project failure that could have been avoided in the first place.

In the world of business, they say the customer is always right, which is true in many ways. For many web developers, a project can sometimes appear like a line of HTML code, but that’s not usually the case, not everything is as it seems. A project is complex, and comprises of a good mix of management and development. Here’s what we think are the five pillars of a successful project:

1. The negotiator

The negotiator’s job is to meet customers and understand their requirements and expectations. He or she can also help customers decide on a budget, inform them about what a website can do, and understand a web developer’s job. When both sides agree on a preliminary budget, the negotiator’s role ends.

2. The proposal writer

A good proposal is one that can be understood by everyone. It shouldn’t be technical, but it should put the customer’s expectations down in written form. It will define the job scope and note what items are to be delivered.

3. Administration

The administration side of the operation follows standard procedures to get the paperwork done. They issue official quotations, receive purchase orders, send invoices, receive payments etc.

4. The project manager

This person forms a bridge between the customer and the web talent. He or she assigns tasks to the team and makes sure that deadlines are followed. It is also the project manager’s duty to inform the customer about the progress of the project and to ensure that everything is going to schedule.

5. Specialised team members

A web project has to be broken down to smaller tasks. This is one of the hardest parts of the project, as someone must search for talents and identify their area of expertise. Specialisation eliminates errors, is the key to keeping costs down, and improves the value of each team member.

A team member who works on a specific aspect of the project will eventually become skilled and excel. If you have a team of specialised talents, the possibility of the project going smoothly, and as planned, would be much higher than that of a ‘one man show’. Each talent must be given an introduction to their job scope and recognised for their professionalism. Ultimately, your database of skilled talents can help you seal the deal with your customers.

(Pin will write more on individual roles and how to turn expectations of web owners and web developers to writing)

About The Author

Are you a web or apps developer? You are invited to join http://groups.google.com/group/friends-1-com-my

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my

1. Web developers do not deliver a good job (I have tell you n times about everything you need to know, including inserting auto-play background music. I have also given you guys a benchmark website which I want – I want it to be similiar or better than Dell’s online ordering website. I have budget, yes I have!)

2. My site ranking is poor, something is wrong (Why other websites are listed on the the first page of Google but not mine. I should engage my friend who is a SEO expert working in eOneShreak)

3. Isn’t my website should be fully automated (What I want to say is, web developer should create an auto-pilot website or money making machine version 2.0. I just need to sit there waiting for money to come in)

4. Keep my online business ideas confidential (My ideas is first in the universe. I have discussed this plan with God and both of us agreed that this will hit and overtake Facebook. You are lucky to be involved in project like this)

5. The site is not what I want… (Isn’t that you know everything about website? You should propose something fresh, innovative, better, faster….)

Web developer says:

1. Well, we are afraid that this is what we can do with your limited budget (Even given the same budget as what Dell has invested, you are only a copycat and your business will fail because a website is not an online business. You need to have strategy to make it work and remarkable)

2. There is no overnight trick to make your page to first in Google (Idiot, do you know what is PR? Not Public Relations but Page Rank)

3. We have done all the integration right (If we are able to come out with such thing, we would not be here doing the website for you. You know, you don’t even buy anything online before and you expect your online business to be built and money piling up in your Paypal account. Again, do you have Paypal?)

4. Sure! We will keep this ideas to no one including my cat. My fish do not talk but I won’t tell them too (This is the n times of people mentioning this ideas. To make you happy and to make sure we get the project, we will agree that you have done all the search in Google and happily confirmed that you find no similar website or ideas)

5. Let’s us try again and we hope it is closer to what you want this time (We have another final payment to collect so we will have to bear with you a wee longer. We do not understand what do you mean by better, give us clear guideline)

This is a guest post from Pin, the founder of 1.com.my. He runs a company that hosts emails. Pin is very kind to offer to help you solve your problem related to your email hosting. Just let him know what it’s about.

1. My site has no visitors

(Web developer: It is not within our scope of work. Our job is to complete your project and make sure the final payment are deposited to our bank account)

2. My online sales is slow

(Web developer: You own a restaurant. Your contractor are working on the renovation. Do you expect your contractor to guarantee your sales? We are more or less the same. Your website is a business to you, but it is only another project to us)

3. My site has never completed

(Web developer: The changes are never-ending. If you stop giving us more updates, we can get it done anytime)

4. The design sucks

(Web developer: We are designers, please trust us. If not, why would you engage our service? Anyway, you are the boss, we would still listen to you and make the design sucks for you, who cares?)

