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Today, hopefully for your edification, I am going offer a rare glimpse of extreme honesty on a matter that I as a freelance web programmer, and I’m sure most other freelance web developers, have to deal with.  I am very sure that what I am about to unveil may lose me some work, but I can deal.  You see, people who freelance in web development and other fields don’t just work for money; we work for reputation as well.  That is, we know the perils of having our names (or our company’s names) associated with shoddy work — therefore, we will do anything we can to prevent that from happening.  We always have to keep our minds attuned to how our services are truly marketed — through the word of mouth emanating from the completion of quality websites.  That’s where most of my new work comes from, so I have to obey this reality.  No choice.

Now, you might be wondering: Is it fair to potential customers to reject work at all?  Ask attorneys that question, or ask anyone who performs very specialized services this question.  The reality is that when one specializes in any field, in order for them to run a business based on that specialization, they have to have rules by which they conduct business, or they will be overrun with serious problems, financial and otherwise.

I hope that my following list of top ten reasons to turn down web development projects will create a good picture of what people like me are looking for when clients approach us.  Whether you seek my services, or anyone else’s services, you need to know these things.  Believe me, with this list, I am trying to HELP YOU meet success when working with the webheads.

1. You don’t know what you want.

Seriously, are you going to go to Kinko’s and say “Print me a brochure with a few party-like graphics and text using these scribbled notes here” and get what you actually expect?  This also holds true for working with web developers.  You need to be as specific as possible as to what you want your website to do and what it should look like.

Now, certainly, I am dutifully available to offer professional feedback on your ideas so as to more finely tune what it is you exactly want.  But, I am also not a mind reader — I am not omniscient — I am no magician — You tell me what you want because you have taken the time to think about what you want.  Explore other websites.  Talk to your trusted friends about your ideas.  Think about what you want your site to accomplish.  After all, ultimately it’s your site; therefore, you have to own its concept!

People start businesses with a business plan, whether written down or not — Think of your website the same way people think of their own businesses.

I am the web developer, you are the web development client — I turn your ideas into reality with my technical skills.  So be specific.

2 through 10, after the fold…

2. You know what you want, then the developer gets half the work done, then you ask for changes so radical that it makes it clear you didn’t ever really know what you wanted.

If you’re looking to piss off a web developer, I know of no more predictable way of accomplishing that than asking  for a complete change in what you want well into the development process.  I’m not talking about adjustments in dimensions, images, color, function, etc. that are normally expected when a project estimate is put together; that’s what estimation buffers are for.  I’m talking about a client wanting a completely different website than the one they were originally totally sure they wanted.

Don’t get me wrong — this has absolutely nothing to do with hurting the developer’s pride, as I think most of us webheads really don’t mind throwing away incomplete work here and there — it’s part of our normal work life.  The problem stems from the fact that we are working on the client’s own specification and the project estimate that flowed from that.  When a client all of a sudden asks for radical changes, that almost always blows the estimate to smithereens.  Many of us work on tight time and financial margins and therefore cannot allow for large unexpected events like this.  Not only that, and far worse, it destroys the developer’s confidence in the client, where we wonder: “Is this the last radical change?  Will this client ever know what they really want?”  Believe me, at this point, it’s a sane decision for a web developer to drop the project.

Some may wonder: “Why don’t you just do a re-estimate when this happens?”  I’m sorry, but in a case like this, the re-estimate will need to be done by the next web developer the client seeks services from.

3. You want something “quick and dirty”.

If a client wants a website developed for spec purposes, that is, to prove a design or concept, and it’s not made public, this entry doesn’t apply.  What I’m talking about is when a client wants a semi-complete (i.e., half-assed) website done very quickly that the world will see.  This is not worthy to be done on several levels.

First of all, web developers care about the quality of our work.  We don’t do half-assed-anything, for any reason (or at least we shouldn’t!).  This goes back to the way we usually get new assignments — through word-of-mouth based on the quality websites we have produced.  We cannot have anyone discover something we have developed that is incomplete or looks just plain atrocious, just because we have rushed to put something out for a quick buck.  The short-term money just isn’t worth it.

Secondly, unless you’re willing to pay a premium, you shouldn’t expect that web developers will shove aside all their other ongoing work to rush your site to completion, especially if it’s not going to end up being a high-quality result.  Again, not worth it, especially if it delays our work on projects where the clients patiently care about what they’re getting.

Last, maybe I can’t speak for all the webheads out there, but I really don’t want to be known as the “quick and dirty web guy”.  If you’re an attorney, do you want to be known as the “quick and dirty lawyer”?  And electricians the “quick and dirty wiring dude”?  I didn’t think so.

Some of you may be wondering: “Well, what if my business requirements essentially force me to ask for anything just to get it out there, yesterday?”  I would ask you to think about that and whether you care about the reputation of not only your business, but also the business of the web developers you seek services from.  Quality really is everything.  There may well be a few providers out there who don’t care about what they produce for you, but beware: You may just get exactly what you ask for, and have your business doomed because of it.

