What does a web design firm’s strategy involve?

When we are talking strategy here we are not talking about individual projects. We are talking broadly on how the web design firm is going to tackle future changes and how its going to affect the client’s online presence.

The strategy can come under the following categories:

• Technological Evolution
• Marketing Philosophy
• Client centred choices

These three broads head cover the areas which will affect the client directly based on the agency’s decisions. Lets take a more detailed look at each.

Technological Evolution – What decisions are going to influence work on the web technology front.

The questions that need answering are based on web technology specialization by the web design firm

• What development platforms is the design firm committed to? Which operating systems – Linux, Windows or now maybe even Android. What programming languages and what database technology? E.g. We specialize in Core PHP -MySQL development.
• What tools are in the pipeline for improved web design efficiency or website easy of use. E.g. Content Management System upgrades, Form processing systems or any other licensed scripts and programs.
• What are the various content delivery solutions shortlisted for various possible scenarios? What blogging platform, which chat platform, which video hosting site, which PDF/Presentation hosting site? Does the web design firm have ready resources to address the different types of content delivery challenges that come up?
• How is the web design firm going to approach outdated technologies, whats the plan to identify and update them. E.g. Jquery is fast replacing Flash. Is the firm committed or equipped for such a transition?
• Are they tooling up for newer mediums such as mobile or tablets? Are they also adding app development or do they prefer to outsource it?
• Security updates and future protecting the websites against spam, hacking, viruses, server crashes and other scenarios. What is the firm’s backup plan? Does it rely on the hosting company or does it have its own backup systems.

Marketing Philosophy – When all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail.

I know of several web firms who recently started in the Social Media space and are starting to expand into other web specialities such as SEO, Design etc. But they are handicapped by their inclination towards their specialization i.e. social media. There efforts to enter the other spaces remains half hearted and their marketing services mix remains lopsided. The reverse happens for older web design firms who are experts at design and SEO but treat Social Media with suspicion and step motherly treatment. The ideal firm should have a balanced outlook on all possible online marketing opportunities.

Note: When i mention ‘marketing’ I mean it terms of marketing of the clients products and services, not the web design firm’s services.

•  What is marketing tools mix and what resources are dedicated to each? What are the firms marketing strengths? Is it strong in SEO and average in Social media? What steps are being taken to correct the imbalances in the marketing services mix?
• Whats the overall marketing philosophy of the firm? Where do they see the online market place evolving? Are they on top of the latest trends in online marketing and customer behaviour?
• Is the firm a thought leader in any area? Is it influencing the industry in any manner? Is it setting the pace in certain areas which can be considered a leadership position?
• How is it educating and working with the client to make the most of the marketing opportunities or is it working in a vacuum without the clients inputs?

Client Centred Choices – What type of clients and projects does the web design  firm want to handle?

As web design firms grow and evolve so do their preferences and aspirations. It may be from an individual entrepreneur or a management team but every firm will make choices on what it will or won’t handle. Some firms restrict themselves to only small jobs and avoid programming complexity. Others won’t touch small jobs, instead preferring challenging and large projects. The client has to evaluate whether their existing web design firms are a match to their own ambitions or lack thereof.

• Will the web design firm scale up staff and resources to match the growth levels of the client’s company. Or vice versa, will it scale down its own expectations with a downturn in the client’s business.
• Does the web design firm match the clients approach to marketing? Conservative or otherwise? Many clients get frustrated when the web design firm simply does not want to experiment instead staying on the tried and tested path.
• Does the web design firm ‘get’ the clients business model. Nothing is sadder than when the client and the web design company work at cross purposes simply because the firm does not ‘buy in’ to the clients marketing strategy.
• Does the web design firm match the client’s passion? Client’s can get excited over selling ceramic pipes (for e.g.), can the agency match this enthusiasm in their work or do the want only the ‘sexy’ projects.

At the end of the day it comes down to whether the website design firm and the client match expectations in terms of technology, marketing approach and client selection choices.

Some advise for web design firms and clients – take it with a pinch of salt as they say.

• Web design firms should be crystal clear on where they are going in terms of technology, marketing and business philosophy. This clarity should dictate what kind of clients and work they take on. Ambiguity will cause client relation problems and the business will go nowhere.
• Clients should idenfity their expectations in terms of approach to marketing, business ambitions and in-house knowledge and then find the best fit for them. Its a technical as well as philosophical choice.