5. Why so expensive?

(Web developer: We, web developer, are dedicated to create a website with extraordinary patience. A lot of effort are spent to make sure you are the ONLY person in this world to like the website, not anyone else.)

A Typical Web Development Project

So, it’s finally time for you to look into building an online presence for your company’s website? Or it’s about time that you revamp the website after hearing from your boss that website is looking really dull for the 999th times.

I would assume that you have a budget for your web development project. I wouldn’t go into how you should come up with this budget, but a budget would give the developer and yourself a rough idea on the scale of the development. You cannot have a RM799.00 budget and ask for everything under the sun. A budget would also allow you to prioritize what features to include in your website, and what features should be implemented in the subsequent phase of your web development pipeline.

Ok, after the Management has approved with your budget, what should you do next? Naturally, the next step is to find a competent developer who can deliver the project fast, cheap and beyond expectations, as unrealistic as that might sound.

So, you post up the jobs, ask around your friends who’s in the IT business and do a search on Google for ‘Malaysia cheap and good web design companies’ or ‘cheap web designers’ or even ‘freelancers who work for free’. And after that, you shortlist 5 of them and asked each them to give you a quote. And you waited for a few days before all the quotes come in, and after looking at the figures you decided to meet with 2 of the cheapest one, and one that quoted the highest (just because you were curious why this particular designer is so different from the rest).

And after interviewing each of them, you finally nail down one company, let’s call them Super SEO Sdn Bhd, and the project begins by paying the web development company a 15% down payment. The project usually begins with Super SEO collecting all the information that you want to put up on to the web for the world to see. All the annual reports, the magazine scans and all your interviews with the newspapers. Next, you also require Super SEO to come up with a few prototypes to give you the ‘look and feel’ of the design. As a matter of fact, you don’t really know what you want, but heck, you can always change your mind, right?

And so it goes on for a few weeks, with Super SEO proposing their revised color scheme for the Nth times, while you continue to browse at your competitors’ website to see what they’ve been up to lately, and to see if there’s any cool features that you might be able to ‘steal’ from them.

If all of the above sounds familiar to you, then you’re very likely to find yourself with a website that did not bring in any positive impact in your sales. Well, at least now your company has a website, and you can include the cool URL on your name card and ironically, other than the URL, there’s really nothing inside the website that you could really shout about to your potential visitor. You begin to wonder why did you spend RM8,000 on the web development project.

My advice? Just get a domain name and have a single page with your company’s address on it. That will probably only cost you about RM150.00. Nothing to shout about either, but it’s going to have the same impact on your name card.

Hold it, now you’re saying that you are really, really serious about building your online presence and how else, other than the method explained above, can you go about it?

Who’s the Architect?

Here’s what I’ll propose, and I think this would definitely work much better than the commonly-used method illustrated earlier.

First, you must know what you want out of the website, and how the website will affect your business’s bottom line. No web developers on this planet can give you this answer, simply because they are just that- web developers. They know nuts about your business, and probably won’t be interested to listen to you brag about your rag-to-riches stories.

Contrary to what you may have been told, if you are going to build a website that works for you, the key architect of the site is none other than you and the people in your company. If it’s a revamp of your existing website, the feedbacks that you’ve gathered from previous visitors, clients and the web statistics will also be an important source of information in working out the blueprint of your web development project. You should be the person deciding the metrics you want to benchmark the website with. How many visitors are you expecting after the revamp? What keywords do you want to position your website with? Which languages do you think you should translate your site into? Which countries are most likely search about your industry and what kind of search engines do they use? Do you have a department in your company that would be able to tap into the company’s web resources and improve their service delivery?

And if you still think that your web developer is going to do all these for you, you’d better rethink your purpose of developing/revamping the website.

The Blue Print is All You Need

So, it’s really not rocket science. What I am really suggesting is that you need to first identify your web development’s need. Figure out the benchmarking metrics of your website and the conversion ratios you are hoping to accomplish. Let everyone in the company chip in and contribute in the planning phase. Get the blueprint of your project done and make changes whenever a better idea or suggestions come along. It’s 80% cheaper to change the features on the drawing board than after you’ve got your website up on the net.

