STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

BIBLIOTEX Digital Library

[Link]
STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

BIBLIOTEX Digital Library

[Link]
email: info@[Link]

e-book Edition 2021

ISBN: 978-1-98464-965-2 (e-book)

This book contains information obtained from highly regarded resources. Reprinted
material sources are indicated. Copyright for individual articles remains with the au-
thors as indicated and published under Creative Commons License. A Wide variety of
references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and
views articulated in the chapters are those of the individual contributors, and not nec-
essarily those of the editors or publishers. Editors or publishers are not responsible for
the accuracy of the information in the published chapters or consequences of their use.
The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or grievance to the persons or
property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or thoughts in the
book. The editors and the publisher have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all
material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permis-
sion has not been obtained. If any copyright holder has not been acknowledged, please
write to us so we may rectify.

Notice: Registered trademark of products or corporate names are used only for expla-
nation and identification without intent of infringement.

© 2021 3G E-learning LLC

In Collaboration with 3G E-Learning LLC. Originally Published in printed book format

by 3G E-Learning LLC with ISBN 978-1-98464-618-7
EDITORIAL BOARD
Aleksandar Mratinković was born on May 5, 1988. in Arandjelovac, Serbia. He has graduated
on Economic high school (2007), The College of Tourism in Belgrade (2013), and also has a
master degree of Psychology (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad). He has been
engaged in different fields of psychology (Developmental Psychology, Clinical Psychology,
Educational Psychology and Industrial Psychology) and has published several scientific works

Dan Piestun (PhD) is currently a startup entrepreneur in Israel working on the interface of
Agriculture and Biomedical Sciences and was formerly president-CEO of the National Institute
of Agricultural Research (INIA) in Uruguay. Dan is a widely published scientist who has
received many honours during his career including being a two-time recipient of the Amit
Golda Meir Prize from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, his areas of expertise includes
stem cell molecular biology, plant and animal genetics and bioinformatics. Dan’s passion for
applied science and technological solutions did not stop him from pursuing a deep connection
to the farmer, his family and nature. Among some of his interest and practices counts enjoying
working as a beekeeper and onboard fishing.

Felecia Killings is the Founder and CEO of LiyahAmore Publishing, a publishing company
committed to providing technical and educational services and products to Christian Authors.
She operates as the Senior Editor and Writer, the Senior Writing Coach, the Content Marketing
Specialist, Editor-in-Chief to the company’s quarterly magazine, the Executive and Host of
an international virtual network, and the Executive Director of the company’s online school
for Authors. She is a former high-school English instructor and professional development
professor. She possesses a Master of Arts degree in Education and a Bachelor’s degree in
English and African American studies.

Dr. Sandra El Hajj, Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Nova Southeastern University, Florida,
USA is a health professional specialized in Preventive and Global Health. With her 12 years
of education obtained from one of the most prominent universities in Beirut, in addition to
two leading universities in the State of Florida (USA), Dr. Sandra made sure to incorporate
interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches in her work. Her long years of studies helped her
create her own miniature world of knowledge linking together the healthcare field with Medical
Research, Statistics, Food Technology, Environmental & Occupational Health, Preventive
Health and most noteworthy her precious last degree of Global Health. Till today, she is the
first and only doctor specialized in Global Health in the Middle East area.

Hazem Shawky Fouda has a PhD. in Agriculture Sciences, obtained his PhD. From the Faculty
of Agriculture, Alexandria University in 2008, He is working in Cotton Arbitration & Testing
General Organization (CATGO).
Fozia Parveen has a Dphil in Sustainable Water Engineering from the University of Oxford.
Prior to this she has received MS in Environmental Sciences from National University of
Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad Pakistan and BS in Environmental Sciences from
Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi.

Igor Krunic 2003-2007 in the School of Economics. After graduating in 2007, he went
on to study at The College of Tourism, at the University of Belgrade where he got his
bachelor degree in 2010. He was active as a third-year student representative in the
student [Link] he went on the Faculty of science, at the University of Novi Sad
where he successfully defended his master’s thesis in 2013. The crown of his study was
the work titled Opportunities for development of cultural tourism in Cacak“. Later on,
he became part of a multinational company where he got promoted to a deputy director of
logistic. Nowadays he is a consultant and writer of academic subjects in the field of tourism.

Dr. Jovan Pehcevski obtained his PhD in Computer Science from RMIT University in
Melbourne, Australia in 2007. His research interests include big data, business intelligence and
predictive analytics, data and information science, information retrieval, XML, web services
and service-oriented architectures, and relational and NoSQL database systems. He has
published over 30 journal and conference papers and he also serves as a journal and conference
reviewer. He is currently working as a Dean and Associate Professor at European University
in Skopje, Macedonia.

Dr. Tanjina Nur finished her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2014 from
University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Now she is working as Post-Doctoral Researcher
in the Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW) and published about eight
International journal papers with 80 citations. Her research interest is wastewater treatment
technology using adsorption process.

Stephen obtained his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2013 where his
graduate research focused on cancer immunology and the tumor microenvironment. He received
postdoctoral training in regenerative and translational medicine, specifically gastrointestinal
tissue engineering, at the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Currently, Stephen
is an instructor for anatomy and physiology and biology at Forsyth Technical Community
College.

Michelle holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, with
a concentration in Human Resources Management. She is a professional author and has had
numerous articles published in the Henry County Times and has written and revised several
employee handbooks for various YMCA organizations throughout the United States.
Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction ....................................................................................................1

1 Analysis of Web Development and Design ...............................................2

Web Design ...............................................................................................................................2
The Internet and the World-Wide Web ...............................................................................25
Web Development ..................................................................................................................34
The Future of Web Development .........................................................................................51

2 Business Planning ....................................................................................64

Web Developer Business Plan ..............................................................................................64
8 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Own Web Development
Small Business ........................................................................................................................68
How to Start a Web Development Company .....................................................................70

3 Duties and Responsibility of Web Developer .........................................81

What Does a Web Developer Do? ........................................................................................81
Duties of Web Developers .....................................................................................................83
Types of Web Developers ......................................................................................................85
Popular Languages for Web Development.........................................................................91
Web Developer Requirements ..............................................................................................95
How to Become a Web Developer .......................................................................................99
What Are Some Common Misconceptions About Web Development? .......................118

4 Run Your Business .................................................................................126

Handle Client Complaints ..................................................................................................126
What to do When the Complaint Comes In .....................................................................128
Don’t Wait for Complaints ..................................................................................................130
5 Market Your Business .............................................................................135
Market Web Development ..................................................................................................135
Website Marketing ...............................................................................................................139
Digital Marketing Plan Strategy for Web Development Companies............................151
Tips to Get More Qualified Clients for Your Web Development Business ..................159
Advertising............................................................................................................................169
List of Business Advertising Ideas .....................................................................................171
How to Advertise Your Web Design Business .................................................................180
How to Advertise Your Business on A Budget ................................................................185

6 Expand Your Business ...........................................................................198

You Need a Plan ...................................................................................................................198
You Need a Leader ...............................................................................................................198
Laying the Foundations.......................................................................................................199
Ideas for Expanding Your Web Design Business .............................................................202
How to Expand Your Business ...........................................................................................205
Grow Your Web Design Business ......................................................................................214
References .............................................................................................................................219

INDEX ..........................................................................................................221
Preface

Rapid growth and development of Information Technology (IT) characterizes

today’s society. As a result, we have grown to depend on the knowledge and
competence of an individual in the IT field. And although this dependence is
growing from day to day, the human right to education and information has
not been extended to the IT field. Problems, that impact our society as a whole,
create obstacles and distance people from the main reason and motivation for
advancement, from the opportunity. Web development is one of the fastest
growing online industries today. It is important for every business to have an
online presence and that represents a huge opportunity. The prospect of starting
a web design business can be a bit overwhelming.

This guide explains how to set up your business - the hardware and software
you will need. The guide gives an overview of key steps for entrepreneurs who
are starting a business, with links to additional information addressing some
of the topics in more depth. For a new entrepreneur, the question is where to
start. This guide will tell you why it is a better idea to open a Web Development
Business. In this guide, we will take you through every step of starting Web
Development business.

This Startup Guide offers a wealth of information that will be valuable for you
today and in the years to come. Inside you will find concrete, step-by-step advice
that clearly outlines the basic components of developing a successful business.
It also entails understanding and dealing with many issues—legal, financing,
sales and marketing, intellectual property protection, liability protection, human
resources, and more. This guide covers everything you need to know to run a
profitable and satisfying web development business. It takes you through every
aspect of setting up and running a thriving web development business.

Using concise language and an easy-to-read format, this guide presents a simple,
step-by-step process that will be beneficial to those who are seeking to start
web development business.
 STARTUP GUIDE:
WEBSITE DEVELOPER

INTRODUCTION
Websites are, in many ways, at the heart of successful digital marketing.
They are your home on the web, a shop window over which you have
full control, and often the first place people stop to find out more about
you. Web development and design applies to more than just websites,
the principles can be used for any digital assets you create, from mobile
platforms to social media profiles. Creating online assets involves three
key processes: planning and design, which create the appearance, layout
and style that users see; and development, which brings this imagery to
life as a functioning web tool.
The fundamental principle of good development and design is to understand
your users, they are the people who will actually be using and interacting
with your website. What are they looking for? What are their objectives?
Your offering must have user experience central to the process.

1 ANALYSIS OF WEB DEVELOPMENT

AND DESIGN
Web design refers to both the aesthetic portion of the website and it’s usability.
Web designers use various design programs such as Adobe Photoshop to
create the layout and other visual elements of the website.
Web Developers on the other hand, take a website design and actually make
a functioning website from it. Web developers use HTML, CSS, Javascript,
PHP and other programming languages to bring to life the design files

WEB DESIGN
Web design is a concept of planning, creating, and maintaining websites.
The very process of using creativity to design and construct a website and
updating it regularly to incorporate changes is also referred to as web
designing. Besides the creation and updating, this concept also involves
taking care of the user interface, the architecture of information present, the
layout, the colors, content, navigation ergonomics, as well as the designs
of the various icons. Some other areas in web design include search engine
optimization, user experience designs, standardized codes, graphic design,
as well as interface design.

2 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Web design encompasses many different skills and
disciplines in the production and maintenance of
websites. The different areas of web design include
web graphic design; interface design; authoring,
including standardized code and proprietary
software; user experience design; and search engine
optimization. Often many individuals will work in Graphic design is
teams covering different aspects of the design process, the process of visual
communication and
although some designers will cover them all. The
problem-solving
term web design is normally used to describe the using one or more
design process relating to the front-end (client side) of typography,
design of a website including writing mark up. Web photography and
design partially overlaps web engineering in the illustration.
broader scope of web development. Web designers
are expected to have an awareness of usability and
if their role involves creating markup then they are
also expected to be up to date with web accessibility
guidelines.
The web design process starts with a visual concept,
which you could sketch by hand or with software
like Photoshop. Then, you use HTML and CSS to
build the website. HTML and CSS are the codes for
writing web pages. HTML handles the basic structure
and ‘bones’ of your page, while CSS handles the
style and appearance.

Web designing is a process that can be done by

anyone who has the right knowledge of the various
disciplines involved but is usually best handled by
professionals known as web designers. The term

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 3

‘web design’ may also point to the visual aspect of a website but in truth it
also overlaps with the process of web development in a more broad sense.
The process not only includes front end designing but also the process of
writing the markup.

Defining Web Design

There are five areas that cover the major facets of Web design:
■ Content: This includes the form and organization of a site’s content.
This can range from the way text is written to how it is organized,
presented, and structured using a markup technology such as HTML.
■ Visuals: This refers to the screen layout used in a site. The layout is
usually created using HTML, CSS, or even Flash and may include
graphic elements either as decoration or for navigation. The visual
aspect of the site is the most obvious aspect of Web design, but it
is not the sole, or most important, aspect of the discipline.
■ Technology: While the use of various core Web technologies such
as HTML or CSS fall into this category, technology in this context
more commonly refers to the various interactive elements of a
site, particularly those built using programming techniques. Such
elements range from client-side scripting languages like JavaScript
to server-side applications such as Java servlets.
■ Delivery: The speed and reliability of a site’s delivery over the
Internet or an internal corporate network are related to the server
hardware/software used and to the network architecture employed.
■ Purpose: The reason the site exists, often related to an economic
issue, is arguably the most important part of Web design. This
element should be considered in all decisions involving the other
areas.
Of course, the amount each aspect of Web design influences a site may vary
according to the type of site being built. A personal home page generally
does not have the economic considerations of a shopping site. An intranet
for a manufacturing company may not have the visual considerations of
a public Web site promoting an action movie. Precisely what is meant by
the expression “Web design” seems to be fluid; our discussion must take
this into account, but at the same time provide ideas concise enough for
the designer to keep in mind at all times. We’ll start first with abstract
definitions and get more concrete as we move on.

