Can Anyone Help Me Build a Website?

Many of my professional webmasters,  designers, and hosting sellers have told me that dumbing it down doesn’t help. I find that arrogant because it’s one thing to dumb it down and another thing to make it understandable to those, not IT professionals Frett Board. And I think the order of the tasks is not clearly defined. So, you want/need a website. OK, fine. Now, what do you do? Shop for hosting right?

I say no, and here’s why:

Let’s say you have a service business and you have your van and tools for the job. Then after working with clients for some time, you notice that there is an opportunity to provide services that are not part of your current skill set. Do you go out and buy the necessary equipment, put that in the van and add this service to your price list? Some people do but then when hired to NetWork Posting  provide that service or to quote a customer on performing the service, do you have the knowledge and additional training to provide it that will be satisfactory manner that the client will like, want and appreciate?

Or will you use this client as a guinea pig to test your new equipment?

I’m a webmaster, and I sell hosting and design/program websites. And I can’t tell how many times I have had to pass on website projects because they are wormholes. The problem is that the client wants a website because someone told them they needed one, or a client of theirs asked for their website URL and the light bulb went off, alerting them that they need a website. Now, If I go into a restaurant and after being seated, the wait person comes over to take my order, and I say: Can you bring me some dinner? Thank you. What did I order?

The wait staff has no clue because I didn’t really tell them anything that they could use to fill my request! This happens a lot when clients come to me for websites. “I need a website for my business.” OK, you may ask: “What kind of business do you have?” or you may ask: “What do you want the site to do for your business?”. Most clients don’t know. Some will even get upset and say: You’re the web person; that’s why I came to you.

That is the worst kind of client and I will normally pass that person on to someone else. Because in my experience this person will not be satisfied no matter what you do. I do try to explain to that kind of client that I want to build a website that will help build your business and satisfy your requirements. But the client has to first have some real business-related requirements. Now I don’t give the appearance that I only cater to a certain clientele. Still, I also want you to know that a large portion of clients who contract out for websites are not happy with the results and blame web admins for not delivering on what they wanted their website to do for them and their business.

The first thing I have asked clients that have come to me to have prior work reconfigured or totally rebuilt is: “What did you want to be done that the other design company didn’t do for you?” And: “What planning paperwork or website specs did you provide the other web designer?” generally, they didn’t have a plan going in and still don’t have a clear idea what they want. I say all of this to make the point that website designers, web hosting sellers, and

other IT professionals are not mind readers, and if you as a client can’t explain what you want in a website to one of your co-workers to the point that they can see your vision, then how do expect a person, not part of your company/group/organization to know what you need? But once you can describe in detail what you want or even explain what you need the website to accomplish but are short on detail, most professional web designers/web admins

can make recommendations to the client about what will help you reach your goal. To walk in/call/email, a designer without a plan is like telling a contractor to build you a house with three bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. What do you think you will end up with when the contractors are done? To make sure that you will be happy with the final outcome, sit down with your staff, members, or family and mock up the site on paper. Visit other sites built for companies/organizations similar to yours.