Wow! Your post just made my day! Not that I'm a cruel person gaining
pleasure from your misfortune, but we have had a couple of "unfair" client
situations such as this and I have felt as if we were the only ones. "What
are we doing wrong?" I'd ask myself. The sad reality is that there still
needs to be some education in the world as to how much time, experience and
knowledge is need to build an effective Web presence. Just like the days
when I would have clients design their own logos- GAG! There seems to be
this perception that "I know HTML, therefore, I am a Web Developer" similar
lines of thought to "I own COREL DRAW, that makes me a Graphic Designer."
It is a scary world that we live in. I have given up trying to force-feed
quality Web applications to clients that do not want it, value it or will
pay for it. I now tell them, "Do it yourself, if you want." But, please
share with me your hit-ratio statistics, how many quality leads you've
gotten and how effective your site has been for your sales force as a
marketing tool.
I, too, have done multiple site architectures for free. Providing
marketing-savy ideas for: interactivity, ease-of-use, interface, content
enrichment, lead-generation etc.
I don't do that anymore. Now, I charge for that architecture and then give
them a proposal as too how much it will be to implement the site that I
have "specified". We have many clients come to us with NO IDEA what they
want to do on the Web. Why give your "Consulting" away for free?
In your case with this client taking everything in-house, give up the
graphic files and BILL THEM! BILL THEM! BILL THEM! How accurately did you
timesheet? Do you have valid records for all of the work? If so, there is
no reason why they shouldn't pay for ALL work that you did on there behalf.
Good Luck! I have been to your site and admire your work!
Beth Yaeckel
Beth Yaeckel beth@allen.com Interactive Marketing,
Creative Director 919-859-5619 phone Advertising, and
Allen Marketing Group 919-851-2969 fax Public Relations
Raleigh, NC Services
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