home

articles

background

clients

free estimate

the process

good links

contact

how to save money on your web site

It's simple to find ways to cut costs on the development of your web site --
 -- and get a better finished product as well.

Textual Content. The first step is producing as much of the content material as possible. While you might not have any writers on staff, anyone within the company is in a better position to deliver good information than anyone outside the company. Write up as much as you can, I can help polish the writing. But I'm going to have a hard time sounding like an expert in your field, so please provide as much good copy as you can -- as long as it's relevant.

I've had clients enthusiastically dump five year's worth of promotional stuff on my desk and say 'you ought to find something in there!' There's no reason to pay me to do this for you.

Graphics and Photos. You'd think it'd be a great cost saving measure, but the when a client says the words 'just find some good clip art or stock photography' it's going to be expensive.

Anyone who'd suggest that casually would know what I'm talking about. Looking through through thousands of pages of tiny thumbnail pictures of clipart is not only tedious, but time consuming.

Do it yourself and you're sure to find something that pleases you. And you'll save paying my hourly rate for the service. It's a good deal all around if you can manage to do it yourself.

An honest-to-goodness plan. The next, biggest thing you can do to keep your costs down are to plan ahead, and plan carefully. Once you know where you want to go, it's a lot easier to get there. Try to keep long term and short term destinations clearly defined. Nothing is carved in stone, and changes can be implemented on the fly -- but having a default plan to follow is far better than no plan at all!

Explicit Organization. What a concept. What seemed obvious to you might be a puzzle to me once it's lost among a ton of photos and other materials. Please provide clear notes and label everything carefully. Also, be sure disks, photos, and other sensitive media are adequately and appropriately protected by sleeves and/or rigid containers, with labels on the outside.

An Understanding of the Process. To understand what you're paying for, you'll need to understand a how web publishing differs from print, and how working within these constraints comprises the value of my effort as a developer, designer, and programmer.

Nothing in the web world is 'camera ready.' Photos need to be scanned, sized, optimized, and compressed. Text needs to be entered, formatted and proofed. Everything needs to meet certain specific design criteria so that the site displays properly in every viewer's browser.

One tricky aspect of web design is the behavior of each different browser. Even different versions of the same browsers display things differently. A good site will be full of compromises necessary to overcome these differences.

<< Back to Articles <<

>> Home >>