4 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

The Web Design Pyramid
One way to think of all the components of Web design is through the
metaphor of the Web pyramid shown in Figure 1. Content provides the
bricks that build the pyramid, but the foundation rests solidly on both
visuals and technology, with a heavy reliance on economics to make our
project worth doing.

Figure 1: Web pyramids: the facets of Web design.

As Web designers, we try to plan our sites carefully, but construction is

difficult. The shifting sands of Web technology make it challenging to
build our site; construction requires teamwork and a firm understanding
of the Web medium. Even if we are experts able to construct a beautiful
and functional Web site, our users may look at our beautiful construction
with puzzlement. Designers, or their employers, often spend more time
considering their own needs and wants than those of the site’s visitors. Our

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 5

 conceptual Web pyramids may become too much like
brick-and-mortar pyramids—impenetrable tombs that
leave us wondering if the users who strike out over
the Web to reach our monuments can even find the
door. Do they even understand the point of the site?
While Web development challenges are not quite
on the level of those faced by the ancient Egyptians,
Web development building a functional, pleasing Web site that can
is a broad term for stand the test of Internet time is certainly not easy.
the work involved The pyramid provides a simple way for designers
in developing a web
site for the Internet
to think of all aspects of Web design in interplay,
(World Wide Web) or but does little to provide a deeper understanding of
an intranet (a private the Web medium.
network).
The Medium of the Web
While the Web pyramid analogy is a very abstract
way of describing Web design, it is a useful tool for
showing the interplay of the various components of
Web building. A more practical way to discuss Web
design is to think of the various components of the
Web medium, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Components of the Web Medium.

6 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Today’s Web sites are primarily a basic client-server network programming
model with three common elements:
■ The server-side: This includes the Web server hardware and software
as well as programming elements and built in technologies. The
technologies can range from simple CGI programs written in PERL
to complex multi-tier Java based applications and include backend
technologies such as database servers that may support the Web site.
■ The client-side: The client-side is concerned with the Web browser
and its supported technologies, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
languages and ActiveX controls or Netscape plug-ins, which are
utilized to create the presentation of a page or provide interactive
features.
■ The network: The network describes the various connectivity
elements utilized to deliver the Web site to a user. Such elements
may be the various networks on the public Internet or the private
connections within a corporation—often dubbed an intranet.
Complete understanding of the technical aspects of the Web medium,
including the network component, is of paramount importance in becoming
a great Web designer, and much of this book will focus on these details. The
Web pyramid diagram again reminds us of the important user component,
as Web design really is a networked programming pursuit with certain
user-focused issues.
Web sites are used as a communication mechanism between a site’s owners
and its users, and occasionally between its users and each other. Site owners
usually set the message and define the basic rules of interaction, while
users are those who visit the site and attempt to use the content or facilities
presented there. The communication path between site owner and visitor can
vary. Site owners often set information for users to consume, in somewhat
of a one-way interaction. Other times users can post information for site
owners or even other users, creating more of a multi-way communication
path, as illustrated here:

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 7

During any communication, most users are generally unaware of the medium
when things are working correctly. While users are affected by the medium,
they often do not distinguish the individual components such as network,
HTML, style sheets, and JavaScript—unless something goes wrong. In the
negative case of a slow site, or one that causes visual or functional errors,
the user may notice the medium but still may not distinguish which aspect
of it is causing the problem. Users tend to see not the parts themselves,
but the sum of them. This makes it important to think of sites as a whole,
in order to understand how users see them.

Types of Web Sites

Users tend to view Web sites, and thus Web site design, by the function of
the site or by its visual appearance. It is important to be able to describe
sites this way; however, there are many more ways to categorize them.
While the possible categories of sites may appear endless, we can safely
group sites in a few general ways. We’ll start first with the abstract and
then move to visual categorizations.

Abstract Groupings
First, consider if a site is information focused or task focused. Sometimes
we may describe this distinction as one between a site that is document-
centered and one that is application-centered. Document-centered or
informational sites provide information for users, but they provide very
limited interactivity (other than allowing the user to browse, search, or
sort the information presented). Sites that are task or applications oriented

8 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

allow the user to interact with information or accomplish some task, such
as transferring funds from a bank account or buying a new sweater. Hybrid
sites do a little of both; these are becoming more common as the line
between information and application blurs. Figure 3 plots the continuum
from a simple static document-oriented site (often called a “brochureware”
site) to full-blown software applications. This abstract grouping suggests
that there is a transition from more document- or print-oriented Web
sites to more interactive programmatic Web sites. This is indeed true; the
intersection between the two philosophical camps is a source for much of
the contention—and innovation—in the Web design community.

Figure 3: The range of Web sites.

Another way we might group sites is within the following broad categories:
■ Informational sites: These sites provide information about a particular
subject or organization (the “brochureware” sites). These are the
most common Web sites on the Internet and often take on aspects
of the other site categories over time.
■ Transactional sites: This type of site can be used to conduct some
transaction or task. E-commerce sites fall into this category.
■ Community sites: These provide information or transaction-related
facilities, but focus on the interaction between the visitors of the

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 9

 site. Community-based sites tend to focus
on a particular topic or type of person and
encourage interaction between likeminded
individuals.
■ Entertainment sites: These sites are for game
playing or some form of amusing interaction,
which may include transactional, community,
and informational elements.
■ Other sites: Included here are artistic or
experimental sites, personal Web spaces such
as Web logs (also called blogs), and sites that
may not follow common Web conventions
or have a well-defined economic purpose.
We might also group sites based upon the organization
that is running, or in some sense paying for, the site.
Within this type of categorization we see five major
groupings:
■ Commercial: A site in this group is built
and run by an organization or individual
for commercial gain, either directly through
e-commerce or indirectly through promotion
In 1989, whilst working
at CERN Tim Berners- for some off-line purchase of goods or
Lee proposed to create services.
a global hypertext ■ Government: This site’s parent entity is
project, which later
became known as
ultimately a government organization, and
the World Wide Web. the purpose of the site is to satisfy some
social or legal need.
■ Educational: This type of site’s parent entity
is some educational institution (perhaps
government related), and it is used to support
learning or research goals.
■ Charitable: A charitable site exists to promote
the goals of a nonprofit organization or
the charitable activities of an individual or
organization.
■ Personal: The site exists at the sole discretion
of some person or group for any number of
reasons, usually as a creative outlet or form
of personal expression.

10 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Categorization can be difficult. For example,
educational sites might really fall under the
governmental category. Some sites in the personal
category may arguably belong in the charitable or
commercial group, depending on the reason for the
person putting the site together. Now we turn to the
more visual characteristics of sites, with a few sample
categories of sites commonly seen on the Web.

Visual Groupings
As we group sites visually, we may see a range
from those which rely more heavily on text and
those which focus more on graphic presentation or
imagery. The four most common design schools on
the Web are:
■ Text oriented: These are sites designed with Graphical user
a focus on textual content. Such sites, as interface is a form
shown in Figure 4, are relatively lightweight, of user interface
that allows users
download-wise, and often somewhat to interact with
minimalist in design. electronic devices
■ GUI style: These are sites that follow certain through graphical
icons and audio
graphical user interface (GUI) conventions
indicator such as
from software design, such as top-oriented primary notation,
menu bars, icons, and pop-up windows. GUI- instead of text-based
oriented sites range from simple GUI devices user interfaces, typed
added to a primarily text-oriented site to command labels or
text navigation.
full-blown Web applications with customized
user interface widgets. Figure 5 shows some
examples of GUI style Web sites.

Figure 4: Text-oriented sites.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 11

 Figure 5: Web Designs with a little GUI or a lot of GUI.

■ Metaphorical: Metaphor sites borrow ideas from “real life.” For

example, a site about cars might employ a dashboard and steering
wheel in design and navigation. A metaphor-designed site, as shown
in Figure 6, tends to be extremely visual or interactive. This may
be frustrating to some users and engaging to others.
■ Experimental: Experimental designs attempt to do things a little
differently than the norm. Creativity, unpredictability, innovation
and even randomness are often employed in sites following the
experimental design style, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 6: Metaphorical design.

Figure 7: Experimental design.

12 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Of course, on the Web we find mixtures of form or potential new
categorization of sites. For example, how would you categorize a portal
site, such as the one shown in Figure 8 that provides a wealth of content,
navigation choices, and even community related-facilities in a single page?
This is certainly a design style that is used in a great deal of sites. We
see the potential rise of other design categories when we look at Web site
genres such as e-commerce sites, particularly strict “catalog and cart” sites,
as well as online personal journal sites called “Weblogs” or “blogs.”

Figure 8: Portal style design.

A Clearer Definition of Web Design

So, what exactly is Web design? It is obviously a very user centered
multidisciplinary design pursuit that includes influences from visual arts,
technology, content, and business. A succinct definition follows.
Web Design: A multidisciplinary pursuit pertaining to the planning and
production of Web sites, including, but not limited to, technical development,
information structure, visual design, and networked delivery. Because Web
design is so multidisciplinary, it is often appropriate to pull ideas and
theories from related fields. Indeed, we have been doing that even in the
very first pages of this book. Some people, however, take this approach
a little too far, developing their sites in a manner similar to print pieces
or adopting so many software GUI interface conventions that the user
becomes confused. While Web design borrows heavily from other design
pursuits, there are significant differences. For example, the medium is
very different than print because more function is provided—not unlike
software. Delivery issues and content effects make Web sites different from
traditional software applications as well. Web design is not just adoption
of old ideas. It is something altogether new.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 13

We should not say the Web is totally different either. There are plenty of
people who do that as well. The Web is so revolutionary, they say, that none
of the old rules hold. This is complete nonsense. Despite the proclamations
of pundits, new media forms have always adopted conventions from other
forms and invented new ones of their own. Furthermore, no new form has
completely eliminated any other. Radio, magazines, newspapers, television,
and other entertainment media all continue to exist in some form or other
despite emerging technologies and new media forms. The Web certainly
is not so new that we should throw out any valuable concepts we learned
before. It does, however, have its own principles. We should strive to
understand other media design concepts and modify them to fit the Web.

Web Design Themes

When discussing Web design, we see similar themes come up over and over
again. Whether it is the political struggle between a corporation’s marketing
department and information technology group over site ownership, or a
graphic designer trying to convince a client of the appropriateness of a
particular look or multimedia technology, these themes are at the heart of
the matter. These issues often result in rather heated discussions among
designers, as well as between designers and their clients both inside and
outside corporate Web teams. While there is no simple answer to some of
these issues, they are relatively easy to describe.
Generally the major themes behind modern Web design include:
■ Designer needs versus user needs
■ The balance of form and function
■ The quality of execution
■ The interplay between convention and innovation

14 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

In the abstract sense, these themes are not at all unique to the Web medium.
Artists like Leonardo DaVinci certainly struggled at times to balance
the desires of patrons and even his viewing public with his own needs.
Commercial artists producing something like a magazine advertisement or
billboard have to balance the demands of visual look with successful and
clear communication. Execution varies in any discipline, but in one as young
as Web design, the effects are more evident. Lastly, the rules of convention
and the desires of innovation are as common as the struggle of a young
person rebelling against convention, the middle age designer discovering
the wisdom of the masters, and the old designer trying to rediscover his
or her innovative youth. Despite the general nature of these themes, their
specific details vary with each medium. It will be valuable to introduce each
here before we encounter them later on. We start with the most important
issue first: user-centered versus designer-centered site design.

User-Focused Design
A common theme of Web design is the focus on users. Unfortunately, a
common mistake made in Web development is that, far too often, sites are
built more for designers and their needs than for the site’s actual users.
Always remember this important tenet of Web design.

Rule: YOU are NOT the USER

What you understand is not what a user will understand. As a designer, you

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 15

have intimate knowledge of a Web site. You understand where information
is. You understand how to install plug-ins. You have the optimal screen
resolution, browser setup, and so on. When you build your site around
your own visual characteristics and skill levels, you often will confuse the
actual users of the site. You must accept the fact that many users will not
necessarily have intimate knowledge of the site you have so carefully crafted.
They may not even have the same interests as you. Given the importance
of the users’ interests and desires, it might seem appropriate to simply ask
the users to design the site the way they want. This seems to be a good
idea until you consider another basic Web design tenet.

Rule: USERS are NOT DESIGNERS.

