Hi guys,

 

In a bit of a dilemma again...thought I'd come and ask the wise

 

So my client wants CMS, SEO and Google analytics, and I know squat about any, but I would like to do as much of this project as possible.

 

Without knowing the technicalities can I do the Photoshop design and the coding and outsource the rest to a developer or are these things tided together and require the developer to do all of it?

 

Also how do I ask a developer to work with me and not sneak around my back and cut me out? i.e. They could go directly to the client and say I can do everything for you...forget the middle man. Do I tie them down to a contract? If so can anyone give me any examples of this?

 

I do not want to take on work that I can't do as I am a beginner, that’s why I am considering outsourcing part of the project.

 

Please help...my client will call me in a short while and I am unsure what to say.

 

cheers!

For the CMS, you'll want to use an off the shelf content management system, like Modx, Expression Engine, Joomla, Drupal or SilverStripe (among many others). SEO is a bit of a nebulous art that is not so much technical as strategic. On the one hand, if your mark up is good, and more importantly the content is well structured to 'appeal' to search engines - you'll get SEO points. Outside of that, it's largely a question of marketing, getting your client's link out there, and driving traffic to it through whatever means you have at your disposal - mail campaigns, paid backlinks in high traffic directories, Twitter, Facebook etc...

Finally, analytics is a doddle - you just have to include a Javascript snippet (provided on the Google Analytics site) in your footer.

 

So, my guess is you could probably do this if you can get your head round a CMS platform. Ideally, you would need to know a little bit of PHP in order to do that with any degree of sophistication. I guess you could outsource that to the developer - but then I think they'd get the lion's share of the commission.

^ That's pretty well summed up!

 

If you outsource the CMS part then you'll be in effect the Project Manager so you'll be calling the shots. The normal approach would be to get some outsourcing quotes then add on your design/project fees.

Cheers guys , I will be adding this post, or something like it to the 'hire' section. Anyone interested should PM with quotes.

 

Thanks!

Cheers guys , I will be adding this post, or something like it to the 'hire' section. Anyone interested should PM with quotes.

 

Thanks!

 

We have send you a PM