Show 75: Christian Bears

Published on: April 16, 2007 by Paul Boag

Marcus is back and talks about what to do if a client doesn't pay. I look at clearing floats in CSS and we have Richard Rutter on the show giving us the lowdown on good web typography.

Download this show.

News and Events

Blogger's code of conduct

This week has seen Tim O'Reilly pushing hard for a code of conduct among bloggers following the vicious online attacks against Kathy Sierra. Although, like everybody else, I was shocked by what Kathy has been through and although I respect Tim's endeavors to change the current situation, I struggle to see what good a code of conduct will really do.

Tips for Bloggers

Tom Johnson has drawn together 20 principles for a successful blog based on feedback he has received from numerous top bloggers. If you are new to blogging or trying to revive a failing blog this article is definitely worth checking out.

120 Adobe Photoshop tips

Talking of tech tips, check out this superb document of over 100 things you never knew you could do in Photoshop. As a regular Photoshop user I was shocked by just how many of these I was unaware of. For example did you know that you could:

Straighten a crooked image using the measure tool?
Access key image function by right clicking the top bar of an image?
Modify the text on multiple text layers at the same time?

CSS Vista

The wonderful folks over at Site Vista has released a superb new tool that allows you to edit CSS files and instantly see the changes in both Firefox and Internet Explorer simultaneously. Very useful indeed although currently it is only available under windows.

Client corner: Resolving payment disputes

This week Marcus answers a question from Dan in Texas. Dan has a client who hasn't paid and so is asking whether he should take their site down or not.

The core of Marcus' approach is to ensure good dialogue with the client. He covers the idea that prevention is better than cure by establishing clear contracts up front but then looks at what steps can be taken if things do go wrong. We also when this happened to us at Headscape and how we resolved the dispute.

Marcus also broadens the discussion to look at it from the client's perspective. He investigates when a client should withhold payment and how this should be discussed with the web agency.

Ask the expert: Richard Rutter on web typography

Richard Rutter is one of the three founders of Clear:Left and is passionate about typography. In fact he is so passionate that he has produced a practical guide to web typography which is freely available at webtypography.net. He therefore seemed the logical choice to introduce us to the basics of using typography on the web.

Agony Uncle: Clearing Floats

I got sent a question by Dan in Texas ages ago and I promised him we would tackle it on the show. Unfortunately I totally forgot about it until I read this recent article by Robert Nyman a couple of days back. Dan was asking about dealing with floats in CSS and how to ensure that the parent of a floated item contained it. This was exactly what Robert was talking about in his post and so I have shamelessly used his thoughts in the show to answer Dan's question. Thanks Robert ;)

Review: Question Form

I am a great believer in giving users the chance to feedback their thoughts on a site. However its not always that easy. Online forms and email are hard to collate and all of the survey services I have found online in the past are crap. However, recently I came across a site called Question Form which really does stand head and shoulders above the competition

It is incredibly quick and easy to put a survey together
It provides a painless user experience to the user
You have complete customizable control over how your form looks
It provides excellent statistics as well as access to individual responses
It offers alerts of new responses via email, RSS and even SMS

The basic account is absolutely free and the pro accounts start from as little as $10. If you are thinking of adding a survey to your site then you should definitely check these guys out.

If you fancy trying a form out then take a second to complete the boagworld podcast survey.

Show 75 Script

In last week's show I posted the rather muddled notes I use when recording the show. This was to make up for the less than perfect show notes I provide here. This idea seemed popular so here is my script from this week's show.

Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

Post by matt northam on April 17, 2007 11:32 AM

Is it just me or has the link to 120 Photoshop Tips gone missing somewhere(?)

Hidden within the 'cast perhaps..? Listening to find out..
Post by Remy Sharp on April 17, 2007 11:53 AM

Photoshop tips url:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2162/120-Adobe-Photoshop-Tips
Post by Peter Bennett on April 17, 2007 3:15 PM

Im just about to Listen to my very last podcast of the day, ive caught up with all of the ones sofar (i think) ill be back in touch with the lowdown as soon as i finish listening

regards

peter
Post by Peter Bennett on April 17, 2007 4:01 PM

Great Podcast as usual! Wish I had my pc up and running at my new place with my music editing software on. How long is the contest on for I need new speakers :)
Post by Jonathan Snook on April 17, 2007 4:38 PM

CSSVista isn't new and still has a fairly major issue when editing local CSS files that are in the same folder as the HTML file -- that is, the files get deleted. Otherwise, it's pretty neat.
Post by Gerard McGarry on April 17, 2007 10:41 PM

