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How To Offer Website Design Service Like A Professional

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Statement Of Business Purpose

Apple Web Site Design, Inc. is a home-based design company that provides quality Website design, consultation, and internet service to small business owners at competitive prices. The company will focus on buying website design services from professionals and companies that provide business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) services and products.

As an internet-base business, our primary storefront and primary advertising tool is our Web site (www.agywinsitedesign.com). This site makes us available to our prospective clientele twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The business draws on the experience and education of the owners, who have on-the-job experience in business management and web site design.

This comprehensive background provides the skills necessary to support business operations, the technical aspects of a computer-based business, and the design and development of products for our clients. Are you a freelance web developer? Explore our guide to Website Builder Software tailored specifically for freelancers and elevate your projects to the next level.

List the service that your business will provide.

Look at the sample list below. Cross out those that don’t apply to you and add others if you wish. If there are services that you won’t offer now but expect to offer in the future, list them as well and indicate when you intend to start providing them…

Product and Services:

AgywinSiteDesign, Inc. will provide a full range of website design and development services, including:

Website design services

Consultation services

Search engine optimization

Copywriting

Website maintenance services

Graphics services

Logo development

Photo Editing

Database development

Subcontracting  

Clientele served:

Our clientele will consist of business-to-business companies, business-to-consumer companies, nonprofits, professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.) who are looking to promote their services and products on the internet, and other website designers who need subcontractors for specific tasks. Boost your sales with these 7 Great Ways To Improve Sales Through Your Website. From design tweaks to strategic content, discover techniques that drive results.

Business Goals

Our goal is to become profitable by the end of the second year of operation. We will do this by selling a minimum of six Websites in the first year and twelve in the second. We will achieve these goals through aggressive marketing and promotion to specific segments of our target market – that is, professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.)

List Address

Describe the legal construction of your business. It can be a sole proprietorship, partnership, or cooperation. It may also have special features depending on local requirements and regulations…

Define who is running your business and their position in the company. The format of this section may change depending on the legal construction of your business plan as a living document. It will change and evolve as your business develops. With time, you will gain a better understanding of how everything fits together, and your original plan may require some revisions. Try to keep in tune with daily reality.

You also have a workable outline for your business plan – a plan that you spent time reflecting upon and discussing objectively with a friend or two. So now it’s a matter of following your plan! Don’t just file it away. Check your progress against your plan and, in turn, check your plan against your progress. With these 6 actionable tips, make your web marketing portfolio work for you. Learn how to showcase your skills and attract more clients effectively.

If you deviate, get back on track. If your goals change or you get new information, revise your plan accordingly. It’s critical that you maintain a clear vision of your goals and that you have a well-defined path get there. With that road map in place, we

Website Marketing Secrets

No business can survive with marketing. Not my business. Not your business. Marketing brings in clients. And clients bring in the money that keeps your business alive. As webmasters, we sharpen our design skills constantly and try to keep up with new developments in the field – trends, new tools, etc. However, for many of us, our understanding of marketing theory is less refined. Build a stunning website with GoDaddy Website Builder and unlock your online potential.

What Is The Core Meaning Of Marketing?

There are sales and marketing professionals who do nothing but discuss and debate what marketing really means. They hold seminars and write books and articles on the subject. In my opinion, these people have too much time on their hands.

As far as you and I are concerned (as webmasters), marketing means promoting your own business and your client’s business. Anything you do to attract potential customers and encourage potential sales (or whatever action creates income) is marketing. You may not realize it yet, but Web site design is all about marketing. You may not realize it yet, but web design is all about marketing.

Your job is to build websites that will achieve the kind of results your clients want and expect. In order to do that, you must build sites that attract ongoing targeted traffic, pull these interested prospects to the money-making web page (s), and close the deal (i.e., get the order/contract/lead/etc.) result for your client’s business growth directly influences your own business growth. We both know that satisfied clients create repeat contracts and/or enthusiastic referrals.

SBI! Provides you with the ideal working package for all but the most complicated projects… design flexibility (use your own HTML editor and graphic software), integrated into traffic-generating backend automation/functionality (like page optimization, SE submission/resubmission and reporting, and click-in/click-through traffic analysis).

