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Fifteen ways to save money on your Web Site
By Dave Nienberg, Project Manager, 4 Guys Web Design Group

Copyright © 1997 Dave Nienberg. All rights Reserved

Over the past few years we've worked with dozens of clients and created thousands of Web pages. In that time we've seen clients make a lot of mistakes during the process of building their sites which has cost them a lot of money. By reducing common mistakes you can help save your designer time (as well as frustration) which will save you money. Here are the fifteen recommendations we've found that will save you money.

Type in mixed case - In the Internet world, typing in all upper case is the SAME AS YELLING! All caps text is very difficult to read and is next to impossible to convert into useable text. If you send your document in all caps someone will have to completely re-type it. By making sure you don't accidentally leave the caps locks key on, you'll save yourself (and your designer) a lot of headaches.
Perform a spelling/grammar check - Spelling and grammar errors always seem to find their way into a finished web site no matter how hard you try to eliminate them. The best way to reduce them is to use your word processor to find them as you're writing. Microsoft Word has a nice feature which checks the spelling and grammar as you write. By getting the correct copy in your site at the beginning you can save lots of time making corrections later.
Keep an eye on the size of email attachments - Sending pictures and text by email is an economical and speedy way to get materials to your designer. Unfortunately, many times people forget that what they're sending needs to be both uploaded and downloaded. Try to keep your email attachments small so they can be sent easily. If they can't be easily reduced use a program like PKZip to compress them or notify your designer that a large file is on its way.
Use descriptive file names - Nothing is worse than receiving a batch of files and having no idea what's contained in them. Since most people can now use long file names it makes sense to give descriptive names to your files. "Copy for the third page of the newsletter section.doc" is much easier to understand than "cpynws3.doc" and doesn't take much extra time to do.
Use the right resolution on electronic pictures - With the advent of digital cameras and inexpensive scanners it's easy to send pictures via email. Unfortunately pictures often are sent in the wrong format or are much larger than they need to be. For the web and computers in general, your pictures only need to be 75 pixels per inch in resolution and should be saved in the jpg format. You can change these settings in almost any image editor quite easily. Ask your designer for more details.
Send pictures correctly - As obvious as it may sound, your designer cannot use pictures on your web site which are sent by fax or appear in newspapers. The quality of the pictures sent by fax is simply too low and newspapers are too transparent. Instead send pictures electronically by email or regular ground mail.
Protect your pictures - Pictures are easily damaged when they are not sent correctly. The two most common culprits are staples and paperclips. In some cases the damage is so bad that the pictures become unusable or require hours to fix. The best way to send pictures is to simply put them in a labeled envelope and use cardboard to make sure they don't get bent.
Realize that color is not consistent on computers- The color on your web site can vary wildly from computer to computer. This is entirely natural and an unavoidable fact. Therefore it doesn't make much sense to spend too much time trying to match a certain color exactly. Even if it looks right on your computer it won't on many others.
Turn off the date feature on your camera - A common problem which makes putting pictures on the web more difficult and expensive than it has to be is the date feature on many cameras. When dates are on pictures they either have to be airbrushed away or cropped off. It's much easier and cheaper to just turn the date feature of your camera off.
Remember that the web is different than print - Many people do not realize that creating a page for the web is entirely different than creating a page for printing. Nothing for the web is "camera ready" so your designer cannot just scan it in and post it. The web just doesn't work that way. Text needs to be typed in and pictures need to be scanned.
Be logical and label everything - When sending pictures or text it's important to clearly label where it's supposed to go. Every single picture should have writing on the back outlining where it belongs (use a felt tipped pen so you don't damage the photo.) It also helps to be consistent in how you send information. Any time you have many of the same types of information (such as home listings), it's a good idea to follow a set format. That way you can make sure you haven't forgotten any key information.
Work on one section at a time - Working on your web site can seem overwhelming at times. If you find yourself frustrated and not sure where to start, just concentrate on one section of your site and forget about all the rest. It will make the whole process clearer and run more smoothly.
Target your audience - Remember that people who visit your site are interested in only one thing - "What's in it for me?" They don't care about your family, pets, degrees or anything else until you satisfy their needs first. Once you've helped them, then they might want to know more about you or your company. So, don't spend most of your budget on pages which are only important to you.
Assume your designer doesn't know anything - Don't make the assumption that your designer knows anything about you or your business. If you're sending a listing and label it "Mustang" does that mean it's the town name, a subdivision, the street address, the model name or the County? When in doubt, always provide more information than not enough.
Let the designers design - If you've chosen your designer correctly, let them do their job. There is a real danger in having too many cooks in the kitchen. Many times the overall quality of your site will suffer. Certainly you should be involved in the process and help guide the overall direction of your site but make sure that you listen to your designer. Changes are very expensive to make in order to fix a bad design.

If you follow these simple tips I guarantee you will save yourself time, money and frustration when you build your web site. Just remember when you have a question about how to best do something, ask your designer. Most likely they have the solution you're looking for.