How To Google?

I thought this was an interesting post. It's a must read if you want the best out of Google! I didn't know that I was already in the top 10% of searchers by just using Control+F... Dang... as web consultants use that everyday!

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/11/you-google-wrong/59013/

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How To Price Your Design Services

This is one of the dilemmas that business's face especially for businesses in the web development/ design industry. So how exactly do you price your web design services?

It's no secret that pricing can be difficult. However a little due diligence on your part could help make you determine the right price to charge your client.... I mean you're reading this for a reason right?

So what do you do? Or the better question, how do I do it?

Factors To Consider?

There are multiple factors to include when charging a client. These factors can include your skill, time, creativity, the type of project, experience on the job, competition, and the list goes on.

Don't Charge Too Low!

What is important is to never charge low. I'd rather charge high a price any damn day. The worst thing about charging low is the impression you make. If you charge too low in any business, this could express that you are low quality designer or a bad photographer. In the design world, the value of the price will make an impact on what clients will think of you so have the pride and confidence and also a beautiful portfolio to back that up. As a tip, I usually put a pricing page on my site that will give a client an idea of how much I will charge... e.g. development and design starting from $1000~. Then I link the pricing page to my portfolio to show some of my works. I italicized some in the previous sentence because I don't want my competitors looking at all my works.

So What Is The Right Price?

The price is always up to you. But remember that it is always nice to charge a client enough but not too much that it will scare the client away. Also, no one wants to charge too low that you will lose out and not make a profit. A rule of thumb of mine is to never charge a client a price you're not willing to get out of bed for. The higher you charge, the more likely you will do a better job with the motivation that comes with it. Trust me!

Mistakes Will Happen... That's Natural!

Although I always try to charge a price that is fair to both me and the client, sometimes I have a feeling that I'm losing out. This to me is a natural part of the pricing process and  the best thing to do is to learn where you went wrong instead of cursing and regretting the final price you have made.

Don't Forget The Competition! 

The competition is nothing to be scared of. Actually, I like having competition because it drives my team to be better and stronger! But then what if their prices are very hard to beat? I know some people drop their prices to match their competitors but to me this is WRONG. Every designer is different.

So if I charge $2,000 for a web project while a competitor charges $600 then wtf do I do?  You need to show what makes your service better and really worth it than your competitors. You need to show a real plan or case studies if you already have clients doing better than before using your line of services. Also, you need to understand that if the competition is charging low, you need to find an effective reason or answer how they are able to sustain their business. Such questions I ask "what is the quality of their work, do they outsource to a low labor paying country, do they live in a country where the standard of living is low, do they have investors/sponsors, or do they work part time, and etc.

Find Faults Against your Competitors And Use That To Justify Your Price!

The good news is that there are many faults to look out for... The even better news is I will share an example I found of how some web development companies will  charge dirt cheap to make a site but have clients pay insane amounts for so-called " web maintenance fees". Many developers surreptitiously rip off their clients by charging insane amounts of money for monthly hosting and updates and to me, that's how they make their real money (at least where I live). If you look around, ホームページリニューアル制作　or hosting isn't really that expensive and in reality, most clients don't even update their sites everyday. Actually, in today's web 2.0 world, clients should have the ability to update themselves if they wish.

No Surprise That There Are Clients That Pay $300+ for Simple Websites

 So why do clients have to pay something like $300 a month for up-keeping fees.  In reality, complex sites that run for news agencies or sites that have thousands of visitors a day should pay that amount. So let the potential client KNOW. Better yet, let your rival's client know!

Because of these insane fees I took advantage of these non-sense pricing and used them to my advantage. Thereafter I had a good amount of clients transfer to me after explaining how much they are losing out on "maintenance" fees that their developer/ designer is charging them and I explain to them  that the most amount of expenses that you will incur if you hire us is the work we actually do... not for monthly maintenance... WEBコンサルティング or a Digital consulting team and I then go all out and bring better online marketing performance results than my rivals... not to mentions I only charge a fraction for maintenance fees to keep my clients site running.

So as a reminder, be smart when you price. Learn from the mistakes you make and use your competition to make you look better and price what your work is really worth! Don't be sucker!

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The Top 3 Software Web Designers Use

Although the usage of software varies among many talented web designers, here is a list of the best 3 software we use when developing a website.

1. Adobe Dreamweaver
2. Adobe Photoshop (for web graphics)
3. FTP Software such as Filezilla.

Please note that professionals can use anything to get a web site started. It's sort of interesting when looking back because in the beginning when we first started, we used MS notepad. Then as our budget increased, we got dreamweaver.  After Dreamweaver, it just went on to infinity!!!

Why I use these software for web design?

Dreamweaver is pretty cool because it has an array of set features that make certain codes preset and ready to use.  Also, in Dreamweaver, you have the option to see code view or the design view which really helps when designing a site.

Photoshop is probably the ultimate software for creating digital art. As the name implies, it is an image editing software. It can be used to create web graphics as well as edit photographs. What makes photoshop essential to designers is that the software provides countless tools for designers to make anything they can imagine. You can literally create anything or manipulate an image using this software!

Filezilla is an FTP software we use mainly to upload files to our servers. You need to have the files on the web because what good will a file do if it stays in the computer? In order for a file to be online on the world wide web, it has to be placed in a web server. A good FTP program like filezilla helps get the job done with relative ease!

To see sample of some of the sites we've made, check out our services, website and our custom blog portfolio page.

Time is Money... Use Chrome

According to Google benchmarks, the Chrome Google browser is 26% faster than it was last year.

Time is money and for people working in the web development/ web design industry, a slow browser is just another headache.

 I mainly use Firefox for heavy web development work. I use Chrome for email browsing, research, and typical web surfing. Although I prefer Chrome's speed over Firefox any day, Firefox has a huge arsenal of plugins that developers/ designers use.

I just appreciate the fact that now we have the ability to choose among top quality browsers!

For Japanese version of this blog, check out Kumidia's official SEO page or HP!