Topics: Process: Business
Surviving and thriving as a freelancer, employee, or small web business owner. Laws affecting web content and web business. Business basics and growth strategies. Working with clients and consumers. Web marketing and search engines. (68 articles)
Getting Clients
by Mike Monteiro
Issue 348April 10, 2012
Co-founder of Mule Design and raconteur Mike Monteiro wants to help you do your job better. From contracts to selling design, from working with clients to working with each other, his new book from A Book Apart, released today, is packed with knowledge you can’t afford not to know. A List Apart is pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from Chapter 2 of Design Is a Job.
Pricing Strategy for Creatives
by Jason Blumer
Issue 343January 31, 2012
Strategic pricing helps your brand and helps you to make more money. Issuing a price is like handing out a business card—it’s a great branding tool, but be careful about what it says to your market. Beginning relationships with customers at a high price makes the statement: “we’re good at what we do and we know it.” Fighting with a competitor over a low price says “I’m uncertain about my abilities, so I’ll take what I can get.” Failing to use a considered pricing policy will leave you treading water in a sea of design mediocrity, allowing you to just stay afloat while you sell commodities. Jason Blumer explains how to become strategic about your pricing—including three things you can do immediately to kick-start your journey toward strategic pricing.
An Important Time for Design
by Cameron Koczon
Issue 342January 17, 2012
Design is on a roll. Client services are experiencing a major uptick in demand, seasoned design professionals are abandoning client work in favor of entrepreneurship, and designer-co-founded startups such as Kickstarter and Airbnb are taking center stage. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that design has a massive role to play in the evolution of the web and the next generation of web products. The result, says Cameron Koczon, is that designers have now been given a blank check—one that lets web designers band together as a community to change the way design is perceived; change the way products are built; and quite possibly change the world.
Being Human is Good Business
by Kristin Smaby
Issue 334September 6, 2011
Customers aren't shy about shouting their experiences—good and bad—to the world via Twitter and Facebook. When you see customer service as a cost center, you risk treating customers as a liability. Yet, customers are a valuable resource: their feedback is integral to shaping your product and building your brand. Customer service, by definition, is about serving people; it should be genuine, personalized, and compassionate—or, simply put, human.
RFPs: The Least Creative Way to Hire People
by Greg Hoy
Issue 330July 5, 2011
If you work in any kind of service industry you’ve undoubtedly come across the Request For Proposal, or “RFP.” The RFP process has become a standard by which organizations solicit competitive bids. It attempts to level the playing field and minimize bias by holding everyone to the same requirements—no special treatment, no rule bending. In return, the organization issuing the RFP is able to select a vendor by comparing apples to apples. Alas, in practice, RFPs are the least creative way to hire creative people. The rigidity of the process, and the lack of meaningful dialogue makes this little more than a game of roulette. How can we successfully navigate the heartburn-inducing RFP process? And what can we as an industry do to turn RFPs into the exception rather than the default means of hiring an agency?
A Modest Proposal
by Nathan Peretic
Issue 330July 5, 2011
Comedy is easy, proposals are hard. Even the toughest creative pros cringe when it’s time to put one together. Yet doing so is essential if you want to keep your doors open. A compelling proposal requires more than a jumble of clichés and a nervous estimate of costs. It needs structure, organization, and joie de vivre. Fortunately, you can provide that structure, no matter how complicated the final proposal needs to be. Learn the key questions every client needs answered—and how to use them as the basis of a proposal that convinces your client you’re the right team for the job.
Conversation is the New Attention
by Christopher Fahey, Timothy Meaney
Issue 326April 19, 2011
Baby's got backchannel! If everybody at the conference is staring at their Twitter stream instead of at the person who's doing the speaking, maybe the speaker should meet them halfway. Migrating speaker presentations to the backchannel can empower the audience while enabling the speaker to listen carefully to their responses. The broadcast model of presentations is dead! Long live the conversation model.
Findings from the Web Design Survey, 2009
by ALA Staff
Issue 315October 5, 2010
The findings are in from the survey for people who make websites. Once again, we have crunched the data this way and that, figured out what the numbers were telling us, and assembled the sliced and diced data-bytes into nifty charts and graphs for your edification and pleasure. As in years past, what emerges is the first true picture of the profession of web design as it is practiced by men and women of all ages, across all continents, in corporations, agencies, non-profits, and freelance configurations.
