Developers unite blog

You are a builder-developer. You have a great piece of property to develop. The size is right, the location is perfect, and you have a great vision for how you want to develop this property. Yet one question lingers in your mind - how can you build out this property for the greatest profit?

Perhaps you should take a look at a growing segment of the housing industry - modular homes. Many builders just like you have discovered that this option is the best way for them to build out properties to the greatest advantage for both the builder and the home buyers. Modular home building is one of the fastest growing markets in the building industry, and for good reasons.

What many builders already know and what many more are learning is that there are great advantages in the modular home building market. Cost, efficiency, and quality are just the beginning.

Modular homes are built in climate-controlled factories where the builder is not a slave to the weather. Delays caused from undesirable weather conditions cost builders thousands of dollars each year. With a modular home, there are no delays to deal with. A home can be built from start to site-finished in less than 90 days. This saves both time and money, transferring more profits to the builder and greater savings to the home buyer. And, because of the climate-controlled environments, builders can make quality-built homes available to their customers year round.

Not only can a builder save on time when building a modular home, but he can also save on materials. Modular homes are built from the same quality materials as traditionally built homes, yet the builders can buy their materials in bulk, which means a great savings for the builder. This applies to all of the supplies for not only the exterior of the home, but also the interior features and appliances.

Saving on time and money are not the only advantages of modular home building. A builder also has the advantage of having all of his workers - from technicians to craftsmen - working under the same supervision. This brings a greater consistency to the quality of the work, as well as peace of mind for both the builder and the buyer.

We have discussed the cost-savings advantages for the builder-developer in this article. Please read Part 2 of this series for more advantages of modular home building.

If you are serious about achieving success as a Direct Marketer or Product Developer, start by answering these questions.

Thirteen Questions

1. What is my goal this year? Be specific. Instead of answering, “Make a lot of money,” come up with an answer based on your personal reality. For example, your answer might be, “Learn enough about running a subscription website that I can generate at least ?2000 a month income from membership fee’s alone.”

2. What are the ‘models of success’ of others who have reached this goal? It helps a great deal to identify other product developers or companies that have attained the goal you are trying to achieve. Look at what they are doing, and how they are doing it. See what works for them, and what hasn’t worked. Try to find a ‘model’ you can use as your guideline.

3. What is my strategy for reaching my goal? After you have identified your goal and a few models of success, it’s time to start formulating your own strategy. Avoid the mistake of trying to ‘over complicate’ your strategy. Keep it simple, with as few steps as needed. Adapt your strategy to meet your own skills, schedule, and budget.

4. What tools or skills will I need to acquire to reach my goal? With most projects, you’ll need to acquire some additional skills, equipment and tools. You’ll want to identify most of these before you start - as doing so will help you understand the budgetary needs and time requirements. With some goals, you may find the skills and equipment needed are beyond your budget or learning level - a good time to find out is before you start the project.

5. What is my timetable? Before starting a project is is a good idea to develop a long term and short term timetable. The long term timetable should have specific ‘accomplish by’ dates leading to the final goal. The short term timetable should be more detailed and cover the acquisition of tools, learning of skills, development of test projects, etc.

6. Is this within my budget/where do I get funding? Almost all projects have costs, some quite considerable. Before starting the project, ask yourself how will you fund the project until it becomes self-sustaining. In some cases, the costs will be low or spread out enough that funding won’t be a problem. In other situations, funding requirements are immediate and you will need a certain amount of cash before you can start. Determine your needs early on, and find a source of funding (perhaps income from other projects) before you start.

7. Will working toward this goal have a negative impact on my health, family relationships, or economic condition? In some cases, you can choose a goal so ambitious that trying to achieve it will have a negative impact on your health or family relationships. I can think of no instance where it would be wise to endanger your health or the relationship with your spouse or children to achieve a business related goal.

8. What will I do if this fails? It is always a good idea to have a backup plan. In my case, I generally take on projects where even if the project fails, what I learn while doing the project is usually worth the effort. For example, if I decide to produce a DVD on a specific topic, and the DVD fails to generate revenue, the experience of acquiring the tools and learning to produce a DVD gives me a huge head start on the next DVD I decide to produce.

