Hi All: I just have to stick my nose into this discussion about how much to charge for Web sites, whether to go after small clients, how to gain exposure and establish a reputation, etc. I find Suzanne's msg about her latest client and his ineptitude and lack of savvy about how to interface with her company to be right on. I currently have three clients who I am having similar problems with. One of them I've been fiddling with since Feb '97 and we still have only an "under construction" notice at his site. I sent him a $1500 invoice about three weeks ago for the 20 hours I've dribbled away over the past 17 months getting his domain established, setting up his ISP account, monitoring his email because he didn't know how and talking to him on the phone trying to find out what he wants the site to look like. (He promptly paid the invoice.) Every so often, he'll call me and say "We've got to get going. I'm going to start writing down my thoughts and I'll call you next week" and then I don't hear from him for two months. One time I said "Maybe you need to find somebody who is more agressive than I am who will just do a site without regard to what you want" and he said "No no no I want you to do it. I know what I want, I'm so busy I just don't have time to address it." Oh well, in another 2 or 3 months, I'll send him another invoice. My other two balky clients are not quite as bad, but it still is a time-consuming chore to drag the information out of them for their site. Like Suz says, 2-3 months of constant communication to get enough info for 30-40 hours of html coding. It's not all bad, though. I've had and currently have some clients who are tops, who are reasonable, who listen to suggestions, who have an understanding of timing and relevancy and the cost of labor and the dangers of giving the nod to something they don't really like, and who are professional and deal with you as a professional. I make a pretty decent living thanks to clients like them. With regards to gaining exposure and establishing a reputation, I reiterate what I said on this list months ago. Spend a little to make a lot. I picked out one of the top Northern California Talk Show Hosts who seemed to have an interest in the 'Net and did an unsolicited small site for him and notified him by email where he could find it on the Web. He LOVED it, and I developed it out completely for free. In return, I got a credit line on his site and fairly frequent mention on his show. I got a lot of action out of that page. On the day he announced it, I got more than 500 emails, about 20 of which turned into Web site jobs. About a month after I published the first site, I got a call from the TOP Talk Show Host in N.Cal. and I did his site - for $500 plus a credit line on his site plus mention on the radio. These two talk show guys are so well known that all I have to do is mention my association with them to a potential client and I instantly have a foot in the door. Of course, nobody has to know that I did their sites essentially for free. I still do maintainenance of the sites for the two talk show guys. The top talk show guy has had almost 150,000 hits so far. Regards. Gerry ------------------------------------------ G.A.Ott Consulting and The WEB Page Office 408-738-1377 http://www.siliconvalleyservices.com/office ____________________________________________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done directly from our website for all our lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
