Re: Advertising (Hopefully List Appropriate)

Maybe I can bring a little something to this thread, as I have been on the
RECEIVING end of one of these solicitations.

My main concern is my clients and their websites.  I do not actively pursue
design jobs, but spend countless hours taking care of my "family" as I call
them.
Above and beyond that I have my own little cluster of sites, that I have for
pleasure or whatever you want to call them.

One of these sites, was actually thrown together real fast with the
expectation of at some point I would redesign it right.  So it is very
bland.  But it is growing pretty good, and that in itself keeps me busy.  A
while back I received a note from a fella who made a few comments about the
site, and how it was nice and all, but had I ever looked at how it fell
apart at 1280 x 1024?  Then went on to say he specialized in sites that were
designed for large resolution and all that.

Well, since I try to watch this on clients sites, I dont' with my own.  They
are my playground of sorts, and so I do what I want there.  I went in and
looked, and the only thing I could see that happened at that resolution was
one graphic split off and was isolated by itself.  Big Deal.  I played and
played, and found that it would be too much trouble to worry about that one
graphic.  Then I went to his sites.
I wasn't impressed at all.  Then I thought....Who cares if it falls apart at
that resolution, you can't read the text that small anyway.  I certainly do
not think that the majority of users, would travel the net at that setting
anyway.  So I dumped his email and dismissed him, and thought "What Noive!"

I didn't consider this as spam, only someone looking to snatch a design job.
A poorly devised attempt at that.  I also had a designer contact one of my
clients, and just flat out tell her that her current designer was doing a
"cra**y" job.  She had just hired me so the site was from the original
designer!.  I wasn't offended at all, since I knew it wasn't me that they
were referring to, but she was offended.  She was livid that someone would
write to her and insult her site in that fashion, whether she paid a
designer or not.

On the other hand I have been contacted by other designers, that would like
to outsource specific skills.  Those are the ones I keep and bookmark.  If I
get one, and I did the other day, and they are offering a skill that would
enhance my work, without competing with me, then I am more than happy to
provide them with work.  I do keep a list of designers on hand.  People or
companies I have hand picked that do certain things.  I refer clients often,
so it is important to me to know whos hands I am putting them into.

Gee as of late, things have been slow, and I bet I get more email from big
design firms looking to help me with my overflow, than from new clients!  I
have to laugh, that is telling me something really important!!!   But that
is another story, so I won't go into that.. :-D

The short of it is.. if you are going to do this, make sure your very
tactful.  Dont' point out problems, just tell that person, what skills you
can bring to them and how they would best serve their website.  Just
remember, some are very touchy about thier sites, and may not be receptive.

Nancy

> >What you suggest, I absolutely would send to the abuse@ISP and
> >Administrators of a website (after looking up who that is on a whois
site).
> >What you are suggesting will usually have your domain host pull your
site -
> >no questions asked. It's called SPAM
> I would highly disagree if the intent is to provide a site help by
> specifically pointing out problems that you experience with it. A
completely
> generic e-mail, no, but something individualized, where you're specific
> about the content/layout of the site, I would see no problem with
> additionally making yourself available as the person who could clean
things
> up. And as I've said earlier, I do think it would make a world of
difference
> if your actual work is good or not. It would be silly for someone with a
bad
> site to be the one suggesting that they can make someone else's site
better.
>

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