On the other hand, if I have invested all my time and resources to producing a single product and have ‘bet my house’ on its success, I better have a backup plan should it fail. The same goes with all projects or goals. Have a backup plan if it fails (because 70% of projects do fail).

9. Is this a realistic goal for me? Is the goal you set for yourself so ambitious that you have no chance of reaching it? Does it fit in with your skills and interests? Does the goal reflect long term desires, or is it coloured by immediate problems in your life not related to long term realities? Are there more obvious goals which you should be trying to achieve first? Keep in mind that it usually takes time and strategy to achieve desirable goals. So don’t feel pressured to accomplish everything at once.

10. Where do I start? If you get this far, the next question should be ‘where do I start?’ In most cases, the place to start is to try to get first hand experience in doing what you want to achieve. If possible, attend a workshop where you can learn the basics from someone who has already done what you want to do. Or get a part time job at a business that does what you want to do. Getting first hand experience (either a workshop or job) can give you a huge jump toward learning what you need to know, what tools you need to acquire, and what skills you’ll need.

11. What do I do next? This is a question you will repeat often throughout the project. As you complete each phase, you’ll have to ask yourself, ‘What do I do next?’ In most cases, projects are a sequential learning process. What you learn in the previous phase, you apply in the next phase, where you learn more. But as each phase ends, you need to have a good idea of what you need to do next. (Check out your model of success . . . what steps did they follow?)

12. Where do I need to make changes? The further you get into a project, the more you learn about what can and can’t be done (within your budget and skills). As you learn more, you’ll discover ways to improve the project by eliminating some steps and adding others. This ‘Where do I need to make changes?’ question is one you’ll ask often, and allows you to adapt your project to changes in your environment.

One Final Question

13. When will I know I’m done? The product development business is one of stepping stones. Each project you take on generally leads to another project using skills and tools you acquired with earlier projects. Often before you complete one project, you’ll have a good idea what your next project should be. While individual projects do reach an end point, rarely will your product development endeavour be ‘complete’. You’ll almost always have a number of projects in mind - just waiting for you to free up some time.

I know I have

Each ERP application should be open for tailoring: modifications, custom logic, reporting, integration with legacy systems, EDI interface, etc. In some cases you may expect special modules or third party extension, however if you have simple customization need - you may undergo in-house GP programming project to make job done. This article intended to be orientation session for IT people and internal software developers. In the best case scenario you should balance external GP consultants and internal programmer and project managers to realize your projects. Let’s begin:

1. Great Plains customization tools. GP similar to other MRP and accounting applications is the combination of proprietary and open technologies. Main proprietary technology is Microsoft Dexterity, which requires special license and Great Plains Dexterity certification is recommended to do Dex programming. Dexterity is core technology, however as Microsoft .Net platform advances, open technologies open the GP customization door. Open technologies typically require MS Visual Studio development skills plus ADO.Net and some SQL scripting expertise. These tools are: eConnect, Modifier with VBA (this one is not a .Net based - it is rather legacy but should be considered open platform as VBA is popular for MS Excel modifications). There are other enablers, opening Great Plains Dexterity objects to MS Visual Studio C# or VB developers - use them at your discretion

2. Programming GP Integration Manager. IM could be considered as end-user tool however it is very powerful and customizable, so if you are VBA programmer you can consider IM as custom integration platform. VBA modification can intervene IM events: before document, after document, etc. Plus you can do incoming records translation - create your customer or vendor translation table in Excel and then import it to Integration Manager

3. SQL Scripting. This technique requires advanced familiarity with GP tables structure and records distribution. You should be aware that SQL insert statement simply populates SQL tables, but it doesn’t validate GP business logic. So, SQL scripting may cause data integrity problem and typically requires longer Quality Assurance (QA) and debugging cycle. As a hint for you - eConnect does validate GP business logic, so if you could deploy eConnect and not SQL stored procedures - you will be on the safe side of the programming project

4. GP reports design. There are several tools and you got to get the idea on their usability. First of all - GP ReportWriter. This tool is integrated in GP workstation interface - you can modify such popular reports as SOP Invoice, POP Purchase Order, GL trial balance, AP historical trial balances to give you few examples. RW is Dexterity application and it has Dex limitations, so if you get to break through, you should consider FRx for strictly financial reports (linked to General Ledger GL), Crystal Reports (unlimited in theory, however you have to do all the work in SQL views or stored procedures from scratch) or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Service or SRS (at this time we are inclined to consider SRS to be catching up in competition with Crystal, especially considering Microsoft plans to promote its own report design tool).