Cheers,
Ron

So based on this and other experiences here are some ideas on how to plan a long term website  project.

Build in the break period right at the project design  and planning stage. Don’t underestimate the exhaustion factor.

Looking back at the planning stage we realized that we had left absolutely no room for rest periods. When one phase ended another began almost immediately. Many places phases overlapped creating needless pressure on the team. If we were to do it again i would at least leave 2-3 week long breaks for the team to recharge. When creating the project proposal I would account for this.

Web developers should convince clients to create a slightly looser and easier development schedule.

Most clients usually lean hard on the development team to shorten web development cycles. Most developers out of fear of loosing business or upsetting the clients acceed to these demands. Managers drives the team leaders who drive the developers hard to deliver. If the management team would stand up to the clients from the beginning and demand rest periods it would save a lot of burn out cases. Most clients, being reasonable, on reflection, would agree to the rest periods.

Faster web development cycles do not mean better web development cycles.

Website programming is such a process that it can be done in a variety of ways. Each developer and team have their own methodologies. What this means is that if pressed web developers can quite easily take shortcuts which won’t show up in the short term but can be costly and damaging in the long term. Assuming that the developer is not lazy by nature (most coders are not), if given enough room they will always take the correct and rigorous path.  Give the team space to code clearly and properly. Spare the whip and get good code.

Assume that there will be R&D required, portions of code to be rewritten and other unforeseen coding calamities.

Web technology is highly evolving and dynamic with new frameworks, programming language versions, database versions, browser versions all changing very frequently. To create a state of the art website application takes a lot of R&D, trial and error and sometimes scrapping of entire code pieces. Add to this client requested changes in functionality and design and we have a lot of potential for delays.

Web development teams are never  static – attrition, illness and fatigue can hinder as well.

Unfortunately people are not as healthy as they used to be and that goes for web developers too. People quit jobs and jump companies all the time. Now you might say all this is an HR issue and should be planned ahead but most web development companies work on razor thin staffs (due to lack of talented programmers and financial constraints). Most do not have a big bench strength like a Wipro or a Infosys. Burn out cases too are quite common in our industry. Hence the need for breathing room.

 The Sprint and Drift method for long term projects

Quite simply it means one week of rest for every 3 weeks of coding. The team develops furiously for 3 weeks and then rests and reviews for 1 week. It does not mean that developers stay at home. Only the pressing crush of deliverables is not there during the rest week. I know most clients and web developers would shake thier heads and call this sheer fantasy but the alternate can be quite bad too. Who wants fatigued, tired coders to work on their prestigious projects. Logically sprint and drift makes sense.

Its going to happen anyways so might as well plan for it.

I have yet to work or see a web development project executed precisely as scheduled in the starting plan. I know this sounds weird but its the truth. The medium of the web is such that it rises possibilities and issues at every turn inadvertently delaying projects.  Rather than tearing your hair out when delays happen you might as well plan for it from the beginning.

A vote of thanks to all the clients over the years who have been patient, understanding and supportive. Kudos to you.

We’ve had the good fortune to work with clients who have been amazingly understanding when things have gone wrong or delayed. We would’nt be here without your support and patience. A Big Thank You to all our clients.

Now I shall rest….cheers,
Ron

Visit www.abci.in

Enhancements to the new website include

• A new and contemporary look and feel.
• HTML coding to web 2.0 standards – table-less design
• Addition of a whole new video gallery
• Series of profiles on ABCI Elite awardees.
• and much more.

Cheers,
Ron

So what are these barriers Flipkart is trying to ‘Flip’?

• Products purchased online can be faulty and unreliable – online equals low quality
• You cannot judge a product by its photo – you need to touch and see it.
• Online delivery is unreliable  and subject to delays and mixups.
• Online shopping is only for the young and tech savvy – older people should stay away.

How can other e-commerce players help get this message across?

Flipkart walks the talk with superb service and delivery. They also ensure quality and reliability of the products they are selling along with a first class returns policy. Its as simple as that – delivery as promised the product you promised when you promised it. Its amazing how many e-commerce portals are struggling with this.

Highlighting successful deliveries and showcasing repeat buyers will also encourage fence sitters to go ahead and place thay order. Peer reviews have a very powerful effect. Someone told me recently that more than half the ads in the US now feature a customer testimonial! Find a way to let your happy customers speak for you.