You get to concentrate your effort on the creative parts of your business (designing and copywriting), while SBI! Automates the more tedious parts of traffic-building. Ensure your church website stands out by incorporating essential elements tailored to your congregation’s needs.

Websites Are Marketing Tools.

For the most part, your clients will want to promote their product and services (i.e., their business) online and they will pay for their webmaster services through their advertising budgets. Very few clients will pay thousands of dollars for a website just for the sake of having a website.

They expect a return on their investment, whether that ROI is more customers (leads), increased sales, or cost savings due to a reduction in customer interface time (or whatever else contributes to their bottom line).

Most new designers don’t recognize this reality immediately and a surprising number of experienced designers don’t know this either. They design sites that are beautiful looking. Unfortunately, their client’s site doesn’t rank well with search engines, and as a result, no traffic is generated.

The content on these sites is not focused on the needs of customers so that when visitors do stop by, they “click out” instead of clicking on the client’s money-making links – those links that lead to sales/services contracts/leads/referrals/contacts.

These sites may be beautiful… but they are failures all the same. They are failures because they don’t get results. Your clients need successful websites in order to develop successful online businesses. They need sites that do the following (these are just a few examples to spark the discussion)… 

Rank well with the search Engines.

Attract interested targeted visitors.

Are focused on the needs of their visitors

Keep visitors on sites (and encourage repeat visits)

Get the desired response (contract, buy, etc.)

In your work as a Web designer, these needs must drive your actions. As I said earlier, your ability to create successful business sites for your clients will directly determine the growth of your own webmaster business sites for clients will directly determine the growth of your own webmaster business.

They win… you win. Designing for success is a much bigger job than just putting up some content, adding some photos, using multi-media, etc. and because of that, you can charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for your service (more on this below). Your design effort must produce results… traffic and sales. Secret #1 is so obvious that we often miss it (i.e., websites are marketing tools). However, it’s a secret you and your business can’t afford to miss.

Secret #2 involves “targeting” and its role in the marketing equation. How would you complete the following sentence? “I am planning to sell my service to…” if you say “anyone,” you are mistaken. “Anyone” is not your market. It is unlikely that you will sell website services to any of the following groups…

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Children

Retired couples who want to do extensive traveling

People who don’t want websites

Business with no advertising budgets

You can’t be all things to all people. Cost-effective marketing (in both time and money) requires focus. It matches the needs/desires of the most appropriate target group with your “solution” (i.e., services).

So how do you identify your best niche? Begin by asking yourself the following questions…

Who hires webmasters?

Why do they hire?

What do they want?

What do they need?

What solutions do I offer that meet these needs?

What makes my solution unique?

Jot down your answer. Add some of your own questions. The goal of this exercise is to find the ideal balance. You want to identify the target group/niche that is neither too general (too much competition) nor too narrow (not enough potential clients).

SBI! It uses a proven process to identify the most profitable niche markets. Its brainstorming tool will research related keywords/keyword phrases and provide their profitability ratio at the click of a button.

Your target group is small business owners without a web site who recognize that they need one and have money available for advertising. Narrow your focus again… your target group is small business owners without a web site who recognize that they need one, have money available for advertising, and have a budget big enough to hire an independent professional web designer.

At this point in the “narrowing down” process, it’s important to determine the price range for your services—low, mid, and high—end—and exactly what type of services are available at each price level. This framework will direct your future marketing. Unlock the secrets of efficiency with these 9 Ways To Be More Efficient Web Marketers. Streamline your processes and watch your productivity soar.

Create the storyboard.

You are getting dangerously close to starting the layout, but you are not there yet. There is one more step – “storyboarding.”  Do you know how cartons are developed? After the story and the dialogue are written, but before the animation starts, the animators go through a process called storyboarding. In this step, simple sketches of key sense in the cartoon are drawn and tacked to a wall in a meeting room. This allows everyone working on the project to develop a common baseline. It also defines the critical features of each scene.

You are going to use this basic storyboarding concept, but you are going to modify it a little. Your storyboard pages will contain everything you know about each page on the site. Every page in the wireframe will get it’s own storyboard page. These pages will define all of the functions, features, and content of the corresponding Web site pages. This means more than just rewriting the information found in the wireframe.