No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas
by Whitney Hess
Issue 311August 3, 2010
You can't create what clients need when you're too busy saying yes to everything they want. As a user experience designer, it's your job to say no to bad ideas and pointless practices. But getting to no is never easy. Proven techniques that can turn vocal negatives into positive experiences for you, the client, and most importantly, the end-user include citing best practices and simple but powerful business cases; proving your point with numbers; shifting focus from what to who; using the "positive no"; and, when necessary, pricing yourself out.
Kick Ass Kickoff Meetings
by Kevin M. Hoffman
Issue 311August 3, 2010
Too many kickoff meetings squander the busiest, most expensive people's time reiterating what everyone already knows. If every meeting is an opportunity, why waste your first one? By asking stakeholders tough questions before the kick-off, and using the meeting itself to explore ideas and build relationships, you can turn a room of mutually suspicious turf battlers into an energetic team with shared ownership of the end-product and the kind of bond that can sustain the group through the challenges ahead.
Training the Butterflies: Interview with Scott Berkun
by Liz Danzico, Scott Berkun
Issue 301February 23, 2010
Whether it’s in front of a huge audience or a handful of executives, smooth public speaking is essential to a successful web design career. Yet most of us are more afraid of speaking in public than we are of death. In a lively give-and-take, Liz Danzico interviews Scott Berkun, author of Confessions of a Public Speaker, for tips on how to prepare for public speaking, how to perfect your timing, and what to do when bad things happen.
The Survey, 2009
by ALA Staff
Issue 298December 15, 2009
For the third year in a row, good citizens of the web, we ask that you take a few minutes to tell us about your professional skills, educational background, career prospects, job benefits, and more.
Letting Go of John Hancock
by Bjørn Enki
Issue 297December 8, 2009
Because clients expect everything to be faster, better, and simpler, web professionals must take an instant, foolproof, paperless, modern approach to how clients approve proposals and sign contracts. Implementing an instantaneous contract agreement helps to get projects off the ground, attract clients on tight timelines, and prevent potential delays. All it takes is a little PHP and some PDF magic.
Getting to No
by Greg Hoy
Issue 294October 20, 2009
A bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.
Erskine Design Redesign
by Simon Collison
Issue 289August 4, 2009
In a mere two years, Erskine Design grew from two people working at home into a full-fledged agency of eight, working with major clients. Their website needed to better reflect their achievements, abilities, and team strengths. They also sought to improve the quality of data collected during client inquiries. Simon Collison explores the agency’s thought processes, and the decisions they made as their own client.
Findings from the Web Design Survey, 2008
by ALA Staff
Issue 281April 7, 2009
If we, the people who make websites, want the world to know who we are and what we do, it’s up to each of us to stand up and represent. This year, 30,055 of you did just that, taking time out of your busy work day to answer the detailed questions in the second A List Apart Survey. Find out what we learned about our profession and ourselves.
The Details That Matter
by Kevin Potts
Issue 277February 3, 2009
We no longer lay out pages with composing sticks and straight edges, and design is no longer a trade position requiring a lengthy apprenticeship, but an eye for details is every bit as important today as it was in the early days of graphic arts. Learn the habits of successful designers, who think critically as well as creatively, and who see the forest while never losing sight of the trees.
Getting Real About Agile Design
by Cennydd Bowles
Issue 273December 2, 2008
Agile development was made for tough economic times, but does not fit comfortably into the research-heavy, iteration-focused process designers trust to deliver user- and brand-based sites. How can we update our thinking and methods to take advantage of what agile offers?
Writing Content that Works for a Living
by Erin Kissane
Issue 271November 4, 2008
Most web copy is still being written by people who aren't writers and don't have time. The good news? Anyone who touches copy can make a difference by insisting that every chunk of text on the site do something concrete.
Working From Home: The Readers Respond
by Our Gentle Readers
Issue 270October 21, 2008
We asked. Our gentle readers answered. In A List Apart No. 263 we inquired how you walk the blurry line when you work from home. Here are your secrets—how to balance work and family, maintain energy and focus, get things done, and above all, how to remember the love.