The initial client-developer discussion is an integral part of the Web design process. This article will take a look at both the client side of the development procedure, as well as the best practice methods for Web developers to employ when speaking to their potential business partners.

Your business is ready for a Web site…Or so you think. Before you take any further steps, let’s take a quick look at the simple reasons why you may want to invest in a Web site in the first place.

? Sell products over a greater range than you currently do? Offer your services over the internet? Consolidate or begin advertising through the internet? Get your brick-and-mortar location out to the masses

All of these reasons can really be lumped into the super-category titled Increasing Business - the prime goal of any worthwhile advertising campaign. Generating authentic business and receiving solid leads is virtually money in your pocket; and in this day and age, the internet is the best domain for advertising your products and services. People turn to the internet to look for information like no other. In fact, it seems as though the internet is even replacing God in today’s search for answers.

Do some research on a few of the longer queried Google keyword-phrases. Chances are you’ll come across some gems like What do I do if my boyfriend is cheating on me? Or how do I get my children to enjoy Vegetable X?

For driving traffic to your soon-to-be Web site, you need to give users the potential to stumble upon your domain with their search engine queries. After all, what good is your Web site if nobody can find it?

Forget everything you know about Web development.To achieve the seemingly simple goal stated above, you need to look for a Web designer who stays on the cutting edge of the technological market while being up to date in their development practices. You want them to employ certain Search Engine Optimization tactics, and if they don’t offer such services, you at least want them to make sure your new Web site is SEO ready. Further down the road, you might want to contract an exclusive SEO company to do your internet marketing or even do it yourself; but if your new Web site is not configured properly at its nuts and bolts, you’re going to need a comprehensive ground-up redesign. And let’s not try to waste any money in this endeavor.

First thing’s first: After you browse the internet for local developers or even check the regional phone directories; you must get to know your developer. And when I say get-to-know them; I mean get to know the quality of their work. At this point in the game you shouldn’t even have made a phone call or sent an email inquiry. It is imperative that you take a close look at their Web sites and portfolio (if available). If what you see is visually appealing, consider it an added bonus, because, chances are, you’re looking in the wrong places to measure their worth.

Key point: Know what you’re looking for. The face of the site is actually not that important. Don’t be influenced by sites constructed solely upon Flash, or sites using a little too much dynamic Javascript. This after all, can only hurt you in trying to get your Web site indexed by the major search engines. Your best bet is to right click on the page and check out their source code. And when you’re done with that, if you’re using FireFox (which you should be using), go to View on the top toolbar and choose to view the page without style. This is a close representation of what search engines are seeing. Try running a spider simulator on the page to really see through the search-bots’ eyes.

When viewing the source code, if you don’t see a DocType Declaration in the first line, let that be your only red flag and move onto the next developer. Another item of interest for you is standards compliancy. To check for this, run the page through the W3C’s Page Validator Tool. While search engines don’t necessarily see valid XHTML as a requirement, the closer the page comes to standards compliancy, the easier it will be read by search engines. It’s a correlation-not-causation type of relationship. Also worth noting is that if Web pages are produced by a company, check and see who your developer is and their relationship to the pages that you were viewing. For example, if you like Page X in their portfolio and it was developed by Designer Y, don’t settle on having Designer Z do it in the same way unless they work on the same team or were trained in the same vein. One more thing to scan for is a comment which may or may not exactly be . Remember, you’re paying a good chunk of money for a custom page, don’t settle for a recycled template. You want a unique design for your unique service proposition. If you specifically want your designer to use a template, make sure they design using the same conventions that appear throughout the template.

