The Paid Open Source Part 1 – Understanding the Deceitful Business Model
You have succeeded at a lead and the clients wants you to build a website. That’s great. But,How should you proceed? What do you basically need to know before you commence the website building part?
Here, we have defined the process of information gathering from a client. Check it out and keep them in mind when the next time you meet your client for a smooth and all-inclusive questionnaire so nothing is missed and also eliminates the possibility of asking and re-asking same questions. Create a professional impression from the beginning.
1. Website Type
The very first question you should be asking to your client is what type or kind of website does he wants to build. Is it a social site, eCommerce site, business site, combination of business plus eCommerce functions, corporate sites, etc. There are around 20 types of websites a client could ask for. So, first of all define what type of website does he need. Also, today the world of websites have grown to a level where any website wouldn’t fall strictly in any of those 20 types. Instead, it would be a convergence of two or more types creating a website as businesses and people require more and more functionalities and facilities on their websites to make them comprehensive and useful.
So, ask explicitly what type of website do they want to build with what type of functionalities in it.
2. Target Audience
Target audience is automatically defined as soon as you know what kind of website you are making. Yet, it is necessary to define the target audience and demographic explicitly. For instance, an eCommerce website on its initial level would want to focus online on a city, state or a country. In that case, the website design process should be designed according to the targeted state or country.
Another example is a philanthropic site. For instance, the website is generating awareness for the starvation. Now, is the organization is generating awareness for a single part of the world at its initial stage or the organizations has grown enough and covered all the parts of the world? If it is just focusing starvation in africa, the site content and images are written and designed focusing on African starvation problems. If the awareness is for worldwide starvation problems, the content and images and site map would include many countries, regions, states, governments and other related entities into it. It would be a very intricate site with so many details and attributes.
Every type of website needs to determine its target audience as it defines the website structure, graphics, content and marketing strategies. So ask clearly, what target audience they have in their minds.
3. Budget
Budget affects every part of the budget. From the website designing, back-end frameworks and software, marketing strategies, SEO, servers, content, technologies, and every other process. We can plan the whole procedure and its elements according to the allocated budget. If the budget is large, great back-end processes could be built up, aesthetic and designing elements could also be better than the projects with lower budgets. Sufficient budget would allow a site to run uninterruptedly and can have a good marketing strategy.
You can also prove yourself as an honest businessman by advising your client to have an appropriate amount of budget. If he is having way too high budget for a simple site, he should be informed before the deal is done. Or if the budget is insufficient (as good eCommerce websites generally comes with higher budget), you can’t further without informing them.
4. Time
Any client needs his website to be done in the quickest time with best output. And every website developer tries to do that as it suffices the customer and gives themselves more time on other projects. Some clients could come with short time on hand i.e. promotional websites, in which having a website was decided on last minute. In such time-concerning situations, the priority is to launch a good-enough website than emphasizing too much on aesthetics or other factors. In eCommerce websites, there could be a date decided by the investors. So, ask if the website should take its own time to develop or they have a deadline.
5. Content
Will they need to update website regularly with new content? Do they require a content writer for blogs? What type of content do they need? Will the content management will be basic or intricate which will define the self-editing or requiring a developer/programmer for the content management. It will also decide what type of Content Management System would the site require.
6. Requirement of Related Services
If the client have sufficient budget, you can offer to provide related services for the website i.e. regular content, SEO services, online marketing services, hosting, etc.
Sometimes clients know very basic about website development and aren’t aware of the related services a website can have for better website exposure. You can explain every service and make them understand their importance if the client is ignorant about them.
These were the five things you should clarify on the first meeting after the client have decided to create a website. Most of the things you need to know will be covered. The new questions will arise during the website development process.
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