Not everyone is or should be a Web designer. Just as it would seem foolish
to let moviegoers attempt to direct a major motion picture on the basis of
their having viewed numerous movies, we should not expect users to be
able to design Web sites just because they have browsed a multitude of sites.
Users often have unrealistic requirements and expectations for sites. Users
will not think carefully about the individual components of a Web site. In
summary, users are not going to have the sophisticated understanding of
the Web that a designer will have.
That said, the key to successful, usable Web site design is always trying
to think from the point of view of the user. User-centered design is the
term given to design that always puts the user first. But what can we say
about users? Is there a typical user? Does a “Joe Average Internet” exist
that we should design our sites for? Probably not, but we certainly should
consider certain traits, such as reaction times, memory, and other cognitive
or physical abilities, as we design sites.

Beware!
Remember, however, that while users may have similar basic characteristics, they are
also individuals. What may seem easy to one user will be hard for another. Sites that
are built for a “common” user may not meet the needs of all users. Power users may
find a site restrictive, while novice users find it too difficult. Users are individuals
with certain shared capacities and characteristics. Sites should take account of the
relevant differences while focusing on the commonalities, as stated by the following
Web design tenet.

16 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Rule: Design for the common user, but account for differences.
Lastly, we can see that the differing needs of the user and the designer
raise an issue of control. Control over a visit to a site is an unwritten
contract between the designer and the visitor to how the experience will
unfold. Often, sites provide little user control, forcing the user to view
content in a predetermined order with little control over presentation or
technology. Rarely do we find the exact opposite occurs, where the site
gives users ultimate control over visitation, allowing them to choose what
to see and how to see it and even allowing them to add to or modify the
site’s contents. However, most sites do allow the user some choices and
the ability to control experience, but always under the influence of the
designer’s requirements.

Form and Function

A key problem with Web design is that sites often do not balance form and
function. Under the influence of modernism, many designers have long held
that the form of something should follow its function. Consider that the
form is one base of our Web design pyramid analogy, while function is the
other. Function without form would be boring: while the site may work,
it would not inspire the user. Conversely, even if the form is impressive,
if the function is limited, the user will be disappointed. There needs to
be a clear and continuous relationship between form and function. Put
simply, the form of a site should directly relate to its purpose. If the site
is marketing-driven, it might be very visual and even incorporate heavy
amounts of multimedia if it helps to accomplish our goals. However, if the
site is clearly a task-based one, such as an online banking site, it might
have a much more utilitarian form. Of course, determining the appropriate
form for a site requires that the function of the site be clearly defined.
Unfortunately, for many Web sites the ultimate function of the site is not
always clearly conveyed. Even worse, the relationship of form and function
for the site is not always clearly established.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 17

Rule: Make sure the visual form of a site relates to its function
It is likely that there will be a continual struggle between form and function,
despite the fact that in nearly all cases the only side the designers should
be on is that of their users. In fact, there really need be no disagreement.
Form and function do not always have to fight; they complement each
other nearly all of the time. A nice-looking design makes a functional site
much better, while great functionality will make up for a deficiency in
“look and feel” over time.
Seasoned designers understand this balance and practice the idea of holistic
design by following the rule that the correct execution and integration of
all facets of the site will outweigh the value of a single component. In fact,
the real difference between a Web designer and a mere Web builder is that
the former is capable of not only executing the individual parts of a site
correctly but can also breathe extra “life” into the project as a whole.

Execution: The Easy Part?

HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Flash, browser compatibility, server
capacity, and all the other components of Web development are the easy
part of Web design. While learning a new technology might take some
time and effort, it is generally quite easy to say whether some HTML or
other technology is used correctly or not. However, today’s sites are riddled
with execution problems, ranging from simple typos to significant technical
compatibility, delivery, and usability problems.

A Web site should only be considered excellent if it is useful, usable, correct,

and pleasing. The meaning of each of these considerations is somewhat
subjective, except in the case of correctness. For a site to be well designed,
its execution must be excellent. This means that the site must not break
in any way. The HTML must be correct and the images saved properly so

18 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

that the page renders itself as the designer intended.
Any interactive elements, whether in the form of
client-side scripts in JavaScript or server-executed
CGI programs, must function properly and not result
in error messages. The navigation of the site must
work at all times.

Rule: A site’s execution must be close to flawless.

Why are execution problems rampant in Web sites?
Simple: this is a young industry with changing JavaScript is a full-
fledged dynamic
standards. Consider state-of-the-art Web design from programming
a few years ago and you will see the difference. language that, when
Further, most Web professionals often did not have applied to an HTML
the background in computer science, networking, document, can
hypertext theory, cognitive science, and all the provide dynamic
interactivity on
other disciplines that might affect the quality of the websites.
produced site. Some naïve designers even ignore the
inherent differences in the emerging Web medium by
not addressing problems of varying resolutions, color
reproduction, bandwidth limitations, and so on. A
Web designer who overlooks these types of technical
characteristics of the Web is like the print designer
who will not admit that ink bleeds on paper—
great Web designers must know and respect the
medium, which includes everything from browsers
and bandwidth to programming and protocols.

Rule: Know and respect the Web and Internet medium

constraints.
So, given the environment of Web design, we end
up with today’s assortment of sites, from those that
are standards-compliant, lightweight, user-friendly,
informational, and task-rich to those that are browser-
specific, unusable, or multimedia bandwidth hogs
touted as “next generation” designs. Yet does this
comparison suggest that all good sites are the same?
Not necessarily.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 19

Conformity versus Innovation
Many Web designers feel that design theories and site design categorization
increase conformity and stifle innovation. It is true that rigidly following
design templates such as “top-left-bottom” layout or adhering to such
common practices as putting organizational logos in the left corner of a Web
page will limit some page design choices; designers have misunderstood
the reason for these conventions. The same should be said for Web design.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) design for software programs has influenced
what is considered standard for Web user interfaces, but new ideas have
also emerged. Designers need to respect conventions of navigation choices,
navigation placement, colors, and so on. These ideas do not limit design;
they simply constrain sites to recognizable forms so that users do not find
the sites they visit to be completely different.

Rule: Appropriately respect GUI and Web interface conventions.

All these general “designing theories” set the stage for learning Web design,
but when you apply them to a real site the theories will become much more
specific. In short, we have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started.

Planning Process
Planning is the most important part of building a website. Before designing
a website, it is necessary to do proper planning as we do in the case of
building a house. If you start building your house without giving a thought of
planning, the house may end up into an uncomfortable dwelling. Therefore,
for building a good website proper planning is required.

20 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

The basic steps that help in planning a website are:
■ Define your target audience
■ Organize your concepts and materials
■ Create a directory structure (also called site map)
■ Create a sketch of the pages you intend to create
■ Design and refine the look and feel of the site

Define your Target Audience

Your site should facilitate the information or services to visitors the way
they are looking for. The keys to successfully communicating with your
audience are first to identify who they are and then anticipate their reaction
to the various elements of your web site. You can tailor almost every aspect
of your web site to your target audience - from the way you organize
information to the kinds of fonts and images you use.
You need to consider the following points for meeting the above said
objectives.
■ The viewer’s background and previous experience
■ Their interest and tastes
■ The reason why they are visiting your site
■ What is their general age

Organize your Concepts and Materials

You should be clear about the aim of creating your site, whether the aim
of the site is:
■ to inform
■ to promote a product
■ to educate audience
■ to entertain the audience
Your vision of creating the web site needs to be well defined. Once the
goals are defined, organize all your materials and put together any other
related documents and pictures you want to work with.

Create a Directory structure

If you think that the site will contain very few files then you can store all
of them in just one directory. But if the site is going to be very large and

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 21

complex, then you will need to organize files into separate directories and
sub-directories. Developing a logical directory structure is an essential part
of planning your web site. You can have a subdirectory for sound clippings.

Create a Sketch of the web pages

You may like to create a drawing of web pages (Figure 9).

Figure 9: The Sketch of web site.

After setting up a general site plan and directory structures, your contents
may fall into certain types. It may be possible to work within various pre-
designed templates available on the web designing tools such as Macromedia
Dreamweaver.

Develop a Look and Feel

The term Look and Feel means the overall representation of your site. It
is the combination of color, graphics, type and text that help to convey
your meaning with style and impact. Some of the factors you can take into
consideration to improve the look and feel of the web site are:
■ Space and Balance: Everything should look proportionate and proper.
■ Color: The colors should look pleasant to the eyes.
■ Font type and size: Type face of the text and size of the text in
the Web pages should be comfortable to read and make the matter
easy to understand.
■ Textures: Background graphics or textures can be annoying while
reading text. So be very careful and selective.
■ Special Effects: Multimedia can be added to your site to make your
site appealing. More animation, graphics, sound may cause delay
while accessing through a browser.
■ Consistency: Using a single color scheme throughout is a good
way to achieve consistency.

22 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Case Study

OFFSPRING

One-Line Summary
How moving to a responsive design website helped a UK-based online
sneaker store called Offspring to increase mobile conversion rate and
mobile revenue.

The Problem
Offspring had no mobile website, and mobile users were having a poor
user experience when accessing the site on their devices. This caused poor
conversion rates and low revenue for mobile. Mobile users are the largest
growing online market and Offspring witnessed a consistent increase in
mobile traffic to their website. Their current site was not mobile-friendly,
and was not providing a good user experience. This was also impacting on
their SEO score. Offspring knew they needed to ensure mobile users had
a good user experience to improve conversions, revenue and SEO.

The Solution
Offspring considered a mobile-friendly site, but decided to opt for a fully
responsive site to provide an optimized viewing experience irrespective of
the device used to access the site. Offspring wanted to ensure that tablet
users were also catered for in the design. The brand also wanted to ensure
that they provided existing customers with a familiar look and feel so
that they could still easily access and navigate the site. Certain key design

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 23

features were included to improve user experience. A new sticky header
was included that followed users down the page as they scrolled, providing
easy navigation without having to scroll back to the top each time.
A new search bar was included with predictive search. This allowed users
to search for their product more quickly.
Other design features included:
■ A new product listing page that was three columns wide on a desktop
that could automatically scale down to two or one depending on
the size of any different device used.
■ New image view and selection process was included on the product
detail pages.
■ A ’Don’t forget’ section was included on the basket page so that
users could automatically add items to their basket .
■ An improved checkout process was created with new delivery
options.
The intuitive navigation process was crucial to ensuring that users on any
device would be able to find the information they needed quickly and easily.

The Results
Users spent more time on the site, which lead to an increase in conversions
and sales. The SEO visibility of the site showed dramatic improvement after
moving over to the responsive site mainly due to the mobile site usability
score on Google rocketing from 60/100 to 100/100. This saw organic traffic
to the site increasing by over 25%.

24 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD-WIDE WEB
Within a decade, the World Wide Web has become ubiquitous, and it
continues to grow unabated at exponential rate. Web-based systems and
applications now deliver a complex array of varied content and functionality
to a large number of heterogeneous users. The interaction between a Web
system and its backend information systems has also become more tight
and complex. As we now increasingly depend on Web-based systems
and applications, their performance, reliability and quality have become
paramount importance, and the expectations of and demands placed on
Web applications have increased significantly over the years. As a result, the
design, development, deployment and maintenance of Web-based systems
have become more complex and difficult to manage.

Figure 10: The Internet and the World Wide Web.

Though massive amounts of Web development and maintenance continue

to take place, most of them are carried out in ad hoc manner, resulting
in poor quality Web systems and applications. Problems such as outdated
or irrelevant information, difficulties in using the Web site and finding
relevant information of interest, slow response, Web site crashes, and
security breaches are common. We encounter these kinds of problems
because Web developers failed to address users’ needs and issues such as
content management, maintenance, performance, security, and scalability
of Web applications. They also often overlook important non-technical
considerations such as copyright and privacy.
Many Web developers seem to think that Web application development is
just simple Web page creation using HTML or Web development software

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 25

such as Front Page or Dreamweaver and embodying few images and
hyperlinking documents and Web pages. Though certain simple applications
such as personal Web pages, seminar announcements, and simple online
company brochures that call for simple content presentation and navigation
fall into this category, many Web applications are complex and are required
to meet an array of challenging requirements which change and evolve.
There is more to Web application development than visual design and
user interface. It involves planning, Web architecture and system design,
testing, quality assurance and performance evaluation, and continual update
and maintenance of the systems as the requirements and usage grow and
develop.
Hence, ad hoc development is not appropriate for large, complex Web
systems, and it could result in serious problems: the delivered systems are
not what the user wants; they are not maintainable and scalable, and hence
have short useful life; they often do not provide desired levels of performance
and security; and/or most Web systems are often much behind schedule
and overrun the budget estimates. More importantly, many enterprises
and organizations cannot afford to have faulty Web systems or tolerate
downtime or inconsistent or stale content/information. The problems on
the Web become quickly visible and frustrate the users, possibly costing
the enterprises heavily in terms of financial loss, lost customer and loss of
reputation. As is often said, “We cannot hide the problems on the Web.”

