Form or substance? Web Development on a Budget

Part IV - A Typical Webmaster Misses The Fundamentals of Web Design

By Garnet R. Chaney

In this series of articles on desiging websites on a budget, and the fundamentals of website design, Garnet R. Chaney focuses on solid examples of webmasters and site owners who get it, and those who don't. In this article, Garnet discusses the criticisms of a typical website designer, and how this designer misunderstands the fundamentals of website design that every site owner should be focused on.

In the previous article, I showed how a quick and simple offer was developed to respond to a request for a budget web hosting. The offer was simple, to the point, and didn't waste a huge amount of money in design, a cost that would have raised the price for those desiring a low-budget, but reliable beginners web hosting solution.

We saw how a webmaster of at least one gay and lesbian website, took advantage of the offer to jump in and offer negative critical comments. Fortunately, she was willing to amplify her criticisms into a more thought out critique. This critique proves many of my points about the fundamentals of web design, and how it is easy to lose sight of them.

She responded to the following points: If you're refering to the http://click11.com/amazon/ She said that both this page, and the home page appeared that they were made in 10 minutes. rock bottom sustainable hosting service for beginners She said that associates are not exactly beginners. Surely you would agree that how good my graphics designers are She agreed that flash was not good choice for navigation, but believes that the website I refered to was not mine, because it is so different graphically from my other sites. Perhaps you wouldn't mind posting the URL in your sig of a site you've designed? Maybe one of my QA people could take a look at your site and send you a few private comments. She was not interested in comments of my "people", and she claimed that I was only participating in the forum to get customers. She didn't feel that my websites are good enough to sell customers. I've spent a lot of time surveying web hosting offers, and I could send you a list of places that have cool home pages, but with all kinds of internal inconsistency and missing info, etc. She agreed a lot of people who are unprofessional are crowded into the web design market, and that they hook people with ridiculously inexpensive offers. She claimed that a professional looking website is important, because without it, no one would look at the prices. She also doubted that I have any "people", and poked fun at a site I have that offers pages of spam, Spam Central, which is an amusing archive of spam from several years ago. She ended by pointing out that webmill.com was designed from a template, and that my designers are really great.

Of course she has no knowledge of the Bulgarian development team that I managed for over a year, the same team that was responsible for Giger.com, as well as all of the ecommerce sites for a little known movie called Star Trek, produced by that unknown movie giant called Paramount. So she is to be forgiven for her criticizing things she knows nothing about, or trying to claim that the website isn't mine when I never claimed that it was. Maybe she is even jealous. The reality is that the resources I have available for my clients vastly exceed what she is able to offer, but fortunately I don't insist that all of my clients spend that kind of money.

Given the little group of sites that she has built, (most of the sites linked to from hers seem to be her own sites), she's obviously not the target audience for the budget hosting offer. Unfortunately, though, with her lambasting of template based web design, she proves just how much she misunderstands the realities of web design today: Most companies absolutely don't need, and can't afford, fancy custom graphic designs! Those fancy designs will A) waste a lot of money, B) not bring their sites more free visitors, and C) may even hurt their ranking. Fortunately, she understands that Flash is a mistake for navigation. There is hope for her.