The storyboard is where you write the text for the page and insert the copy provided by the client. Develop keyword-focused, high-value, search-engine-optimized content pages that will please both visitors and search engines alike. If you don’t, the site will not deliver traffic or sales (i.e., results). And that means a dissatisfied client and no chance at repeat contracts or positive word-of-mouth referrals.

After you complete individual pages, you can organize them into a final storyboard that displays each page’s position in the whole package. Doing this will help you to visualize the site and to see any problems in the relationships between the pages. Interested in Website Flipping? Our comprehensive guide walks you through the process step-by-step, from acquisition to resale, ensuring maximum profits.

Build The Prototype.

Up to this point, you have been defining the requirements and contents of the site. Now, you can start developing the layout. (Finally!) In this step, you will develop some nonfunctioning web pages – demo pages for the client to review. Open your favorite graphics package and start developing your layout visually. Identify a section for the page header, for the menu, for the footer, and for all of the features of the site. Go through your storyboard sheets and make sure that every page can be comfortably mapped into the proposed layout.

If something isn’t right, change the layout or revise the storyboard until everything fits together. Once you have a rough layout, start the detailed graphic design. Pick the colors for the site based on client preferences, select your navigation scheme, and draw the menu links on the page. Add the header and footer if they are part of your design. Continue to work on the layout until you are satisfied that it meets all the requirements.

Suppose there are several distinct types of pages (content pages, product pages, etc). Then, create a layout for each page type. Stop here and send an e-mail to the client. Attach the graphic images and ask for feedback. If the client doesn’t like the layout, color scheme, etc., now is the time to find out. Ask the client to define comments as clearly as possible. It may take an additional revision or two, but if everything is defined up front, the approval cycle should go smoothly. Maximize your website potential and watch your business thrive. Discover the key strategies for Growing Business Through Maximizing Website Potential.

Complete The Final Design.

Congratulations! You are almost finished; you have the requirements, the page contents, the layout, and client approval. It’s time to do the detailed page layout. Open your HTML editor and your graphics software and design a page template that matches the graphic version that your client approved. Include a functioning menu, define the font sizes, set up the links, and create areas where you can just cut and paste all the contents in place.

If there are different page layouts, make a template for each type. At this point, it is just a matter of integrating everything into the final product. This isn’t to say that this is a trivial step. The actual building process is still a lot of work, but you will have everything you need at your fingertips. You can now build the complete site, put it online, and test it to verify that everything works.

The designing process outlined in the nine steps above works very well. If you follow it, your life as a designer will be much, much easier. Please note that the process was developed for larger design shops. In these shops, the clients call and talk to a sales representative who addresses costs, contracts, etc. Once the contract is signed, the account passes to a design supervisor who manages the design and assigns it to a member of the design staff.

When different people share responsibilities, it is essential that everything be well-defined every step of the way or something may be overlooked. In your one-person business, you will probably find yourself combining steps, especially when you are developing small websites. Let me emphasize something, though… I said that by combining steps,’ not ‘skipping steps,’ when you develop the site map, you can also start collecting keywords, goals, and site features.

You could also create the original site map as a wireframe. There is nothing wrong with that. The essential idea is to see that you have all of the requirements defined before you move from one stage to the next. There is also one other consideration… the design process has been laid out step by step. In reality, design is a repetitive process, and all of the steps are interrelated. You may need to do some of the steps out of order, revise previous steps based on the results of later steps, or combine steps.

The size of the job will also affect your design process. Larger jobs will drive you to follow the steps more closely and to document them. On smaller jobs, you will combine steps and do some of them in your head rather than on paper. Your design technique will be a reflection of your skills, training, and personality. You will find that as you gain experience, you will tailor the procedure to fit the way you work. Take your blogging journey to new heights with Bluehost, a trusted web hosting provider renowned for its reliability and performance.

When You Write Your Advertising Copy, Remember…

  1. Your clients are small businesses that advertise but don’t have websites.
  2. Your clients want their business to be more successful.

With this point in mind, we can rewrite the ad to look like this…

Total website design services

Harness the power of the internet

Expand your customer base

Increase your sales and profits

Promote your product and service online

Complete design, copywriting, and technical support

Proposals And Contracts

  1. Statement of work

The statement of work defines the tasks required to complete the website design from start to finish. You may wish to divide the statement of work into several sections. The individual section should include a description of the final product as well as a description of the work you are going to do.