Unfortunately, despite being faced with these problems and challenges,

most Web application development still continues to be ad hoc, chaotic,
failure-prone, and un-satisfactory. And this could get worse as more
inherently complex Web systems and applications that involve interaction
with many other systems or components pervade us and our dependence
on them increases. To successfully build large-scale, complex Web-based

26 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

systems and applications, Web developers need
to adopt a disciplined development process and a
sound methodology, use better development tools,
and follow a set of good guidelines. The emerging
discipline of Web engineering addresses these needs
and focuses on successful development of Web-based
systems and applications, while advocating a holistic,
disciplined approach to Web development.
Web Engineering uses scientific, engineering, and
management principles and systematic approaches
to successfully develop, deploy, and maintain high-
quality Web systems and applications. It aims to
bring Web-based system development under control,
minimize risks and improve quality, maintainability,
and scalability of Web applications. The essence of Web
engineering is to successfully manage the diversity
and complexity of Web application development,
and hence, avoid potential failures that could have
serious implications. This method aims to articulate
and raise awareness of the issues and considerations
in large-scale Web development and introduce Web
engineering as a way of managing complexity and
diversity of large-scale Web development.
Internet is the
global system of
Evolution of the Web interconnected
The Web has become closely ingrained with our life computer networks
that use the Internet
and work in just a few years. From its initial objective protocol suite (TCP/
of facilitating easy creation and sharing of information IP) to link devices
among a few scientists using simple Web sites that worldwide.
consisted primarily of hyperlinked text documents,
the Web has grown very rapidly in its scope and
extent of use, supported by constant advances in
Internet and Web technologies and standards. In
10 years, the number of Web sites dramatically has
grown from 100 to over 45 million (Figure 11).

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 27

Note: Web Sites = Number of Web servers; one host may have multiple sites by using different
domains or port numbers.

Figure 11: Growth of Web sites.

Enterprises, travel and hospitality industries, banks, educational and training

institutions, entertainment businesses and governments use large-scale Web-
based systems and applications to improve, enhance and/or extend their
operations. E-commerce has become global and widespread. Traditional
legacy information and database systems are being progressively migrated
to the Web. Modern Web applications run on distributed hardware and
heterogeneous computer systems. Furthermore, fuelled by recent advances in
wireless technologies and portable computing and communication devices,
a new wave of mobile Web applications are rapidly emerging. The Web
has changed our lives and work at every level, and this trend will continue
for the foreseeable future.

The evolution of the Web has brought together some disparate disciplines
such as media, information science, and information and communication
technology, facilitating easy creation, maintenance, sharing, and use of

28 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

different types of information from anywhere, any time, and using a variety
of devices such as desktop and notebook computers, pocket PCs, personal
digital assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones. Contributions of each of these
disciplines to the evolution and growth of the Web are:
■ Media: integration of different types of media such as data, text,
graphics, images, audio and video, and their presentation (animation,
3D visualization); different types of interaction and channels of
communications (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-
to-many).
■ Information science: information organization, presentation,
indexing, retrieval, aggregation, and management; and collaborative
and distributed content creation.
■ Information and communication technology and networking: efficient
and cost-effective storage, retrieval, processing, and presentation of
information; infrastructures that facilitate transfer and sharing of
data and information; wired and wireless Internet communication;
and personalized and context-aware Web applications.
Table 1: Categories of Web applications based on functionality

Many new Web technologies and standards have emerged in the last
couple of years to better support new, novel Web applications: XML, Web
services, the Semantic Web, Web personalization techniques, Web mining,
Web intelligence, and mobile and context aware services. The advances in
Internet and Web technologies and the benefits they offer have led to an
avalanche of Web sites, a diverse range of applications, and phenomenal
growth in the use of the Web.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 29

 Categories of Web Applications
The scope and complexity of Web applications vary
widely: from small scale, short-lived (a few weeks)
Categorization is applications to large-scale enterprise applications
the process in which
ideas and objects
distributed across the Internet, as well as via corporate
are recognized, intranets and extranets. Web applications now
differentiated, offer vastly varied functionality and have different
and understood. characteristics and requirements. Web applications
Categorization can be categorized in many ways — there is no
implies that objects
are grouped into
unique or widely accepted way. Categorization of
categories, usually Web applications based on functionality (Table 1) is
for some specific useful in understanding their requirements and for
purpose. Ideally, a developing and deploying Web-based systems and
category illuminates a applications.
relationship between
the subjects and
objects of knowledge.

30 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Case Study

INTERNET
In the 1960s, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United
States Department of Defense funded research into time-sharing of
computers. Research into packet switching, one of the fundamental Internet
technologies, started in the work of Paul Baran in the early 1960s and,
independently, Donald Davies in 1965. After the Symposium on Operating
Systems Principles in 1967, packet switching from the proposed NPL
network was incorporated into the design for the ARPANET and
other resource sharing networks such as the Merit Network and CYCLADES,
which were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
ARPANET development began with two network nodes which were
interconnected between the Network Measurement Center at the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Henry Samueli School of Engineering
and Applied Science directed by Leonard Kleinrock, and the NLS system
at SRI International (SRI) by Douglas Engelbart in Menlo Park, California,
on 29 October 1969. The third site was the Culler-Fried Interactive
Mathematics Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed
by the University of Utah Graphics Department. In a sign of future growth,
15 sites were connected to the young ARPANET by the end of 1971. These
early years were documented in the 1972 film Computer Networks: The
Heralds of Resource Sharing.
Early international collaborations for the ARPANET were rare. Connections
were made in 1973 to the Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR) via a
satellite station in Tanum, Sweden, and to Peter Kirstein’s research group
at University College London which provided a gateway to British academic
networks. The ARPA projects and international working groups led to
the development of various protocols and standards by which multiple
separate networks could become a single network or “a network of
networks”. In 1974, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn used the term internet as
a shorthand for internetwork in RFC 675, and later RFCs repeated this
use. Cerf and Khan credit Louis Pouzin with important influences
on TCP/IP design. Commercial PTT providers were concerned with
developing X.25 public data networks.
Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science
Foundation (NSF) funded the Computer Science Network (CSNET). In 1982,
the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) was standardized, which permitted

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 31

worldwide proliferation of interconnected networks. TCP/IP network
access expanded again in 1986 when the National Science Foundation
Network (NSFNet) provided access to supercomputer sites in the United
States for researchers, first at speeds of 56 kbit/s and later at 1.5 Mbit/s and
45 Mbit/s. The NSFNet expanded into academic and research organizations
in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in 1988–89. Although other
network protocols such as UUCP had global reach well before this time,
this marked the beginning of the Internet as an intercontinental network.
Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) emerged in 1989 in the United
States and Australia. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990.
Steady advances in semiconductor technology and optical networking created
new economic opportunities for commercial involvement in the expansion
of the network in its core and for delivering services to the public. In mid-
1989, MCI Mail and Compuserve established connections to the Internet,
delivering email and public access products to the half million users of
the Internet. Just months later, on 1 January 1990, PSInet launched an
alternate Internet backbone for commercial use; one of the networks that
added to the core of the commercial Internet of later years. In March
1990, the first high-speed T1 (1.5 Mbit/s) link between the NSFNET and
Europe was installed between Cornell University and CERN, allowing
much more robust communications than were capable with satellites. Six
months later Tim Berners-Lee would begin writing WorldWideWeb, the
first web browser, after two years of lobbying CERN management. By
Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working
Web: the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 0.9, the HyperText Markup
Language (HTML), the first Web browser (which was also a HTML editor and
could access Usenet newsgroups and FTP files), the first HTTP server
software (later known as CERN httpd), the first web server, and the
first Web pages that described the project itself. In 1991 the Commercial
Internet eXchange was founded, allowing PSInet to communicate with the
other commercial networks CERFnet and Alternet. Stanford Federal Credit
Union was the first financial institution to offer online Internet banking
services to all of its members in October 1994. In 1996, OP Financial Group,
also a cooperative bank, became the second online bank in the world and
the first in Europe. By 1995, the Internet was fully commercialized in the
U.S. when the NSFNet was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions
on use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic.
As technology advanced and commercial opportunities fueled reciprocal
growth, the volume of Internet traffic started experiencing similar
characteristics as that of the scaling of MOS transistors, exemplified by Moore’s
law, doubling every 18 months. This growth, formalized as Edholm’s law,

32 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

was catalyzed by advances in MOS technology, laser lightwave systems,
and noise performance.
Since 1995, the Internet has tremendously impacted culture and commerce,
including the rise of near instant communication by email, instant messaging,
telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP), two-way interactive video
calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social
networking services, and online shopping sites. Increasing amounts of
data are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks
operating at 1-Gbit/s, 10-Gbit/s, or more. The Internet continues to grow,
driven by ever greater amounts of online information and knowledge,
commerce, entertainment and social networking services. During the late
1990s, it was estimated that traffic on the public Internet grew by 100 percent
per year, while the mean annual growth in the number of Internet users
was thought to be between 20% and 50%.This growth is often attributed
to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the
network, as well as the non-proprietary nature of the Internet protocols,
which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company
from exerting too much control over the network. As of 31 March 2011,
the estimated total number of Internet users was 2.095 billion (30.2% of
world population). It is estimated that in 1993 the Internet carried only
1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunication. By
2000 this figure had grown to 51%, and by 2007 more than 97% of all
telecommunicated information was carried over the Internet.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 33

WEB DEVELOPMENT
Web development is the process of taking finished web designs and
transforming them into fully functioning, interactive websites. Development
is what gives life and movement to static designs, and enables users to
access the website through their web browsers. This is done by translating
the designs into web coding languages that can be interpreted and displayed
by web browsers.

Web Development Practices

Web development has a very short history, compared to the development of
software, information systems, or other computer applications. But within
a period of few years, a large number of Web systems and applications
have been developed and put into widespread use.
The complexity of Web-based applications has also grown significantly —
from information dissemination (consisting of simple text and images to
image maps, forms, common gateway interface [CGI], applets, scripts, and
style sheets) to online transactions, enterprise-wide planning and scheduling
systems, Web-based collaborative work environments, and now multilingual
Web sites, Web services and mobile Web applications.
Nevertheless, many consider Web development primarily an authoring work
(content/ page creation and presentation) rather than application development.
They often get carried away by the myth that “Web development is an art”
that primarily deals with “media manipulation and presentation.” Sure,
like the process of designing and constructing buildings, Web development
has an important artistic side. But Web development also needs to follow
a discipline and systematic process, rather than simply hacking together
a few Web pages.
Web applications are not just Web pages, as they may seem to a causal
user. The complexity of many Web-based systems is often deceptive and
is not often recognized by many stakeholders — clients who fund the
development, Web development managers and Web developers — early in
the development. Several attributes of quality Web-based systems such as
usability, navigation, accessibility, scalability, maintainability, compatibility
and interoperability, and security and reliability often are not given the due
consideration they deserve during development. Many Web applications
also fail to address cultural or regional considerations, and privacy, moral
and legal obligations and requirements. Most Web systems also lack proper
testing, evaluation, and documentation.

34 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

While designing and developing a Web application, many developers fail
to acknowledge that Web systems’ requirements evolve, and they do not
take this into consideration while developing Web systems. Web-based
systems development is not a one-time event as perceived and practiced
by many; it is a process with an iterative lifecycle. Another problem is that
most Web application development activities rely heavily on the knowledge
and experience of individual (or a small group of) developers and their
individual development practices rather than standard practices. Anecdotal
evidence and experience suggest that the problems of ad hoc development
continue to be faced by developers, users, and other stakeholders. As a
result, these are increasing concerns about the manner in which complex
Web-based systems are created as well as the level of performance, quality,
and integrity of these systems.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 35

Poorly developed Web-based applications have a high probability of low
performance and/or failure. Recently, large Web-based systems have had
an increasing number of failures. In certain classes of applications such as
supply-chain management, financial services, and digital marketplaces, a
system failure can propagate broad-based problems across many functions,
causing a major Web disaster. The cost of bad design, shabby development,
poor performance, and/or lack of content management for Web-based
applications has many serious consequences. The primary causes of these
failures are a lack of vision, shortsighted goals, a flawed design and
development process, and poor management of development efforts —
not technology. The way we address these concerns is critical to successful
deployment and maintenance of Web applications.
Therefore, one might wonder whether development methodologies and
processes advocated over the years for software or information systems
development and software engineering principles and practices could
be directly used for developing Web applications. Though the valuable
experiences gained and some of processes and methodologies used in
software engineering (and other domains) could be suitably adapted for Web
development as appropriate, they are not adequate, as Web development
is rather different from software development in several aspects.

