06 Dec 10 Questions To Ask Your Web Agency
No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself.
Because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee.
“ But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. ”
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising.
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10 Questions To Ask Your Web Agency
I put together 10 simple questions to ask your web agencies you are choosing to build your website [for small to medium size projects].
If they get a few of these questions wrong, that’s ok. This is just a way to get a real sense of what you are dealing with. If the agency gets as many as 5 of these wrong or more, and they are being honest with you (that is another issue), you just have know that you are more likely to have some issues or problems. So, just deal with the pain if you know this going in. You often get something cheaper when you spend less!
How am I coming up with these questions?
Well, I am a partner in StartupPOP (http://startuppop.com), a startup web agency, based in Boca Raton, Florida. We do everything from startup business plans to websites to ecommerce sites to running startup pitch events. Here is a link to our next event on December 8th in Boca Raton:
Free Tech Start-Up 3 Minute Elevator Pitch Event in Boca Raton on December 8, 6pm
This event is free till Friday November 20th. After that date, it will be $5. And after December 4th, it will be $15…www.meetup.com
If you are about to hire a web agency to create a website for your small to medium sized biz or organization here are great questions to ask them:
1. Are you going to do the work yourself? Is it being outsourced overseas?
Just check to see who is actually going to do the work, because it could be assistant to the assistant. The best answer is they are going to do it themselves, but that is rare. We do it ourselves!
2. Do you know anything about online marketing? Does the work include design and copy?
Very simple question. In today’s world you need to really know something about online marketing to build websites! If they tell you we “just do straight up websites” that means they don’t know much about online marketing and you will suffer for it. We know a lot about online marketing.
3. Are you going to be building a custom system versus a platform like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Orchard, Kenitec, Squarespace, Wix or Weebly?
A full custom site means that everything was developed by this single company. Not custom just means that a platform or opensource software is used. Custom may sound cool, but for a small to medium size site it is more of a problem than an asset. I know many site owners who ended up at the mercy of the web development team, because they had something “different”. Opensource and other platforms are moving up in the world and some run the biggest and baddest sites out there. The HuffingtonPost.com runs on WordPress. 25% of the world’s websites are using WordPress for a reason. If there is absolutely nothing that is custom in your site and they say it is a custom project, well you have been warned.
4. How long have you been doing this?
Being younger does not make them cooler or better at making websites. If you are paying for quality, make sure you are getting it. 5 years is a minimum experience you need to hear. Trust me the 21 year old will claim he has done this since he was 16. That all may be true, but once again you have been warned about these short-timers.
5. Are you part of a larger agency?
The best answer should be no. Good question to ask, because larger agencies typically have a system to outsource the work to underlings who are less qualified. That’s how they make money. They get lower cost, entry level workers! The little people do the actual work! Who pays the price? You do!
6. Do you help me get listed on Google?
If not, then just know you have to hire a marketing firm. Best to find a web shop that can take care of this for you, especially if you get the answer “We just do straight-up web development”.
7. Do you have any references?
At least several examples of sites they have recently worked on would help. Not too critical, but at least you should have some idea of what they can do.
8. What do you think the purpose of a website is? How can my website help me specifically?
Simple question. If their answer seems to have a hint of “the purpose of making websites is to charge clients, then you should question their purpose!” Obviously websites are built to help get clients and distribute information, sell products and other stuff. If they don’t know this, then wow, move on.
9. Do I pay for everything up front?
No. Don’t do it. Preferred method is installment payments on a schedule. We prefer 40% upfront, 40% when the draft is delivered right before going live, and 20% after completion.
10. How do you compare price-wise and quality-wise with other teams?
You should know what you are getting. Is the team at the bottom, top or middle in terms of quality. You should more pay more for better work, not lesser work. There is a reason Indian, Colombian and Guinean (yes they do work) web firms are at the bottom price. Ukrainian, Russian and Serbian teams are right in the middle. American web teams typically cost the most for small to medium websites because they do a better job, period! That is not snobbery or bigotry, it’s just a reality. That’s because of the communications that is required between a customer and a web design team. It has been changing for quite a while towards parity where overseas teams are the same, but we are long far away from that day.
We do websites here at StartupPOP.com. We can send you a few we are working on right now.
Think about these questions and please contact us if you need a website? Just contact us at the email address below or for more information to get a quote.
Email us at dan@startuppop.com
Call us at 786–201–5123
Have a great day.
Dan Gudema
Web Development
Website Development
Web Design
