Abland
|
Hi,
This is more a community question than specifically Artisteer, but I'm most familiar with the people on this board.
I was just interested in some insights from other developers. I see the business of web development as being supported by Designers, Marketers, and Programmers. In one form or another - whether actual persons or wearing different hats - the three are involved.
My primary skill is Programmer, and I think these types are precision minded and not easily adaptable to sudden or ongoing fluctuations and changes - those changes create a stress environment.
Designers and Marketers, in my opinion, are more at home with change (especially Marketers) so the environment is more natural, whereas precision may create for them a stress environment.
There are, of course, other differences but I just added what seemed an obvious from my viewpoint as a Programmer.
So if my generalization of three supports sounds reasonable then, short of burn out, tantrum, substance use and abuse - how do others adapt effectively within the diversity?
|
| |
speedyp
|
Hey Abland - Great question 
My main strength / background is in advertising, and I've drifted into design / web design (more creative possibilities than a sheet of paper and lower budget than a TV ad).
Would never think of myself as a progammer, but am enjoying learning enough to get by & what questions to ask others with more knowledge.
Variety is the spice of life so I embrace change. Each new project brings new challenges. I am normally freelance / self-employed, so often find myself being the salesman, client manager, lead web designer, graphic designer and copywriter.
I cope like you suggested, with a large amount of substance abuse (mostly red wine in my case) and by putting in very long hours. And by teaming-up with other freelancers when the opportunity arises.
|
| |
techtom
|
Hi Abland,
Even though I can Program, Design and Market I tend to enjoy the programming end of things much more and am better suited for it then design.
I tend to agree with your overall assessment. I think this is why larger design firms have departments for each of these areas instead of one person with many caps. I find just staying up to date on the programming changes and advancements alone can be time consuming much less staying fluent in designing and marketing.
Over the last two years and especially this last year I have switched my business around a bit. I now focus more on picking up freelance programming work. As far as design goes I have found a niche market to work with and have pretty much dropped out designing web sites for just anybody. I also for the most part build only Wordpress sites.
The nice thing with building niche sites is that once you design a few you have everything you pretty much need for any of the others. Most of my sites do not vary a lot in over all design unless specified which makes building a new site quite easy from a already existing template. This limits the amount of effort you have to devote to creating new designs.
I am also able to work with pretty much the same plugins and include the same social features, sliders, options on all the sites. Again this makes it much easier to put together a site install your plugins and set up options and features you have already created and tested. Much faster and less headache.
Overtime I have also created a nice residual income from hosting and varies sites which helps quite a bit also.
You are quite brilliant at coding from what I have seen on the forums Abland. I am sure you would have no trouble raking in freelance programming work if that was all you wanted to do.
|
| |
Dave
|
Great question, and I wish Artisteer had a forum just for business side issues.
I'm not as proficient in coding and "hardcore" things as TechTom and you, but I can create a custom theme, set it up with WordPress, train, eCommerce, write content, and so forth and do most HTML and minor CSS and some Javascript. I have yet to meet a client whose work I could not perform.
The problems have been in finding clients who can pay, are willing to pay, know what they want, and have legitimate businesses (as opposed to hobbyists and perpetual tire-kickers). Other issues have been how to handle the process of getting the information needed from people to determine if they know what they want, have realistic expectations, and so forth.
I think it's incumbent of most web professionals to partner with PR and marketing professionals in order to develop a steady stream of real, screened clients. Where I live, in Denver, most "developers" are younger ladies who work in marketing divisions of local companies and simply resell Genesis/Thesis/Headway templates out of coffee shops and then leave as soon as some text is typed in and they're paid.
I desperately want to get away from the people who have broken or hacked sites or drama from having worked with these template vendors, tire-kickers, cheapskates, and hobbyists and get to decision makers at real businesses. I tried doing just WP web design full-time and nearly went broke. I'd get 3-4 clients one month and be fine, and then have nobody for 3 months after that. For every 100 ads on Craigslist placed I'd get one or two legit clients.
