IanC

Can I rip one of your designs off for free? It's for a site that doesn't get many visitors, so it doesn't matter! Do you go shoplifting and think it's OK because everyone else is paying to keep the shop open and stocked too?

Maybe if people stopped ripping them off the price could be more realistic. They wouldn't have to factor their investment in anti-piracy measures and lost revenue into the price for every legitimate buyer. Their R&D investment could potentially be shared across a greater number of paid licenses too. They are a business so they need a sufficient profit margin to keep investors happy. Extra costs and lost revenue erode the margin, so the price needs to go up to sustain it. Maybe people ripping off Adobe are actually ripping off legitimate users by a percentage as well. But if someone doesn't give a toss for Adobe's business they're probably not going to lose any sleep over mine either!

You've answered your own question there. You should purchase it because it's illegal not too! Anyone reading this post that thinks you're now worth a knock for a software audit. FAST for example. To be honest this sort of thing drives me around the bend. I'm trying to run a respectable and legitimate business, but remain competive against cut-price cowboys and cheap-skate hobbyists unprepared to invest in their own business. If you don't think your business is worth investing in - call it a day! I expect there are a good few 'student editions' out there that haven't been upgraded when the first paying job arrived too. A copy of PhotoShop could potentially see a return on investment within one job. Try bitching to companies investing in tools, machinery, IT systems or R&D that work to a 2-3 year return on investment and see what they think! In fact a copy of PhotoShop probably offers a better return on investment than a lot of badly designed or ill-conceived websites for that matter! There are enough people on here happy to complain about other businesses wanting a website for free. It's hypocritical to expect the tools of the trade for free. Plumbers always seem the typical analogy when talking about free websites, so apply the same logic here - can a plumber download a van full of tools from the internet? No, they have to buy the tools of their trade, claim it against the business and get on with it. People can bitch and gripe about the price all they want, but that's the price and that's the law. If you don't like the price use something else. It's not like PhotoShop is the only solution if you look around. No one is forced to buy it. Why buy it: If you want to run a serious, legitimate business, why run the risk of losing all credibility? This industry is about copyright and intellectual property. Adobe are just as entitled to have theirs protected and paid for as anyone else. It's hypocritical not to. ...and in my case, I'm a chartered professional, and see no point risking the equivalent of an MSc with bells on for the sake of a legitimate business expense with short return on investment. I disagree with Adobe's territorial pricing structure, and it is overpriced compared to buying it in the US. But I don't work in the US, it makes commercial sense for me to use it, so I decided to buy it anyway. Doesn't mean to say I had to buy and use it though - I could have used cheaper alternatives. But the Master Collecton made perfect business sense to me, so I paid for it.

For a vintage cheesy advertisement feel, this book But Wait! There's More! covers adverts for Ronco's shabby wares from the 50s to 70s. Some good examples of illustration style, fonts and colours. You might be able to find some of the content searching on the internet though. There's the real the 50's films - Rebel Without a Cause, early Elvis films, etc. (check out www.imdb.com) and the derived stuff like American Graffitti, Grease, Happy Days to check out as well. A lot of the good stuff will be in the detail, so be prepared to drive yourself mad with the pause button looking at set dressing and random props. Thinking about it, you're research should be good fun - enjoy!

Must admit I wouldn't touch it. The traffic coming to my site wouldn't be expecting to arrive there, so they won't be relevant traffic, and they'll hardly be that receptive at being forced there. Can't see the value in having both inappropriate and annoyed visitors myself. Looks like a typical pyramid selling arrangement to me, with more emphasis on recruiting than providing a product or service. That video has got a real QVC shopping channel thing going too!

Find out how much you should charge, and take it from there

Oh, and 'How much should I charge?' come to think of it too

Don't forget 'Contact Form'

If I've got the right end of the stick, I can't see many potential customers paying up-front. That looks like just a regular contracting arrangement, where the contractor would be expected to invoice end of each month (or it would be through an agency invoicing each month, then the contractor invoicing the agency). I just think companies would rather work that way for both cash flow and peace of mind. Paying a deposit then staged payments on a project is one thing, but I can't see anyone effectively paying for a contractor up-front and hoping they turn up for work. The only incentive I could see for a company to work this way is if the rate is so heavily reduced it becomes tempting for them, but then I fear prices would spiral downwards like a lot of other freelance sites, and it would be another site full of desparados, customers and contractors alike. It might also make it harder to collaborate with other freelancers, or allow sub-contracting to bring the optimum set of skills to a project. Sorry, just my opinion, but I just can't see any major benefit to the customer compared to either traditional contract or project terms. Just impact on their cash flow and/or a less flexible way of managing a project.

