Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Guest blog post by Pin of 1.com.my

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!

I have two similar projects on hand to develop two education web sites. You can charge RM 10,000 or more for each one.

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.

Consider this real life case. What do you think the web designer should do? Should he fix the code?

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?

I have seen unfortunate cases where customers have no control, access or even ownership over their domain names or web sites and they are at the mercy of their providers. But this is a pledge from us:

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

Many a time visitors come to my web sites looking for products or services that I don’t provide, especially web design services.

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!