Web Development is Different

It is important to realize that Web application development has certain
characteristics that make it different from traditional software, information
system, or computer application development. Web applications have the
following characteristics:
■ Web applications constantly evolve. In many cases, it is not possible
to fully specify what a Web site should or will contain at the start
of the development process, because its structure and functionality
evolve over time, especially after the system is put into use. Further,
the information contained within and presented by a Web site will
also change. Unlike conventional software that goes through a
planned and discrete revision at specific times in its lifecycle, Web
applications continuously evolve in terms of their requirements and
functionality (instability of requirements). Managing the change and
evolution of a Web application is a major technical, organizational
and management challenge — much more demanding than a
traditional software development.
■ Further, Web applications are inherently different from software.
The content, which may include text, graphics, images, audio,

36 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 and/or video, is integrated with procedural
processing. Also, the way in which the content
is presented and organized has implications
on the performance and response time of
the system.
■ Web applications are meant to be used
by a vast, variable user community — a
large number of anonymous users with
varying requirements, expectations, and
skill sets. Therefore, the user interface and
usability features have to meet the needs of
a diverse, anonymous user community to
whom we cannot offer training sessions, thus
complicating human-Web interaction (HWI),
user interface, and information presentation.
■ Nowadays, most Web-based systems are
content-driven (database-driven). Web based
systems development includes creation and
management of the content, as well as
appropriate provisions for subsequent content
creation, maintenance, and management after
the initial development and deployment on
a continual basis (in some applications as A web-based system
frequently as every hour or more). provides access to
a software system
■ In general, many Web-based systems demand
using a computer and
a good “look and feel,” favoring visual internet connection.
creativity and incorporation of multimedia in
presentation and interface. In these systems,
more emphasis is placed on visual creativity
and presentation.
■ Web applications have a compressed
development schedule, and time pressure
is heavy. Hence, a drawn-out development
process that could span a few months to a
year or more is not appropriate.
■ Ramifications of failure or dissatisfaction
of users of Web-based applications can be
much worse than conventional IT systems.
■ Web applications are developed by a small
team of (often young) people with diverse

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 37

 backgrounds, skills, and knowledge compared to a team of software
developers. Their perception of the Web and the quality of Web-
based systems also differ considerably, often causing confusion and
resulting in misguided priorities.
■ There are rapid technological changes — constant advances in Web
technologies and standards bring their own challenges — new
languages, standards, and tools to cope with; and lots of errors and
bugs in early versions of new mark-up languages, development
tools, and environments (technology instability).
■ Web development uses cutting-edge, diverse technologies and
standards, and integrates numerous varied components, including
traditional and non-traditional software, interpreted scripting
languages, HTML files, databases, images, and other multimedia
components such as video and audio, and complex user interfaces.
■ The delivery medium for Web applications is quite different from
that of traditional software. Web applications need to cope with a
variety of display devices and formats, and supporting hardware,
software, and networks with vastly varying access speeds.
■ Security and privacy needs of Web-based systems are more
demanding than that of traditional software.
■ The Web exemplifies a greater bond between art and science than
generally encountered in software development.
These unique characteristics of the Web and Web applications make Web
development different and more challenging than traditional software
development.

Evolutionary Web Development

Web-applications are evolutionary. For many Web applications, it is not
possible to specify fully what their requirements are or what these systems
will contain at the start of their development and later, because their
structure and functionality will change constantly over time. Further, the
information contained within and presented by a Web site often changes
— in some applications as often as every few minutes to a couple of times
a day. Thus, the ability to maintain information and to scale the Web site’s
structure (and the functions it provides) is a key consideration in developing
a Web application.
Given this Web environment, it seems the only viable approach for developing
sustainable Web applications is to follow an evolutionary development

38 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

process where change is seen as a norm and is catered to. And, this also
mandates adoption of a disciplined process for successful Web development.

Web Development Process

A Web development process outlines the various steps and activities of
Web-based systems development. It should clearly define a set of steps that
developers can follow and must be measurable and trackable. Characteristics
of Web applications that make their development difficult — and uniquely
challenging — include their real-time interaction, complexity, changeability,
and the desire to provide personalized information. In addition, the effort
and time required to design and develop a Web application is difficult to
estimate with a reasonable accuracy.

Based on our practical experience in building Web applications, we

recommend an evolutionary process for Web development, shown in Figure
12. This process assists developers in understanding the context in which the
application will be deployed and used; helps in capturing the requirements;
enables integration of the know-how from different disciplines; facilitates
the communication among various members involved in the development
process; supports continuous evolution and maintenance; facilitates easier
management of the information content; and helps in successfully managing
the complexity and diversity of the development process.

Context Analysis
The first essential step in developing a Web-based system is “context

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 39

analysis,” where we elicit and understand the system’s major objectives
and requirements, as well as the needs of the system’s typical users and
the organization that needs the system. It is important to realize at this
stage that requirements will change and evolve — even during system
development and after its deployment. It is also important to study briefly
the operation for which a Web application is to be developed, and the
potential implications of introduction of the new system on the organization.
This study should normally include: how information (to be made available
on the Web) is created and managed; organizational policy on ownership
and control (centralized or decentralized) of information; its current and
future plans and business objectives; possible impact of the introduction
of Web-based applications on the organization; the resulting changes in its
business and business processes; and emerging trends in the industry sector.

Figure 12: Web development process.

As the Web applications evolve and need to be modified to cater to new

requirements — some of which arise from changes or improvements in the
business process as a result of deployment of the new Web-based system —
an understanding of a big picture about the organization and its information
management policies and practices is a prerequisite for successful design,
development, and deployment of Web-based applications. Before starting
Web development, therefore, developers need to elicit and understand the
system’s major objectives and requirements, gather information about the
operational and application environment, and identify the profile of typical
system users.
In addition to the functional requirements, potential demands on the
scalability, maintainability, availability, and performance of the system need to
be specifically elicited and understood by the developers at the beginning of
the development process. Based on this information, developers then arrive
at the system’s functional, technical, and nontechnical requirements, which,

40 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

in turn, influence the system’s architectural design.
For instance, if the information content and the
system’s functions are going to evolve considerably,
like in most e-business systems, the system needs
to be designed for scalability. On the other hand,
if the information changes frequently — like in
weather reports, special sales offerings, job vacancies,
product price list, brochures, and latest news or
announcements — to keep the information current
and consistent, the system needs to be designed for
easy information maintainability. Moreover, where
the application demands very high availability and Web server is server
needs to cater for high peak or uncertain demands, software, or hardware
dedicated to running
the system may be required to run on multiple Web
this software, that can
servers with load balancing and other performance satisfy client requests
enhancement mechanisms. on the World Wide
Web.

Thus, it is very important to recognize that scalability,

maintainability, and/or performance need to be built
into the initial system architecture. It would be very
hard, or impossible, to incorporate these features if the
initial architecture is not designed to support them.
To illustrate this, consider an e-business Web site
that provides product information, such as price and
availability, which appears on many different pages
and changes frequently. If the Web site is designed
as static Web pages, then every time a product’s
information changes, one has to incorporate the
change in every page that contains this information.
This is a cumbersome and laborious task, and often
changes are only made to a few pages, instead of all

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 41

relevant pages. As a consequence of this, the same information appearing
on different pages will be inconsistent.
A better approach to ensure consistency of information across all Web
pages is to automatically retrieve the information, when and where needed,
from a single information source. If product information is stored in a
single central database, then by extracting the relevant information from
this database, we can dynamically create various Web pages that contain
this information. In the database-driven approach, we need to change the
information only in one place: the database. Further, the database-driven
Web sites can have a back-end system to allow an authorized person, who
may not be skilled in Web page development, to make information changes
easily through a Web interface, from anywhere. A database-driven Web site
requires a completely different architecture than a Web site that has only
static Web pages. Hence, an appropriate architecture that would meet the
system’s requirements needs to be chosen early in the system development.
Thus, as highlighted in Table 2, the objective of context analysis is to capture
and derive the key information required to develop the Web application. In
addition, it can also identify non-technical issues that have to be addressed
for successful implementation and application of the system. These may
include reengineering of business processes where required, organizational
and management policies, staff training, and legal, cultural and social aspects.
Context analysis can minimize or eliminate the major problems plaguing
large Web-based system development. But, many developers and project
managers overlook this essential first step in Web system development
and face the problems later when it is hard to correct them. Based on the
context analysis, we then arrive at the system’s technical and non-technical
requirements, which, in turn, influence the system architecture design.
Table 2: Objectives of context analysis of Web applications

42 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Architecture Design
In system architecture design, we decide on various components of the
system and how they are linked. At this stage, we design:
■ An overall system architecture describing how the network and
the various servers (Web servers, application servers and database
servers) interact;
■ An application architecture depicting various information modules
and the functions they support; and
■ A software architecture identifying various software and database
modules required to implement the application architecture.
Table 3 summarizes the means of fulfilling some of the requirements of
Web-based applications. We then decide on an appropriate development
process model and develop a project plan. To successfully manage Web
development, a sound project plan and a realistic schedule are necessary.
Progress of development activities must be monitored and managed. Project
planning and scheduling techniques that are commonly used in other
disciplines can be used for Web development. Following this, the various
components of the system and Web pages are designed, developed and
tested.
Table 3: Means of fulfilling the requirements of Web application

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 43

Web Page Design
Web page design is an important activity; it determines what information
is presented and how it is presented to the users. A prototype usually
contains a set of sample pages to evaluate the page layout, presentation,
and navigation (within and among different pages). Based on the feedback
from the stakeholders, the page design is suitably modified. This process
may go through a few iterations until the stakeholders and designers are
satisfied with the page layout, presentation and the navigation structure. Web
page content development needs to take into consideration the stakeholders’
requirements, users’ cognitive abilities, technical issues and considerations,
nontechnical issues, earlier experiences of developers and users, from similar
Web applications (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Web page design.

If the Web system is intended for global use, by users from different
countries, the Web content and presentation may have to be localized;
there also may be a need for multilingual Web sites. Also, the Web site’s
content and usability have to be designed from a global perspective and
be responsive to cultural sensitivity in language along with appropriate
use of color, presentation, and animation.

Web Maintenance
After a Web-based system is developed and deployed online for use, it
needs to be maintained. As outlined earlier, content maintenance is a
continual process. We need to formulate content maintenance policies and
procedures, based on the decision taken at the system architecture design
stage on how the information content would be maintained, and then we
need to implement them. Further, as the requirements of Web systems grow

44 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

and evolve, the system needs to be updated and also may be redesigned
to cater to the new requirements.

It is important to periodically review Web-based systems and applications

regarding the currency of information content, potential security risks,
performance of the system, and usage patterns (by analyzing Web logs),
and take suitable measures to fix the shortcomings and weaknesses, if any.

Project Management
The purpose of project management is to ensure that all the key processes
and activities work in harmony. Building successful Web-based applications
requires close coordination among various efforts involved in the Web
development cycle. Many studies, however, reveal that poor project
management is the major cause of Web failures both during development
and subsequently in the operational phase. Poor project management will
defeat good engineering; good project management is a recipe for success.
Successfully managing a large, complex Web development is a challenging
task requiring multidisciplinary skills and is, in some ways, different from
managing traditional IT projects.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 45

 Quality control, assurance and documentation are
other important activities, but they are often neglected.
Like project management, these activities need to
spread throughout the Web development life cycle.

Steps to Successful Development

Web development
life cycle includes Successful development of Web systems and
the following applications involves multiple interactive steps which
phases: planning, influence one another. We recommend the following
analysis, design and key steps for successful development and deployment
development, testing,
and implementation of Web applications:
and maintenance. ■ Understand the system’s overall function
and operational environment, including
the business objectives and requirements,
organization culture and information
management policy.
■ Clearly identify the stakeholders — that is,
the system’s main users and their typical
profiles, the organization that needs the
system, and who funds the development.
■ Elicit or specify the (initial) functional,
technical, and nontechnical requirements
of the stakeholders and the overall system.
Further, recognize that these requirements
may not remain the same; rather, they are
bound to evolve over time during the system
development.
■ Develop overall system architecture of the
Web-based system that meets the technical
and nontechnical requirements.
■ Identify subprojects or sub processes to
implement the system architecture. If the
subprojects are too complex to manage,
further divide them until they become a
set of manageable tasks.
■ Develop and implement the subprojects.
■ Incorporate effective mechanisms to manage
the Web system’s evolution, change, and
maintenance. As the system evolves, repeat

46 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 the overall process or some parts of it, as
required.
■ Address the nontechnical issues, such as
revised business processes, organizational
and management policies, human resources
development, and legal, cultural, and social
aspects.
Smart Tip
■ Measure the system’s performance, analyses
the usage of the Web application from Web A Web development
team is multidisciplinary,
logs, and review and address users’ feedback
like a film production
and suggestions. team, and must be
■ Refine and update the system. more versatile than a
traditional software
development team.
Web System Design: Challenges
The Internet is an open platform that provides
unparalleled opportunities. But it has virtually no
control over visitor volume, or when and how they
access a Web system. This makes developing Web
applications that exhibit satisfactory performance
even under a sudden surge in number of users a
nebulous and challenging task.

