Common Sense With WordPress Customization
“Dear Sandi,
I recently went through your WordPress class and was ready to do a little customization to my WordPress site. Knowing that I would have to hire a graphics designer to do this I was glad I had your input already. You can imagine my surprise when someone quoted me $4500 to do a few customization edits and create a header for me. Thank you so much for showing me, that is fraud!
Marsha “
Ok, ok. To all my web designers on this list, take a deep breath and please read through this entire article before you think that I’m on a hunt to disarm you. Actually if you hang around me long enough you’ll soon realize that is far from the truth. As a matter of fact I’m creating a class right now for Web Designers and Graphics people only- how to earn 7-figures with WordPress. Write me if such an event interests you. This will not be a technical class, obviously! But if you want to make 7-figures with WordPress customization and serve your clients more fully- I have some secrets to share with you. Write me! I have many clients who would love to speak to you.
Overpricing services to customize WordPress. This is an issue that is really frustrating me. It is right up there with Yeaooos who market themselves as Gurus when it comes to WordPress installations.
Because graphics people are so accustomed to creating proprietary systems and custom designs some are not willing to let go of their high ticketed skill to do simple edits and refinements in WordPress. So we’re beginning to see a trend of less than favorable results when it comes to quotes people will get for WordPress customization.
Keep reading…..
Let me just state this plainly. It does not cost thousands of dollars to customize a WordPress theme unless of course you have a very special business, with exclusive branding that has to be reflective of your current message. This would be a website that took quite some time to edit. This is not what 90% of my readers need.
As a matter of fact many of my readers would make many of the graphics designers on my list very wealthy because more than a dozen write me every single day through Facebook, email and Twitter telling me they can’t find good work worth it’s salt!
But when you set out to do some customization let me give you a few points. Here is your ‘script’ when you are approaching these very technical, geek minded individuals.
Web Designer: “Hi Ma’am. What is it your want to do exactly with the website you would desire us to create for you?”
Client: “I am in need of a custom header, a few matching sidebar graphics and possibly, if the price is right, some custom artsy touches. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours I’m sure. What do you charge first off for a header to put into my Thesis WordPress theme?”
Web Designer: “Well Ma’am, before we start talking about money because I’m sure you want the best site possible to represent your brand and furnish your clients with the utmost of professionalism, let me ask you a few questions about what your exact needs are and then at that time my team and I can come up with a proposal for this project.”
Client: “I appreciate that however I’d like a flat rate please on a header for my WordPress Thesis site. I have the graphics I want to use; all you have to do is create. What would that run?”
Web Designer: “Ma’am, do you want just a plain bare bones graphic put into that box on the top of your WordPress theme or did you want to present yourself in the most professional light with some more graphic rich enhancements that can really earn you a reputation of being an expert online?”
Client: “I want a header quote please and if the price is right I’ll present another item or two that I desire. How much would a header be please? “
As you can see I am firm and I am specific.
I am not impressed with the “Current need to present my brand so that I appear to be the utmost of professionalism so that my clients look upon me favorably because of my custom color coded graphic rich website" that Google can’t even read in the first place!
I know (and now so do YOU!) that relationships lead in today’s internet culture and one of the largest online newsletters in the world with the most loyal readership doesn’t spend thousands of dollars on their color schemes or graphics! (http://www.EarlyToRise.com )
We know… that sounds better now doesn’t it? We know that when people find us online and we come to them when they are looking for great products and services it is NOT because of our rich luscious graphics or our flashy diamond touch flash presentations- it’s because Google found us with our tags, keywords and site structure populating the entire first page of search engines because we did our homework in SEO and WordPress!
Save your budget for buying great media buys! Do some ads in Facebook, the most trafficked site in the entire world that JUST passed up Google for crying out loud when it comes to traffic!
Gone are the days of Google Adwords leading the train- if Facebook is visited more than any other website in the world than what are we doing advertising only on Google? Get some great inexpensive ad choices on Facebook.
We also know that when people connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, our blog and everywhere else they find us, because…… they will find us everywhere, it’s important that we represent who we are and how well we can serve in a common way. The thread must be common. We must be recognizable on Twitter, Facebook, our Blog and everywhere else… because we will, if we do it right, be everywhere as one and the same.
To all my web designer and graphic experts on this list- I have a word for you.
Serve these people well, give them what they ask for and you’ll likely get more work. Be prompt when they call you, quit being so causal on the phone, don’t be delayed when they take time out of their schedule to speak to you and quit trying to impress them with all you’ve done and all you know. Serve them. Make the client your primary focus and not your pocketbook. Your pocketbook will grow if you do this. Quit chatting on Skype all day long when they hire you and get a job done fast, excellently and throw in a small avatar or something for free because you and I both know it only takes 15 seconds to edit a picture once you have it perfect.
