Comments on: 5 options when website budgets get slashed

By: Adido Web Design

Adido Web Design — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:22:47 +0000

Nice list Paul. I think the best point covered is 5. Getting traffic to the website is so important but still often overlooked. You could have the best website in the world but if the right people can't find it then it's generally a waste. Strategy first, design/development second.

By: Dan Dinsmore

Dan Dinsmore — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:48:34 +0000

3 is an excellent opportunity to extend relationships and foster growth as well. This is a win win situation from my experiences for both the agency and the client. Great advice. Thanks

By: Jim Wagner

Jim Wagner — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:12:05 +0000

Wonderfully said – very savvy advice.
I enjoyed reading #2 as it reaffirms our design philosophy of simple, clean, approachable design that focuses on communicating the client’s main message. This usually gets lost among the brick-a-brack of seeing how much stuff one can put onto a site, as if it some how makes the investment in a site more justified. But “we” know that it is more a result of unfocused expectations and inexperience with the media, handcuffing even the most promising projects.
As most comments mentioned, #3 is a real project saver and one that we will need to emphasize more with our clients. The only thing we do in addition to #3 is to document the site exceedingly well, so that if a client chooses to go elsewhere they can go with confidence to the next programmer knowing we set them up for their benefit, not ours. Our clients are even more loyal knowing we’re watching their backs.
Thanks for the reminders — I will be checking back often!

By: John Phillips

John Phillips — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:56:37 +0000

Great post! One of the challenging things is getting clients to not focus on adding features, but letting them know the benefits of possibly taking things off of the site. It's a hard sell sometimes, but if you can communicate it effectively, it can work wonders for a project/website.

By: Aaron Irizarry

Aaron Irizarry — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:26:25 +0000

Great insight, I would definitely say that #3, and #4 have been very helpful in times of budget and time line constraints. ~ Aaron I

By: social networking web design

social networking web design — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:25:55 +0000

awesome list, but i must say, these items whether in a recession or a boom..are great advice. sandy http://www.megastarmedia.com/social-networking-webdesign.html

By: Shawn Bouchard

Shawn Bouchard — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:41:16 +0000

I agree, #3 is key to making a web strategy work on a tight budget. It also forces clients to be strategic about their wants and needs and focuses the development process into realistic blocks of functionality. We also believe that improving the overall search rankings of a site will generate better ROI, so that every dollar spent counts. We don't necessarily focus on SEO, but instead work with our clients to build a solid design and development architecture so that their site "works" for them. I've linked to a post on this topic.

By: Web Designers

Web Designers — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:13:11 +0000

We're a big fan of #3, especially since a lot of our clients tend to ask for more changes than they can afford.

By: Andrew Cairns

Andrew Cairns — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:49:49 +0000

'Reuse and recycle' should be an every-day task for developers. Proper code seperation using a development paradigm such as MVC will allow code to be reused on lots of projects.

By: jhoysi

jhoysi — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:33:54 +0000

We're a big fan of #3, especially since a lot of our clients tend to ask for more changes than they can afford. By prioritizing the most crucial needs first and working our way down the list in a timeline fashion, the client gets what they need (and want) and we get a nice long-term project to truly think through and get done right. Also, this mentality feeds well into the idea of maintaining the website once the initial work is completed. By continuing to make updates over time, the content is constantly being refreshed, tweaked, and improved upon and the site runs much less of a risk of becoming stale.