Website Whisperer Website Whisperer

Why Hire a Professional?

Here’s a little story often told but worthy of repeating.

In a factory downtown, a complex machine had stopped working shutting the entire assembly line down. Every hour that went by, the company lost thousands of dollars.
After many hours of trying to get the machine working again, the plant manager decided to call in a professional.
When the professional arrived, he walked around the machine, looking at the dials, buttons and screens. He then pulled a hammer from his tool belt, and with one swift and precise smack of the hammer – the machine whirred to life.
Pleased, the manager thanked the professional and asked him to send an invoice right away.

When the invoice arrived, there was one line item charge:
Machine repair: $1,000.

The manager immediately called the professional and demanded to know why hitting the machine with a hammer should be worth $1,000?!
Being the professional, he calmly revised the invoice.

The new invoice arrived with two line items:
Hitting machine with hammer: $10.
Knowing where to hit the machine: $990.

As I said, this story has been told many times, and I don’t remember where I heard it, but still rings true.

One more thing. A quote from a very wise man about professionals.

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait till you hire an amateur”  - Red Adair

Signs You Hired The Wrong Website Person

You know you hired the wrong website guy if he:

• Says “But it looks fine on my Windows 98 machine.”
• When asked why it’s taking so long, answers “Hey, it took Picasso 3 years to paint the Sistine Chapel.”
• Put his own website in his portfolio – I mean a thumbnail picture of the very website you’re already looking at. Don’t laugh, I’ve really seen this!
• Does websites along with auto repair and asbestos abatement.
• When you ask about SEO, replies “I can probably get you one of those.”
• Came recommended by someone related to you.
• Is related to you.
• Has trouble speaking English or you have trouble speaking Hindi.
• Loves Microsoft.
• Has a beeper or FAX machine.
• Thinks Drupal is that one drag queen, Rupaul.
• Came recommended by your mother. (No disrespect intended)
• Is your mother. (Again no disrespect)
• Says “Yeah, I put a ram in my hard drive, I think I can make websites now.”
• Has an online degree.

Everybody and his brother says that they can “do websites”. So, when you’re looking for a website builder, beware. While there are some true webmasters out there, there are a lot of people out there who are either under qualified, inexperienced, or straight-up charlatans. The list above is a light-hearted look at some things that should make you question the qualifications of your web guy, below are more serious things to watch for. If ANY of the following are true, RUN!!

• He filled his portfolio with pictures of stock website templates. I’ve seen this as well. Luckily these are easy to spot. If you look closely at the names of the companies in those photos, you’ll see some thing that doesn’t look right. There’s no company called “Global Company” or “Company Name Here”. This is an obvious attempt to fool you.
• Hosts websites on a server in his garage or apartment. No serious webmaster has his own server. There are too many problems that can occur, like power outages, Internet connection problems, his cat chewing on cords . . . There are companies that specialize in just providing hosting for webmasters. These companies likely have on-site diesel power generators, big fat Internet connections, redundant backup systems, and  network engineers and operators working around the clock .