The Survey, 2008
by ALA Staff
Issue 264July 29, 2008
Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.
How Do You Walk the Line Between Work and Home? Share Your Best Practices With ALA
by ALA Staff
Issue 263July 15, 2008
Tell us how you overcome isolation, distractions, and temptation. How you deal with kids and deadlines. How you walk the blurry line between work and home. Share your best practices on working from home so we can present them in an upcoming issue of A List Apart.
Walking the Line When You Work from Home
by Natalie Jost
Issue 263July 15, 2008
Working from home as a freelance contractor or remote employee can be a great thing, particularly if you live alone. But what if you have a spouse and/or children at home with you while you work? Every work environment offers distractions, but those who work from home with their families face a unique set of issues—and need equally unique ways of dealing with them.
Collaborate and Connect with Subversion
by Ryan Irelan
Issue 262July 1, 2008
Managing subcontractors and distributed projects is easy and fun. No wait, that's a lie. Luckily, a good version control may be just what you need to keep your projects on track.
Why Did You Hire Me?
by Keith LaFerriere
Issue 259May 20, 2008
Landing a new job or client is difficult in this economic climate. Undelivered contractual promises and work environment shortcomings can transform that challenge into a long-term nightmare. Keith LaFerriere shows how to get paid what you're worth; how to fight for control of your projects using management tools corporate cultures respect (even if they don't understand your work); and how to tell when it's time to jump ship.
The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome
by Pepi Ronalds
Issue 259May 20, 2008
Clients love to write copy. Well, they love to plan to write it, anyhow. On most web design projects, content is the last thing to be considered (and almost always the last thing to be delivered). We’ll spend hours, weeks, even months, doing user scenarios, site maps, wireframes, designs, schemas, and specifications—but content? It’s a disrespected line item in a schedule: “final content delivered.” Pepi Ronalds proposes a solution to this constant cause of project delays.
The Rules of Digital Engagement
by Jonathan Follett
Issue 252February 5, 2008
Jonathan Follett takes another trip down the "the long hallway":http://www.alistapart.com/articles/longhallway, looking at ways to collaborate, communicate, and manage conflict in virtual space.
Findings From the Web Design Survey
by ALA Staff
Issue 247October 16, 2007
In April 2007, A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the survey’s 37 questions, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide. Working with statisticians, we spent the next months crunching raw data into meaningful findings. Here we present what we have learned about our powerful yet little-studied profession.
Get Out from Behind the Curtain
by Sarah B. Nelson
Issue 245September 11, 2007
Client input: positive process or creative noose? Many designers would probably say the latter. But it needn't be that way. Adaptive Path's Sarah Nelson shows how to create collaborative work sessions that take the clients' needs in hand while leaving creative control in yours.
Design by Metaphor
by Jack Zeal
Issue 243August 14, 2007
Sometimes the best way to understand a client's needs is by comparing their project to an existing site or service. The site should feel "like eBay" and work "like Expedia." But what do such comparisons really mean? Learn to master the metaphor while avoiding unrealistic goals and expectations.
Stand and Deliver
by David Sleight
Issue 237May 8, 2007
You've got thirty seconds to sell your work to the well dressed nemesis who's paying you. Handle the next few moments gracefully, and the project will be one you can be proud of. Flub an answer, and you can kiss excellence goodbye. Are you prepared? Can you deliver?
The Web Design Survey, 2007
by ALA Staff
Issue 236April 24, 2007
People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Let's do something to change that. Presenting A List Apart's first annual Web Design Survey.
Where Our Standards Went Wrong
by Ethan Marcotte
Issue 233February 26, 2007
To validate or not to validate; that is the question. A List Apart's own Ethan Marcotte helps us to re-examine our approach to standards advocacy and how we can better educate our clients on the benefits of web standards.
How to Plan Manpower on a Web Team
by Shane Diffily
Issue 218June 20, 2006
Just how many people does it take to properly manage a website? It depends on the website. Shane Diffily explains how to figure it out.