It’s very tempting to hire a web developer based on their portfolio and their client base. Yes, these are important attributes which will help you determine whether they can deliver what you want, how you want it and when you want it. Yet, it’s even more important to engage a web developer who listens to your needs and can help to ensure your blueprint is realistic and achievable. An experienced web developer who can help you to come up with the final blueprint can also dramatically reduce your risk. The blueprint will usually only be a fraction of the entire project cost, but it’s also the foundation of the entire project. With this blueprint, you will have a clear idea of what to expect from the website and you can even bring around this blueprint to any web designing companies which can execute the blueprint for you, exactly the way you want it. Again, this can help to further reduce your development cost and also to ensure that you will not be ‘surprised’ with the end product.

Conclusion

A website is becoming one of the most important tools in an organization’s public communication strategy. You can deliver an impressive message by providing the information that your visitors are searching for with the least effort or you can be turning off potential customers with a few badly designed product purchasing forms.

Whatever it is, I would like to emphasize again my point: Your website is your business.

Unfortunately, the web development company does not want to fix the error for the customer, unless they are paid a certain amount (which I think they should not charge at all) to “upgrade” the system. They claim to have developed the scripts using PHP version 4, but now that the server has been upgraded to PHP version 5, the scripts do not work any more. That is, they blame the problem on the server.

I checked the scripts but did not find any problems due to new PHP version. I found the errors as common programming errors, which can be fixed easily by them who developed and understand the system. In addition, the developer could not answer me when asked for exactly what outdated features of PHP 4 that the scripts are using that are not working now.

They refused to fix the problems for the customer, saying that the web site is not hosted with them. But I think this is not a very good reason, because a web site can be hosted and deployed anywhere, not necessarily theirs. They should support the web site no matter where it is housed.

Now they say they are no longer interested in serving the customer, and they say since I am so “expert”, then I should fix the errors for the customer. Well, even if I am in web development business, they are still the one who created the system. I think it is their responsibility to support the customer and not just simply pass the buck and walk away.

The customer saw web design as a lowly job.  It seems they considered a web designer nothing more than someone who get paid to simply put up their company photos online and finish her job.

They insisted a whole Flash-only web site to be done up for less than RM1,000.  But I think the market rate is at least RM5,000 if not more!

But what surprised me most was that, the pitiful freelance part-time web designer, though obviously being looked down on, accepted the job at such dirt-cheap rate!  I don’t know what quality of work she is going to deliver.

Are the web designers out there doing work just to “cari makan” (earn a little money here and there to feed stomach)?  Good and passionate web designers like Danny Foo will be the first to disagree.  Nowadays web designers are not just designers.  They are artists, engineers, strategists, marketeers and business consultants!  The good designers are in for long-term business.

Unfortunately how the market perceive web designers may not be so noble.  This maybe something for web designers to ponder on.  Why such a bad reputation?

For me I don’t see web design as a lowly job.  I know web design in general, though it’s not my choice for business.  I know the time and effort a dedicated web designer put in to show up a quality work, though not well recognized and appreciated by others.

• To maintain an existing match-making web site
• To develop an online job portal
• To develop a business networking web site
• To develop an online charity web site
• To develop a web site plus web application for a non-profit nationwide sports event – This is a volunteer and non-paying job. But I guess the web programmer will be given due recognition and a plus point in his or her portfolio.

As for me, I’m not a web designer and not in web development business. I developed and still maintain my own sites (yeah, I know I should not do it myself). I was a programmer and I still can program well in PHP (and that’s the only programming language I still know now!)

It’s good to have a gift in web development and programming. But it’s one thing to be a “technician” doing programming, it’s another thing to be an “entrepreneur” in business world. To turn from owning a job to a business, and from working in a business to working on a business, I just have to come out of my comfort zone called programming.

Sometimes I’m asked to develop web sites, from both commercial and not-for-profit sources. But my time commitment does not allow me to take in any of these jobs. Sacrificing precious hours for these web projects means I have to sacrifice time for other more important life goals, though sometimes these projects are good and worthy ones. In other words, doing web development projects simply drags my feet from achieving what I want!

He asked me to introduce web developers for him.  Besides suggesting my partner web designers for any web development job as I normally do, I also suggested him do it himself, especially if it is such a simple web site.

Customer can consider using any free content management system (CMS) out there, such as Drupal and Joomla.  A good CMS enables you to develop a complete web site with little or no technical knowledge.

But CMS to some customers is still quite technical.  Why not use a blogging system like WordPress instead?  You can create static pages using WordPress, and announce latest news and promotion from time to time by means of blogging.  This RickySoo.com web site is created using WordPress.