Satisfying the expectations and needs of different

types of users with varying skills is not easy. When
users find a site unfriendly, confusing, or presented
with too much information, they will leave frustrated.
Worse yet, these frustrated users may spread the
bad news to many others. Web site usability factors
include good use of colors, information content,
easy navigation, and many more. They also include

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 47

evaluation from an international perspective so that you can reach a global
audience. Web usability factors that impact the Web user experience are:
page layout, design consistency, accessibility, information content, navigation,
personalization, performance, and security, reliability, and design standards
(naming conventions, formatting, and page organization).
A Web-based system also has to satisfy many different stakeholders besides
the diverse range of users, including: persons who maintain the system,
the organization that needs the system, and those who fund the system
development. These may pose some additional challenges to Web-based
system design and development. Today’s Web-savvy consumers do not
tolerate much margin of error or failure. Web system slow down, failure, or
security breach may cause a loss of its customers — probably permanently.
A whopping 58 percent of first time customers would not return to a site
that crashed.
As Web applications are becoming mission-critical, there is greater demand
for improved reliability, performance, and security of these applications.
Poor design and infrastructure have caused many Web applications to be
unable to support the demands placed on them, so they have therefore
failed. Many Web sites have suffered site crashes, performance failures,
security breaches, and outages — resulting in irate customers, lost revenue,
devalued stocks, a tarnished reputation (bad publicity, lack of customer
confidence), permanent loss of customers, and law suits. Stock prices have
become inextricably linked to the reliability of a company’s ecommerce site.
The recent major failures and their impact on enterprises have served
as a forceful reminder of the need for capacity planning, and improved
performance, quality, and reliability. Successful Web application deployment
demands consistent Web site availability, a better understanding of its
performance, scalability, and load balancing. Proactive measures are needed
to prevent grinding halts and failures from happening in the first place.
Large-scale Web system design is a complex and a challenging activity
as it needs to consider many different aspects and requirements, some of
which may have conflicting needs. We use terms like scalability, reliability,
availability, maintainability, usability, and security to describe how well the
system meets current and future needs and service-level expectations. These
-ilities characterize a Web system’s architectural and other qualities. In the
face of increasingly complex systems, these system qualities are often more
daunting to understand and manage.
Scalability refers to how well a system’s architecture can grow, as traffic,
demand for services, or resource utilization grows. As Web sites grow,
small software weaknesses that had no initial noticeable effects can lead
to failures, reliability problems, usability problems, and security breaches.

48 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Developing Web applications that scale well represents one of today’s most
important development challenges. Flexibility is the extent to which the
solution can adapt as business requirements change. A flexible architecture
facilitates greater reusability and quicker deployment. Thus, the challenge
is to design and develop sustainable Web systems for better:
■ Usability — interface design, navigation,
■ Comprehension,
■ Performance — responsiveness,
■ Security and integrity,
■ Evolution, growth, and maintainability, and
■ Testability.

Web Testing and Evaluation

Testing plays a crucial role in the overall development process. However,
more often than not, testing and evaluation are neglected aspects of Web
development. Many developers test the system only after it had met with
failures or limitations have become apparent, resorting to what is known as
retroactive testing. What is desired in the first place is proactive testing at
various stages of the Web development lifecycle. Benefits of proactive testing
include assurance of proper functioning and guaranteed performance levels,
avoidance of costly retroactive fixes, optimal performance, and lower risk.

Testing and validating a large complex Web system is a difficult and

expensive task. Testing should not be seen as a one-off activity carried
out near the end of development process. One needs to take a broad view
and follow a more holistic approach to testing — from design all the way
to deployment, maintenance, and continual refinement. The test planning
needs to be carried out early in the project lifecycle. A test plan provides

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 49

a roadmap so that the Web site can be evaluated through requirements
or design stage. It also helps to estimate the time and effort needed for
testing — establishing a test environment, finding test personnel, writing test
procedures before any testing can actually start, and testing and evaluating
the system.
■ Browser compatibility
■ Page display
■ Session management
■ Usability
■ Content analysis
■ Availability
■ Backup and recovery
■ Transactions
■ Shopping, order processing
■ Internalization
■ Operational business procedures
■ System integration
■ Performance
■ Login and security
Experience shows that there are many common pitfalls in Web testing and
attempts should be made overcome them. Testing and evaluation of a Web
application may be expensive, but the impact of failures resulting from lack
of testing could be more costly or even disastrous.

Knowledge and Skills for Web Development

The knowledge and skills needed for large, complex Web application
development are quite diverse and span many different disciplines. They
can be broadly classified as:
■ Technologies supporting and facilitating Web applications
■ Design methods
• Design for usability — interface design, navigation
• Design for comprehension
• Design for performance — responsiveness
• Design for security and integrity
• Design for evolution, growth and maintainability

50 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 • Design for testability
• Graphics and multimedia design
• Web page development
■ System architecture
■ Web development methods and processes
■ Web project management
■ Development tools
■ Content management
■ Web standards and regulatory requirements

Web Development Team

As above mentioned, development of a Web application requires a
team of people with diverse skills and backgrounds. These individuals
include programmers, graphic designers, Web page designers, usability
experts, content developers, database designers and administrators, data
communication and networking experts, and Web server administrators.

THE FUTURE OF WEB DEVELOPMENT

Even the most proficient experts find it difficult to make forecasts. Despite
having well-proven tools at their fingertips for tracking market trends, it
is impossible to predict upcoming events with 100% accuracy. Unexpected
factors often float up that change the web landscape.
Just recall some of the most notable forecasts of the past, and you will see
that not all predictions have come true. For example:
■ Facebook was expected to collapse due to the rapid development
of instant messengers.
■ Many hopes were pinned on Apple TV, but it’s popularity fell short
of expectations. However, Apple plans to reveal a new streaming
service in the fall to rival Netflix.
■ Google, Bing, and Wolfram Alpha were expected to merge into a
search engine giant, but that never happened.
■ People believed that all paper resources would be replaced by
electronic databases. However, newspapers, books, and traditional
correspondence are still alive and well.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 51

At the same time, some forecasts have evolved from a bold idea into real-
life technology. For instance, the mobile Internet has been a long-anticipated
invention. Its advent has been discussed for years, and now it is ubiquitous
throughout the world. In this instance, people asked, “When will this
happen?” rather than, “Will this happen?”
At the same time, the mobile Internet has undergone many collateral
changes, including responsive web design. Web developers did not pay much
attention to responsivity until people shifted from PCs to smartphones. The
value of responsivity increased exponentially when sites that were formerly
viewed on desktops could now be accessed from compact gadgets. Thanks
to forecasters, the industry had ample time to prepare for the upcoming
boom, and it was ready to satisfy the needs of consumers when they started
to actively use the mobile Internet.
If you are an entrepreneur with long-reaching plans or a startupper looking
for the most promising niche, you undoubtedly want to know what to
expect from the world of web development in the future.
Experts from Clever-Solution have analyzed the latest trends, distinguished
the most viable ones, and estimated the projected time for their realization.

1. Artificial intelligence
AI is often associated with killer machines from movies like “Terminator,”
viewed as something very distant and fictional. But in fact, AI is already here.
We are talking about computers responding to our actions and environmental
factors. AI scans the surrounding world and adjusts its own operations
based on collected information.

52 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Apple’s Siri and Google’s Search are great examples of how AI
works. These systems analyze human speech, track patterns, and
optimize user experience to meet the individual user ’s needs.
Several years ago, speech recognition technology was underdeveloped and
fell short of its promises. Since that time, significant breakthroughs have
been observed. Programs with high-quality voice input have become more
accessible and are beginning to play a significant role in web and mobile
development, making it one of the fastest growing AI trends.
Many other helpful programs are being released on a regular basis. These
innovative products make user’s lives easier and save them time. For
example, it is possible to call Uber without opening an app and manually
entering a query. Geolocation determines where the client is and sends a
driver right to that location. All the passenger needs to do is wait for a
notification of the driver’s arrival.
In the business environment, successful use of voice recognition programs
is closely intertwined with thoughtful search engine optimization. Many
website owners develop their SEO campaigns based on voice queries. To get
high traffic, it is critical to cover all the key phrases that potential clients
may use. Be aware that queries “restaurants in New York” and “where to
eat in New York?” would be indexed in absolutely different ways, even
though they have similar meanings, so it is worth using both.

2. Interactivity
With heated competition among websites, it has become increasingly
challenging to impress your target audience and retain its attention. A
great way to outpace your competition is to make your online platform
interactive and user-friendly. It is important to track and satisfy your users’
needs so they enjoy using your services.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 53

 Today’s web developers pay a great deal of attention
to reducing the number of actions needed to find
information or goods. For example, quick search
eliminates the need for visitors to flip through dozens
of pages, and offers of accompanying products, saves
clients from having to conduct a new search.
Also, some platforms invite customers to personalize
their purchases. Users can upload a photo and try on
accessories or make-up, create a 3D model of their
dream home, assemble a car from spare parts, and
countless other tasks that customize their shopping
Internet of things experience. These creative experiences give clients
describes the network
the pleasure of “owning” different items, even before
of physical objects—
“things”—that are buying them. This approach is very inspiring and
embedded with directly impacts sales.
sensors, software, and
other technologies Until recently, custom features were not widely used
for the purpose due to long loading times and the complexity of
of connecting and adopting them on websites. But the technology is
exchanging data now in its heyday.
with other devices
and systems over the
Internet. 3. Internet of Things
Just like AI, Internet of things (IoT) has long been
a bold but distant concept that is finally claiming its
place in the sun. IoT technologies allow us to collect
and store the data of physical objects in the web
space, requiring us to retain less information in our

54 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

heads so we can use real-life resources more efficiently. In many respects,
IoT was made possible thanks to Cloud connectivity.

Fitness trackers provide a good example of IoT application. Smart bracelets

scan their owners’ physical activities, store and process data on health
optimization platforms, and provide recommendations for improving
workouts. Also, there are special devices for tracking sleep cycles and
compiling nutrition plans. Some models can even diagnose a user’s state
of health and reveal illnesses based on biometric data.
Also, Cloud connect is currently used to analyze car performance. Data
collected on the move helps service centers to conduct more accurate
diagnostics. Experts predict that vehicles will soon be able to exchange
data. Just imagine that one car hits a pothole and warns other approaching
vehicles about the threat.

4. The Continuing Growth of Python

All the newest and coolest things are based on flexible, scalable, and
resilient programming languages such as Python. Even though it originally
emerged in 1991, its life cycle is not going to end anytime soon. On the
contrary, Python’s growth is in full swing, with more and more interesting
applications being invented each year. Its popularity in IT is similar to the
omnipresence of the English language in the business world.
Java was once a rising star in programming, but it has now been
overshadowed by Python, which is actively used by Google, Facebook, NASA,
Youtube, and many other international companies. Python programming
language provides a great platform for artificial intelligence, API integration,
machine learning, and other high-tech trends.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 55

5. Self-creating sites
Not long ago, it was necessary to use HTML for the manual creation of
websites, which demanded tremendous investments of time. Helpful tools
like WordPress and Dreamweaver have greatly simplified these processes,
and web developers continue to invent new custom CMS programs that
allow retailers to create their own online stores without writing code.
Thanks to CMS development, it is simple to create useful content for
potential buyers and insert it into special fields of a CMS engine. Apart
from some minor design issues, CMS allows business owners to relax and
enjoy the results provided by the software.

56 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Advances in software development will decrease the need for front-end
developers. The most proficient technicians in this niche will perform
more customized work, and shift to back-end, consulting, and service
platforms. It may be more challenging for front end developers to prove their
qualifications and find good jobs, but the upside is that robust competition
should stimulate best practices.

6. PINs and Passwords will Disappear

Most people hate passwords because they are hard to memorize, especially
since most websites require users to come up with lengthy combinations
of characters, letters and numbers. For anyone who has multiple online
accounts, it is nearly impossible to commit every password to memory.
Simple passwords are often rejected, and many websites require periodic
password updates.
As more and more vital industries including education, politics, and business,
shift their processes to the web space, it is important to find reliable but
user-friendly access control technologies for ensuring security. Many experts
believe that the use of biometrics will provide a way out. Data scanned from
our faces, fingerprints, and even gait can be used for online transactions
and to confirm identity.