 E-commerce is a tough business with barely adequate infrastructure in place for delivery. Hang on. Be patient.

India simply does not have the infrastructure that the developed nations do. It is really courageous for the current crop of e-commerce players to play on this uneven pitch and try to satisfy one of the most demanding customer groups – the India public. But things will improve slowly as they do in this country. When we started there was barely a single payment gateway, now there are over a dozen good ones. Step by step our brave entrepreneurs are putting in place the infrastructure that will be needed to take e-commerce in India to the next level.

A salute to Flipkart – keep up the great work guys!!

Cheers,
Ron

So, what do you when your carefully planned strategy comes unstuck?

Many times its not the website functionality at falt but the message – rework the story.

When things don’t go as planned website owners tend to start tinkering with the functionality – maybe it needs an additional link on the homepage or maybe the form needs to be spruced up. Piecemeal solutions just do not work. You can change the site functionnality till dooms day but it won’t get you more sales.

What needs to change is the central message or the story of the website – what are you presenting to the prospective customer. Here is where creativity comes into picture. Are you presenting your products blandly or are you telling the visitor the story of the product. Are you describing the wonderful properties of the products or are you showing how useful it could be for the visitor.

This topic deserves a post by itself but the main points are these:

• Revisit the central theme of the site and the tone of the communication.
• Are you displaying data or are you telling the story of the product.
• Are you answering the most important question for the visitor - ‘What’s in it for me?’

What’s in it for me ? You really have to answer this question for the visitor.

Most websites are like technical brochures of the products, describing a lot but hardly addressing the customers requirements. When there is not emotional connect there is no sale.  The most important thing to address is why you think your product is of the greatest use and importance to the visitor. The key here is ‘engagement’ – how do you engage the visitor the moment he lands on the page.

Some good engagement ideas are

• Tell your story in a colourful and fun way – use animation (carefully) and cleverly written prose.
• Tell the story of your product in a fun way
• Offer a juicy discount or special bundle that will atleast tempt the visitor to know more.
• Ask a relevant question – get the visitors curiosity going- hook him with his knowledge gap.

Some of you would be wondering that this suspiciously sounds like a landing page strategy but you have to realize that your websites homepage is also a landing page – a big one that too.

Throwing more advertising at the problem won’t solve it. Address the real issues.

Another knee-jerk reaction to poor response on the site is to throw more advertising at it. Thats just a way to burn money without solving the underlying issues. Even if you get a sales boost from the advertising it would be temporary because as soon as you stop spending sales will slump. The best sites generate huge sales on very modest ad budgets – they rely on the greater sales due to the sites stickiness rather than ads.

Don’t neglect the inner pages – weave some relevance into them as well.

Search engines throw visitors not only onto your homepage but depending on the keyword searched also into the inner pages of the site. Do not let the visitor loose his bearings when he lands on an inner page. Make sure you have message continuity and a lot of cross linking through out the site. Otherwise you will get just a ‘bounce’ – a visitor landing on the page and leaving from the same page.

Bring the important stuff to the front – Fewer the clicks, the better the engagement.

You won’t believe the amount of times I had to click 3-4 times just to reach a page with relevant material on many websites. Don’t make your website into some kind of online scavenger hunt for the visitor. Keep all the relevant material and links upfront and easy to reach. That does not mean you cram your homepage with text and links. Find an elegant way to do it.

Be prepared to throw it away – even if you put lipstick on a pig its still a pig.

With all due respect to pigs and other sundry farm animals – some sites are beyond salvage. Either there is actually no demand or the concept is  poorly thought through. No matter how much you try it won’t work. You have to know when to give up.  

There is no single solution when your site does not work (in terms of sales) even with visitors coming to it. You have to analyze and adapt as the commandos say. Learn more about your visitors and change your game.

Cheers

The basic premise of the book being change is hard for many of us but we go about approaching it the wrong way. This book documents quite thoroughly an idea i always suspected but was never able to articulate - small changes can make big impacts.

Packed with real world examples of how ordinary people with minimum resources were able to bring about huge lasting change – it gives us all hope that we can make a difference too. In today’s world we are all struggling with change and most of us do not have access to huge resources. This book is essentially like Judo for change -  i.e. using your opponents energy against themselves.

