If you’ve followed my blog for at least a month or so, you will notice that once in a while, I change a few things here and there. It’s almost like I just entered this blog thing with the idea of having a blog, and I haven’t done any real planning on what I want this site to be apart from that. This is a fact.
This is not a good idea if you are not developing your own website and you have little knowledge of how to go about. This is because changes are made by someone else and the more time you take changing things or updating them, the more money you have to spend on website development.
If you are about to hire a web developer, the best way to go about is to first have a consultation with them. Describe your idea and ask them for any suggestions and tips on how your site should be developed. You should then:
- Jot down as much information as possible and compose a website plan, which includes a sitemap (all the site pages, and how they link up to each other).
- List of ‘special’ pages or modules you would like your site to have, e.g.: photo gallery, community forum, private messaging, downloads section, etc.
- Modern user-interface features, e.g. ajax, jQuery, flash, etc.
- Other extras, e.g. social bookmarks, twitter widgets, popups, ad spaces, etc.
Hand over all your requirements and expectations to your developer and get them to write up a development plan. Go over this development plan together and ensure that everything you want is written on this plan. Double or triple-check it if you must.
This document will basically be part of the contract agreement. Now, I’m no lawyer but it definitely protects the client…and the developer of course.
If you are a developer, once in a while you will meet a client who will say they want a simple website so they will be quoted a small amount for the service. Then out of nowhere they will start listing down a bunch of features that was not written down in paper. So to be on the safe side, encourage proper website planning before embarking on development.
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
