Webmaster Papers








Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?


This is a growing concern amongst many business owners. Does your web design company own you? This may be possible if you've allowed them to host your web site for you and also register your domain name for your company.

Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. I refer to this as "False Power". The sad reality is that most of their clients don't even know they are stuck in this potentially painful predicament. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the "client" wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering.

Here's what usually happens to so called "traitor clients":

- Current web design company sends their client a hefty bill for switching

- The web design company cancels their client's account

- They may point the domain name to another place

- They sometimes take down the entire website until further notice

You get the point! Too much power is given to the web design company. I truly believe that it is your right to shop for better prices and it is your right to own your domain name even if you didn't have a hand in registering your domain name.

As the owner of the website, you put your trust into your web design company to represent your business appropriately and honestly, only to find out down the road that honesty isn't in their vocabulary.

I truly believe there should be a law against web design companies that can be summarized as such: For any domain name registered by the web design company on behalf of their client, the domain name may not be disputed or need to be disputed, the domain name is automatically owned by the client and is automatically bound by their web development contract.

With every new venture, there is always going to be loopholes. From the aforementioned example, what if there is no contract? If you are reading this and are in the process of searching for a web design company, please ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name.

See what most business owners fail to realize is that their domain name is as important as registering their business name itself. I will repeat that... Your domain name is "hot real estate", would you want someone else owning your property?

The same applies for your domain name. Don't get caught with your pants down while asking, why don't I own my domain name. It is as important as owning your own company name. There are people out there searching for suckers to take their domain name - don't be the one who gets caught!

How to avoid this "Power Stricken" disaster: The best solution is to go out and register your domain name BEFORE you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your "domain name registrant" in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose.

When searching for an "all around" package for your web design project, make sure that your hosting is suitable for your needs. 95% of all web design projects don't need a large hosting package that costs between $150-$500 a year. The most you should pay for your hosting in this case is around $100.00 a year, no more.

You only need a large hosting package if:

- Your web site is 1000+ pages in size

- You're going to buy traffic in the 1000's every month

- You need over 25 email accounts setup

Ask questions when shopping for a web design company! Here are a few questions you should be asking right away before you sign any contract...

- Do you provide a contract for all your projects?

- If you register my domain name, will it state in my contract that I own the domain name under all circumstances?

- If I am late making payments, is it your company policy to cancel the account?

- Why are your hosting services so high in price? Why wouldn't I go somewhere else for $100 a year?

- Does it state within your contract that I cannot switch to a different hosting company later on?

- Going forward, am I going to be able to hire any web developer for my website updates, if I am able to negotiate better prices?

This is another important note: Make sure your web design company gives you the "FTP (File Transfer Protocol)" access to your website. The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired.

In Conclusion: Be weary of web design companies that don't provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else.

I hope this article helps you out!

For more of Martins articles, go here: http://www.smartads.info/newsletter

About The Author:

Martin Lemieux
President of Smartads

International: http://www.smartads.info
Internet Marketing Tips: http://web-marketing.smartads.info
Business Related Tips: http://mindpower.smartads.info

Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article within your newsletter or website as long as the entire article remains in tact including the resource box.