Next up: Say no to Flash, nested tables, and all dynamic content other than CSS and basic Javascript. Checking for nested tables in design is really just keeping an eye out for a few too many tags that start with < tr >, < td >, etc. If they start nesting within each other in a recursive cycle - steer clear. This is an old convention for design that mimics the printed page, yet it is still a popular development practice. While developers still get away with such design, mainly because it has the capability to construct beautifully looking pages, sites built with these conventions will ultimately fail and break down as browsers and search engines move toward a more standards compliant approach. So, unless you are displaying tabular data, don’t use tables or ask for them in your Web design. Whatever tables can accomplish can also be done with CSS.

Enter Cascading Style SheetsAn in-depth knowledge of CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, should be the one qualification you look for in a Web developer. CSS can provide powerful, accessible, and aesthetically beautiful design in the right hands whilst replacing messy and bloated code. If you do require some dynamic or user-behavior delegated content, make sure your designer is comfortable with Javascript as well (this is mostly used for form validation, calculators, or complex image galleries).

Now that you know the criteria for choosing a Web developer based upon principles of design; let’s move onto extended and comprehensive service. While it’s not a traditional component of a single Web designer; maybe you’d like to hire a developer or development team that offers a complete Web hosting package including domain registration and email setup. While they’re at it; wouldn’t you like a few guaranteed site modifications and some technical support, to boot. Be wary of designers who design-and-drop. What happens when the next version of IE comes out (certainly guaranteed to break more than a few Web sites)? Or when you no longer offer Product X or you change your address, phone or fax. Do you really want to hire a new developer or draft one of your administrative assistants to decipher somebody else’s code?

In so far we have taken a look at what to look for when contracting a Web developer. Say no to nested tables, Flash and messy markup. Say yes to standards compliant CSS and XHTML.

In the next installment of this article we will further discuss the interlocution between contractor and client in Search Engine Optimized Corporate Web Development.

I am going to give you a breakdown of my … er … work … playtime …. income ….

I’m a UK based Web Designer, Web Developer, Internet Consultant. I build websites, content management systems and internet solutions for anybody who can afford me. I am a prostitute!! Yes! A prostitute - I use my website to sell my wares and hope that the client enjoys the result if they decide to pick me up. I like to think of myself as giving good head to a “web enabled userbase”. Apparently prostitution is the “oldest trade”. Well if that’s so then I’ve been doing the same as long at the internet has been available to home users here in the UK.

It’s been nearly 8 years since I first logged on to the internet from my home. Prior to that I’d used gopher servers via mdx.ac.uk as a student in the early 90’s. Prior to that BBS’s were fun. I now find myself working from home as a kind of web dogsbody. Just me, four cats, 2 horses, my son and my amazing partner down here on a 6 acre smallholding in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK. I have several titles:

Web Designer

I use this if a client needs me to make images to make their site “pretty”. Web design has been written about by the Guru’s in their ivory mansions. At the end of the day what is it? It’s being able to realise the clients vision without resorting to cheesy backgrounds and blinking text. Keep it nice and clean.

If your a web designer with a difficult client.. do not do what they want!! Just tell them what they should do or drop them. The previous statement depends on two things:

How much do you KNOW your right?

How much are they’re PAYING you?

Most of us now know what is good design..

If your lost - read some Chomsky : )

Web Developer

This one is for websites that need “coding” - y’know… PHP, ASP, SQL etc. A web designer puts good clean concepts into an XHTML - css layout which works (HTML is bunk). A web developer makes the content within this design actually “do stuff”. I started out making web sites “do stuff” in late 2000. I now make websites do “lots of stuff”.

A web developer does stuff which allows users to do stuff. A web designer allows users to read the stuff the web developer does.

Internet Consultant

A nice one this - it covers both of the above yet also allows me to do the following.. It also looks good on a business card.

Beware folk who say that they are “Internet Consultants” who do not also claim to be at least one of the others on this page. They are probably con men.

Web Guru

This is a found role. I can teach! I have ideas!

“Hmm, I do that also” - what makes you special? That’s what your thinking.

I don’t need anyone to show me how to use my new fangled CMS (that’s “Content Management System”). How to send email, use Adwords, get cash from Adsense. Guru - that’s just a made up term..

