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Sometimes its hard to know in advance what you will need for your website. The following attempts to distinguish your needs and what you might expect in services. In these scenarios you already have a site and need something from it or to it...
You won't be collaborating very much in this scenario. You won't want to learn any of the fine points of plugins, javascript, programming, seo nuances or any stuff that might get you dirty. You won't be directed to videos showing how to utilize the menu systems or how to write you Unique Selling Proposition. You can however wave a wand at our services and expect the above to happen without you. You point, we drive. However , we may still want to know your USP, your thoughts about your business, and answers to our Client Questionnaire.
You can expect a lot of teaching in this scenario. You want to know all about how the web works, how your site works, where to go for more resources when you have had enough of my talking in your ear or over coffee. You want to get your hands dirty on your own website and learn how to manage it on your own, so eventually you will be completely weaned off of web designers, web programmers, and seo consultants. In this scenario you want to know what is going on under the hood of your expensive ( not necessarily) website, and you want another pair of eyes on you as you go about under the hood fixing your website.Like NASA you want another pair of eyes watching you on your keyboard, so if catastrophe strikes, someone ( HSS ) will be there to make it right.
In this scenario you have said you wanted new copy every now and again ( weekly, monthly) which you provide for us to put on your site. Just so you know this is good for SEO for your site. You want new photos on the site every now and again. You want new links, or a few odds and ends finished from the last designer. You don't necessarily want programming or new functionality overall, but you want security, backups, the occasional minor tweak that sites are prone to. You want peace of mind knowing if catastrophe strikes your host you have a backup plan, and a restoration plan. You want insurance. This is the plan for that.
In this scenario you want new functions added to the site. Perhaps it is a registration form, or a new forum where you are leading discussions and are the moderator on your field of expertise. Perhaps you want a function fixed that was broken. Perhaps you want a new slideshow on the home page, or a bit of interactivity added to a new form, mathematics and computations added, a new pay pal button or you want to sell a product using a gateway. Perhaps you want the site moved to a new host. These are all things that belong in this category, Development. Something brand NEW or MAKING IT NEW. As you can see the list is endless for this scenario.
Obviously mileage varies, and you might find yourself gassing up for just a maintenance scenario and midway decide to become a development type. Yes that happens. Three months into your maintenance agreement you might have some NEW ideas about what you want. In that case perhaps we can offer a tweak agreement! Yes we have that that. If this happens a lot perhaps this falls just short of recreating your site with more strict ideas of scope and web site recreation, & we wouldn't know what else to do but charge fees for this sort of work. The abuse of the maintenance agreement also falls into this category. If a client had just a maintenance agreement, but decides to call, email, or otherwise pester us into using the tweak agreement, then that indicated a miscommunication of sorts. Or its just a tweak agreement in the first place. As always, communication is key to finding out first what was needed. Somebody forgot to fill out our Request Forms or neglected to mention it.
I hope I have achieved what i wanted from describing these scenarios. When you see yourself in one of these scenarios or need to discuss them please feel free to call. You are under no obligation and your first consultation should help you better understand your goals.