In fact, for businesses who want to build a web site, I would suggest make it a blog, especially if the web site is not too complicated.  Businesses should use blog not because it’s the “in” thing to do now, but it could be the most cost-effective way as well.

Learning WordPress is easier than learning a typical content management system.  You just need to download WordPress, install on your web site, set up everything, put in the content, and maintain it along the way.  Find out more on how to set up a blog here.

At the beginning there will be some learning curve.  But soon my customer will become a pro in WordPress, and he will love it.  The good thing is that, he can apply the WordPress skills to replicate other web sites as he wishes.

Do it yourself!

But according to my friend, the real feng shui masters in Malaysia are few and far between.  Yes, we have heard of some big names who tout their expertise in feng shui.  But although their marketing is excellent, some of them may not be real experts in feng shui and may not have respect among feng shui masters.

On the other hand, there are those who are real masters but are not good in marketing themselves.  But after all, why need to market so much?  Their daily schedule is already packed up and they are already earning good money.

I myself don’t believe and don’t practise feng shui.  But here I’m writing from a business perspective only and nothing else.  I asked my friend who is computer-savvy why he doesn’t use the Internet and even blogging to promote his business.  Perhaps the web site will not generate many leads.  But he can use it to build his reputation.

But he said those who promote on the Internet expose themselves for challenges from the real masters in feng shui.  If one is not yet ready, better not have a web site, much less a blog.  Ok, sounds reasonable to me.

There are web developers and Internet marketers who think that EVERY business should go online.  But I think there are businesses which should not have an Internet presence, perhaps because the Internet does not fit into their business model, or they are not yet ready for Internet presence.

So perhaps a feng shui business is one such example?

You can either enter the email addresses of your friends manually. Or you can just enter your username and password of your web-based email service, such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. Then the site will login on behalf of you, extract your friends’ details out of your address book, and send them an invitation email.

While asking for your login details, there is always a disclaimer claiming that “We do not store your login information”. But, do you believe?

As a web programmer myself, I know how easy it is to store people’s password without them knowing. If your login details fall into the wrong hands, the unscrupulous party can just log into your account, read your emails, send emails for you, or simply change your password and block you from accessing your mailbox any more.

I don’t know about you. But I have friends whose web-based mailbox had been hacked and they could not access their mailbox any more. Worse, a hacker even used my friend’s mailbox to send emails out on her behalf!

Of course I do trust sites such as LinkedIn. But if a site called XYZ that you do not know well ask you for login details, will you give them? Better safe than sorry.

From the point of view of site owner, is it good to ask for login details from members? However we claim that we don’t store their login details, they may still not trust us, because we are nobody!

This shows that trust is paramount in doing business, including online businesses. But when we are nobody, it takes time to build trust.

I wish there can be a good mechanism where members can safely invite people on their address book without the site owner getting to know the login details at all.

This is like how credit card details are processed – the customer enters the card number but the merchant never get to see it because it is sent directly to the bank.

Do you have any good solution?

I don’t have much experience on this and am not qualified to speak on this issue. I also don’t have very good solution to this. But I have a very naive idea.  if a customer refuses to pay up, just let him go and do not pursue after the money. Perhaps I have done something wrong that he refuses to pay up. Even if it’s not my fault, at least I have done something to help and bless his business.

You will surely not agree with my suggestion to let the customer go, to bless and not to curse, to look beyond our existence (we don’t exist just to make money), to thank the customer for giving business to us in the first place and for the money he has paid, to wish him well and never do anything to sabotage, even to continue to serve him If he ever comes back in the future.

There is a Chinese word called 舍得 (meaning “letting go”) which consists of two characters – 舍 and 得. Perhaps only when we learn to let go (舍), do we learn to how to truly gain (得).

Yes, I know I am naive   How about you?  What will you do?

The classy building and heavy investment of MSC doesn’t really produce second Silicon Valley. It is the people who make it happens! Are we lacking of talents in the web industries? I don’t think so!

Few of them focus in building values to their own projects. Instead, many web developers spent large amount of their time working for others, getting paid on their time than values. Projects such as Blooming Florist and e-Cover are good examples of how values are accumulated and turned into long term recurring models.

Perhaps, running your own business is too huge to be a one-man show project. Let’s work together, by combining expertise of various industries, we believe we can start on something for ourselves!