This title come through experience - people are telling me that I’m a Guru. I myself am holding judgemental on this.

I have always been a “communicator”

Friend

I have lots of clients. Some are just one offs. The small guest house that needs a simple three page website and an email account - others are clients that need constant modifications to their portal or ecommerce website. I try to get on with them all. Some have become friends.

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was renamed into Microsoft Dynamics GP and became part of Microsoft Dynamics strategy in September 2005. Former name of the strategy was Microsoft Project Green, where the idea was to introduce so-called Microsoft Business Suites: Financials, Distribution, Human Resource, Manufacturing, etc. In our opinion Microsoft reserves the rights to alter the next steps of Microsoft Dynamics realization and the shapes of the next wave of the merging ERP (Axapta, Great Plains, CRM, Navision, Solomon). This is why the developer has to analyze the development tools, if she/he wants to provide the longest possible longevity to the custom logic. Let’s look at the dilemmas:

? “Fat” versus “Thin” client. Here we reveal “Fat” client technology - it is Microsoft Dexterity with DYNAMICS.DIC - dictionary (all objects for core functionality: table, procedure, function, form, window, string, etc are defined here). Thin client is Business Portal approach (we are not talking about Citrix way here, because in Citrix you usually open the same Fat Dexterity client) or web client. The dilemma of web client is - Dexterity is not web-enabled technology and such questions as GP security realm, accessing business logic (coded in Great Plains Dexterity) is complicated if not possible at all. Plus - if you look at licensing structure - user licenses are actually simultaneous “fat” clients connections, controlled by Dexterity technical logic. Imagine - you need to extend SOP Entry screen logic - you can only realize it accessing Fat client and adding custom logic there through dexterity, Extender (or in Visual Studio, programming relevant GP Object - but again it will go to Fat client extension and Dexterity has more control over its own realm). When Microsoft Dynamics GP will offload Fat Client logic to Business Portal, then you will be using more thin client or web development to do the job, it is not actual today and probably Dexterity has another several years to stay on the first position.

? Probability of the Paradigm Change. Could you expect in 1995 that something like .Net, or XML Web Services will show up on the scene and make Graphical Platform and database independence (Oracle, MS SQL Server, Sybase, DB2, Ingress) actuality obsolete? This was only a decade ago. Now - the paradoxical question - would you think that such paradigms as Java/J2EE/EJB and .Net plus XML Web Services will stay for another decade? We don’t know. At the same time, such old-timers, as Microsoft Dexterity or former name Great Plains Software Dexterity stay robust and alive since the beginning of 1990th. Please look at Microsoft tools, such as VBA (Visual Basics for Applications) - it was scripting language, designed in 1990th and now it is pretty much phased out. In other words, we don’t know and can’t predict the longevity of current paradigms and axioms in IT and Programming industry. Maybe the answer is this - Dexterity was designed to stay through technological cataclysms, while new tools were designed to serve current needs and commercialize current technology trends.

? Reporting. Let’s look at ReportWriter, which is Dexterity-based tool and Crystal Reports. Report Writer has huge number of customization across the Great Plains clients community: SOP Invoice Long form, Purchase Order with company graphical logo, AP Check form to name a few. Crystal Reports were the tool of choice when ReporWriter can’t do the job, to remind the story - Crystal was Industry Standard tool, capable to deliver stunning graphical quality and excellent database independence and heterogeneous linking. Nowadays Crystal is deemphasized for Microsoft Dynamics Project - Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are in the preferred position.

? Balance. Again - what will be the future? It is not clear and what kind of agenda (even if it is not consciously placed behind by the tool architect) is behind it - you as developer should think through the time and minimize the risk for your custom logic upgradeability and the dependence of “modern” technology trends, which have high chance to be abolished in the short future.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

If you are looking for a dot net developer for hiring you might want to consider outsourcing the job to an offshore company. Although India has been the major outsourcing destination for quite a long time, it is not the only option you have. The consistent rise in the value of the Indian Rupee against the US dollar makes other countries and Belarus in particular more competitive. A great deal of web development work is outsourced to various Belarusian companies. ASP.NET is a sphere where clients look up to Belarus for high quality services and timely innovative solutions.