Hi Paul: Was this episode of the podcast sponsored by Dan in Texas by any chance? :)

I must think up a few questions for one of your future podcasts. Like how does one get started podcasting?
Post by Pete4Shapes on April 18, 2007 1:32 PM

In this month's MacUser there's a feature on audio and video podcasting. Might be worth a read, I haven't done so myself yet but I could highlight some of their advice if you're Mac based?
Post by Mark Bryant on April 18, 2007 6:40 PM

You guys are awesome and my new heroes. Thanks for the great podcasts.
Post by Aaron on April 19, 2007 10:14 AM

I was listening to Paul bemoaning the fact that he is bad with things like HTML entities.

A reason for turning certain input into html entities on a form or in something like a CMS system is for security.

This obviously means that when people use a form to enter content on a website it should be automatically "entitized" for you. Thus it saves you worrying about it.

It should be entirely possible to add a filter in such systems for dealing with the long dash as mentioned on the Ask an Expert section.

So obviously the problem of entities not being coded into the content can be bypassed by using such a system that should be used in most CMS's or Blog systems as a matter of course.

Of course you can use simple CSS techniques needed for print versions of content vs. screen content.

I have a question. When you may convert your sites content to something like PDF what type face do you use? Will a PDF be mainly used for printing or will it be viewed on the screen? Of course I in general agree with Richard Rutter and use a serif face for printing and sans-serif for screen. I'm never quite sure how to handle PDF's though.
Post by Paul Mycroft on April 26, 2007 10:59 PM

Hi Marcus,

In my client-signed contract, I clearly state:

After 90 days, MY COMPANY will reclaim the work until payment has been received. A temporary Home page will be put in place.

. . . .

Unfortunately, letting the client know that you are going to pull their site down, say in 2 weeks, can lead to them either backing it up (so they can repost) or denying you FTP access. I had a client repost a site.

I tend to email them up to 60 days then call up to 90, and if I do not get paid after that... the site comes down with an Under Construction page as per contract.

They usually do not read the fine print so it can come as a surprise but you are usually in the right so can negotiate payment.

Hope this helps.

Paul
Post by Dennis on May 2, 2007 3:00 PM

Thank you Richard Rutter for explaining the difference between a hyphen and a dash! That's my pet peeve too...Marcus, thank you for clearly stating that a site should come down if a client doesn't pay. I may be in that situation now? Anyone know of a good American collection agency?!
Post by Ben Hayes on May 7, 2007 2:34 PM

Interesting podcast. I agree that keeping up the dialogue is the single most effective way to stop things getting nasty.

I remember reading that pulling a client's site for non-payment is risky because it could open you to being sued. For example, if the site is an e-commerce site and they argue that the amount of revenue lost is greater than the amount they owe you for the design work. Is this just bogus?

Also, following on from what Paul Mycroft said, if the client has a direct relationship with a third party hosting service for the site, then I agree that letting them know you're going to pull it would just prompt them to remove your FTP access. What's your thoughts on that? Could you be accussed of hacking if you break into a client's server to remove pages they have not paid for?
Post by Paul Mycroft on May 7, 2007 3:16 PM

To Ben Hayes,

Some good points from you, which are worth another comment from me.

You have to judge each project on an individual basis. If it's an eCommerce site, I would not pull the plug; I would rely on more human contact to resolve the issue plus I SHOULD have already received 70% of payment before launch (according to my current contract). I only pull the site down to get the final 30% if it was started from scratch and therefore, I owned all the files and the client had defaulted. Nine times out of 10, people will scream then pay when this happens but you'll lose a client (so what?).

If I have added on to a site and the costs are relatively small (e.g. a few hundred), it's not worth the hassle to pull a site, especially as you only own the files you updated!

Again, I stress getting paid for 70% of the work BEFORE LAUNCH; that's 40% to start the project then 30% for pre-launch.

And no, I don't believe you are hacking when you are reclaiming files you own, outlined in your contract.

Hope this helps the community. Stick to your guns and protect yourself, people!

As Citizen Smith once said... does anyone remember?
Post by Felicity Evans on May 22, 2008 11:01 AM

You guys are living in the PAST because the comments are dated 2007, it's 2008 where I am but I am in Australia...

As for pulling sites, the threat can be just as effective as the action. After being told the cheque was in the mail (literally), months after a site had been delivered I wrote a carefully worded letter.

Instantly I received an email saying that the money had been transferred to my account, and that they would cancel the cheque they had written. It never did arrive...

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