It takes more than a Blue River to make the Blue Ocean!

Check this out http://www.1.com.my/2007/03/01/web-developer-alliance/

Pin loves cycling and interface design. He started 1.com.my and he has a great team who work only 4 days but seeking change 7 days a week. He has built two schools in Cambodia with a domain name that costs RM55. Currently, he is looking for a way to save endangered animals by selling travel guide at USD2.95. Pin wanted to move his office to Starbucks but was rejected, so he ended up starting his own incubators instead.

Are you interested to write a post on this blog?  Be a guest blogger here!

The good thing is that, both projects are very similar. The same web pages and coding from the first project can be reused for the second project with just a little modification.  They are basically the same sites but for two different organizations.

The web sites are to be developed using Microsoft technologies such as ASP or ASP.NET.  Customer is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and you need to be physically here to see the customer.

Please contact me here if you are interested.

I got a new customer recently who chose to host with me. They have a web site which was done up by a web designer, who charged them over RM10,000.

Recently we found out there is some error in the web site code, that some functions are not working properly. The customer asked the designer to fix it. He refused. He said he had already “signed off” the project and passed on the whole web site back to the customer.

Will he fix it? Yes, he agrees to fix it but only with extra payment. I tried to talk to him on behalf of the customer, to no avail

I don’t know about others. But I guess he should fix the error, since it originates from his work.

Yes he is right that when he signed off the project, the customer approved his work. But they are not technical people. They do not know how to test out every page and every script on the web site to find out whether it’s working or not. They don’t know they have overlooked anything or not.

If I were this designer, I would first check why the error exists and whether it comes from my work. If yes, I would fix it without any charge.

What do you think? Should the designer fix the error?

If we register or manage your domain name:

• We will not register your domain under our name. Your domain name fully belongs to you.
• We will not withhold the login details to your domain name. You are the owner and you have full control.
• We will not delay or sabotage if you decide to transfer your domain out to other provider. You are free to choose your provider.

If we are your hosting provider:

• We will not withhold any hosting details that you as customer should know. You can manage your own hosting.
• We will not prevent you from accessing your web server via FTP (file transfer protocol). You can upload and download your web pages any time.

If we develop or maintain your web site (which we normally don’t but prefer to refer our partner web developers to you):

• We will not claim copyright over your web site. You are the legal owner of your web site.
• We will not do anything to prevent you from accessing the source copy of your web site. You can access and download your web site anytime.
• If we refer web developer to you, or outsource your web development project to a web developer, we will make sure they agree to the above.

Read more about our promises and pledges to customers here

Furthermore, many hosting customers often ask me to refer them good web designers to develop their web sites.

If you follow my blog posts, I’ve been seeking web designers from time to time for various projects.  Every time the responses have been great.  Thanks!

But from now onwards I would like to make better use of the IT solution directory I have built over the last few years.  It includes not only web designers, but many other IT service providers as well, such as software development, computer repair and even web hosting service!

Whenever there are new enquiries on web design jobs, I will first pass them first to the registered partners.  I will post on this blog only when I can’t find a suitable one.

Whether you are a company or freelancer, you are welcome.  So what are you waiting for?  Register here as a partner. It’s free of charge!

Expected first year membership is 20,000, increasing to 50,000 in second year, and 100,000 in third year. Concurrent users are 2000 and more as time goes by.

Services required:

1. Web application development - You will need a few months and a team of developers to build the whole application.
2. Server solution to support the web application – Consider the bandwidth usage, space requirements, concurrent connections and other issues.
3. Maintenance of the server - You need to manage the server and fix any problem whenever there is any problem.

I can’t reveal much details now. Please don’t ask me what the project is about. You can discuss with the customer later.

If you are interested to provide all or any of the above services, please contact me here with your contact details. I will pass your details to the customer. They will contact you and you can ask them then.

I will need a one-time 10% commission out of the project

We asked him how much his designer charged him for the web site. He replied “one five”. Initially I thought he meant RM15,000. But it’s RM1,500 for the whole web site! No wonder his web site is not working at all.

There are many web designers who can do a web site in RM1,500. But will the web site be effective? Will the designer really care for the web site?

Unfortunately, the web design prices nowadays are so dirt cheap that there is basically not much profit to earn out of each project. It may not worth the time for designers to put their heart and focus on any individual project. They just do up what is instructed and go on to the next project for volume.