Reading this book will definitely make you approach each problem or challenge in a completely different way. Hopefully it will reduce a lot of stuggle we go through trying to change peoples mindsets, instead it will help shape the environment that automatically changes the mindset.

I recommend this book whole heartedly for those who are facing big challenges, or are always on the leading edge of change – business people and entrepreneurs.

Cheers.
Ron

Basic Primer – Types of Hosting Solutions

A. Shared Hosting – When your website is one of the hundreds of websites on a single server sharing the servers resources between you and the other web owners.

• Most basic and cheapest type of hosting
• All server resources are shared among the websites
• Very limited control over server settings
• Ideal for static or small websites not requiring a lot of resources to run.

B. VPS – Virtual Private Server – A single server is made to behave like multiple servers with resources being shared amoung the ‘virtual’ servers.

• Server resources are divided among the various ‘virtual’ servers
• More control and flexibility in allocating resources to individual websites within a VPS division.
• A cost effective solution for owners with multiple sites who need good resources.
• Ideal for web design agencies and application developers with multiple sites.

C. Dedicated Hosting – A single physical server specially allocated for you and you alone.

• Most expensive solution but good for high traffic volume websites.
• Complete control over the server and allocation of resources
• Upgradation has to happen through physical upgrades or shifting to another server.

D. Cloud Hosting - No server exists by itself but resources from various servers are pulled together to provided the required resources for the website.

• Based on a take what you need A’la carte model of hosting.
• You choose from a menu of hosting options spread across the cloud.
• Resources allocated can be scaled up or down as per need or can even be on a pay as you go model.
• Restrictions in overall control of the hosting as no physical server exists by itself.

 Between these four types of hosting almost all requirements can be covered from a modest corporate website to large portals with millions of visitors.

Some tips of choosing and using the correct web hosting for you

• Don’t just look at the hosting space, also look at the bandwidth requirements (the amount of data traffic to and from your site in GBs). Many hosting companies offer attractive space packages but kill you on bandwidth costs.
• As far as possible separate your domain registrar from your host provider. This way if you wish to switch hosting you need not have to transfer the domain. All you have to do is change the DNS settings of the domain to the new hosting provider. Also in case of a dispute with the hosting company the domain name does not remain hostage.
• For any website hosting, service is crucial. The more complex the website, more you will need customer support. Ensure the hosting provider has a good 24×7 support on email atleast. Tickets should be answered within a 12 hour period atleast.
• Ensure that the hosting provider has backups as part of the service agreement. Also take regular backups of your files and database at your end.  Do not rely on hosting companies during emergencies. Have your own backup ready to restore.
• Do not tolerate downtime, poor server speeds or any other such inconveniences. Change your hosting provider pronto. A poor performing websites costs a business much more than what you might loose in hosting fees.

In my experience, most hosting companies are quite comparable in performance and service. Since hosting has become a commodity business there is not much incentive for any of them to provide superlative service. Usually they provide the best service at the best price possible. So don’t expect the moon from any of them.

Cheers,
Ron

Compared to hosting solutions which are now dirt cheap, Google Apps is incredibily expensive.

You can now get VPS hosting solutions at INR 20,000 to 40,000 per year as compared to INR 20,000 for just 10 mailboxes on Google Apps. Although Google Apps is good, is it good enough to justify the huge disparity between hosted solutions. Google can make the standard excuse of reliability and stability being better than any hosting solution but that’s not strictly correct. Hosted email solutions are reliable as well although not plugged into the Google infrastrusture. 

Lack of flexibility – All mailboxes have to be paid or none. Why not half paid and half free per domain?

This is the point that irritates me the most. Google Apps requires all mailboxes to be transferred to paid or none at all. This all or none approach is weird as many organizations have low usage mailboxes or mailboxes for junior staff that do not require the entire range of services. It would go a long way if Google offered a split level plan where a portion of mailboxes can be paid with the remaining free for a single domain. This would open up a huge flood of income from existing free users as well as giving them a taste of the paid version.

Other in-market solutions are comparitively cheaper but notoriously unreliable. But Google just outpriced itself out of the market.

Rediffmail Pro provides 5 mailboxes at INR 1200 per year.  Yahoo Business mail is at INR 6000 per year for 10 mailboxes. Others too are significantly cheaper than Google Apps.

