Year: 2007

Who Owns Your Website?

One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of getting a website designed is the issue of copyright. Who owns the finished website, you or your web designer?

Over the years I’ve seen quite a lot of people burnt by copyright issues. They hire someone to design their website and assume that on completion they own it. This is not always the case. In fact I know of at least a dozen examples where people have come to me after loosing their website to their last web design company when they decided to change designers.

Of course not all web design firms have the same copyright policies but generally speaking you should expect that you own the end product – your website. Bear in mind that there may be some applications that you license rather than own.

The bottom line is talk to any potential web designer and make sure you know up front what you will own when the website is finished. You should also check any contracts you have with them to make sure it’s covered there too. A professional web designer should be open and up front on the issues of copyright and ownership and be happy to explain anything you don’t understand.

I’m Speaking Your Language

Many years ago a client finally admitted to me, after 12 months, that they didn’t know what a URL was. I was horrified as I’d been referring to website addresses as URL’s the whole time and she obviously had no idea what I was on about!

Never again. From then on I made a decision to explain things as simply as possible. It’s paid off, one of the most frequent comments I get from clients and prospects alike is my ability to explain things to them in a clear, easy to understand manner. Recently I’ve had a number of people ask me to explain something they were told by another web designer or marketer. When being told what the original person said I’m usually dumbfounded that they would assume what they said would make sense to the average person.

Our role is to walk our clients and prospects through the complex area of web design and online business. It is up to us to make sure what we say is being understood by those we say it to.

Being Remarkable: A Tale of Two Potato Salads

My husband’s family traditionally celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. As part of that tradition the Christmas meal is continental frankfurters and potato salad. We’ve taken on that tradition and now host a Christmas Eve gathering for all our friends and family.

Invariably the potato salad making is left to me, and I always make two. One with bacon, sour cream and mustard and one with beetroot, boiled eggs and mayonnaise. They both always turn out perfectly (yup I’m a great cook 😉 ) and both are delicious, but each year everyone raves about the beetroot one, and requests the recipe, and nothing is said about the bacon and sour cream version.

This year, while cleaning up I was commenting on this fact to my husband. I wondered if my bacon and sour cream potato salad was no good. He assured me it was fine but the beetroot one was just brilliant. I had one of those zen moments: it’s all about being remarkable!

For those in the know, being remarkable was the phrase, and concept, coined by Seth Godin in his brilliant book Purple Cow. Seth’s premise is in order to succeed in business today you’re either remarkable or invisible.

My beetroot potato salad is remarkable. My bacon and sour cream potato salad is invisible.

If you’ve not read Purple Cow I cannot recommend it highly enough.