The first steps in this direction have already been made. The latest
smartphones demand the user’s thumbprint prior to providing access, and
the latest iPhones feature face ID. But this is only the beginning! Advanced
gadgets can even use data collected by accelerometer and GPS to determine
whether the right user is holding them.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 57

What is biometric authentication of the future? This technology means that
people do not have to take any actions to establish identity. Just imagine
that you enter a store, take what you need, and simply leave. There is no
need to use your wallet, credit card, or phone because the prices of goods
purchased will be automatically summed up, converted to a bill, and
withdrawn from your account via the smart system.
In such cases, security is very high. No one will be able to use your personal
data to hack a bank account because it is impossible to forge biometric
data. Also, shops will be protected from thieves. If the system detects that
there are insufficient funds in the customer’s account, it will not let them
leave the store.

7. Use of Components as a Model

Components allow developers to build complex web applications from custom
made elements. Many experts view components as the basis of progressive
web development. Their native implementation improves user experience and
solves many other challenges that previously prevented components from
being widely used beyond the enterprise level. Platforms such as Bootstrap,
React, and Angular allow developers to successfully leverage this approach on
the server side.

8. React Will Face Competition from Vue and Svelte Frameworks

Most frontend developers use React and Vue, with React being the leader
in this niche. After prolonged competition with Angular, it has at last
edged ahead. In contrast to Angular, React is seamless and versatile, which

58 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

attracts the attention of large companies. Convenient installation and setup
commands allow developers to easily implement web applications with
minimal effort and time. React is universal, since it is synced with popular
JavaScript frameworks, programming languages, and backend tools.

As for Vue, it is a rising star in web development that promises to rival

React in the very near future. Xiaomi is one of the large brands supporting
this framework. [Link]. is also worth noting. This framework is still not
as popular as React and Vue, but an increasing number of developers are
beginning to leverage it, so we can expect an uptick in popularity in the
coming years. The main advantage of this platform is economy of memory.
There is no need to save the framework’s code to make the finished product
work. Due to this feature, Svelte is often called a “disappearing” framework.

9. GraphQL will Become The Leading Query Language

GraphQL is a flexible query language that provides boundless opportunities
for API call optimization. The technology has inspired a number of interesting
experiments with search queries and results on a GraphQL Playground,
solving a number of problems specific to REST (Representational State
Transfer), revolutionizing data consumption in web development, and easily
syncing with React, TypeScript, and other popular JavaScript frameworks.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 59

We cannot claim that all our forecasts will come true with 100% accuracy.
As mentioned above, unexpected twists can change the flow of things.
But one thing can be said for sure: most future trends will center around
artificial intelligence, fast operation, interactivity of web applications, and
improved user experience.
Here at Clever-Solution, we take the most notable web development trends
into account and prepare ourselves for anticipated tech booms. So far, our
foresight and flexibility have made us leaders in our niche, and we have
no plans to change our approach. Whatever happens, we will find a way to
satisfy our customers’ needs and supply the very best available technologies.

60 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 Role Model

Timothy John Berners-Lee:

Inventor of the World Wide Web.

Tim Berners-Lee is a software engineer who invented the Internet (or the
World Wide Web) in 1989 while at CERN, the European Particle Physics
Laboratory.
He is director of the World Wide Web Consortium that he founded and a
Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Oxford.
In 2001 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2004 he was knighted.

The Early Life of Tim Berners-Lee

Timothy John Berners-Lee was born in London on June 8, 1955. His parents
were Mary Lee Woods and Conway Berners-Lee; he had three siblings. The
Berners-Lee couple worked with the very first ever commercial computer,
the Ferranti Mark 1 so you could say that computers were his legacy.
He attended Sheen Mount Primary school then spent four years at Emanuel
School in south west London. As a child, he was a very keen train-spotter
and learned all about electronics through playing with his model railway.
After his school years, Berners-Lee enrolled at the University of Oxford at
Queen’s College for three years and received a first class degree in physics
in 1976.

The Career of Tim Berners-Lee

After graduating Berners-Lee found employment as an engineer for Plessey
Telecom located in Poole, Dorset and he worked on distributed transaction
systems, message relays, and bar code technology. In 1978 he moved to D.G.
Nash in Ferndown, Dorset which was run by two of his friends Dennis
Nash and John Poole, where he created type-setting software for printers
and wrote and a multitasking operating system.
From June to December in 1980, he worked for the European Organization
for Nuclear Research (CERN) as an independent software engineer. While
he was there, he made a proposal for a project based on “hypertext” which

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 61

would make sharing and updating of information by researchers easier
and more convenient. Berners-Lee then devised a prototype system called
ENQUIRE to demonstrate how it would work. The name came from a
Victorian book called “Enquire Within Upon Everything.”
After he left CERN in late 1980, Berners-Lee became a Director at John
Poole’s Image Computer Systems LTD in Bournemouth, Dorset. For three
years he was in charge of the technical side of the company and gained
experience in computer networking, graphics and communications software.
In 1983 Vinton Cerf created the first commercial internet “email” system
where information could be shared between individuals using email
addresses. Berners-Lee, with his ENQUIRE proposal, wanted to devise a
system that was automatically available to everyone.
Berners-Lee returned to CERN in 1984 as a Fellow and by 1989 CERN was
also the largest internet node in the European continent.
Berners-Lee saw his chance to meld hypertext with the internet and produced
his idea, Information Management: A Proposal”, in March 1989, to share
information globally, without the need for emails. Thee system was named
World Wide Web and Berners-Lee also designed and built the first web
browser.

Early Web
The first website was built at CERN and was published on August 6, 1991;
its address was [Link]. and it acted as both a web server and web
site. A NeXT computer located at CERN was used to run it. The first web
site contained information about Berners-Lee’s project so visitors could
learn about hypertext (HTTP) and learn about building webpages, so they
could make their own.
By 1992 there were 50 servers and by 1994 there were over 2 million users,
with 150,000 new users being added every month. However the Web was
still heavily in the academic field.
In 1994 Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at
the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in Boston. It was made up of companies that wanted to
work together to create Web standards and also improve the Web. It was
quickly agreed that the technology should be free of royalties and patents.
Berners-Lee has served as director of this W3C since it was founded.
In 1995 Microsoft produced the first version of Internet Explorer and this
commercial browser created enormous growth in websites and web users.

62 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

The Web was first used for e-commerce in 1997.

Later Career
In June 2009, British PM Gordon Brown made the announcement that
Berners-Lee, together with Nigel Shadbolt, would be working with the UK
government so they could make data more accessible and open to people
that needed it on the web site [Link].
Berners-Lee holds the founders chair in Computer Science at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2016 he joined the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University
as a professorial research fellow.

Personal and Awards

Berners-Lee married Nancy Carlson, a programmer analyst, in 1990 and they
had two children before they were divorced in 2011. He married Rosemary
Leith, director of the World Wide Web Foundation, in 2014.
In 2001 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2004 he was
knighted. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 2007.
In April of 2009, the US National Academy of Sciences elected him as a
foreign associate.
In 2016 he was awarded The ACM A.M. Turing Award “For inventing the
World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the fundamental protocols
and algorithms allowing the Web to scale.”

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 63

 2 BUSINESS PLANNING

WEB DEVELOPER BUSINESS PLAN

The most common misconception about the web developer business plan
and the business, in general, is that it is easy to start and maintain. This
misconception leads to developers not planning things as carefully as they
should, or failing to plan all before heading in.

Importance of Following a Web Developer Business

Plan
Due to reasons such as operational demands or simple underestimation of
the amount of time and effort that goes into web developing, people ignore
that it is important to have a web developer business plan if they want to
be successful in web development and marketing. Having web development
skills do you no good if you do not have a plan for sorting out the time,
finances, marketing skills, management skills, and other such technicalities
that you will need to put in. Keep in mind that web development, even
when you have a web developer business plan is harder than you are lead
to believe by popular web developer stories so let this step-by-step guide
be your business strategy to help you navigate this easily accessible but
also the overcrowded marketplace of developers.

64 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 Business plan is
a formal written
document containing
business goals, the
methods on how
these goals can be
attained, and the time
frame within which
Know Your Strength and these goals need to be
achieved.
Weaknesses
Your strengths will help you to choose main services
you would be offering and your weaknesses will
help you identify your areas for growth and will
help to avoid wastage of energy and time that can
be handled by someone else.

Know Your Market

Try to know what people are looking for and tailor
your services according to their needs. You can also
directly consult your clients to tell you about their
requirements and specifications for web designs.

Your Website Is Important

You are marketing yourself as a web development
company, so obviously having a visually and
functionally appealing website should be the first
step in your web developer business plan. You
need to design your website such that it shows off
your business while standing out from the crowd.
Whatever you do, don’t rush the launch of the website
before sorting out the technicalities as potential
customers will look at your website to get an idea

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 65

about quality – you don’t want to be known on the internet as the web
developer with the unprofessional website or a website which glitches! Take
a look at the variety of web design website templates to find the one for
your own website. Remember to get a reliable hosting for your website,
as a hosting provider influences your SEO.

Bring Your Best Designing and Marketing Skills

Being technical is definitely important, but your website should not be
designed by a technician. You need creativity and you need to market
good quality design.

Imagine thousands of people looking at your website but your website is

poorly designed so they don’t stay long or you have a great website which
should’ve warranted revenue but you aren’t able to market it properly so
no one knows of your epic designing skills. This is why you need to focus
on designing and marketing both.

Determine Your Marketing Strategies

A good web developer business plan always highlights the importance
of marketing properly and strategically. In order to succeed and generate
revenue, you need to attract masses of potential customers and, that too, on
a cost-effective basis. The best way to do this is through social networking.
Be active on social media and maximize your profits by spreading the word
about yourself with influencer marketing, promoting yourself everywhere,
attracting traffic, using your customers to introduce your company to other
potential customers, etc.

66 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Find Yourself the Team You Need
You are most likely to start alone or with the help
of a very small management team but you will
definitely to hire more staff. Think of everything
you are excellent at doing and can manage to do all
on your own, then determine the stuff which you Social networking is
could hire someone to do for you, or which you the use of Internet-
based social media
need help doing. You will need human resources
sites to stay connected
to build a team and you will need to describe the with friends, family,
reason behind choosing to work with certain people colleagues, customers,
or firms and how they have the skills or resources or clients.
you need.

Be Unique and Be Vocal

Web developer business plan? Check. Website? Check.
Marketing Strategy? Check. Management team?
Check. Website traffic? Check.

You have everything you need to start and succeed

– but guess what? There are thousands of developers
out there with the same building-blocks and other
resources at their disposal. You think your idea is
unique? There is most likely another company out
there doing something similar. What you can do
is be critical of the work of your competitors and
determine what you can do to provide better service
for the customers and stand out in the crowd by
marketing what makes you different, better, and
more deserving of consideration.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 67

8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO START
YOUR OWN WEB DEVELOPMENT SMALL
BUSINESS
If you ever thought about creating a web development business, now is the
time. More businesses are realizing that customers are becoming internet
savvy and are using the internet to shop, make reservations, and other
things. Companies need good web sites and they are looking for someone
to create them. Here are eight things you need to know to start your own
web development business.

1. Create a good Website

This might seem obvious but your website reflects your talents. Show off
what you know and what you can do on your own website. Your will have
more potential clients if your website has the latest features. Make sure
you stand out in the crowd. There are many website builders out there. Be
sure to choose one that suits your needs. Look at your competitions web
sites and make yours even better.

2. Create your own Brand

Make sure your website promotes your brand. Design an interesting logo
and create a unique color scheme for your site. If you are not the designing
type you can hire a professional to design your logo. They can make your
ideas into a neat and desirable logo. When people see your logo they should
think of your website. Figure out your target audience and design your
website to suit their needs. If you are catering to an older audience, make

68 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

sure your website is easily maneuverable. You may need to point out things
that might be obvious to a younger crowd. Know your audience. And, of
course, have a catchy tag line. It should be short, sweet, and memorable.
Think of famous slogans. They are all under five words. Make your slogan
catchy.

3. Pricing
You should look around at other sites. See what they are charging and
offering. Do not plagiarize their sites, but glean information from them.
Web developers need to know how to price their talent. Be sure you are
in the right range and are offering all the latest features to your clients.
Find a good company to work with to accept credit card payments. See
who your competitors are using. If they have been in business for awhile,
they have made mistakes and corrected them. Use their knowledge to build
a great website, take a look at the examples provided at small business
website builders.

4. Education
Be sure to mention all of your certifications you have and any education
that pertains to web building. Customers want to use people who have
experience and skills. They will feel more comfortable knowing that you
have the credentials to back your work. You want your customers to know
you are trustworthy and have background skills.