  • Basis of Cost Estimate

When you quote a price for a website, you have to be able to justify it to your prospective client. Your justification comes in the form of a list of services you are going to provide, and a list of conditions and constraints. Discover the convenience of Namecheap support and the magic of drag-and-drop functionality for building your website effortlessly.

The ‘service’ list should include a description of every service you intend to provide. Typical services include…

  • Developing a page layout to be used throughout the site.
  • Designing the navigation scheme.
  • Developing graphics required to support the page layout and navigation scheme.
  • Submitting the website to search Engines

You could also include a list of assumptions (conditions and constraints) in your proposals. This is how you build flexibility into the proposal but still maintain reasonable limits on what you’re going to do. For example, if you agree to build a site with photos of the client’s products, you have to place a reasonable limit on the number of photos. Let’s say that you base your quote on two or three per page. Then you get an envelope in the mail with 4, 271 photographs to scan, edit, and incorporate.

You need to be able to pull up the proposal and point to the line that says “…up to two photographs per page, not to exceed 12 total.” The same sort of logic applies to the amount of text you will write, special features on the site, additional services, etc. The basis of the cost estimate is there to show the client exactly what you are going to do. It is also there to limit your client’s ability to add surprises or extra work without paying additional fees.

Exclusion is an essential part of the proposal because many of your clients are not computer literate. Even those who have some computer skills don’t know much about web design (or they will do it themselves). Before you know it, your clients will start asking you questions about setting up their e-mail and problems with their computers.

They will also start forwarding SPAM (that shows up in your inbox) to you for your comment. (Yes, they really do this!) You will also get questions about website design, HTML, and other websites. You certainly want to provide a high level of support.

With the incorporation of the exclusions paragraph, you can point out to them that these questions are beyond the scope of the agreement, and you can justify charging an hourly consulting fee to address them. Be sure to include something like this in every proposal you write… this proposal does not cover:

  • HTML instruction
  • Computer instruction
  • Website design instruction
  • Website and computer support  
  • Site Map

The site map is a list of pages that you expect to include in the new site. It should also include a brief description of each page and a list of special features that will be found on that page. Define the site map as accurately as possible because the size and complexity of the job are defined here. If this is not done correctly, you may not be paid what the job is worth, or you may have to increase the client’s cost. Both scenarios are not pleasant.

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The Site Map In Your Proposal Can Be Very Simple…

  • Home page – introduction to the client’s business and products
  • Article pages – up to six article pages, written by the client
  • FAQ – Frequently Ask Questions
  • Guarantee – product warranty information
  • Testimonials – comments and feedback from customers, including a feedback form
  • Contact us – company addresses, phone, fax, e-mail link, map, contact form
  • Schedule

Both you and your client need to know how long the work is going to take. And just as you know, it will take longer than you expect, especially if you are just starting out. (Unless of course, you are using SBI! Which will look after much of the tedious, time-consuming work.) you need to be very careful with the schedule. It will eventually be incorporated into the contract and will become legally binding. You don’t want to commit yourself to any dates you can’t achieve. You also don’t want to miss any contract dates because of things you can’t control.

There are easy ways to deal with this… first, break the job into three or four major sections and define the task to be done within each section. This will give you bite-size pieces. It is much easier to estimate the time required for small tasks. Next, use approximate estimates (3-4 days, 2-3 weeks, etc.). This will give you a lot of breathing room in your schedule. Finally, include the following paragraph in your proposal…

This schedule defines the major task to be completed during the life of the project. Individual task may be added, deleted or move has required to meet the demands of the design. The elapsed times are estimates and vary depending on workload, changes, customer submissions, and third party service providers. Unless your client is working against a specific deadline, he will probably accept these parameters.

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  • Fees

How much is it going to cost? This is the most important thing your clients want to know. You have to make this part very clear. No matter where you put in the proposal, the cost quote will be the first thing your client reads.

In fact, it may be the only thing your client reads. Your cost code must be very easy to understand…

Web site Development? (80 hours @ $75.00/hr.)$6,000

Search Engine Registration Fees $ 449

Domain Name Registration Fees $ 30

Total $6,479

Additional work will be billed at $75.000 per hour.

