There are some fairly simple tasks you might prefer
to do yourself, and there are some things that are probably
better done in-house, including:
* Domain registration. This is an easy thing
to do. If your designer is charging you a lot for
domain registration, smack him. A lot of designers
have a preferred service, and they may do it pretty
quickly for you. The advantage to doing it yourself
is that you’ll always get those helpful renewal
notices.
* Content development. If you have good in-house
writers, or a marketing department that insists on
a particular focus, you’ll probably do a lot
of the content development in-house. If there is a
lot of content on the website, especially if it involves
area expertise, you’ll probably want to do it
yourself. Some firms have good writers on staff, and
writing for the web is a somewhat specialized skill,
of course. RP AXIS has expertise in both areas. Other
design firms don’t really understand English,
however. If the design firm’s site is poorly
written, you certainly should not trust them with
yours.
* Hosting. At RP AXIS, we prefer you host
through us. However, many of our clients already have
hosting arrangements, some are required to use servers
in their facility. We can certainly work within these
arrangements. If your web design firm offers hosting,
it may be convenient to use them, as they are probably
more familiar with the features, problems, compatibilities,
and idiosyncrasies of their system.
* Logo, images, and graphic design. Perhaps
you have something in mind, or maybe you have a well
developed corporate identity. It’s your website,
it should be something that makes you happy. On the
other hand, you are paying the design firm because
of their expertise. Many things that look cool to
the untrained eye will come across as amateurish to
someone who isn’t already acquainted with your
company. Consistency is important, though. If you
have an image, your designer should work to ensure
that website works with that image.
* Website Maintenance.Once your site is done,
it’s tempting to do the updating yourself. Actually,
this can be set up pretty easily by your website developer.
A small site can be updated using a simple program
such as Macromedia’s Contribute. Larger sites
can be built on top of a robust content management
system such as Zope/Plone. (This site is built on
Plone). What you want to avoid doing, unless you are
a developer, is making modifications to the html yourself.
Simple mistakes can cause very strange consequences
that may not be easy to fix.
