Joomla!® Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site

Chapter 1. I Want a Web Site and I Want It Blue — How Much Will That Cost?

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Understanding business strategy, web site strategy, and user strategy, and how they compliment and contrast with each other

• Understanding a target audience and how it helps shape the message of your web site

• Assembling a team to build the web site

If you're like me, you've been asked something like the question in the chapter's title more than once when talking to a potential client. How do you answer it?

• Do you offer them a package of services for a fixed price?

• Do you ask them whether they want a calendar, blog, or some other piece of functionality with that?

• Do you ask them whether they want to update the web site themselves, or do they want you to do the maintenance?

All these questions are reasonable to ask at a certain point in the conversation with your potential client. But a far better place to start is at the beginning. For example, I might reply by saying, "Sure, we can make it blue. But before we start talking about how the site will look, please tell me a little about your business. What do you do for a living?"

Why would I want to do that? If the client is telling me to set up a few pages and a calendar, what could be simpler? Charge the client and move on to the next one!

Many freelancers run their businesses just like this, and they do reasonably well in a reasonable economy. But as the economy gets worse, clients hold on to their pocketbooks more tightly. They want to know they ...