That's going to lead to a very similar discussion to this one I think - Future of Web Design

No problem, good luck with it - the price looks fair enough to me. If you get the job remember to check the school has got adequate documented parental consent if you're adding any pictures of pupils to the site. No doubt the school will have that in hand, but always worth mentioning it.

I wouldn't get too concerned if you haven't heard anything back from the school yet. They're very busy people, and I doubt the website is too far up the long list of priorities. It will vary from school to school, but the head teacher might want to or have to run this past the Board of Governors. So it could be waiting on the next board or relevant sub-committee meeting for it to be discussed. There is always the possibility the school purchasing policy means they have to get more than one quote before committing over a certain amount as well.

On unpacking it, Bob realised the hands-free headset was not as compact and lightweight as the Ebay advertisement had implied.

"Don't Stop - Spanner Time!" U Can't Touch This - MC Spanner

It's worth running any potential names through the likes of Google and Wikipedia. They're always useful places to discover any accidental associations you'd rather not have. Check Companies House too, just in case there's anyone else around with something a bit too close. It does sound a bit 'foreign' to me. Then again some dodgy outsourcing companies are just as likely to be called something like 'Megawonderglobalinterweb - International web design, graphic design, SEO, marketing, copyrighting (yes really!), call centre servicings and pet-sitting providings'! You could be really smart-arse about it and go for the 'Ansar to your needs' angle (maybe not - I'll get my coat!)

I use to love Dangermouse as a kid. Got the 25th Anniversary box set and now my four year old daughter is well into it too. Even better watching it now, as so many references and 'breaking the fourth wall' gags just went flying over my head before.

The best part of running your own business is - you get to choose which 18 hours a day you work! It's not all at the PC though - meetings and the odd pint in 'The Think Tank' break the day up.

Sorry if it sounds harsh, but the first sentence makes it hard to justify the rates in the second. If you're going to charge experienced hourly rates, then to be fair to the customer you can only really charge for how long it would take someone experienced to do. Charging experienced rates but taking longer than someone experienced doesn't seem particularly ethical to me. If the job should take three hours, but you think it might take you six, then to be fair either half the rates or only charge for three hours. It's either that or put a fixed price on each job somewhere around a market rate and how ever long it takes is down to you. According to IT Jobs Watch, the average ASP contractor rate is £28/hour. Given their source figures, that's probably weighted towards experienced contractors working on longer projects for larger companies. So there are some factors to consider: Longer contracts could mean a lower hourly rate than a freelancer only doing a few hours - it could be comparitively low. There could be an IT recruitment agency involved, in which case there will be a difference between what the contractor is getting paid and what it is actually costing the company. Sort of related to the point above - it could be comparitively low. The contracts are potentially on bigger projects for bigger companies with bigger budgets - it could be comparitively high. Anyone working on these contracts will have been interviewed and have proven experience to win the work - it could be comparitively high. There could be less people wanting to or able to fulfil these contracts than there are people wanting to pick up smaller freelance projects, so given supply and demand - it could be comparitively high.

It's basically what the error message says - an end tag for a 'li' element was omitted on line 52, for the tag which started on line 51. Add a </li> tag after "<li>C++ ( Yes, I actually want to write appications)" to close it. Without looking at the rest of the code in any detail, I expect that will resolve some if not all of the other messages.

Working with charities can be a very slow process. Apart from the larger ones (who can and do afford agency rates), they can be run by part-time volunteers in their spare time, and potentially run by a board of trustees that only meet once in a while. Even if they commit to a keen web designer, they've still got to be able to commit the resources to the project to deliver anything worthwhile. It's not that likely someone is sitting around just waiting for someone to volunteer, and it's possibly not the fastest way to build a portfolio. Charities also have the same issues and concerns as any other organisation, including branding, image, 'market placement' and perception. In some ways they have more need to be cautious than a business, as they can find it harder to afford the resources, both time and money, to put a bad job right. Websites for a small business can be relatively straightforward compared to a non-profit organisation too. A typical SME website only really has one target (the customer), but a non-profit website needs to cater for end-users, potential volunteers, grant-awarding bodies, sponsors, PR and media, authorities, etc. They may also be much more aware about accessibility concerns than a lot of businesses, as this is much more publicised in the non-profit sector, or may be absolutely fundamental to their target audience. I got involved with working through a charity via an organisation for IT professionals. However the onus here was on 'professional' - effectively helping to de-risk projects by giving some assurance to the background and skillset of the volunteers. Two years down the line, I've ended up on the board of trustees, and we're putting together the plans for a very major marketing review and website rebuild. Now my estimate is 20+ days effort to get it where we want it to be. The thing is only a small part of that is going to be actual web development and shiney-shiney. Most of the time is going to be spent on back-to-basics 'business analysis and market research', strategy, trawling through Google Analytics and keyword research again (things change!), content, writing, branding and alignment. We've got very lucky, as a rather good marketeer/writer has offered to help out where we really need it, and it will be quicker for me to bang a new and potentially complex and feature-rich site out in Expression Engine as it would be to manage and QA the work of someone wanting to learn. But it does demonstrate that for every part of the time someone wants to spend learning how to build a website, the organisation might have to find substantially a lot more resource internally for the project, probably in their spare time and/or around keeping the charity operational. I would not want to put anyone off volunteering to help a charity out - It's very worthwhile and very rewarding. But they do need to be well aware of all the factors that are involved, be very patient with any organisation they find to work with, and don't go into a relationship looking for any portfolio quick-wins.