Payment is to be made in three installments of $2,160, $2,160, and $2,159 per the attached schedule.

Generally, the payment schedule generally, the payment schedule follows this pattern… 1/3 advance, 1/3 midpoint (client approval), and 1/3 delivered (client approval). You should also include a separate section for recurring fees (hosting, domain name renewal, etc.).

  • Submitting Your Proposal

After your proposal is complete, you need to submit it to your prospective client. Your proposal is a marketing document. It can make the difference between working (i.e., $$$) and not working. Make it impressive. It should be visually appealing, clear, easy to read, and free of typos and errors in grammar. If you have difficulty with any of these things, get someone to help you. Your client will make his final decision based on your proposal. It would be very sad to lose this job because of a few spelling mistakes.

Contract

Whereas, the party of the first part, hereafter known as The Party Of The First Part, shall agree to enter into an agreement, hereafter known as the Agreement, with the party of the second part, hereafter known as The Party Of the Second Part… what does it all mean? Why is it so confusing? As a designer, you speak one language. They don’t have to learn yours, but you should learn to understand theirs because you are the party of the first part (or it is the second part?) and you will be issuing contracts.

So, let’s start with some contract basics. A contract is a signed, legally binding agreement between you and your client. It defines your responsibilities (design), the client’s responsibilities (payment), and the job’s requirements and limitations. Unleash your website’s potential effortlessly with the intuitive GoDaddy website builder, empowering you to create stunning online presences without the need for coding expertise.

As a professional designer, you will have a standard contract. It will have a large section of “standard legal stuff” where you fill in the blanks (your name, client’s name, etc.). it will also include a place where you will insert the specifics of the job from the proposal. Here is some sample information that should be in the “standard legal stuff” section of your contract…

  1. Who’s Who…

Your name and client’s name, or the names of your business

  • Responsibilities Of Both Parties

What service you are going to provide (website design, Search Engine submission, graphic design, etc.)

What will your client provide so that you can complete your task (graphics/photos, information, etc.), and what will your client pay you for your services?

  • Special Considerations…

Limitations on the work you will do, fees for additional work, etc.

  • Confidentiality…

You agree not to give any of the client’s proprietary information to anyone. Your client agrees not to give any of your proprietary information to anyone.

  • Copyrights

Who owns the work products (website, graphics, text, etc.) when the work is done? Does the client have unlimited rights to sell and distribute this these, or is he limited to just the one copy on the website? Do you have the ability to use the same design and graphics for another client?

  • Indemnification

If your client gives you material to use on the site that belongs to someone else, and you get sued, what happens? The contract should include a clause that says the client will assume financial responsibility if you are sued because of his actions. He should also be protected from you.

  • Termination Of Contract …

What happens if one party wants to end the agreement? Do you get paid? Suppose you are the one who wants to quit.

  • Limited warranty

If you run into problems and cannot deliver the final product, what are the client’s legal options? Can he sue you for millions of dollars? Your contract should limit your liability to just the value of payments made to you. The client should be able to get his money back, but no more.

  1. Severability…

If one paragraph of this agreement is declared invalid, the rest of the agreement is still in effect. This is necessary in the event that a court declares part of your contract invalid.

  • Force Majeure…

The client cannot hold you responsible for events beyond your control (earthquakes, floods, personal tragedy, etc.). You are still responsible for completing the work after the problem has passed. When you take all of this legal stuff and incorporate the contents of your proposal, you will have a very complete contract to give your client. It will define who is responsible for what, what work is to be done, how much you are to be paid, etc. Never accept a job without a contract. You have no legal protection without one.

And don’t even consider writing your own contract. Contracts are writing your own contract. Contracts are written in a very specific language that only lawyers and judges speak. The language is very clear to those who speak it.

Many words that you and I use every day have completely different meanings when used in a legal context. If you write your own contract and you have to go to court to enforce it, the slightest mistake in the legal language can render it invalid – or may even turn it against you.

Your contract should come from a lawyer, and it should reflect the conditions and events found in your business. But having a lawyer write a website design contract for you can be fairly expensive. There are some free contracts available on the internet. They tend to be very simple, and most don’t address all of the problems you will run into. There is also no guarantee that legal professionals wrote these freebies. Do your research carefully.    

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