Thinking of setting up in 'Website Design'

[Tw1nkle]

Hiya,

I'm thinking of setting up in 'Website Design'.

I've got a few questions though - can anyone help?

My questions are around who owns the website / payment and more!

Thanks!

Tw1nle - your client usually pays for the domain name and you cahrge a yearly maintainence fee to service and update it when necessary. Usually all the information from the host company will go to you rather than your customer. Remember your custotomer either isn't a web designer or has the time to look after it (apart from putting stock etc on it)

I've used a few designers recently, and some have been poor value for money. Put in writting what you are going to do. I had a designer who promised me the earth, but then neother delivered or came up with lame excuses. His services were very poor. Eventually to save my sanity and my mariage DH put out a pleas on the host site for help - we're getting better help now from USA.

For the first guy I paid him around £500 for a template site. The US guy who is taking over is getting paid in kind. For another site we did ourselves (which did not include a shopping cart) we got fab free help from a web designeer in US. She told us what to do and how to do, but we had to do it ourselves - great learining!!

Hiya,
Thanks for your reply!
So does the client own the domain name then, and gives me the passwords to upload to it?
Thanks.

That's how we've worked it. We choose the domain name and paid for it - it belongs to our business! Then we give our builder all the passwords etc s/he needs to access the workings of it. Mainly if there are products to go onto the shop we are responsible for that - the onus is on us to ensure the details, info, prices etc are correct. Our site which is being built at the mo is www.extremehype.co.uk the one we built ourselves is www.bulgariaextreme.com The first is a shopping site the second more info about Bansko and our apartment. The web designer arrnages the layout, the pages, templates, etc - I'm not a designer and can only assume that there are different designs for differnet requirements - info sites, blog sites, shopping sites etc. The builder needs to ensure that all the elements on the site are compatible with each other and work together to ensure the site works. It is important to have an easily navigated web site which is clean and free of unnecessary crap!

You might want to consider joining a few host companies to post on the forums they have. we have used bluevoda and joomla for ours. you should be able to get some help there, although these companies are more for ordinary people building their own sites rather than getting someone to do it for them. MAybe if you google your questions you might get more info than I can provide.

best of luck!

Domain name is usually registered by the person building the website but is owned by the persons whose website it is. For example I build websites for a living, we register sites for our clients in their name and the domain registrant details from nominet etc go to them. They own the website once they pay for it. usually requiring 50% balance up front with payment on completion within 7 days of the date of an invoice. You will usually source web hosting for your clients unless they have sorted this or have a preference. They will give you all the passwords you need to upload work to their site - usually remind people to change passwords on completion lol!

My DH is a freelance New Media designer (anything onscreen inc websites!) His clients usually source the website & hosting especially as they usually already have a site. But if he does it it'll always be in their name and handed over to them after.

I think the trick is to under promise and over deliver. When DH started he did a few little jobs - the client would see he's good value and he would see if they're prompt payers. Good clients are key and he's refused work from poor ones! Also network to find people you can work with to offer more to clients. DH only designs doesn't build but he has a few other freelancers he can call on to work with him if the client needs it.

Finally get a business broadband package if you can as you don't want your internet to go down and have to wait ages as a domestic customer for it to be fixed.

Good luck