Tag: Web development

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The Actionable Guide to Web Design Planning (16 Questions to Answer)

Planning a new web design project or a redesign is a tough exercise growing organizations go through. And in the era of $59 premium templates, understanding the rationale behind spending months in conceptualization, mockups, and prototypes requires some business insight. There are three reasons custom web design solutions are important to businesses: Corporate/brand identity User experience Conversion rates It all boils down to solving the business problem of generating new leads or customers through the front-facing web technology. According to a study by Top Design Firms, a directory of digital and creative agencies, half of consumers (50%) say a company's website design… Continue Reading
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Sales Tips For Bootstrapping a Development Startup

Software developers often think about starting a business of their own. There are freelance and remote working opportunities, the job requires understanding business models, and the pay is great. Of course, the tricky question is - how to land repetitive customers? 4 Strategies For Bootstrapping Without A Sales Background [caption id="attachment_13303" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Checklist from https://articles.bplans.com/business-startup-checklist/[/caption] Sales skills are paramount for founders. Founders are the best salespeople in a business over the first years. They are passionate enough to work crazy hours for minimal pay for years, living and breathing their own business. Founders know every aspect of their business… Continue Reading
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Practical Tips for Selling a WordPress Platform to SMBs

Selling a WordPress-driven platform to small or medium-sized businesses (SMB) is a major challenge for freelancers and small businesses. Every SMB is unique, with its requirements, goals, and visions. A generic pitch might not resonate with them. Customization and understanding individual business needs are crucial to making the WordPress platform appealing. Not all SMB owners or decision-makers are tech-savvy. Simplifying technical jargon and presenting the benefits of WordPress in an easy-to-understand manner can be the difference between locking the deal or losing a potential client. During my last research, there were over 2 million freelancers offering WordPress development services on… Continue Reading
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18 Reasons Website Maintenance and Planned Updates Are Important

As 95% of our development business revolves around WordPress retainers, the topic of ongoing updates and recurring contracts comes up during every presales call. Working with clients who switch agencies is easier (as they already understand the benefits of a technical partnership), but site rebuilds are often a challenge in that department. And the most common question is: "Why do I need to pay for maintenance once our new site is live?" While there are plenty of excuses not to keep your project up to date, my favorite analogy is derived from the automotive industry. You don't buy a car… Continue Reading
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How to Estimate a Web Development/Design Project?

"How much does X cost?" is one of the most common (and yet complicated) questions in the software engineering industry. Estimating development projects is rarely a straightforward process, because of the broad gap between "simple" and "truly complex" variation of the same business problem, along with the external context (all 3rd parties) -- and let's not forget unclear requirements and scope creep. Estimates Are Extremely Hard There’s a good reason why many service providers: build a limited set of solutions in order to stick to sane ballparks, venture into building products, or productize their services under a manageable scope. I… Continue Reading
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Key Factors To Consider When Recruiting Front-End Web Developers

If I have to classify the factors that we consider while recruiting front-end web developers, I would break them down into several categories. Different Categories Considered in Hiring 1. Skills The "skills" factor is the amount of know-how you possess, your portfolio, and being able to solve different problems. Depending on the complexity of the job, some people are expected to be merely programmers, while others have to be engineers. Being able to slice a PSD may be handy for smaller agencies, but there are other skills involved for larger projects - from working with various libraries, grids, to automating your dependencies… Continue Reading
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Django Framework – First Impressions

I've been researching the Django framework for the last 2-3 weeks in my spare time. It's development is going on and on and I see many interesting innovative concepts realised behind. I tried it 3 years ago for a course project when we had to integrate the PIL (Python Image Library) into a web project with the existing technology. It was still first version and not much functional though. Poorly documented as well, but as I see now it is almost complete. Python is a powerful language and a web framework based on it i s a great idea. There are few CMS systems based… Continue Reading
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The Definitive Sales and Business Development Process For an Outsourced WordPress Company

We’ve sold several 6-figure projects over the past few years remotely. I have never met some of our customers, and others we’ve met later on (8–12 months after we’ve already started the business relationship). Selling expensive software remotely is a challenging endeavor. It requires a good amount of reputability in the industry, a terrific track record of successful projects, a portfolio of respectable companies, good reviews and testimonials, great folks running the project, and ongoing marketing activities. And yes, we’ve lost a number of projects simply because we are not a local agency with an office next street, but that… Continue Reading
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ColorScheme Designer

I've been doing software and web development for many years now, but my design skills are pathetic (and it's an euphemism for them). However, I've tried an amazing tool a few times for color schemes for my WordPress themes that is absolutely amazing - called ColorScheme Designer. A number of color options are left for the user to pick from: Mono - a single nuance color scheme that focuses on a single color and it's derivatives Complement - an opposite color to the one you pick as a secondary color in addition to the main one (from the color palette) Triad -… Continue Reading