Working with a Web Marketing or Development Freelancer: Kickoff Post

Whenever I talk to a small business owner about online marketing I am constantly asked the same few questions (and statements*):

1. How much should a website cost? *(I know I can use a free template so why should I pay anyone to make one for me)
2. How do you find a good web freelancer? *(I need to trust them with my business and I don’t want to be taken advantage of)
3. Once I find a freelancer how do I manage him or her? *(I don’t know a lot about internet marketing or development so I wouldn’t know if they are actually executing on what they promised me?)

I decided to begin writing a series of blog posts to cover all of these topics in depth. My goal is to arm the small businessperson with all of the information needed to successfully find and manage a web freelancer.

Like hiring any kind of service-provider, knowledge is power. You obviously don’t want to spend all day researching and learning the business, after all you are hiring a freelancer to save you time and to gain his expertise. But, if you know the language of the business and the basic strategies involved you have a much better chance of having a successful relationship with the freelancer. The topics in this series will include:

Part 1: Setting Goals and Understanding the Landscape

Before building a site you should have a solid idea of why you want one in the first place. Too often small business owners simply throw up a site before they have an understanding of its purpose. I will explain

• The importance of setting goals for your site and creating a long term strategy
• Determining the value of your site
• Identifying your target customers and understanding their behavior

Part 2: Web Development Basics and Terminology

After determining the purpose of your site and the ways to gain site visitors we will move on to outlining and then building the site. I will explain

• The basic elements of a site – header, navigation bar, body, sidebar, footer, meta tags, additional elements
• The importance of wireframing your site before building it
• Site usability, following web standards, and understanding visitor behavior and flow on a site
• Creating a “call to action” to maximize site conversions
• The functionality you can build into your site and the amount of effort and cost that can be expected to build that functionality – CMS systems, site “widgets,” custom web development, etc

Part 3: Marketing Your Site

Now that you have a site up and running you should have a basic understanding of the options available to you when marketing it to customers. You should also have a way to measure success.

• The online marketing options – SEO, local marketing, PPC, display ads, affiliate marketing, social media marketing
• Why you need analytics to gauge your success
• Converting your visitors into paying customers

Part 4: Finding a Freelancer

Now that you have a general understanding of how a website is built and marketed it is time to find a freelancer to do the work. I will cover

• Where to locate freelancers
• How to determine which is the right freelancer for you
• Creating a project plan and determining milestones
• Determining what is a fair price for the work
• How to interpret a project proposal

Part 5: Managing the Freelancer

Even with the project underway there is still some management needed on your part to ensure everything is moving forward as planned. I will teach you

• How to ensure the work is being done properly
• The kinds of deliverables you should be getting to monitor parts of the project
• How to interact with the freelancer and ask questions without being annoying or distracting
• For the additional work that inevitably comes up in the course of a project, what is covered in the original proposal and what will cost extra

Stay Tuned!

I will be writing these installments over the next several weeks so check back for the updates. Or even easier, sign up to my mailing list to get emailed the updates (see signup form on the righthand side of this page).

If you are interested in retaining my internet marketing and development services or have any questions at all please contact me.

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