5 Reasons Why I Don’t Finish Your Website

Nobody wants any kind of work ‘heng up’. One of the first questions I’m asked even before a client financially commits is how long would it take to finish their site. My response is usually “given my current workload, 6 to 8 weeks” I’ve never, NEVER, in my ‘career’ of web designing, finished a site within the time-frame I promised.

You’re Trini. Have you you ever hired someone to do a job for you, say on your home, and the guy starts after you pay him some money, and eventually you begin to see less and less of him till he disappears? He doesn’t answer his phone, and if you run into him by chance, catching him off guard, he’s always coming ‘next week’. I’m sure it’s happened more than once too.

Well it’s the same thing with me and my clients, except it’s the other way around. Client’s pay me their deposit and THEY disappear! And despite my pleading and begging, coaxing, even threatening (I’ll explain how before the end of the article), many sites I start, languish in perpetual ‘coming soon’.

Why, WHY!!??? From my personal and still ongoing experience, I’ve narrowed the reasons to five.

Everyone knows and understands that the term is ‘build a website’, That term didn’t come by accident as the digital process is analogous to construction in the physical world. And it’s funny how close the analogy goes, almost identical: plan, foundation, frame— you know it all I don’t have to tell you.

And like construction. there are some inputs that aren’t really required directly from you- steel, bricks, sand, cement etc. But there are some inputs that absolutely have to come from you: paint color, tiles, bathroom fixtures, lighting etc. You won’t tell the contractor to ‘pick something’; you go get it yourself and then he installs it.

Zis caantent you speak of, vat eez it? Content is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very paragraph. You can see it when you look at your company brochure or on your desk when you go to your office. You can feel it when you talk to your employees… when you listen to your customer… (with apologies to The Matrix…).

Plain and simple, content is everything you want to tell your potential customer about:

• Who you are
• What you do
• Why they should choose you

In words and pictures, it’s really that simple, and yet getting it is like pulling teeth. Most companies just can’t find the time to organize their information into a structure and format optimal for the web. That’s because they’re not prepared for what it takes as a lot of it has to do with getting their thoughts into type, and that sort of thinking is not so easy.

Skkkrrrrrrkkkkks… mash brakes right there. I’ll do anything for your website, but I can’t do that, and with a touch of melodrama, I can’t… I won’t.That’s not me being lazy, or me passing the buck, or not doing my job. Because it’s just NOT my job, and for argument’s sake, even if it was, it’s not something I can do.

I wish I could, but it’s not possible to take your list of your services, main headings only, and make up my own descriptions. Website pages will remain empty and scanty if there is nothing to put in them.

I can only guide you on how to gather and compile your info, but I’m afraid it can only come from you. Your website should reflect your voice so your visitor can connect with you. I always tell clients to explain to me why customers should choose them, then I sit back and listen to them passionately tell me why. When they’re done, I say ‘write exactly what you said‘.

I normally speak directly to the owner or directors of the company. Most of the time they’ll assign a staff member as my point person but manage the content compilation personally. I’m okay with that, but then both the owner and the employee get busy with day to day operations that the website gets pushed to the backburner.

It’s great to delegate but sometimes all roads lead right back to you if you have to approve information. Sometimes it’s lack of information, like no pictures of past projects or even descriptions, or product images, or the image quality is terrible (often the case).

Sometimes staff get caught up doing their ‘regular’ jobs. If you’re like most companies in Trinidad & Tobago, more time is spent putting out fires and keeping your head above water, so you don’t have the luxury of devoting much time to that internet thing. Eventually everyone will get around to it… eventually.

I build a website in stages and try to maintain a continuous feedback loop so that the site moves ahead to subsequent rounds of revisions, updates while adding new content. All the time, the site is continually being refined.

Even though I use templates and start by switching out demo info with you own, the final site always looks different from the demo. That’s because I configure a site for inbound marketing with conversion in mind. The demo template is a useful starting point only to hit the ground running. After that, the site has to be configured to meet YOUR objectives.

I do what I think is necessary to a point, but there are many elements that require your input. Sometimes it’s content- text and graphics, sometimes it’s look and feel- colors, animations, effects, use of features etc.

I normally bring the website to a reasonable condition then ask for feedback. I don’t start and go all the way to the end and say ‘here, I’m done’. So I don’t waste my time and yours, I need your feedback for continual refinement, and if I have to wait then…

I want your site to finish even more than you. One reason is that I always have new website projects being started and to be effective and efficient with my time, sites have to be cycling through the new and completed stage. Another reason is that unfinished sites kill me financially as I don’t collect balances till the sites are complete. Forward Multimedia is a business just like yours.

While this should be a trade secret I have no qualms about telling you. You ask for a timeframe, you get it, you delay, well then you’ve blown your deadline. Again, it’s that simple. If content keeps coming at a steady clip, then your site is at the forefront, it’s top of my task list, I have the momentum working at the back-end, the site comes together faster.

Once I have to stop, and the trail starts going cold, I start new sites, and unfortunately, your site gets pushed to the back of the line. Can you blame me?

When client’s meet me and size me up, they know I’m not going anywhere. I’ve threatened to not finish sites but I can’t really do that. I want to finish your site, and I want it to work for you, That’s why you chose Forward Multimedia in the first place.

My next article will give you the guidance you need to start collecting and curating your content even before you call me. Hopefully we can neutralize the above situations before they happen.