From: webmill_com Jul-5 4:25 pm Thanks for all the great comments. I'm glad we agree on a lot of things. I've never have been a fan of wasting money on FLASH, but it's certainly a great option for some. You like the SPAM Central feature? That's one of my favorites too. I set that up years ago (when AOL had their own custom crippled browser that didn't understand more advanced HTML), as a test of the search engines to see if people really search for the kinds of things we see in spams. Sure enough, it gets lots of hits. And complaints too from people who think that my posting a spam I recieved somehow caused it to land in their email box. I've received really hillarious comments, and questions, over the years, despite the disclaimer..... My partner says we're very pleased to provide you with links to this spam you might have accidentally deleted. If you'd like, we can post you the eBay item number of our very popular "CD of deleted email from failed dot.coms"... Next week our 8-cd set of "Recycled Bins of Famous People" will hit the listings.... You're right, no matter how good, the websites don't tend to sell a lot of customers, there is a huge glut out there with catchy price points like $8.88 per month. There are other better ways to find new customers, my favorite being referals from current happy customers. Time spent well serving exisiting customers pays off way better than agonizing over yet another me too website. BTW, my partner wants us to establish a catchy, but higher, price point of $6.66 per month. If you'd like to try this plan, you can reach him directly at webmasterofthebeast@.... He reminded me that there's also some kind of free hosting in exchange for venesection, I'll post details about it later. The late Dr. George Muller, M.D., quotes Dr. Wilks about the appropriate candidates for this: "You see your client sitting in front of your desk, the face, tongue, and lips blue or purple, and the jugular veins starting out of the neck and often visibly pulsating, the heart beating quickly, and perhaps a tricuspid bruit, indicating the gorged right heart and obstructed lungs; the veins in the body are full to bursting." (Handbook of Practical Treatment, Vol I, 1913, ASIN unknown.) Web hosting in exchange for phlebotomy is certainly indicated. The vast majority of my clients dont have a budget that supports bulding the kind of fancy site you might like them to have. Hence the home pages of the two sites you mentioned reflect much simpler, very cost effective, design from a bygone era, that is appropriate to what most clients can afford. It's our opinion that simple layout is best for most clients and visitors, and that unless it is an artists site, the real effort should be spent in the text part of the content so that it will attract good search engine traffic. (And even if the site is an art site, budget-minded artists with sites like http://www.picture11.com/wb/galleries/, they are well advised to show off their own art rather than our design skills)..... There is another company whose site gets way more projects than they can handle, and they refer a lot of work to us. Their site is very simple, a templated design very similar to my own. They get so much work because of good text content, and spending their money on promotion, rather than over-design of a page no one would visit if it wasn't promoted. One of my board members looked at your comments, and congratulated me for not wasting a lot of extra money on the sites you mentioned. These days customers are a lot more interested in cost-effective than they are in flash. As much as I might like to still have the money to invest in Feng Shui consultanting for all my clients and personal sites, the days of waste money web development are pretty much past us. My partner also wondered where the URL of your site was at... We'd be happy to promote your link with one of our clients whose site is best viewed on a monitor facing East. I'm sure the luck that would flow through the link would really help you. - Garnet http://click11.com/amazon/ - No nonsense webhosting serving the internet since before Amazon. (http://www.justpeople.com/ContentNew/Companies/FullReports/Amazon.asp) http://web.archive.org/web/19961228072141/http://webmill.com/ - We're older than the waybackmachine, but here's a link to their first mention of us, unfortunately they only got a small piece of the home page still on their system. http://web.archive.org/web/20000815073116/http://www.answersleuth.com/ - Another site you won't like, a year 2000 mention of the 1.2 million page directory I built and sold during the height of the dot com craze. Take a look at the link hit counter with 17 million hits, and decide who you'd really like to do your next web promotion. http://web.archive.org/web/19970704133821/www.bnbcomp.net/capoeira/cap1.htm -One of my partner's sites, about Capoeira, that won one of the first "Site of the day" awards in 1995. All the hits from that award made their entire network barely usable for days. (That site probably predates Amazon, as does my own original home page....) Get your own dose of nostalgia here: http://www.archive.org

Fortunately the above thread continued on without any more criticisms from her.

I hope you benefited from this series of articles and case studies. Remember the fundamentals of web design, and your website budget will have the best possible return on investment.

- Garnet

P.S. Other readers of this thread wrote me that they enjoyed my posts on this thread.

Although we most like to write parodies, it's no laughing matter when you are mislead by your webmaster into wasting money. We hope that these case studies will help you avoid have your resources wasted by a webmaster that doesn't understand the fundamentals of web publishing.

If you are not sure about what your webmaster is recommending, maybe you need a second opinion. Some webmasters recommend unsavory things like using lists of millions of "opt-in subscribers" to send spam. In a case like that, we hope you'll get a second opinion before you jump into such an unproductive activity and suffer permanent harm from being associated with spam.

If you need help with the direction of your website marketing efforts, please consider our free website promotion tips, and also a personal consultation based on that list. We can work with your webmaster, to help you get a better return on your website investment.

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