Saturday, March 22, 2008

How Not To Get Web Design Profession

I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a partnership I could pass these onto. So I situate an ad on a freelance site. It specified the programming qualifications needed, stated that the successful candidate should have acceptable English, and was for companies only. The replies I got were enlightening. So much so, I made a list of things applicants did wrong. Here it is. I should location gone I was initially prepared to give everyone a fair go. After the first twenty-odd emails, my attitude changed. I was looking for reasons to delete applicants. I only needed one successful one; with 100 replies it was getting to be a headache, so I decided a brutal approach was needed. 1. Failed to interpret the spec. Many applicants couldn't record properly in the English language. Many were individuals only. Result: instant deletion. 2. Failed to location the spec's criteria. Applicants bragged about how great they were. Many copy-and-paste
d sample marketing guffs about 'solutions' and 'partnerships' into their emails. To engage anyone's interest about a proposal you necessitate to talk less about yourself and more about the benefits to *them* of using you. One of the first things I learnt about applying for jobs is you entail to demonstrate how you meet the criteria in the job description; see if you can find the employer's wavelength. 3. Lots of jargon. You quickly tune this out. Anyone dealing with web companies probably gets a quota of this. Applicants should talk to the client about *the client's* site and *their* needs, and avoid techno-babble. Write an application letter. Leave it for a while, then edit it. Brutally. Short punchy sentences, no guff. Talking convincingly about how you can constitute the client money would be an attention-getter. 4a. 'Coming soon' client-listing pages. You claim you've done duty for lots of clients, then assign up a &
#039;coming soon' sign on the web leaf where your client list is supposed to be. Hmmmm. 4b. 'Under construction' pages on your collection web site. This looks bad; something you'd see on an amateur's site. Another goal to bin your application. 4c. Only lay up pictures of sites you've done, rather than links to the actual sites. I'd have liked to see some working example sites. Pictures can be faked, and they don't display background programming. 4e. No mention of your main web site URL. Let us guess where your own site is (if you have one). It's more fun! I tried guessing from the email address. After a while I didn't bother. 4f. No hyperlinks at all. Just a short email spiel saying "I am great designer, hire me". Next! 5. Using Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com for your email address. A pro designer shouldn't exercise a freebie email residence service. Basic web hosting costs $5 a month these days. I can conceive that a we
b designer might utilize a freebie account for some special purpose, on the other hand your own domain reputation is a basic advert that goes away in each email you send. Full text: http://computerandtechnologies.com/computers-technology/news_2008-03-22-22-15-03-918.html

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