I have used and setup various email options for clients over the years and in my opinion the performance and service have been less than satisfactory. Here Google Apps has a huge advantage in terms of reliability and service. I rarely get a complaint on the Google Apps Free version so I imagine that the  paid version must be superlative. But is this reason enough to pay a bomb for each mailbox? Google has a decidely huge advantage in terms of quality but has priced itself out of the market.

Beating the 10 emails limit using multiple domains – Is google winning in the end?

I know about some vendors who have signed up multiple domains and have added 10 Google apps free accounts to each. Although this creates a bit of disjointed mailing pattern, they do not mind as they get more than 10 mailboxes for free at the cost of just renewing domains which are quite cheap. I illustrate this as an example of what lengths people will go to use Google Apps simply due to the high affordability issue.

Google tries to sweeten the pot by giving a lot of Apps free, but is it worth it?

Probably realizing that their offering was not attracting the Indian small businesses due to price, Google tied up with various sub vendors to offer lots of bundled apps with the mailboxes to entice customers. Considering the primary objective of most users is mail at a good price, I don’t think would make much of a difference. Google, keep the apps, give us a good price.

Appeal to Google – Create more options at different price points, tap the Indian market.

Considering the all or nothing approach which restricts most small businesses to the Free version or go elsewhere I would appeal to the Google Apps team in India to provide a more flexible pricing scheme that would bring in new lakhs of customers. 

It is argued that the kind of customers that cannot afford Google Apps for business are not the ones Google wants, then I have to ask, why give a Free version? The jump from Free to Paid is to big for most small businesses that too just for email which traditionally used to be free.

Cheers,
Ron

What is crowd sourcing? ‘Crowd sourcing’ a misleading term.

‘Crowd sourcing’ is a misnomer I feel since you are not really sourcing from a crowd but from many individuals at the same time. There is no interaction between the member of the ‘crowd’. Each person designs individually and bids for the job by putting up the work in secret. Only the end user client sees everyones work together. So although you have more options, you end up with each individuals work independently. It should be called ‘More options than I know what to do with sourcing.’

Perceived advantages of Crowd Sourcing – when done right.

I use the term ‘perceived’ as I am still to get on the ‘it works’ boat.

• The client gets a huge lot of options to select from, much more than any agency can provide.
• Due to the variety and size of the ‘crowd’ the work would be more diverse and unique.
• In some cases its cheaper than an agency since individuals who contribute to such sites don’t have much overheads.
• No long term commitments are required, just the job and thats it.

Disadvantages of Crowd Sourcing – which are considerable

• There is a huge risk of plagarism, where bidders freely copy parts or whole from other published sources.
• Too much choice can also be bad and confusing for the client. 
• Due to the low cost nature,  the quality tends to be much lower. Many are just quickie throw-it-out-there jobs.
• There is a limit to the complexity of the jobs you can offer out there. Complex work is simply not feasible.
• The bidders never have the complete picture, they tend to design in a vacuum, whereas an agency has access to the client and the business.

 There are winners and there are lots of losers – not a good motivation for contributors / bidders.

Out of the 400 odd entries the client selects one that he likes, which means there are 399 losers whose efforts are down the drain. Those who consistently find themselves loosing will quit or tend to not make much effort after a while. It can be a very demoralizing effort for many. Although some people love the competition, most would not appreciate loosing for work they spent a lot of effort on. Due to this, most work contributed tend to be ‘quicky’work’ rather than well thought out work.

 It can get quite shady in the crowd sourcing world

The opportunity to make a quick buck tends to attract shady dealers and fly by night operators. Most crowd sourcing websites will try their best to vet the contributors and tend to have some sort of grading system but that is not full proof. A lot of work on these sites is usually ‘inspired’ from published work, a way of saying plagarized or copied. Another area is that many a times the contributors dissappears and the client is not able to do any followup work or even make any modifications at a later stage. Although the payments are withheld in escrow till the client is satisfied, there is no recourse after the payment is made, especially since the bidders are spread geographically all over the world.

 In conclusion I would say that its a good start but not a full proof system and clients should be aware of the risks and shortfalls before committing to a crowd sourcing project. The risk of plagarism, disputes with bidders, poor quality of work  and other such factors still make this new form of outsourcing risky.

Cheers,
Ron