> We need to hire someone who can...
I am currently available. A little bit of humor, a little bit of
thought, and some Imagineering...
> 1. Do web page composition to a standard template using Microsoft Front
> Page. Nothing fancy is needed ... no spectacular art, animations, frames,
> bells, whistles, buttons, bows, blinkenlights. This person will compose
> auction advertisements that go up into view for a couple of weeks and then
> get thrown away, and our clients don't want to pay a lot of money for them
> for unnecessary flash and glitter.
Most of the stuff I do, is set up scripts to do the formatting for
me. I see very little use in slogging through setting everything up by
hand either in a product like FP, or such. Templates, PERL scripts, etc.
to Get Things Done over and over again with little work.
> 2. Do limited web page design (as opposed to simple web page composition)
> ... this person should have some experience and knowledge in graphic art,
> use of frames and animation, designing pages that are a couple of steps
> above the basic ... essentially, for those of our clients whose needs
> aren't quite met by item (1) above.
Good layout skills... but more important, is getting people to a web
page. Most of your hits have to come through the search engines. This is
why I set up the reports at http://www.mall-net.com/se_report/ -- so that
one can work the proper query terms into the header lines. This raises
the web pages position in the search engines. See
http://www.mall-net.com/se_tech/zero.html for more information on getting
the most out of your meta tags and the search engines.
For an auction site, you still need to have the site up long enough to
get indexing in the search engines -- that is how the bulk of your people
should be arriving at the pages -- the specific product pages. I think
you should be attracting people to the act of buying products themselves,
not to the concept of an auction, as few people think of auctions when it
comes to getting something. More on that below.
> 3. Be able to compose paper advertisements and brochures using Pagemaker,
> Quark Express, Corel Draw. Be able to use his/her own imagination and
> initiative in designing these ads. Need not be a world champion ad
> designer, but you need to be considerably better at it than I am. Trust
> me, that would not be difficult. ;-)
I've used Corel a few times. Mostly though, it is text that attracts
people to a site. Images are just the things to show people what kind of
a thing they are looking at, to build confidence that they will get what
they have already identified that they want. Your most important job is
to get them there in the first place.
> 4. Have a good enough understanding of the Internet and the Web so that
> he/she can do things like monitor our clients' positions in the search
> engines and take action to improve them, using tools like WebPosition.
Believe me, that I am good at! I got named it a lawsuit because I
was too good at that! The competition accused me of setting up roadblocks
in all the search engines! I had to spend some time explaining to the
lawyers why it is that I am not responsible for how the search engines
index a site... all I did, was follow the instructions they provide... Not
my fault your web designers don't read or follow instructions...
Ultimately, my client go out-spent in the legal arena, caved in on trade
mark issues and changed their name, rather than fight for their OLDER
name. And the vacant pages, which I filled with other approximate text,
are STILL ranked hither than the competitions pages! Some people just
never seem to learn.
> 5. Plusses would include having a decent user-level knowledge of UNIX,
> specifically Linux.
I've been running Linux for years! Have four Linux machines, one SGI
Indy, and one Sun Solaris machine in this field office. And a few odds
and ends. (Including an original ATT UNIX-PC that I don't use. It has
a full set of manuals, diskettes, etc.)
> 6. Big, huge plusses would be some knowledge of auctions and
> auctioneering, and the ability to do some selling of our services to
> auctioneers. Someone who can sell our services to auctioneers could
> fairly quickly find him/herself in a position of being responsible for the
> needs of a block of our clients, and earning a commission based upon the
> revenue received from those clients.
Well, there are auctioneers all over the country. I've attended a
small number of auctions here in Silly-Clone valley, where The Next Big
Thing often turns out to be The Next Big Dud, and then a bunch of old
pro's and techno-weenies get together at an auction. The old pro's make a
lot of money, and the techno-weenies buy used computers for more than they
could buy at retail-new-in-box. Having priced things before hand, I found
auctions rather boring. You spend a day waiting for a few items that you
can make some money on to come up for bid. And then, maybe, if every
maniac-without-a-clue has run out of money, might get it. It is just too
mind numbing for an un-excitable lump of logic like me.