But a successful web site does not work this way. Without Internet marketing a web site is virtually non-existent. But doing Internet marketing does take time and effort. Does it justify all the hassles for just RM1,500?

There is a Chinese saying that once a person is bitten by a snake, he becomes scared of snakes forever. There are customers who have had high expectations out of their web sites but got disappointed when they see no result. Understandably some may not want to do a web site again.

We propose business blogging to this customer. He is very much qualified in his field and can potentially command authority as a prominent blogger in his industry, like Paul Tan in the automobile industry.  The good news is that, there is no such blogger as yet. He can fill the void and claim the first-mover advantage!

We hope he could overcome his previous bad experience so that he can again have faith on doing business on the Internet and utilize his strengths to produce tangible results this time.

The web design firm had developed my friend’s company web site for a few thousands ringgit.  Every year, my friend has to renew their domain name, hosting and web site with them for over RM1,000. Her domain name has also been registered under the email address of the web design firm.

However, my friend was not satisfied with their service but had no choice because she had no control nor access over his domain name and web site.  She ended up paying hefty amount to the provider every year without gaining any real benefits in return.

Now her yearly term with the web design firm expired and the web site got suspended.  I came in to help her talk to the web design firm.  We sent an official letter to them to reclaim the domain name, ensure they give us a copy of the web site and the web site is submitted to search engines as promised.

However, dealing with them has not be a pleasant experience.  They refused to do anything unless we first pay them the renewal fee.  Moreover, the way they treat the customer is regrettably terrible.  They can even criticize and badmouth my friend when talking to me.

The relationship seems to be beyond repair.  Even if my friend renewed with them, they are bound to bump into problems in the future.  I think she better switch to a new provider.

First, the web design firm should not have registered the domain name under their own email address, at least not without informing my friend about it.  Being able to manage domain expiry for the customer is not a very good excuse.  Doing so gives them a leverage to hijack my friend’s domain name and web site.

Second, their customer service is one of the worst I have come across in the industry.  They should treat customer well, speak gently, respect the customer, even if sometimes the customer can be wrong.  Had the way they talked been nicer, we could have reconsidered their service.

Third, the quality of the web site developed by them is not at par with their reputation in the industry.  It is also not well optimized for search engine marketing.  No wonder my friend got very little traffic and enquiries over the years.

Fourth, they said they would give a copy of the web site in images only, and that if we get others to do the web site, we will have to redo it.  Oh my goodness, do they meant they would only give us screen shots of the web site without the source code to make changes?  What has the customer paid them thousands of ringgit for?

Fifth, the domain name and web site had been paid up by my friend and should belong to her.  These should be given to her years ago, not “upon customer request only” as claimed by them.

Sixth, by requiring my friend to renew with them first in order to give her back what is hers and what should have been given much earlier, they are hijacking her web site.

I feel so disappointed for we have such a web design firm in the industry.  Perhaps there are also other customers being victimized in the marketplace.  Have you come across such cases before?

And if the new business plan works, I will have MANY projects to pass on to you.

But I’m looking for SEO-conscious web developers only. It is not necessary you know everything about SEO but you should know the basics enough to design a web site in a way that will not hinder the search optimization work to be done later.

For now, I’m looking for local partners only who can meet up with our clients in Klang Valley of Malaysia.

So if you are interested in partnership, please reply with your name, company name, contact number, email address and portfolio. I will meet up with you personally for details.

I’m also looking for outsource SEO experts. Better still, I would love to let you handle both web development and SEO if you like. You can contact me here.

Update: The business plan has been scrapped and I no longer have many projects for you.  But you are still welcome to join as partner web designers here.

First of all, I finally met – the famous tech blogger Liew CF of LiewCF.com!  I’ve been following his blog for a while and learning from him.  He started blogging years ago and later his income generated from blog exceeded that of his full time job.  Now he is a full time professional blogger!

He has been earning mainly from Google Adsense.  Though he didn’t reveal how much, the US$ X,000 figure he said aroused much curiosity among the audience.  Though the X figure is a single digit in US Dollar as he said, I do believe it’s a double-digit in Ringgit Malaysia!

He was one of the speakers today and he said it’s his first public talk (really?)  But he has successfully captivated our attention and regaled all of us.  Let’s wish him success and continue to grow from strength to strength!

The second dotcom figure I met is Andy Low of HomeTuitionCare.com.my, a tuition agency business online.  I’m glad that he graduated from University of Malaya (UM) too – same with me!

