How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Web Site Design Business: With Companion CD – ROM
Posted by admin | Posted in Business | Posted on 08-06-2010
Tags: Business, Companion, Design, Financially, Open, Operate, Site, Successful
5
- ISBN13: 9781601381439
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
According to a 2007 survey by Netcraft, there are more than 108 million Web sites worldwide. Every Web site needs to be designed. The Pricing & Ethical Guidelines Handbook published by the Graphic Arts Guild reports that the average cost of designing a Web site for a small corporation can range from $7,750 to $15,000. It is incredibly easy to see the enormous profit potential. Web design businesses can be run part- or full-time and can easily be started in your own… More >>
How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Web Site Design Business: With Companion CD – ROM
I was extremely disappointed with this book. It is almost 400 pages and most of it is what I can best describe as “annoying fluff” that provides vague suggestions that provide no real value to the reader. Here is an example of a paragraph in the book:
P.210 “The success of your marketing is also going to depend, in part, on how well you deal with people who follow up on your ads. There is no point in creating and paying for good advertisements only to fall short in the follow up process. You can present whatever information you want about your business, but if you do not have good follow-up, your marketing efforts will be wasted.”
The author constantly repeats themselves throughout the book across chapters and in the above case, within the same paragraph. The above paragraph could have been widdled down to 1 sentence or bullet point. It feels as though the author is babbling to make the book as long as possible (like I used to do in college to reach the minimum page requirement for my essays). The book was written by two different people and it feels very in-cohesive, as if they just divided up topics and started writing with poor organization. I doubt the author(s) has any special skill or training in teaching.
The book wanders off for chapters talking about general business topics that are not specific to web design businesses. For example, there are pages and pages about how to conduct yourself in an interview. The author is suggesting you are interviewing with your clients when it is actually more similar to a sales presentation. There is a paragraph just about the perfect handshake and the author stresses that it could be the key to whether you get your client or not. Pretty ridiculous to me.
Overall, the book provides some relevant information but not a lot of specific calls to action about web design-specific topics. Neither of the authors even have a web site of their own to show for. I don’t think they are qualified to write a how-to book on web design. I have a little background in business and web design and this book was 90% useless. For some reason I decided I had to read some sort of how-to book to make myself feel prepared before I went on my own. This book was very painful to read and made me feel stupid for wasting my time on it. People who are really directionless and lost might find this book more useful, but it is probably a waste of money for people who are already savvy and don’t need to be babied about the obvious. This book is ridiculously overpriced and wasn’t even edited (several grammatical errors) and the printing and binding is even lopsided! This is an amateur book in all respects.
Rating: 2 / 5
Most website designers have technical and creative abilities, but may not possess, or even be aware of, the other skills necessary to start and run a business. This book includes a comprehensive guide to topics relevant to any business, such as competitor research, pricing, bookkeeping, and marketing strategies, but goes beyond that by suggesting complementary services which may be offered to website clients to generate additional income.
The helpful information is supplemented by useful worksheets and checklists which appear throughout the book and on the companion CD-ROM, making this a valuable reference book for new and experienced website designers alike.
Rating: 4 / 5
With more and more people losing their jobs everyday, entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere. Web design is big business, every business out there has a website and if they don’t they need one. Many businesses are working on improving their websites and marketing due to the bad economy, so web designers are needed everywhere.
Just like starting any business, when you start a web-design business you need to have a plan and some idea about business and the internet. This book is great for anyone even thinking about starting a web design business, you will learn how to figure out what your objectives are, just what a web designer does, and setting realistic expectations.
The best part about this book is it helps you to write your business plan and your marketing plan, many business owners don’t do this and they fail. Using this book you can write your personalized business plan and take the specific steps needed to make your web design business successful.
Read about what the challenges are in this business, how you can be different and stand out, tools of the trade and what you need to do to license and register your business. If you follow the steps in this book and do your research you can have your web design business up and running in no time!
Rating: 4 / 5
Read about 50 pages of the book then skimmed over the rest. I was very unimpressed with the book. I’m a seasoned designer though with a deep background in Web Design so most of the information was common sense to me. I would recommend this book to beginners to design and business who are considering getting into this field. The Author i felt though wasn’t very experienced and most likely doesn’t run a studio with employees. So after a brief read i stopped.
Rating: 3 / 5
How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Web Site Design Business is a complete step-by-step business plan for web site design entrepreneurs. It’s a phenomenal guide for the novice and a great companion for the designer who needs some savvy business advice. Authors, Charlotte Evans and Bruce Brown, cover the challenges, pitfalls, and successful secrets of the trade, as well as offering motivation, thought provoking questions and pertinent checklists.
The emphasis of the book is the business aspect of web site design. The main focus is marketing, finance, customer service, and development, with references to specific programs and computer hardware to help enhance one’s business. From selecting a domain name to page layout to market analysis, no question is left unanswered. It is the proverbial “right hand” that will give the reader an edge in their field. As an added bonus, a percentage of the proceeds go to The Humane Society.
Rating: 5 / 5