I work the same way as BlueDreamer. It puts much more emphasis on the purpose, content and usability of the site that way. Saves wasting time having a discussion about 'what colour' when 'what content' is much more important at that stage. Saves time designing an inappropriate layout or giving a site an inappropriate structure, and can iron out some business decisions along the way too. I can't say I've ever had a customer it hasn't worked for. Once they appreciate it is the way the project is going to happen and why, they're happy with the approach.

Maybe the supermarkets need self-service checkouts because they can't get the staff? Maybe a lot of the people that used to want or need to work in supermarkets for minimum wage are now too busy designing websites for less than minimum wage to do it!

Fair enough. "How big is the business?" would have been even more simplistic.

Makes a lot of sense, and I agree with you about using social media as an extension of good content. It's got to be a holistic approach. No point investing in great content then posting ill-considered endless drivel everywhere. It's got to be of consistent quality, effectively promoting and enhancing a brand. Would a company that has invested large sums of money in a marketing campaign want to see a salesperson wondering around spouting rubbish to anyone within earshot? Doubt it! I've always thought that should be the approach for SEO as well. Blatant spamming campaigns can damage trust or cheapen a brand. Likewise, I don't see a lot of point in getting to page one with a title and description that just says 'DONGLES, DONGLES, DONGLES, MORE F'IN DONGLES'! Looks spammy and doesn't engage ('PM Sent' anyone?) - it's the first contact a potential customer can have of a business, so it bloody well should do. And ultimately it doesn't matter how many visitors you attract from whatever means. If a website isn't going to convert them to sales or leads there's no point to it at all, even if it does have gradients and a reflection on the logo! In some ways social media is a bit different, there's the potential to actually engage and get business without someone ever visiting your website. If there's good rappport and trust, they might not even bother looking. The lines between marketing and sales are getting blurred by this point, and even people like me (who has no confidence as a salesman whatsoever) are actually selling without even realising. We're getting on with people that want what we do, can tell we know what we're talking about, and like and trust us. In our line of work, and a lot of other service industries, it's largely a case of 'people buy people' - they get that from refferals or interracting, not some cobblers about being 'passionate about web standards' on an 'About Us' page! I can see there are transferrable skills between the two, but with plenty of scope for the GOOD technically-minded, more traditional SEO experts working with GOOD marketeers and copywriters. I can also see the hopeless bull****ting bandwagon jumpers that used to be self-professed 'SEO Specialists/Gurus/Ninjas/whatever' now calling themselves 'SEO and Social Media Specialists/Gurus/Ninjas/whatever' instead. Well, until another bandwagon comes along in a couple of years time anyway. That's the danger of articles like this - it just makes the bull****ters bull**** that bit more!

Hi, From you're website and you're other (removed) posts, I guess you're at that 'chicken and egg' stage - no customers but looking for sub-contractors. A bit of a tricky place to be really. Cynically, there have been other posts like this before. I've seen someone post for freelancers to help with their 'mountain of work', but at the same time they're desperately spamming the 'Looking to Hire' forum with 'PM Sent' for every cut-price scrap on offer. Not sure if it's an ego thing, but can certainly waste a lot of people's time, or if they've got free time, get their hopes up with no substance. It might help us all if you could tell us a bit more about you're business to be: What is going to set you apart from the (bloody enormous) crowd, and bring in the business? What services are you looking to offer? What skills do you really need to deliver them (web design can mean a lot of things)? Are you planning on offering cheap and cheerful, or a value-added service? Looking to compete on price, service, quality? (Word of warning, best price around is £0!) What sort of customers are you hoping to target? Who are International Business Concepts? What do they do? Cheers Ian