The Four-Day Week Challenge
by Ryan Carson
Issue 216May 9, 2006
Constantly stressed out? Not enough hours in the day to get things done? Ryan Carson has a theory: your problem is too much work time, not too little.
Design Choices Can Cripple a Website
by Nick Usborne
Issue 207November 8, 2005
Do you test your designs? If not, Nick Usborne wants you to take responsibility for your design choices and the very quantifiable effect they can have on websites that are built for business.
Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia (or Build a Website for No Reason)
by Greg Storey
Issue 205October 10, 2005
If you don't know what the website you're working on is supposed to _do_, it's going to be really hard to succeed. Greg Storey offers a simple web strategy development process for everyone.
Web 3.0
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 210January 16, 2006
Web 2.0 is a fresh-faced starlet on the intertwingled longtail to the disruptive experience of tomorrow. Web 3.0 thinks you are so 2005.
Educate Your Stakeholders!
by Shane Diffily
Issue 237May 8, 2007
Who decides what's best for a website? Highly skilled professionals who work with the site's users and serve as their advocates? Or schmucks with money? Most often, it's the latter. That's why a web designer's first job is to educate the people who hold the purse strings.
High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization
by Andy Hagans
Issue 207November 8, 2005
It's no coincidence that search engines love highly accessible websites; in fact, by designing for accessibility, you're already using effective search-engine optimization techniques. Andy Hagans explains yet another reason to pay attention to accessibility.
When You Are Your Own Client, Who Are You Going To Make Fun Of At The Bar?
by Jim Coudal
Issue 201August 22, 2005
Should your blog have a business? Jim Coudal shares insights into the adventure of transitioning from client services to product creation.
Use Cases Part II: Taming Scope
by Norm Carr, Tim Meehan
Issue 196March 2, 2005
The use-case model can be a powerful tool for controlling scope throughout a project’s life cycle. Because a simplified use-case model can be understood by all project participants, it can also serve as a framework for ongoing collaboration and a visual map of all agreed-upon functionality. Use it to plan, to negotiate, and to prevent scope creep.
Better Invoices for Better Business
by Kevin Potts
Issue 186August 10, 2004
Invoices that obfuscate information, incorrectly state terms or arrive incomplete can be a massive headache for all parties. Strategic timing and attractive presentation are also important, as they can help “soften the blow” by making your invoice seem less like a stale demand for money and more like a friendly letter.
The Problem, the Balloon, and the Four Bedroom House
by Joe Di Stefano
Issue 177April 16, 2004
Without a problem, there is no project. Where there is a problem, however, there is a stakeholder who is desperate for a solution and who has a delivery deadline — which is normally sometime yesterday. Find out how a good process can tame even the most unruly project.
A Fairy, a Low-Fat Bagel, and a Sack of Hammers
by Nick Usborne
Issue 162November 7, 2003
Never underestimate the importance of words on the web.
Starting a Business: Advice from the Trenches
by Kevin Potts
Issue 161October 30, 2003
Did that last “fire your boss” spam push you over the edge? Do your wish-fulfillment dreams revolve around letterhead, legal entities, and avoiding arrest for tax evasion? If you’re crazy enough to start your own business, Kevin Potts wants you to learn from his mistakes.
Using XHTML/CSS for an Effective SEO Campaign
by Brandon Olejniczak
Issue 159September 1, 2003
Improve your search engine ranking by harnessing the benefits of well-authored XHTML and using CSS to boost your code-to-content ratio.
The Long Hallway
by Jonathan Follett
Issue 236April 24, 2007
In the virtual conference room, no one can hear you scream. Social networking enables knowledge workers like us to build virtual companies with no office space and little overhead. But can we make them succeed? Follett dissects the skills required to create, manage, and grow the virtual firm.
This Web Business IV: Business Entity Options
by Scott Kramer
Issue 152October 13, 2002
You’ve mastered Photoshop, Flash, CSS, PHP, ASP, XHTML and JavaScript; studied usability, accessibility, and information architecture; and can fake your way through XML. But there’s more to running a web business than that. Part Four of a continuing series.
Getting Paid
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 134January 18, 2002
As businesses struggle to stay in business, many are short–changing vendors or woefully delaying payment. Zeldman laments the difficulties of getting paid.
