I was a serious gamer back in the day (when I still had the time). I wasn’t as hard-core as my brother but I could give him a bit of a headache when it came to ‘beat ‘em ups’. My true love however, was for strategy games on the PC (think Warcraft, Age of Empires, The Settlers) and although I knew I shouldn’t have been so occupied with them ignored chores, battered body clock, life passing me by, etc), I just couldn’t bring myself to stop playing for a very long time. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled unto an article that confirms (in my mind anyway :-p) that the time I spent staring at my computer screen, clicking away like a maniac was not for naught. In this article, Collis Ta’eed (a very respected web entrepreneur) explains how the logic involved in playing strategy games could be applied to growing a business.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself here.

I don’t usually watch King of Queens. In fact, I only knew about Kevin James from the film Hitch. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ve ever been as impressed with anyone doing anything as I was with him while watching this. To all the height-challenged, overweight men out there: Watch and learn baby. Watch and learn.

This shot of my brother is one of my favourites. He had a lot on his mind that day that he was ‘not’ talking to me about when I took this (I have a short attention span). ISO setting wasn’t on which is why the image is a little blurry. I think it turned out ok considering he wasn’t exactly posing for the this shot. Sony Cybershot – a bit of PS for contrast and depth.

Website templates. Mention those two little words anywhere near a bunch of web designers and you’d get everything from mild disgust to outright rage. Some examples:

“Devaluing what we do as designers”

“Yuck”

“Cheap designs, bad code, and a good chance of copyright infringement”

“A freelancer?s nightmare”

“The Template biz is killing our Business”

Website templates have long been regarded as a blight on the web design industry – an industry largely made up of creative-types. Many feel that these templates cheapen their profession and skew the expectations of would-be clients. They are often viewed (by designers) as ugly (some are), non-standards compliant (many are) and uncreative (also true of many). Many web design firms boast on creating ‘bespoke, built-to-order websites’ some of which truly are works of art. However, here’s the thing about bespoke, built-to-order sites:

They are expensive.

At least to a small business owner just starting out and with limited funds. This would make them reluctant to sink a relatively large chunk of their cash on a website that doesn’t produce immediate returns on their investment. Others simply cannot afford to do so. How about these people? Are they less deserving of a site because they can’t afford one?

As a web designer myself I understand the incredible amount of time, effort and skill that goes into creating websites and often times the cost of such sites are fully justified if not undervaluing the work involved. On the other hand, I also understand that not everyone can afford the time, effort and skill designers have to offer. So what to do? This, I believe, is where templates come in. I can design (or purchase) a bunch of templates in my spare time, which I could then offer to a client at a much lower price than a tailor-made site. They get a site within their price range and that satisfies their requirements and I get more time to work on other projects. This is precisely what I do with Wai Designs. Apart from a premium service, which includes a fully customised site, I also offer template designs with various degrees of customisation depending on the package. This means that I can offer affordable solutions to clients, which I otherwise might not have had, without short-changing myself in the process.

There is one caveat though. Many of the available web templates are structured in such a way as to make heavy customisation so difficult that one might as well start from scratch. This is why it is important to get the needs of the client crystal clear beforehand so that you have ample time to test and find a template best suited for the job. You also want to make sure that any template you do choose not only accurately reflects the needs of the client but also adds value his or her business. Affordable is not the same thing as cheap and tacky. Clients aren’t stupid – they know about the ‘you get what you pay for’ principle. A template site will not be as ‘fabulous’ as a custom-designed site with all the bells and whistles. That doesn’t mean you should offer your clients a solution that you wouldn’t want to put up on your portfolio. Templates should be used judiciously as a way of bridging the gap between affordability and customisation – not as a way of making a quick buck.

At the end of the day, what really matters is the whether the client is happy with the work you’ve done. That is your most important stakeholder. I’ve found that beyond a certain point fancy-schmancy sites rarely make a difference to a client. Designing a work of art that a client can neither appreciate nor afford achieves little more than stroking the ego. I don’t recall the ego ever paying the bills – if it did I daresay many a designer would be filthy rich by now, but I digress. The point is, when it comes down to it, are you designing for your clients or for other designers? Or yourself? If it’s either of the last two then what on earth are you doing running a web design business?

This is a photo I took of my sister a few years ago. We were just hanging around one night and generally being silly when I decided to test out the macro settings on my (then new) Cybershot. This was the rather surprising result. Minimal Photoshop – a bit of contrast and a smidgen of sharpen.

Apart from being an evil scientist and budding entrepreneur, I also like to dabble in a bit of photography. And I use the term dabble quite loosely. By dabble I mean stick my toe from time to time into the vast ocean that is the world of Photography. I’ve never studied the subject, I know squat about lighting and angles. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I don’t do Photography with a capital P – I take pictures. Sometimes.

I haven’t got any fancy gadgets either – just a Sony Cybershot and my Nokia 95 for when I’m on the go (stop laughing).