WordPress is the publishing platform of our age.
Social Media has changed the way we communicate.
Learning to operate in those two businesses is absolutely a necessity of any business that will succeed today online.
I’m excited to hear about all the amazing websites that get created because of this article. I’m eager to hear from Web designers and graphics people who want to make 7-figures. Together, we can make a big difference in the way business is done online. 
Sandi Krakowski spent 6 years in the Direct Sales industry building a $ 4 million dollar company that was run 100% online through eCommerce, building large sales forces in network marketing and home business industries. Expanding her skill set and offerings to her clients she invested over $ 200,000 to gain the powerful knowledge and wealth of skill her clients paid dearly for to earn millions for their companies. She went onto build a 7-figure marketing and copywriting firm in just 20 months.
Currently she runs one of the fastest growing training venues teaching beginners to experts how to really use the internet to it's fullest capacity. Clients such as EarlyToRise.com, Gina Alexander and Bob Bly have referred their own customers to Sandi for her WordPress Training.
She teaches with a style that is passionate, intense and fun! Her students say that they get more value from Sandi in one hour than they've paid months for from other online 'experts' who can craft great headlines but don't deliver results.
Sandi has a free report entitled, “The Biggest Mistake People Make With A WordPress Site” 95% of people make a single mistake with WordPress that costs them huge losses in their business! Don't let this be YOU! Grab this report now!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sandy,
Thank you so much for these tips. Every designer with whom I've talked has done exactly what you're saying. Now I know how to deal with them!! And I wanted to let your readers know about a very cool place to get custom designed artwork at extremely reasonable prices…99designs.com It's really cool, designers from all over the world compete to design your logo or wordpress theme or website, etc. You keep giving feedback until someone has designed what you're looking for.
I've got my logo and now I'm in the exact stage you're explaining in this article.
Thank you!!
Dee
Good stuff Dee!! Thanks so much, great to meet you
Great article. Perhaps I need to restructure my services offered? I would love making headers and supporting graphics for your clients, Sandi. And I wouldn’t mind making seven figures, that’s for sure!
Hi Sandy
I, like you, agree that there are greedy website designers out there who are wolves in the industry. I also have been mopping up behind designers who take on jobs and then don’t get them done within a good timeframe or to the requirements of the website owner. Both these scenarios are frustrating for the client and I’m glad to report that I have repeat customage and a business that is 99% referral based because of my happy customers, so must be doing something right.
However, I would like to also say that designers deserve to be paid for the hours exerted and on more than one occasion, I have had clients eat up my time with changes of mind over colour choice, style, web content, business direction and want me to absorb their change of mind into a fixed quote that does not reflect all those extra hours that were not predicted at the start of the web project.
The key is communication, from both parties, with the common goal of a win:win outcome.
So I guess what I am saying is that it has made me very cautious to quote up front now until I do have a CLEAR picture of what the job entails. If it’s just a straight forward header design like you are suggesting here, then yes that can easily be quoted, however, each website project is completely different depending on what the person wants added to the site in terms of functionality and the amount of time it takes to set that up. For example, to set up an autoresponder through Aweber that is just an email form being inserted into your web page may only take 1 hour if that, but to set up a 12 week autoresponder and a newsletter template that is customised to the branding of the client is a completely different picture because even when you are fast like I am you can’t make the computer process your information any faster than it can. So I do think the word here is do your research and ask questions. Ask to see previous jobs done and then go and ask those website owners what they thought about the service they received. And also, appreciate that it is not quite as cut and dried perhaps as presented here…although I do think we need to empower our “innocent” new online entrepreneurs and I have seen many times how easy it could be to “rob” them if I wanted to but that’s not what I’m in business for.
Keep up the great work!
Hayley
Hey there Sandy,
I, too, am a designer and developer and do very little in the way of direct marketing, it’s all word of mouth. I completely agree with you and some of the points Hayley brings up – scope creep is the biggest enemy of designers, developers, etc. (anyone in the technology service space). Ultimately, however, this is the designer’s own fault – we’re the professionals and need to be able to translate what the client says they need into what they actually expect. Sometimes you’ll be wrong but you should eat the bullet and take that learning to the next project instead of gouging and adding project extensions.
I have been following your tweets/posts recently and haven enjoyed reading your articles!
I have also been cleaning up after other designers/developers who have left their client’s dead in the water (sometimes finalizing a loooong months long project in a matter of hours). Unfortunately, most “techies” don’t understand that people don’t care how nice your code is, or what resolution images are, etc. They ultimately care about the end result and how easily you get there – service is key. Promise 2 weeks and deliver in 2 days, promise 1 header and deliver, like Sandy said, the header, an avatar, and a background image. Blow your clients away and you will be blessed with the most powerful marketing ever – word of mouth…
Thanks for all you do!
Cheers,
Jeremy
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