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Are
There Any Red Flags or Danger Signs You Should Look Out For When
Dealing With Webmasters?
By
Bart Smith, TheMarketingMan.com
| 565 Words | Published 06/21/2007
You
should always be suspicious of a webmaster (and their work)
if:
They
don't return your eMails or phone calls within 24-72
hours. That usually means by the
next business day or within three business days.
Is that too much to ask? Not at all. Time is money,
on both sides of the equation (yours and theirs).
If a webmaster delays in returning your phone call(s)
and eMail(s), that's a sign there could be trouble
in store for the project itself. Watch out! If a
webmaster doesn't return your call/eMail after three
tries, hang up on the webmaster, get your files/money
back if you can and move on. You deserve respect,
as a professional (client) and as a person.
They
ask for (and get) all the money up front for a project
before they even start.
It's always best to "pay as they work,"
so you're not out all your money without a finished
product.
They
don't deliver finished work on time. Are
they overloaded with work? Then maybe you need to
find a webmaster that's not too overloaded so they
can better care for your web site design needs.
All
they have are excuses for why the
work isn't done. Whether there was a death in the
family, their child was ill, they were ill, whatever.
Yes, we're all allowed a personal interruption "once
in awhile" (like 3x a year). Beyond that, here's
what you say, "I feel for you (during these times,
yes), but my focus working with you is to get this
web site done in a timely manner. Your personal matters
are important and should be taken care of on personal
time, not the time I'm paying you. If you need more
time to handle personal matters, I understand that.
I'll just need to find someone who can handle my 'business'
needs right now. That's all. It's very simple."
They
argue with you. Yep, that's another
sign. Belive it or not, webmasters who argue with
you, do so because (1) they don't know what they're
doing, so they try to defend their only knowledge
(that they're right) with debate and arguments ("No,
that can't be done that way because I don't know how
to do this or that ..."), (2) they don't have
your money to refund to you because they spent it,
so they get uptight about that (i.e., you want to
pull out and they can't pay you back) and (3) you
saw the work they did and you want to make "a
few" changes and they go bonkers! "No, we
can't fix that, don't you like that? To change that,
will cost extra!" Wow, just becareful ...
They
try to push services on you (too soon) that you don't
need. A good webmaster takes all projects
in stride. Yes, any webmaster should have a pool of
resources to be applied to your web site project, but
asking you to signup for too many services right up
front, too fast, or for services you'll never really
use, that's not good. A webmaster should be able to
explain and justify the reasons why you need something
for your web site.
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Yep,
knowing what to look out for (as early in the game as possible),
will work to your advantage in protecting your web site, pocket
book and your time dealing with someone who's not in your corner
and should be.
Bart
Smith, TheMarketingMan.com, is the founder of MyMarketingCart.com,
which offers shopping carts and other Internet marketing tools
and services to small and large businesses; and MyPaymentServices.com,
which offers merchant accounts and the ability to accept credit
card payments from your customers. Bart is also the creator of
MyTrainingCenter.com,
an online learning resource which offers extensive written, audio
and video tutorials for computers, business, marketing, speaking,
web design and creating information products. Bart also created
ReallyCheapNames.com,
where you can register domain names for "really cheap"
and find web site hosting at extremely low prices. Author
of four self-help books,
totaling more than 1,000 pages, Mr. Smith dedicates himself to
helping others, personally and professionally, wherever he goes.
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