RELATED ARTICLES


Free Webmaster Tools - 7 Things Every Webmaster Needs in Their Toolbox
Webmaster tools are vital to becoming both efficient and effective in your online efforts. The following are my picks for the top types of webmaster tools:
Build or Buy a CMS?
However, careful analyses often reveals dangerous pitfalls and serious short comings with many custom built content management systems.
How Your Own Website Helps Your Small Business Grow
What do you mean, you don't have a website for your small business? Now that the Internet age is well and truly upon us, small business owners who haven't yet realised what a well-designed website could do for their business are getting harder and harder to find. If you're one of them, though, read on to find out how starting your own website could help your small business grow.
Eight Deadly Web Site Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Creating and maintaining an effective presence on the Web has become increasingly complex and challenging as the power of the Internet as a marketing tool becomes more and more necessary to entrepreneurs and emerging businesses.
What Hosting Companies Dont Tell You, Could Hurt You?
Did you know that hosting companies overcrowd their servers despite all the issues caused by servers running hundreds of accounts? Are you aware of what happens if your website is hosted on a server that's overcrowded? You're probably thinking to yourself, "what do you mean overcrowd their servers?" Overcrowded servers mean big money for your hosting company, but also big problems for your website.
Optimal Website Design
Optimal website design is the art of logical navigation.
The Importance of Website Stats to You
One of the best tools you have as a webmaster is your website statistics. The most popular site stats programs are Awstats, Webalizer, and Analog. Usually, they come free of charge and are accessible through your website's control panel provided by your web host.
How to Maximize the Value of Every Visitor to Your Website
While most marketers are beginning to understand the critical importance of maximizing conversion rates, few are tracking or working to maximize another critical measurement of website effectiveness.
How To Get Your Customers To Trust Your Website
Research reveals three important facts:
6 Steps To Your Own Website
A lot of people these days are interested in getting their own place on the world wide web. Whether itīs a personal site like a blog, or a business site, they all need to have a decent plan before they get started.
Server Stats ? Analyzing Traffic To Your Site
Analyzing traffic to a site is a key factor in tweaking search engine optimization and marketing campaigns. Determining how people get to your site is critical. Surprisingly, few sites take advantage of the data available on their servers.
How to Get a Better Web Site ROI
Better Web Site ROI
A Network Of Web Sites Is Not Enough!
The big thing these days is your ability to capture the market. So how do you do that?
Content Management
More and more businesses are recognizing the importance of content management when it comes to their websites. Website content is more important than ever before, and as the Internet matures and changes, it is likely be become even more important. Many smart companies are beginning to make their website content the centerpiece of their Internet presence.
Planning Your Website for Success
Most people know they need a website in order to publicise and promote their business but very few people know what they want in their website. Fewer still are those who can actually sit down and plan their websites well.
The Road to Better Results
A lot has changed in the way sites are optimized for search engines since last year. For one thing, Google is not the only search engine worth looking into anymore; Yahoo has definitely managed to take away some of Google's oomph over the past twelve months. Another important change is that the intelligence of the search engine spiders and algorithms has increased dramatically. So without further ado, I will present you with a standard search engine optimizing process.
The Number One Reason Most Websites Fail
Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and every one of us. What one man treats as success another may view as failure. For the purposes of this article a website that fails is one that fails to attract and convert enough targeted visitors into paying customers. Yeah - positive feedback from your website visitors is great but let's face it - we're all in this ultimately to make more money.
How To Make Your Website More Successful? (Part I)
Building a website and getting it online is easy. Driving visitors to it is the more difficult part. Most people are not patient enough when it comes to build up traffic. They expect thousands of visitors a week after they go live with their website. But that is not how it works. We share some secrets of how to make your website more successful.
Building a Web Store on Shoestring Budget in less than Four Hours
Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as it used to be! Now, there are plenty of interesting business ideas that anybody can pick up from various Internet resources. Startup related cost, which used to deter many in taking action, has become negligible. Many people already started to notice this! According to a recent report GoDaddy has gained 294,368 new sites in just the first 5 months of 2005 while the top four domain registrars combined, including GoDaddy, have gained more than half a million. Mind it! This is not the quantity of domains registered, this is the quantity of websites hosting with them! This recent explosive growth means one thing. Online business is on the rise!
The Topic Of Your Website
The first thing you will have to deal building your website has nothing to do with the web design itself, it's me related to content writing but it must be defined and will effect the rest of your actions. So first of all you need to decide what the topic of your future website is. Topic is very closely connected to another web design issue: keywords. The keywords you select will depend upon the topic you have chosen. When thinking about website topic ask yourself a few questions: What is the goal of the site you are making? What are you trying to achieve with your site. Specify a goal, preferably in one short sentence.