IanC

<rant>
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!! I can't freaking take it anymore.
 
If I see one more thread being started with any of the following themes:
 
'How do I get started in web design'
'What HTML editor should I use'
 
I WILL KILL YOU!!!
 
These questions get asked daily, and get the same freaking responses:
 
Search the forum - which will inevitably yield the same questions, to which the standard response is
 
- check out W3Schools and HTML Dog (among others)
- take your pick from Notepad++, PSPad, Dreamweaver, Netbeans, Aptana, Coda
 
</rant>
 
My apologies if you've asked these questions in the last 24 hours, of course, we're glad to help (and have probably all asked the same questions)...

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.

Anyone who wants to do their own website can go do it - I cannot be arsed with threads like this.
 
Yes there are ways to get a site online for free. Are they any good? No.
 
Any client who cannot see that his/her website is an important marketing and communications tool for their business is a retard and shouldn't be allowed to own a business.
 
Topic closed. What a stupid thread!

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.

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.

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

No problem.
 
Having a land-line and a proper business address changes the perception, and less of a barrier to customers now it's there too. Plus it puts across you're a limited company more strongly as well now, which is important to some customers.
 
Nice address it is too! I used to work for a company that had an office just around the block, on the corner of Long Acre and Arne Street. Had a few 'happy' lunchtimes next door in The Freemasons Arms in my time!

I'm with NotBansky and Dizi. In the national/global scheme of things, there's a lot more things to keep me awake at night than IE6. I'd much sooner see the time and money spent on something worthwhile.
 
Upgrading systems of this scale takes years. They could start tommorrow and they'd be doing well to complete a roll-out within 2-3 years.
 
At the last company I worked for, we were tied in to IE6 because that's what the ERP system we used certified as supported. To upgrade IE we would have to upgrade the ERP by a release. We'd have been going well to push that out in 18 months and would have to put strategic enhancement projects on freeze to do it - and that wasn't a big system in the scheme of things.
 
Given the track record of a typical Government IT project, if they don't need to be changed for a better reason than IE6 they're best left untouched.

OpenOffice is free - but the word processor doen't make me a writer, and the spreadsheet doesn't make me an accountant. Heck, even MS Office doesn't do that for a few hundred quid!
 
These packages don't do - Business, market, competitor and keyword analysis, produce good content and copywriting, define effective flow and sales funnels, accessibility and usability, visual design, SEO optimisation, managed search engine submission, project management, client management, etc., ...
 
These packages do - Make the easy bit easier, often at the expense of code quality, some dubious SEO, and in some cases enforcing advertisements on the site and/or lack of control over domain names.
 
Site builder is about right. They build a site, but they don't design it. No point having a bricklayer without an architect!

OpenOffice is free - but the word processor doen't make me a writer, and the spreadsheet doesn't make me an accountant. Heck, even MS Office doesn't do that for a few hundred quid!
 
These packages don't do - Business, market, competitor and keyword analysis, produce good content and copywriting, define effective flow and sales funnels, accessibility and usability, visual design, SEO optimisation, managed search engine submission, project management, client management, etc., ...
 
These packages do - Make the easy bit easier, often at the expense of code quality, some dubious SEO, and in some cases enforcing advertisements on the site and/or lack of control over domain names.
 
Site builder is about right. They build a site, but they don't design it. No point having a bricklayer without an architect!

Really???
 
The link in your post points to an Indian outsourcing company, with a copyright 2004-2009 and a shed-load of global existing clients.
 
Now really sceptical people could be inclined to think the struggling start-up story isn't entirely true, that this is a thinly-veiled SEO spamming campaign, and everyone giving you advice you don't actually need by your deceiptful first post is just wasting their time. Not that you are likely to ever return to read it of course.
 
Of course they would have to be really, really sceptical to think that....