web designers, hosting and control [Archive]

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wanderfast

03-05-2001, 09:14 AM

I am having my website done by a designer and have been pretty dissappointed in the service, creativity and price.

My questions are about control. My designer wants to host my site at $30 monthly. Is this a good idea? It sounds expensive but maybe it is a good idea if he has access to updating.

How can I make sure if I decide to change designers I have all access easily available and no hitches if I want to do some work myself?

How many hours does it take to get a basic site up with a professional doing the work? I am at 9 hours billable and I have a rudimentary homepage, a couple of link pages and some basic graphics?

K

dhenton

03-05-2001, 11:01 AM

We charge about 30/mo at the ISP I work for, so that's not too bad, though you can always find cheaper places. The more you know, the cheaper it is for you.

As for what to if you want to change designers:

1) DEMAND a full working copy of all html and file/structures. Tell him that you want a local copy that you can view in a browser on your local c: drive and that is fully functional in that location.

2) Make certain you are listed as primary contact on your domain listing, if you have one. Learn about that stuff from networksolutions, or go to the a DNS for dummies site (like I did, I certainly qualify) such as www.easydns.com (http://www.easydns.com)

4) As for the 9 hours, what is the $/hr? We charge about 80-90/hr.

5) Be sure to send us the url when you are done!

HTH

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"Art is anything you can get away with." -- Marshall McLuhan

Roan

03-05-2001, 11:51 AM

Originally posted by wanderfast:
I am having my website done by a designer and have been pretty dissappointed in the service, creativity and price.

Did he not give you a proposal that contained cost estimates, a flow chart of the site and initial design specs to approve before he started the actual site?

My questions are about control. My designer wants to host my site at $30 monthly. Is this a good idea? It sounds expensive but maybe it is a good idea if he has access to updating.

How can I make sure if I decide to change designers I have all access easily available and no hitches if I want to do some work myself?

Ummm, did you not sign a contract with this guy? If not, you'd better call the stops now and get a contract signed that outlines exactly what you are paying for and what ownership you have in regards to the site.

That goes for the site hosting as well. 30 bucks a month is a lot of money.

How many hours does it take to get a basic site up with a professional doing the work? I am at 9 hours billable and I have a rudimentary homepage, a couple of link pages and some basic graphics?[

Most professionals either have package rates or draw up a proposal that outlines the initial costs. You approve those costs and sign a contract. Anything over and above that initial proposal goes into the hourly rate zone.

"Most professionals" includes the $90-$100 an hour ones, of which I was one a few years ago.

If you are being charged a straight hourly rate for the initial deisgn, I highly suggest you find yourself another designer. IMHO, you, sir, are being royally ripped off.

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Roan
Call caraid tadhal tric, 's call caraid tadhal ainmig.
-- Friends are lost by calling often, and by calling seldom.
RoanStudio.com (http://RoanStudio.com) <-- pastel open stock vendor sources & reviews!

Kevin M

03-05-2001, 07:46 PM

Websites are effective if they are small and load quickly.
This immediately gives almost everyone the option of learning enough HTML to get them up and running reasonably quickly.
A good way is to download a free template that takes your fancy and play with it in a program like Dreamwaver or Homesite. There are lots of free services out there to validate your code and check your browser compatability so that the rest of us can view your site.
Total expenditure? Very little.

wanderfast

03-06-2001, 07:05 PM

OK everyone. I didnt get a proposal for what was gonna happen, I didnt sign a contract, I dont understand ownership issues to well but I have nothing on disc nor am I the contact person for the domain.

All the work is done on a flat $50 hourly rate and I do feel like I have been jabbed for the first 8 hours since its been all flailing about. I guess that is mainly my fault.

But, I really want to stop the bleeding and regain some control of the billing and control of my site.

Any further comments are appreciated.

Roan

03-06-2001, 07:34 PM

Originally posted by wanderfast:
OK everyone. I didnt get a proposal for what was gonna happen, I didnt sign a contract, I dont understand ownership issues to well but I have nothing on disc nor am I the contact person for the domain.

That sucks cause you probably have no rights to anything that he has already created should you decide to pull out and go elsewhere.

All the work is done on a flat $50 hourly rate and I do feel like I have been jabbed for the first 8 hours since its been all flailing about. I guess that is mainly my fault.

This is way a proposal and an estimate is so important. You shouldn't HAVE to pay for flailing about. All that should be done ahead of time -- he has to sell YOU on his ideas.

Lemme put it this way: supposed your car was making a "ticking" noise in the engine and you took it to a mechanic. A good mechanic, no, a REPUTABLE mechanic, will take a look at the car, analyse what is wrong and give you an estimate on how much it would cost to fix. You then approve the work and he gets started.

This mechanic, however, didn't bother giving you an estimate. Probably because he has no clue what is wrong with the car. He just starts pulling your car apart trying to find out what's wrong and is billing you for every fit and start he's made.

But, I really want to stop the bleeding and regain some control of the billing and control of my site.

Any further comments are appreciated.

First of all, write a formal letter that states:

1) that he is to stop working on the web site effective immediately.

2) you will no longer pay for random billing hours

3) that in order for you to continue to retain his services, you require a WRITTEN contract that outlines exactly what he is to create and an estimation of ALL costs, detailed.

4) that the contract MUST include very specific details on ownership and copyrights. Who owns the graphics, who owns the pages, who owns the domain rights. Make sure you also cover his trademark and copyright issues. Many designers require that their name or design company's name appear on all your pages. If you switch later, or maintain them yourself, and remove his trademarks or copyrights, you could find yourself in a law suit.

Send him the letter. Call him as well and tell him to stop working on the web site. Make note of the date and time you call. After he receives your snail mail, set up a meeting and go over it line by line.

If he refuses to create a contract, ditch him and find someone who is a real professional.

Hope this helps somewhat.

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Roan
Call caraid tadhal tric, 's call caraid tadhal ainmig.
-- Friends are lost by calling often, and by calling seldom.
RoanStudio.com (http://RoanStudio.com) <-- pastel open stock vendor sources & reviews!

Michael Zoller

03-07-2001, 09:21 AM

IF you can be part of this or any Forum YOU CAN make your own web site.... Beiing extreamy dyslexic its work for me to typ this!@#%^&* but my web site is a a cake walk.
and it only costs me what I'm paying to be conected to the internet, I got an old vesion of front Page ( thank God it got spell check ) and I figuer out some html coed to do some other stuff (though it's not needed) There is alot of fee web space deals out there also and you don'n need to have or know didaly poop to use them.
I say do it all yourself,,,
You'r an artist arnt you ???.
Check out
( http://www.rogersark.net/zoller/ ) The annimations I did with Gif Biulder a free program downloaded from compuserve.
I see alot af crappy websites people pay to have made, I don't undersand it....

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ZOLLER

Roan

03-07-2001, 11:37 AM

Michael,

That's all been pretty much said already in another message further up.

However, please bear in mind that some people neither have the time nor the inclination to design their own web sites. therefore they pay someone else to do it.

It really has nothing to do with being an artist or not -- he'd obviously rather be creating his art and dealing with the actual business end of things than struggling over silly HTML tags and images.

More power to him, I say.

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Roan
Call caraid tadhal tric, 's call caraid tadhal ainmig.
-- Friends are lost by calling often, and by calling seldom.
RoanStudio.com (http://RoanStudio.com) <-- pastel open stock vendor sources & reviews!