10 Reasons Not to Work With Web Design Clients

I often find that there are a large number of consumers out there who have no clue how the web design business works. Actually, most of them are this way. They tend to think we are cheaper than we are, or that we are willing to work for nothing more than a “designed by” link to benefit from the traffic. I also find that they tend to run away when you tell them how this business actually works because they want to find another “designer” who is willing to work on their terms. The following are my 10 reasons why I would never work with certain clients.

I come across “gigs” on craigslist all the time where the person seeking a designer says that his/her only compensation will be a link credit on the site.

Reasons why I will not do this…

A link is not a payment. I can’t pay my utility bills or buy food for my wife and kids with a link from your brand new website, to my website.
Link credits are traditionally required in the first place. When a web designer creates your website, he/she places a link credit in your footer that says “site designed by”. This is completely legal and in order for you to license a removal of such credit, you have to pay extra. So aside from you not wanting to pay for a website, you also want to get a free link removal from your footer. On top of this, the tiny amount of traffic that comes from such a link does not mean anything to the designer other than an inbound link. Someone actually clicking that link and paying for a web design is like playing the lottery.
This all comes down to you wanting something for free. Ask yourself. Would you go to work from 9-5 and be happy with your employer telling other people that you do good work, and that is your only payment? I don’t think so. Web designers should be looked at as a retail store. If you want the merchandise, you pay for it. Otherwise it would be stealing.

Fake intern jobs are an annoyance. Not only that, but they are illegal as well and anyone that comes across such a gig posted on craigslist or anyone else should report it to the department of labor.

Actual intern jobs will pay you something. Fake ones will tell you that you will get credits, and exposure. Avoid such gigs as they are companies that prey on students in order to get free work. I have never responded to such a post, but I have reported plenty of them.

Blatantly free web design requests are the worst. They actually tell you how bad of a financial situation they are in, and beg for a free web design by someone with a heart. I have even come across non-profits doing this. The problem in that case is that non-profits usually have money.

Another type that requests free design work are people who claim to be coming up on some big money because they are a signed recording artist, or someone with a huge business deal in place. The fact is that if they were that successful with their ventures, they would not have a problem coming up with a few hundred bucks for a basic website.

The notorious partnership scam. They tell you that they have the business sense, and investors lined up. They want to make you a partner in the company and tell you that you will make bank when they are huge.

I have to tell you, on occasion you can find a legit one that you can do some background research on. They provide actual stocks to you, and they can show you a business plan and other fact sheets to help make their case.

It is never worth it to donate your time for spec work if there isn’t some major factual evidence backing it up.

Unbearable clients are a huge issue for me. I hate clients who tell you how to do your job. If they knew how to do it, then why didn’t they just do it and leave you alone?

Some of these types of clients actually claim in their postings to be designers who just can’t handle all of the work they are getting, so they need someone that knows what they are doing to do it unsupervised. They are actually people who thought it would be a great idea to start a web design business, even thought they knew nothing about web design. They outsource their work because they fail to do it themselves and have reached the deadline.

Arguing over small things like your payment methods, or the fact that you require details of the website to be planned out ahead of time so that there are no surprise delays or costs is just unacceptable. I had a client one time that I was doing seo for. I was with him for a long time, and every single time that the invoice was sent, he would argue with me. He wanted more and more rankings, and he also wanted me to convert sales for him. The fact is that he hired me for seo and top 10 ranking services which I did a great job at. I was not hired to convert sales for his business.

Customers do not get to argue the fact that they owe you money. If you rendered services for them, they need to pay any balance they owe you or face the courts and consumer fraud reports.

More recently, I had a woman who claimed she was a huge public figure that advocated for victims of drunken driving. While I am all find and good with a case, I am not ok with her trying to use it as a reason for me to work for pennies. My price for what she was trying to get done was $2,000. She wanted it for $200. I made it clear that I do not haggle on these issues and that my price was carefully calculated based on her description of the job. I also made it clear that I was not interested in the network marketing scam she kept trying to pitch on me.

Before her, I had a client who wanted to pay with a personal check. I no longer accepted checks because of the many times I got scammed with them. She just went on and on and argued to the point where I had to be rude with her in order to get her off the phone. The fact is that I actually knew this woman, and I knew they she thought she was entitled to something and never planned on actually paying me. I had already worked with her in the past and lost $400 because she backed out of a project after it was finished.

They want to pay what their friend paid. They were referred to you by someone they know, and that someone was not supposed to tell anyone how much they paid you for services. In case, it was probably a clause in the contract they signed. But alas, this new person did find out how much they paid, and now they want the same price from you.

Different projects have different costs. Just because someone pays something for a job doesn’t mean that the new job will have the same elements as the past job. On top of that, what if you offered a sale price on the previous project, and now that sale is over with?

Stick to your guns with your prices otherwise people will think they can walk all over you.

Payment terms are something you have to seriously consider in this business. I love it when I see a person posting a project that says they will pay once the project is complete and they are fully satisfied. You will not catch me messing with such a project other than hitting the report button.

I have used sites like freelancer and have come across posts like this. They also state that they will not even use the escrow feature. Avoid such projects like the plague. If some designer over in India wants to win that project, let them. Chances are, this is a client that doesn’t want to pay at all and will continually reply at the end of a project telling you that there is something wrong with the work and it wasn’t up to specifications.

They will hold you hostage, and you will have no choice but to either keep working for free, or walk away and lose all your time and never get paid for the project.

Legit web designers require a portion of the payment up front, and the rest in some sort of increments. There are other legit designers that will not even open up photoshop unless they are fully paid up front.

Promised referrals. These are clients who don’t want to pony up the cash, but tell other people about you instead. Their entire plan is to refer others to you as payment.

I do not have a problem with such a client if they are able to refer multiple clients that turn into paying customers before I ever do any work for this client. It is only proper to have such a security measure in place. If they are in a hurry, they are out of luck with this one.

I don’t like what you did for me, so I’m not paying for it. Words that bring war. I had a client hire me for a web design worth a few hundred bucks only to have her tell me at the end that she was going to have a local friend design her site for her. She told me that because she was not using my design, she wasn’t going to pay me for it.

This all happened before I was smart enough to get paid up front. I don’t fall for these tricks anymore, and never will again. If someone refuses to pay anything up front, walk away. Designs can be stolen because they are digital works. You can copy your work with a few mouse clicks and email or store it somewhere else quickly. It isn’t like a flat screen tv that you can repo.

BONUS

I’m not qualified. A client hired a designer and given him/her only some of the information. Later the designer finds out that the client wanted some programming with that. It wasn’t a static website after all, but a dynamic one that requires someone well versed in a programming language.

You already quoted for the design, and did some of the work. Clients don’t know the difference between a designer and programmer some times. If you are only one and not the other, then this is something to discuss up front. I have had clients in this situation tell me that they were sure I could figure it out, and they were willing to pay me to do it.

The problem in this case is that the client already probably got a quote for that work from a developer, and it was out of their budget. So they want to keep hope that you can learn how to do it. I would never take on a client who wants me to do something beyond my scope of expertise. I call myself an expert for a reason, and so do others. I will not risk that for a few extra dollars.

Remember, if you can’t perform like the client expects then chances are they won’t pay you even for your efforts. Just walk the other way if you are not qualified for the task at hand.

Other reasons:

There are lots of reasons not to take on a client, and each designer may have their own reasons. I am sure that I may have missed a few, but I am sure you will discover what they are through trial and error. Feel free to post your bad experience with clients in the comment area below.

Tomado de:http://jodo.co/clientesasino por http://www.brandonconnell.com

Comparte esto

Hide Sites