One might think that his business is a competitor to my NextLevel Tutor Network.  In a loose sense, maybe.  But I think he is not because our business models are different.  He charges tutors commission for each successful tuition assignment, while I charge tutors a fixed fee upon joining.

Even if we are competitors, I still like to get to know him as there may still be things we can do together in the future.  Who knows maybe we may form alliance and harness each other’s strengths to serve our customers?

As one of the speakers mentioned today, such webmaster gathering should be conducted more often.  I have also got some idea on conducting our future gatherings in the Internet Business Fellowship (IBF) later.

Thanks and kudos to the organizer!

The competition is so intense.  To win the price war, you have to do work for clients at dirt cheap rates.  Profit margin is very thin, if there is any.  How are you going to pay for designers, or even your own time?

Well, this is the general sentiment.  As a web designer, do you not feel this way?  But I choose to be a bit more optimistic.  Here are my humble opinions.

Internet is here to stay in years to come.  More and more businesses are going to use it as their business platform, or as a channel to reach out to their customers and stakeholders.  There is a market need for web designers.

The business environment is also changing.  So are web technologies.  Businesses need to continually update and upgrade their Internet infrastructure to suit their current business needs with the latest suitable technologies.  There is a continuous need for web designers.

The web design market is crowded with many web designers who know or care only design or programming.  Unfortunately they miss out other aspects of having a web site, such as business strategy, Internet business model and Internet marketing.  Now if you can provide these, will you not stand out?

Again, many web designers are just designers and do not know marketing.  They think once they put up a web site on the Internet, traffic, enquiries, orders and money will pour in.  But it does not work that way.  No wonder many clients complain there is no use having a web site.  Can you include Internet marketing to offer a more comprehensive service to clients?

The prices are so low that many web designers can’t really give focus and their hearts on any individual project.  Why work so hard if all you can earn is RM500?  So go for the volume!  They just take instruction and do not think and strategize proactively for clients.  They just finish the project and go on to the next project.  But you can be different.

Many clients expect low prices for their web sites.  Perhaps they have been pampered by low price offers from competing web designers.  Perhaps they do not know the cost structure behind.  You are competing in cut-throat price war in a typical red ocean.  Now if you can educate, influence and change the market perception, will you not be a pioneer?

Many clients do not know the potential of the Internet.  They do not know they can use their web site to achieve much more than they can imagine.  Now if you can be their consultant to educate, influence and change their perception, will you not be a winner?

The heartening fact is that there are many companies who can afford to pay high prices (five-figure or even more) if they can see the value in your proposal.  Instead of competing with others in price, why don’t you equip yourself with more skills so that you can offer more value to them?  It may be a better strategy to charge high and command authority, rather than to charge low and be cheap.

The traditional business model of a web design firm may not work any more, at least it is not so profitable and sustainable.  Can you think of a new business model for your web design business so that you can create a new blue ocean?  In fact, I suggest you quit web design market and transform your business into something else that includes web design service.

I may not be right but these are my honest observations.  I am not against web designers but I am pro-consumers.  They are the ones who pay us money.  I just hope web designers can do a much better job in serving them.

What do you think of the web design market?  Your comments are welcome.  To stay tuned with my other thoughts, do subscribe to my blog to be updated from time to time.

Consider that you have to watch an unnecessary three-minute “about us” Flash movie before entering the web site. Will you not be turned off and click your way out of the site? The people wowed by the Flash experience maybe the designer and the web site owner only.

I am not against using Flash and animations. A beautiful web site is important. Some graphics and animations can indeed spice up a web site. But I am concerned of excessive use of Flash. Often it could undermine a web site’s user friendliness and search engine optimization.

This holds true unless the Flash designer puts on the shoes of a visitor to improve its usability, and knows how to optimize a Flash site for search engines. But unfortunately, not all creative designers are good at usability and marketing.

I am also not against any creative designers. They are important members in a web development team. But unless they can take a more holistic approach in a web project, they should not take charge of the project single-handedly.

A web developer should take all factors into account such as usability, information, attractiveness, SEO issues and user values or benefits. Which factors are more important depend on the web site’s purpose.

My view may not be popular among web designers. But I’m trying to speak for the interest of customers because they are our bosses.  What is your view on this?

Update on 2/7/2008 – Google has just announced that now it can better “see” Flash elements and web sites and include them into their database.  But there are still limitations.  Read Google’s blog here.