The marketing is the issue. The clients don't understand the "how" aspect and are not truly interested in learning WP unless they can know everything in one hour or less and think any kid in a basement can just push a button and magically create a website. I met with one potential client who actually said "I know web design is easy because I see the click and drag thing at Vistaprint and Godaddy. So it should be easy, quick, and very cheap."
Business and marketing is where I need the help more than anything.
|
| |
Unglood
|
Here's a couple of things that made me ponder - pertaining to Abland's poignant observations...
Not that I know much about anything but, these two links made me think. I like that!
Happiness is diversity.... (Marketers, Designers and Technical types )
Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce!
http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html
and
Getting out of the "Bill-by-the-Hour" rut..
http://www.cannonbeachlive.com/cdn/breaking-the-time-barrier.pdf
|
| |
Dave
|
Downloading the video so I can watch it tomorrow.
Love what I read so far of the ebook.
|
| |
MikeC
|
I'm going to answer your question but let me first explain one thing: personally, the lesson I've learn being in the business since pretty much the beginning of the web is that you really can't do it all. You can't do it alone. If you try to do it all yourself, you will eventually fail.
To truly be successful, you need 3 people or maybe types of people as a core:
Sales/Marketing
Programmer
Designer/Graphic Artist
With my business, I have it broken down a little differently:
Designer/Project Manager (me)
Sales/Marketing (sometimes me and an employee)
Programmer (employee)
Graphic Artist/Photographer (subcontractor)
I've rarely seen anyone who's a great programmer and any good at sales or marketing. Or a great sales/marketing guy that can program. Most people just aren't wired that way.
Long ago, I use to be a one-man operation working out of my home. I took that big step and got an office and hired people. Since then, I broken through that "income ceiling." I'm now signing up more clients per month, get bigger clients (medium-sized businesses) and I've increased my billings per client by almost 100%! I've also doubled what I charge for hosting. My top hosting client pays me 10x more a month than my average price.
Let me also say, I've gone through my fair share of people before I found the right team. I once hired a sales guy that didn't last a week.
So, to finally answer your question, you're able to adapt to diversity by having diversity with the people you work with. If everyone has a specialization, they can keep on top of the changes better than one guy trying to learn everything. And that's going to bring you success
|
| |
Abland
|
Hi,
Excellent insights. Thank you all.
I just got to reading them last night as about an hour after my first post the town I live in got devastated by a flash flood.  Been a wild week and the entire town is locked down - everybody out.
|
| |
speedyp
|
Flash Flood 
Hope you & yours are OK.
|
| |
Jesuis mamaman
|
Quote Abland:
Hi,
This is more a community question than specifically Artisteer, but I'm most familiar with the people on this board.
I was just interested in some insights from other developers. I see the business of web development as being supported by Designers, Marketers, and Programmers. In one form or another - whether actual persons or wearing different hats - the three are involved.
My primary skill is Programmer, and I think these types are precision minded and not easily adaptable to sudden or ongoing fluctuations and changes - those changes create a stress environment.
Designers and Marketers, in my opinion, are more at home with change (especially Marketers) so the environment is more natural, whereas precision may create for them a stress environment.
There are, of course, other differences but I just added what seemed an obvious from my viewpoint as a Programmer.
So if my generalization of three supports sounds reasonable then, short of burn out, tantrum, substance use and abuse - how do others adapt effectively within the diversity?
Source text
Even though you are a programmer, your mind flow is really like a flood, people here are right. You must learn thinking as a nerd or tech. Bottomline, quit philosophizing and start coding on Android!
|
| |
OsaTW
|
Ha ha that sounds hilarious. He doesn't seem to be a talented programmer, so I don't know if I would trust him developing my Android apps. Look, I wanna make a small app for webmasters. I think I need to use https://androidbughunter.com/ to search for any possible bugs before I make too many mistakes. I really don't want people to laugh at me. Am I right?
|
| |
|
|