Acceptable Practices of Reputable Web Providers

I must follow up "Dirty Tricks of the Trade" with this article. If you are unaccustomed to Web development and are a bit paranoid, it's good to know what's acceptable in terms of business practices in this industry. Here are some of which to be aware:

• If you ask for design changes after the design has been established, I can bill you for my time

• In the initial stages of development, I can charge you for additional concepts. Most contracts will limit design concepts to 2 or 3. A good designer should be able to establish a design in this range.

• Photos and images are not free and may cost you extra. All images must be licensed to be used on your Website.

• Professional writing is not inclusive of a Website.

• Hosting is a separate cost from Website development.

And what about those pesky contracts? They are meant to protect you as much as protect the Web developer, but they are only paper and expectations must be established before any contact is signed. While approaches to setting a customer's expectations may vary, it will generally take the form of a letter addressing the overall Website objective and a summary of the pages to be provided. Ideally, a Statement of Work is provided that supplements any contract by detailing the project scope, timing, costs and any additional functionality. ERS does Statements of Work for the larger projects; a letter summarizing the requirements of the project usually suffices for the smaller projects.

Payment schedules may vary, but generally Web developers, graphic artists and programmers require half down at the inception of the project and half at closure. ERS requires at least 90% of the payment 4-6 weeks after project inception, and the remaining 10% at closure if the project runs long due to a clients slow response, or client-requested changes that increase the project timeline. We have had a few clients take over a year to complete a project and as a policy we generally will not extend our hours over what has been paid to date. We make exceptions for established clients with whom long-term relationships have been established.

When is a project complete? Generally there is User Acceptance Testing period following the launch of your Website. This UAT period is generally 20-30 days and this is a time allotted for finding errors, typos, missing elements, etc. It's your responsibility to review and finalize the site during this UAT period. The UAT period is important to the developer to because it brings closure to the project. If the customer discovers a typo a year later, the developer can legitimately charge you for maintaining the site. ERS will generally make small, one-off corrections like this gratis. Others may not be so kind.

Maintenance: Maintenance programs vary; different levels of recurring fees are charged for fixed hours of maintenance. There are also a la cart (e.g., as needed) maintenance programs that allow you to pay by the hour. If you choose a la cart maintenance, understand that hours are sold in units; therefore if you request something that may take 30 minutes, don't expect to pay half the going rate.

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