The thing about photography though is that you can never really predict when you’ll get a good picture. Sometimes I take a shot of something I think is interesting and the photograph comes out … well, let’s just say it won’t win any awards. Sometimes I just think “what the heck?” and whip out my trusty camera and the result is breath-taking (in my opinion). So far I’ve only got one of those ‘breath-taking’ ones, a few nice ones and lots of ‘meh’ ones. Your punishment for reading this blog will be that you’ll have to look at them once in a while. Don’t worry, I am not unreasonable – I’ll try not to make that too often.

Remember my post on the cost of a good reputation? It looks as though a few business owners don’t quite grasp the principle of putting the well-being of your customers first. This week, another company caught with its pants down is E.ON. According to the London Paper (a free, daily publication that I read religiously), a senior executive’s response to a question on how high gas and oil prices would be affected by a harsh winter was:

“It will make more money for us.”

This was said at an industry seminar a day before the UK government was due to announce a package tackling fuel poverty.

Now the oil and gas industry is notorious for their obscene profits and less-than-admirable attitude towards its customers but this takes the cake. There’s something seriously wrong when the executive of a company that is supposed to care about its customers makes a remark like that to a room full of people. Granted, it was a seminar presentation and old boy probably wasn’t prepared for the question, but still. Even if it was the nerves talking, the fact that the words could come so easily to his lips in public is a reflection on the attitudes of those at E.ON. The sad part is, this poor idiot is going to be the scapegoat for saying out loud what the bosses are probably thinking.

Anyone want to take a guess at how many of their customers are going to increase the web traffic for uSwitch after reading this? As one of E.ON’s 5.5 million customers contributing to their £877m profit last year I say I’m going to need a lot more than ‘apologising unreservedly for the blunder and considering disciplinary action against the executive’. Talk is cheap. If the damage control crew over at E.ON have any desire to minimise the potentially devastating effects of this gaffe then they’d seriously have to start counting the cost of having a good reputation. Moral of the story?

Money should never take precedence over the well-being of your customers.

It’s customer first, making money second. Take care of the first and the other will follow like a faithful puppy. It’s practically a scientific fact.

I was reading an interesting article the other day where ‘usability guru’ Jakob Nielsen was interviewed. The guy made a sufficient amount of sensible statements (in my opinion) to warrant me wanting to know more about him. A quick Google search led me to his homepage (no comment on the design). One of the links on the News section let me to this article. So there I am nodding along to all the points that make sense when I come to the end and see this:

“If your site is not listed on the first page of search results, you might as well not exist.”

Ouch. Harsher words have ne’er been spoken. Granted, this article was written in 2006 but I find that this is a rather common sentiment among web aficionados today. If you’re not on the first page of Google you’re never going to be found. Some even say that if you’re not the first 5 links on the page you’re just wasting your time. I guess it’s sort of true – I myself don’t go past the first page of results unless I can’t find what I’m looking for and am really desperate. However, I find the all or nothing tone of the statement above very discouraging. Google only lists ten results per page. This means in an ideal and fair world only ten sites will be present on the first page. What happens to all the other sites? Do they then cease to exist? Is being on the first page of Google really that big of a deal? Those who pay for sponsored ads may say yes but I beg to differ – and someone else agrees with me (yay!). Looking at my Google Analytics stats for Wai Designs, I see that 49% of traffic to my site is direct i.e. by people typing www.wai-designs.net directly into their browsers. About 46% is from referring sites and 5% comes from Google. Now, I’ve never been great at statistics but if I were to look at how to increase traffic to my site then looking to making first page of Google would be a waste of time and effort. AKA barking up the wrong tree.

Another thing I disagree with is the simplistic brush with which all Google users have been painted. I have never ever made a purchase or hired a service based simply on a Google search. It’s either been from a direct referral or an advert. And I’m positive that there are many others like me. This gives me hope. I don’t have to be on the first page of Google to drum up good business. I just have to provide excellent service, network like my life depended on it and talk about Wai Designs to anyone that’ll listen. Now I’m off to my Facebook page for the hundredth time today to see how many new fans have joined in the 3 minutes since I last checked.

I don’t want a billion dollar empire. I don’t want a million dollar empire. I just want make enough to keep me doing what I love doing – making a difference to people’s businesses and organisations. I had dreams of grandeur when I first started Wai Designs. How much money I would make, what I would do with it, etc. Then I got my first ‘proper’ client. She was pretty much everything I wanted in a client (and I told her so). Apart from needing my services, she was also easy-going, friendly, creative and knew what she wanted (an invaluable quality if you ask me). At the end of the project her degree of gratitude warmed my heart. She told me how much her friends and family had liked the site and how much she did too – her excitement was evident even over the phone. It was then that I decided that I didn’t want my business to be a money-making scheme. I wanted it to be something that would illicit the same reaction I got from my client that day. She could have chosen a cheaper option. She could have chosen a quicker option – but she chose me. And didn’t regret it. That is my motivation. I want people to know they can choose me and not regret it. That, to me, is worth much more I could ever hope to make with this business.