4. You want your website to be finely tuned like print material.

In short, websites are mostly not like newspapers, not like magazines, not like brochures, not like anything that emulates something produced by the print graphics industry.  The glossy appearance, high refinement and/or precise element positioning expected in print materials is not what most web developers do.

The main reason that most of us don’t do this is because the web wasn’t designed to be like print.  Therefore, it takes a lot of work (and contortions) to make it behave like print.  Therefore, this generally adds a lot of time and complications to a project, thus normally making it considerably more expensive.  Further, when a site is expected to display this level of refinement, there is ordinarily a much higher level of requested adjustments during the development process, thus increasing the chances for blowing estimates.

If you want such highly refined designs, you have to find a web developer who clearly has a background doing sites like this.  Don’t assume that all web developers can perform work like this.

What most of us webheads do is produce websites for the web.  A web of dynamic content and function.  Not a web that tries to act like a “horseless carriage.”

5. You want your website to be a 1990s-style brochure site.

Don’t even go there!  Need I say more?  Okay, I will.

If you want all your content on one page, with wild colors or graphics that convey useless information (if they convey any info at all), and contains all kinds of crappy, ornamental thingies to distract the reader, here’s my advice: Do it yourself, sweetie.

Do not ask a professional to produce what you can learn to do yourself after reading “I can haz bang up website in 21 days”.

6. You don’t care about the developer’s necessity to spec out your full requirements and do a proper complete project estimate.

As I alluded to before, web developers, especially those who freelance, run their projects on tight schedules, and finances.  That’s because we have to.  We cannot run a business with everything getting out of our control; therefore, we try to get as much under control as possible, as close to the start of each project as possible.  That means working diligently with the client to determine their web development needs and producing a clear-cut project estimate.

Project estimates are not only beneficial for the web developer — they benefit the client far more.  An estimate really is like a contract, in that it binds the developer and the client into the delivery of a specific end-product with a completed list of line items by a specific time.  Imagine getting all the things you ask for and have documented, and at a maximum guaranteed price — that’s the raison d’être of a project estimate.

Don’t begrudge this critical part of getting a project done.  It helps you!  Besides, almost no web developer will want to work on a project that has no defined structure or endpoint.  After all, web developers do have to make a living, and we only get paid if projects get to a completion point (unless we have arranged some kind of pre-completion payment schedule).

6 (corollary). You take advantage of a web developer’s free project estimates multiple times but never proceed with the prescribed jobs.

Another predictable way to piss off a web developer.  Our time is not worthless, and we require as much remunerated time as we can possibly get.  Please respect that.

7. You treat the developer as if they are your full-time-and-a-half employee with no other client projects to work on.

Unless  a web developer is actually your employee, or working on-site as a full-time 1099 contractor, do not pretend they owe all their time and allegiance to your development needs.  Freelance web developers usually work with two or more clients simultaneously, and thus they have no choice but to round-robin their attention.  All clients have to be pleased, not just one.

Respect that your web developer is running a multi-client business.  That’s all I’m saying.

8. You haggle for a very low project price then also expect corporate-level results.

You get what you pay for.  This is an axiom.  In the off-chance that your web developer delivers a result above what you have paid for, consider yourself lucky.  I myself strive to deliver outstanding work that appears to have greater value than the project price.  But in the final analysis, if you want great results, don’t nickel and dime your chosen developer.  And if you want corporate-level results, you will need to be prepared to pay for that.

9. You promise the developer that there will be all kinds of work to come after completing the first project with them.

Here’s the deal:  Smart web developers see through this buttering up.  The reality is that most development jobs are one-offs no matter what the client promises.  If the job you’re having us work on isn’t appropriate for us to work on, for whatever reason, then promising all kinds of additional work to come isn’t going to change that.

10. You don’t respect the developer’s experience and suggestions.

Don’t seek a professional to do work of any kind unless you are prepared to open-mindedly consider their advice.  We web developers are here to help you have a successful website.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Trust that we are trying to help you by telling you what we think will work, and what will be a disaster.  What will bring in traffic, and what will scare visitors away.  What will inspire participation, and what will make your website into a dead zone.

Ignore the well-considered suggestions from a web development professional at your (and your business’) peril.

Bonus: You want your site to copy the design of (or purloin the graphics from) another site.

Asking a web developer to violate the copyright of another website by duplicating it is like slapping them in the face.  It also slaps the developer of the other site even worse.  I’m sorry, but most of us are simply not going there.  Any developer who does is flat-out unethical, not to mention lazy and inconsiderate.

Do you really want to ask someone to violate their ethics (and copyright law) for you?  And do you really want to work with someone who would?  I hate to get preachy, but in my experience, if someone is unethical in one way, they are unethical in many ways, including how they deal with you and your project.

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I imagine that I will receive some interesting responses to this.  Have at it!  I was honest, so now you spill it. 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Web Development Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.