Outsourcing ASP.NET development to Belarus has a number of advantages. Apart from the saved time it also offers significant cost benefits. In the situation of a weak dollar against the major world currencies, Belarus gets a competitive edge over other outsourcing destinations such as India, China, Russia and the EU. The value of the Belarusian currency against the dollar remains on a relatively low level (2140 Belarusian rubles for one USD). This trend makes more and more companies want to outsource their web development jobs to Belarus.

Whether a project is outsourced or done in-house, quality is a key issue for any company. Outsourcing to Belarus involves no quality compromises. Moreover, the quality of outsourced solutions often exceeds all expectations. This is so because Belarus has a strong educational system that provides for a large pool of skilled IT professionals. Wherever you seek a dot net developer for hiring, Belarus is one of the first places to look at. There are many qualified specialists with profound knowledge and vast working experience. Since learning at least one foreign language is compulsory for all higher education students in Belarus, the majority of IT professionals have a good command of English.

The reputation of Belarus as a preferred outsourcing destination gets stronger with more and more companies working with Belarusian specialists. ASP.NET development is just one of the fields. Belarusian outsourcing companies are also involved in all kinds of IT projects form web development to search engine optimization. Whether you seek a dot net developer for hiring, a PHP programmer, a web designer, a copywriter, a SEO practitioner or a flash animator, you can rely on Belarusian expertise.

IT is a rapidly developing market with high demand for skilled specialist. Outsourcing companies face fierce competition and have to fight for survival. Belarusian outsourcing providers and freelance specialists realize the critical importance of staying abreast with the latest IT trends and mastering innovative techniques and strategies. Many of them are regular contributors to IT forums and blogs as well as international conferences and exhibitions. All this adds to the competitiveness of Belarus as a global outsourcing destination.

There are a million of different articles, tutorials and e-books out there that want to tell you for just some bucks how to get rich on the internet in a short amount of time, for example by developing some websites full of spam and unoriginal content and slapping advertising on them. Most of those unfortunately do not work at all and most of them fail to realize or teach its readers that to run an internet business, just like for an offline business, some basic and general skills are required to have a chance at success.

In this article I will now showcase three of the probably most important of such basic skills and tell you why you need to have them and how to train and attain them.

1. Experience

This one might probably seem a little too general to you, yet I think it is the most important thing to have. When running a business, online or not, you simply need to know what to do when and how to achieve it best. And this does not mainly include programming or design knowledge for online work (since such are things you can easily outsource) but rather general marketing and promotion skills that will help you to get the word about your product or website out there.

For me attaining enough experience to be successful was mostly a matter of (quite much) time and more or less a trial-and-error approach where every failure was a important lesson for me that helped me to improve in the next approach. In general much practice and training over a quite long time span (depending on the niche your business is operating in of course) is the only way to obtain sufficient experience.

2. Creativity

It is widely know that you have to create something original to have success on the internet. Simply reproducing and copying the service or product of someone else usually gets you nowhere. Thus creativity is vital to get ideas on how to either improve on a competitors product or on how to develop your own original and new one. The unfortunate thing about creativity is that you can’t really train or improve it. Either you have good ideas or not.

3. Patience

Now, no matter how creative and or experienced you are, it will still probably take you quite much time until you finally have success with one of your website or products (yes, you should have several and try different approaches) and your hard work pays off. So, the most important thing really is not to give up…ever!

A web developer is a company or an individual that will help you with the technical and even creative aspects of your website. A good web developer will help with designing the graphic layout as well as the website architecture and website navigation. Web developers are also responsible for coding the HTML and the cascading style sheets, also known as CSS. Many web developers also help with the creation of graphics, adding pictures to the website, creating links, as well as testing for usability and creating web standards. You’ll also want to have your web developer help you with the programming of web applications and creating databases. Many web developers are also experienced in helping with marketing strategies, search engine optimization, and copywriting.