Nipping Client Silliness in the Bud
by Robin (roblimo) Miller
Issue 116July 6, 2001
Slashdot’s Robin (Roblimo) Miller could write a book about web clients’ mistakes. In fact, he’s writing it now – but he needs your help.
CSS Talking Points: Selling Clients on Web Standards
by Greg Kise
Issue 116July 6, 2001
Selling your clients on standards-compliant design doesn’t have to hurt. Kise's four-point CSS Selling Plan helps the medicine go down.
The Client Did It: A WWW Whodunit
by Robbie Shepherd
Issue 114July 15, 2001
Shepherd on the fine art of telling bad clients to buzz off.
Cheaper Over Better: Why Web Clients Settle for Less
by Adam Schumacher
Issue 114July 15, 2001
Schumacher investigates why clients hire bad web designers — and what good web designers can do about it.
The Road to Dystopia
by Chris Kaminski
Issue 105April 13, 2001
Now that greed, pride, and stupidity have wrecked the web economy, how’s a semi-idealistic web developer supposed to make a living? Chris Kaminski hitches a ride down the road to dystopia.
This Web Business III: Selecting Professionals
by Scott Kramer
Issue 102March 23, 2001
In part Three of his series on running your own web agency, Scott Kramer shares tips on hiring the right accountants, attorneys, and other consultants and institutions.
Web Designer and Proud of It
by Chris MacGregor
Issue 100April 2, 2001
Professional web designers do not “do” web page design, we practice it. Web design is not a merit badge to be added to your uniform in scouts (but the way things are going it is probably not far off), it is a career choice that demands continual growth and serious dedication. We continually work at improving our skills and techniques, learning how to use new tools and mastering the old ones. To elevate our profession from the perception it has now to the esteem that it deserves, the gap between the professional and the amateur should be evident to the casual viewer.
This Web Business II: Getting a Loan
by Scott Kramer
Issue 97February 3, 2001
In Part 2 of his series on running a web agency, Scott Kramer discusses the ins and outs of securing a business loan.
Breaking out of the Cubicle: How a Small, Swiss Company Got its Groove On
by Makiko Itoh
Issue 97February 3, 2001
In the mid-1990s, Makiko Itoh and her partner left New York’s cubicle land for a web shop of their own in the suburbs of Zurich. Learn from her tips on running your own web agency.
One Boy’s Life: Surviving the Dotcom Blitz
by Nick Finck
Issue 95January 19, 2001
A boy, a job, and a floundering economy. Nick Finck tells his personal story of hirings and firings on the cusp of the dotcom crunch.
Survivor! (How Your Peers are Coping With the Dotcom Crisis)
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 95January 19, 2001
It’s ugly out there, but how bad is it, really? We asked 40 colleagues to share how they were coping (or not) with the layoffs and business failures plaguing our industry.
Rolling the Start-up Dice (A Survival Guide)
by Marlene Bruce
Issue 92December 10, 2000
So you want to work for an Internet start-up company. Bruce and Moyer show you the ropes.
This Web Business
by Scott Kramer
Issue 85October 20, 2000
Web designers do not live by GIFs alone. In this new series, Kramer explains how to set up your business, prepare for projects, maintain profitability, and grow your firm. It all starts with a solid business plan.
Time to Close the Web?
by Alan Herrell
Issue 61April 28, 2000
Focusing on presentation at the expense of content, and invasive money-making schemes at the expense of everything else, designers must take some of the blame for the trashing of the web. Herrell wonders if it’s time to call it a day and close up shop.
Clickthru Is Evil II
by Alan Herrell
Issue 55February 25, 2000
Ten years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the web. Five years ago, advertisers started discovering it. Now they are poised to wreck it. Double-Click’s poison cookie has Alan Herrell foaming at the mouth as he explains why Clickthru is Evil.
The Money Page
by Alan Herrell
Issue 40November 5, 1999
Low tech, high yield: A funny thing happened on the way to the shopping cart. One Web designer found a simpler way to make e-commerce pay. Alan Herrell shows you The Money Page.
*Can’t find what you’re looking for? View all topics and subtopics »
9(unknown*no*no*0)&guid=ON){kind=small}
