RE: WSIWYG Editor Recommendation 4 Client Updates

training hours are always billable. Hell, I have a friend who doubles his
hourly rate for the initial discovery meetings. This has had an AWESOME
affect for him. When the client calls him in for a meeting they've got their
stuff ready and their wants and needs are well thought out. It saves a lot
of time and the clients are more prepared, he makes money, and his job is
easier for it.

You can even charge for phone calls. Or rather, you should charge for phone
calls -- as long as they aren't bug related and therefore your fault. If
it's a bug that they created, then yeah, bill them for it. Billing for phone
calls is great because they don't call you for useless issues, when they
call you it is for something tangible and again, they tend to think things
through much better before they call you if they know that they are paying
for the call. Phone calls should be billed in half hour increments.

Damn I ramble a lot.  I could be totally wrong. This is just based on my
experiences of the last 7 years...

- andre

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
[mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org]On Behalf Of michael mckee
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 10:04 PM
To: hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
Subject: Re: WSIWYG Editor Recommendation 4 Client Updates


Hi all,
This discussion has gone on to the price of products but I believe there is
on crucial point to make.

Dreamweaver and GoLive are great web production products and getting better
all the time. I've used them both and like each for its strengths. However,
and this is a big consideration, giving such tools to people who are not
really interested in learning the nitty gritty of html is a recipe for
disaster. Sooner or later your client is going to break the site. Maybe it
will be an unclosed table tag. Maybe it will be 12 layers of nested tables.
Maybe it will be something else but it will happen. Maybe they'll get hold
of an old copy of FrontPage and have it rewrite your code during download.
Maybe Dreamweaver will put in spacer gifs that make the layout table 2500
pixels wide. Am I paranoid? You bet. But then I've seen these problems and
more.

If you are going to turn a site over to a beginner either expect a lot of
phone calls and/or a lot of non-billable time teaching. You and your client
will be better served if you buy, build or open source a content management
system (CMS) and install that on the site for the client to use.

Content generation and posting by non-technical people is what these systems
are all about. Some are very, very simple, just a couple hundred lines of
code. Some are huge and cost a bundle. They can all make your job much
easier and your client's life exciting. That's right, exciting. Remember
that first moment of making a web page and knowing that you had published to
the whole world? BTW you can even customize a web store app for content
management.

If you have to let your client edit the code directly some sort of
concurrent version system CVS is crucial. Basically, that's a program that
keeps track of multiple versions of software, sites, etc. Then when, not if,
your client breaks their prize site, you can have an older, working version
to fall back on. If you don't want to get quite that fancy, make periodic
back-ups of the site, even if you aren't currently working on it. You simply
can't count on the client doing so despite cajoling, threats, bribes, or
pathetic pleading. Doing so will take time but will make a client loyal for
life when you can upload a working site for them.

Also, consider the fact that most people have little design sense or
knowledge. Even if the client doesn't immediately break the site you sweated
blood over, she or he may very well add some "cute little touches" that will
make you sick to see. Your carefully thought out color scheme will suffer
melt-down with a bunch of smiley faces and pink hearts thrown in. Shudder
over the possibility that your client will discover how easy it is to
download and insert animated gifs, EVERYWHERE. More subtle, but still scary,
how about if that exact shade of blue you set for the links is what the
client decides to use for emphasis without linking to that text? How is your
usability then?

I have only had three clients who absolutely insisted on doing their own
upkeep, one with Dreamweaver, and two with FrontPage. All three of them have
had to pay me to fix their sites. They have all made a hash of my carefully
designed layouts. One, I installed a CMS for and she is so happy that she
never has to do html again. On another of those sites I've removed all
mention of my design company, it's become so bad. The third? Well . . . She
tries, and I'm always glad to help somebody who is honestly working to
learn.

In this instance paranoia is a good thing.
    best, michael

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