Auctioneers make more money when they can get a buying frenzy going.
This is a lot harder to do over the web, I think. Thus you are likely
addressing the old pro's who do their research more than the techno
weenies. But I suppose it depends upon what you are selling, and whether
this is a prelude to a live on-site auction.
> As you can see, this is fairly entry-level in a lot of areas, and not a
> rocket-science level position in any of them.
No, but the combination does enable a rocket scientist like myself to
try to set up a more elaborate automated system for others to administer.
And I do know a few auction houses around here.
> My questions are...
>
> a. What do you call this position? "Graphic designer" ... not really ...
> "Web page designer" ... well, it goes beyond that ...
Webmaster.
> b. What hourly wage range would someone like this expect as a permanent
> employee? If you'll tell me where you are (approximately) and what such a
> person would get in your area, I can estimate from that what the wage
> range would be in New England (we're in southern New Hampshire).
Ah... yes... well... As a professional software engineering
consultant... Don't think you are going to pay those kind of rates.
BUT... comissions... On National level activities... Keep reading.
> If you are uncomfortable discussing prices on the list, because of some
> concern that putting a dollar sign in front of a number in an abstract
> discussion such as this could somehow put you afoul of some antitrust law,
> then by all means please respond to me privately at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> For everyone's benefit, maybe you could send me the numbers privately and
> discuss the rest of the items on the list.
Right! But I kind of know your answer ahead of time.
> And now, a request ... Help me out here and please do not send me mail
> telling me that you can take over our overflow, do all our design work for
> us, etc. ... I know who most of you are and believe me, when it's
> appropriate we'll be in touch, but we do not AT THIS TIME need the
> services of any outside design houses, so unless you can commute to the
> Manchester/Nashua/Salem (NH) area and work on-site for probably a third to
> a quarter of your normal billing rate, please help me keep my eye on the
> ball here and get THESE questions answered then maybe later we'll talk
> about some contract deals. OK? Thanks ... ;-)
IMAGINEERING: I see that you could probably bring your business onto
the web and deal with things all over the country. Outside sales agents
for a major centralized auction site with topical sub-sites. Each getting
a commission on the business they bring to the site.
Why a central site? Because most people do not think of auctions as
a way of buying what they want. At a central site, you have enough things
to sell that product-keywords are likely to remain mostly valid, still
point to pages that lead to specific things you are selling.
In contrast, smaller sites will have so much turnover, that by the
time a product is properly indexed, it is sold and the page taken down.
So in a central site, you are maximizing the indexing of category
pages that have a series of highlights of things that are more fully
described on separate transient non-indexed pages.
Why the importance of not indexing product pages themselves? Because
once a customer sees a dead link or two, many won't come back to any more
of that site's pages. That is why it is important for a site like that to
have 404-not-found errors run a CGI that analyzes the HTTP_REFERER entry
and re-directs one to a more appropriate page, rather than just toss up an
error message. And the use of category pages as the primary indexed
pages.
Sorry, I am unlikely to move to New Hampshire. Would have loved to
about twenty years ago... But do keep me in mind for comissions based
dealings in the Silicon Valley area -- we do get a lot of companies
tossing up a lot of used equipment here. This is perhaps the greatest
source of techno-surplus in the world!
We throw out as obsolete, stuff that isn't even available in other
parts of the country yet! That is why you really need to establish a
branch office out here at your earliest opportunity. And I just happen to
know a few auction hounds and other surplus crazies, in addition to a
webmaster or two, who might help you do that.
Of course, convincing your management to look at this might take a
bit of doing. E-mail me privately if you have any success.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------------
----------------- Every mouse click, a Vote -------------------
---------- Do they vote For, or Against your pages? -----------
----- What people want: http://www.mall-net.com/se_report/ ----
--- Have you analyzed your viewer's footprints in the logs? ---
--- Webmaster's Resources: http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/ ---
--- Web Imagineering -- Architecture to Programming CGI-BIN ---
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