When you begin looking for a web developer you’ll want to contact several prospective developers to speak with. First, talk with the developer on the phone and ask a list of questions that you think of beforehand. You’ll want to explain your project, exactly what sort of help and needs you will have, and for how long you believe you will need the developer’s assistance. If you feel as though the conversation goes well, you should email the developer with a follow up question or two and see how long it takes him or her to respond. If the developer takes more than 24 hours to respond you may want to consider working with someone else. You need to have very open and easy communication with someone that will be working in the web developer capacity for you.

When you are speaking with the web developer you should feel as though things are reasonably comfortable and that you can create a good working relationship. If you don’t get the answers you need or things just “don’t feel right” then you should move on and not take any chances. You want a developer that is reputable, does good work, and will be honest in their business dealings. There are many web developers out there, so if you get overwhelmed by the options ask for recommendations from friends, family, and business partners. In the end, you are not tied to one web developer or another, if you find that the one you have chosen is not well versed in all of the things that you need him or her to have knowledge of, you can always move onto another developer to get the job done right.

Web sites should be looked at as real estate on the World Wide Web. It is an investment which could make you money or leave you high and dry. If not created with class and strategy, it may also leave you and your company with a bad reputation. If your content is not valid or placed properly, you may never get your point across. Web sites, even those for strictly informational purposes, gain reputation over time. Companies and web crawlers (also known as spiders for search engines) are constantly monitoring web site activity and generating reports about YOU. These reports contain information such as traffic coming and going, links to and from other web sites, value of your content, content to keyword ratio, download speeds, and your behind the scenes coding.

Just like real estate, a well developed web site with a good history, reputation, and traffic is a gold mine! Domains that were once purchased for $10 are now selling for millions!!

You may be wondering, “How do I create such a website?” The most important thing to do is research and compare website developers before choosing one to work with. Start out your search by visiting Google.com and type in something along the lines of “website designer” or “web site developer”. If you would like to have someone local, be sure to also type in your city and/or state. The nice thing about Google is that they have a ranking system which puts the most visited sites with the best content at the top of their lists.

Take a look at the sites near the top of Google’s list. You will want to compare the layout and designs of the sites. Do you like them? Are they up to date and appealing? Do they have adequate information about the things you are interested in? Is that content written well? A developer’s website is a reflection of their work so make sure you look it over thoroughly. Also see what companies, if any, they are affiliated with and who their clients are. Make sure that their client list consists of multiple industries and are not limited to online businesses. Many developers will create their own online sites which are not owned by outside clients, but they will list them in their portfolio as clients anyway.

Take a look at their portfolio and visit the sites they have created. Analyze them. Make sure they are all up to date and appealing. Make sure the site layout and navigation is easy to use and functional. Take into consideration who their clients are and what industries they serve. Do they seem reputable?

If you find a developer that you like and may be interested in, the next step is to contact them. If you email or leave a message, make a note of their response promptness. Ask them a lot of questions about your ideas and concerns. Make sure they answer you appropriately and knowledgably. Ask questions about their refund policy, how they deal with revisions, what methods of customer service do they offer and what is the response time, do they offer maintenance and back ups, what does the design include, how are they going to drive traffic to your site, and anything else that is important to your project.

Once you have agreed on a price and what the project will entail. Provide the designer with an outline of your needs. Be as detailed and specific as possible. The more detailed you are, the more likely the designer is to get it right the first time. Be sure to confirm the expected date of completion.

After your site is completed and launched, it is up to you to make sure that it grows and builds a reputation for itself. You can do this by driving traffic to your site through pay-per-click programs, affiliate programs, link sharing, paid advertising, and more. Your developer should be able to help you with these things and provide more information about your options.

It is important to use some method of website traffic monitoring. This will give you details and statistics about the visitors to your site and their behavior. The reports in these programs will help you to determine if your site is performing well or if you need to make some adjustments. If you chose a good developer, they will be on top of this already. If you are unhappy with the results, be sure to let your designer know.

A well planned and developed site should last a long time. However, it is important to maintain it, update it with fresh content, monitor your traffic, and eventually give it a make-over. Far too often I see websites forgotten and left to fall behind modern technology and trends. It is a shame because your website is a reflection of you and what you were willing to invest in your business. Nurture your website and it will blossom into a profitable investment.