5. Promotion
Now that you have your website set up and are ready to roll it is time
to promote your new business. In order to build your business you have
to promote it. Find three or four platforms you can use to promote your
business. Platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Google are good platforms
to start with. Do not try to promote your business on too many platforms
or you will not be able to keep up with them. Good promoting skills will
help you attract customers to your website. Finding your niche in social
media is a critical tool nowadays.

6. Write a Newsletter
You need clients in order to grow your business. Finding clients can be
difficult. One way to find clients is to make a list of potential clients. You
can start with family, friends, coworkers, past employers, and anyone else
you can think of. Gather their email addresses and create a newsletter and

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 69

tell them what you are doing with a link to your website. Encourage them
to pass along the information to other people they know. You might consider
listing your prices on your webpage so potential customers have an idea
of what things will cost. You do not want to end up with customers who
cannot pay you. You may consider bundling some of your offers to make
them more affordable and attractive to your new customers.

7. Join a Community
Find online communities where your potential clients hang out. If you
are active in these communities you can promote your business directly
to potential customers. The more active you are, the more clients will see
you. Get to know them and direct them to your website. If they have
suggestions for you site, take them to heart. You potential clients know
what they want from a website and they can have good suggestions for
boosting your sales.

8. Expand
Once you have an established client base you can look into expanding
your company. You can offer additional services that your customers will
find valuable. One thing to remember is to keep the expansion within your
means. Do not stretch yourself too thin and above all enjoy what you are
doing.

HOW TO START A WEB DEVELOPMENT

COMPANY
Web development companies differ significantly from web design businesses,
in that a web design company creates layouts and visuals for a website
owner. The web designer is more concerned with user interface and design,
while a web developer creates software and applications that power the
website using basic and advanced coding.
However, some developers offer both design and development services.
Web developers usually start as freelancers and enlist the help of other
developers. Other developers can be contractors or in-house employees,
depending on the size of your business.

70 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Start a Web Development Company by Following
Steps:
You have found the perfect business idea, and now you are ready to take
the next step. There is more to starting a business than just registering it
with the state. We have put together this simple guide to starting your web
development company. These steps will ensure that your new business is
well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

STEP 1: Plan your Business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 71

 out the specifics of your business and discover some
unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

What are the costs involved in opening a web

development company?
Basic costs for starting a web development company
are minimal. All that’s needed is a computer and
some office space. Total costs should not exceed
$5,000. Most of the cost will be wrapped up into a
good quality laptop or desktop, ample screen space
(using multiple screens for design work), a business
Marketing costs are phone, a pro-grade text editor, and design reference
the all expenses that books.
the company makes
to market and sell its Marketing costs may run you between $2,000 and
products and develop $5,000 in the first year. This is especially true if you
and promote its plan on doing any type of direct mail.
brand.

What are the ongoing expenses for a web development

company?
Ongoing expenses are minimal. Web development
companies with offices pay utilities and rent like
every other business, which makes up the majority
of the ongoing costs. Other costs, like office supplies,
tend to be minimal. Costs like cloud storage, time
tracking software, and project management software,
vary based on the needs of the developer.

72 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Some developers find it helpful to include project management and
“whiteboard” apps like Basecamp. These project management applications
also make collaboration with clients easier and more streamlined. They
work well when you primarily work with clients over the Internet.

Who is the target market?

Ideal clients are corporate clients that have a need for extensive coding and
application deployment. Most web design companies try to avoid small
projects or projects which have a high overhead and low profit margin.

How does a web development company make money?

Web development companies make money by charging clients an hourly
or flat fee for coding websites.

How much can you charge customers?

Entry-level pricing for web developers is between $25 and $100 per hour
for small projects. Average pricing is $100 – $200 per hour. Project costs
are often calculated or estimated in advance. Any work that goes over this
amount is then cleared with the client before more work is performed. This
helps set budgets and expectations for the client.
Some web developers charge flat fees for projects. Usually, the flat-fee
arrangement is appropriate when a project is similar to other past projects
the developer has done and there is a template or guide the developer will
use for the current project.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 73

How much profit can a web development company make?
Profit potential is high for this type of business since costs are relatively
low. A one-person web development company can clear $65,000 per year.
If you have a team of developers, profit potential is much higher. For
example, a 5 person company could clear $400,000 to over $1 million in
revenue, depending on average project size and hourly rate.

How can you make your business more profitable?

To make your web development business more profitable, consider adding
additional services like web hosting and storage. An integrated CMS platform
will also help increase revenue. All these revenue sources are scalable so
even if you cannot provide development services to clients, you can sell
them hosting, storage, and content management platform services.

What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already
have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help
brainstorming a name with our Web Development Company Name Generator
If you operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a
business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn
more.
When registering a business name, we recommend researching your business
name by checking:
■ Your state’s business records
■ Federal and state trademark records
■ Social media platforms
■ Web domain availability.
It’s very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

74 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

STEP 2: Form a Legal Entity
The most common business structure types are
the sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability
company (LLC), and corporation.
Establishing a legal business entity such as
The first state to enact
an LLC or corporation protects you from being held a law authorizing the
personally liable if your web development company creation of limited
is sued. liability companies was
Wyoming in 1977.
You can start an LLC yourself and pay only the
minimal state LLC costs or hire a Business Formation
Service for a small additional fee.

Smart Tip
You will need to elect a
registered agent for your
LLC. LLC formation
packages usually include
STEP 3: Register for Taxes a free year of registered
agent services. You
You will need to register for a variety of state and can choose to hire a
federal taxes before you can open for business. registered agent or act
as your own.
In order to register for taxes you will need to apply
for an EIN. It’s really easy and free!

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 75

STEP 4: Open a Business Bank Account and Credit Card
Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for
personal asset protection.
When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets
(your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business
is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil.
Additionally, learning how to build business credit can help you get credit
cards and other financing in your business›s name (instead of yours), better
interest rates, higher lines of credit, and more.

Open a Business Bank Account

■ This separates your personal assets from your company’s assets,
which is necessary for personal asset protection.
■ It also makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Get a Business Credit Card

■ This helps you separate personal and business expenses by putting
your business’ expenses all in one place.
■ It also builds your company’s credit history, which can be useful
to raise money and investment later on.

STEP 5: Set up Business Accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to
understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate
and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

76 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

STEP 6: Obtain Necessary Permits and Licenses
Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines,
or even cause your business to be shut down.

State and Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a web
development business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your
state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits.
In addition, certain local licensing or regulatory requirements may apply.
For more information about local licenses and permits:
■ Check with your town, city or county clerk’s office
■ Get assistance from one of the local associations listed in US Small
Business Associations directory of local business resources.

STEP 7: Get Business Insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order
to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s
financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.
There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of
businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that
your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance. This is
the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place
to start for your business.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 77

 Another notable insurance policy that many businesses
need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance. If your
business will have employees, it’s a good chance
that your state will require you to carry Workers’
Liability insurance Compensation Coverage.
provides protection
against claims
resulting from injuries
and damage to people
and/or property.

STEP 8: Define your Brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well
as how your business is perceived by the public. A
strong brand will help your business stand out from
competitors.

How to promote and market a web development

company
Promoting your business is going to take work. Find
a mailing list of business owners who have purchased
design services in the last year and mail them your
offer. These leads are most likely to want to buy
design services from you. Alternatively, send out
flyers to local businesses.

How to keep customers coming back

Differentiate yourself by specializing in certain
industries. For example, if you become known as
a web designer for restaurants, it will be easier for
you to dominate that market. If you specialize in

78 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

designing websites for consultants or doctors or financial planners, you it
will decrease your competition. Clients want to work with specialists, not
generalists.

STEP 9: Establish your Web Presence

A business website allows customers to learn more about your company
and the products or services you offer. You can also use social media to
attract new clients or customers.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 79

Case Study

Web Design Services

The client
The client is a Europe based business operates several golf courses across
Europe. They approached to create websites, online reservation systems
integrated in to the websites.

The Challenge
The client initially wanted to design using CMS but has no technical abilities
to manage them. The client was initially using a 3rd party reservation system
which wasn’t compatible for new version of software and applications.

The Solution
We had to design the websites and develop a new reservation system to
replace the 3rd party system. The client referred a design and we created
two templates one using their reference and provided our own unique
design. To our surprise the client accepted our design without even making
a small change. The design was nalised and we completed the website
successfully. It continued to be a challenge to create the reservation system
as it demands whole lot of data verication from various websites to show
results. We spent one week to understand the logic and functionality to
successfully create the website with reservation system integrated.

The Success
The client was very happy and subsequently we did 17 projects with them.
The association still continues and we have become their preferred partner
for all of their web designing and web related services. The client has also
referred few other businesses and we successfully completed those projects
too.

80 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 3 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITY OF
WEB DEVELOPER
A web developer or programmer is someone who takes a web design -
which has been created by either a client or a design team -and turns it
into a website. They do this by writing lines and lines of complicated
code, using a variety of languages. Web developers have quite a difficult
job, because they essentially have to take a language we understand, such
as English, and translate it into a language that a computer understands,
such as Python or HTML.
Web developers are found working in various types of organizations,
including large corporations and governments, small and medium-sized
companies, or alone as freelancers. Some web developers work for one
organization as a permanent full-time employee, while others may work
as independent consultants, or as contractors for an agency or at home
personal use. Web developers typically handle both server-side and front-
end logic. This usually involves implementing all the visual elements that
users see and use in the web applications or use, as well as all the web
services that are necessary to power the usage of their developing work.
Salaries vary depending on the type of development work, location, and
level of seniority.

WHAT DOES A WEB DEVELOPER DO?

A web developer is an individual or a company that provides services to
build and maintain high-end websites. An individual who does this job is

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 81

 likely to have skills that are more expansive than
that of a webmaster, who might be a simple end-
user using ready-made scripts to patch together a
personal website. A developer is generally capable
Scripting or of writing custom scripts to accommodate a client’s
script language needs, and is either professionally trained in, or has
is a programming
ample personal experience working with, various
language for a special
run-time environment scripting languages.
that automates the
execution of tasks;
the tasks could
alternatively be
executed one-by-one
by a human operator.

In most cases, a web developer builds a website from

the bottom up, fashioning everything from the home
page to site layout and function. A good developer
takes into account the client’s products or services
along with the target market to create a website that
will have specific appeal to that market. The site
should also showcase the products or services in such
a way that is not only promotional, but dynamic,
stressing advantages over the competition.
Websites should look great and remain fully functional
regardless of the Web browser being used to view
the site. The person who builds it typically checks
pages and forms using the top browsers to check for
interoperability. He or she is also likely to build in
features so that, if an element doesn›t show up as
designed on a site, the page is still usable.
Easy navigation is a key element in any high-traffic
website. Few things are more frustrating to visitors
than sites that are laid out illogically, or products

82 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

that are difficult to find. Implementing a visually appealing webscape that
is user-friendly, along with an effective search engine, is one way the Web
developer ensures visitors will enjoy their visit and quickly get to products
of interest. Interactive pages that display items of related interest dependent
on click values, helps to entice visitors to stick around while potentially
boosting sales revenue.
The developer must also make sure that forms work properly. There are
various scripting languages that can be used to create surveys, contests, and
sales mechanisms — the means to securely transfer information between
visitors and the website, although browser settings for cookies and scripts
can hamper the proper functioning of some Web forms. The developer takes
all of this into consideration so that, when a visitor fills in a form, he or
she is sure to get satisfaction, and not have the form “hang” or “reappear
blank” upon clicking the “send” button. A site that is broken doesn’t look
good for the business.

In many cases today, web developers are firms with teams of professionals
that specialize in different areas of web development and online commerce.
While a webmaster may still be all that’s needed for smaller sites, a corporation
that wants a custom Web presence and slick applications written with the
newest scripts using the latest technology are best served by a qualified
developer.

DUTIES OF WEB DEVELOPERS

Web developers typically do the following:
■ Meet with clients or management to discuss the needs and design

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 83

 of a website
■ Create and test applications for a website
■ Write code for the website, using programming languages such as
HTML or XML
■ Work with other team members to determine what information
the site will contain
■ Work with graphics and other designers to determine the website’s
layout
■ Integrate graphics, audio, and video into the website
■ Monitor website traffic

When creating a website, developers have to make their client’s vision a

reality. They build particular types of websites, such as ecommerce, news,
or gaming sites, to fit clients’ needs. Different types of websites require
different applications. For example, a gaming site should be able to handle
advanced graphics, whereas an ecommerce site would need a payment-
processing application. The developer decides which applications and
designs will best fit the site.

84 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Some developers handle all aspects of a website’s construction, and others
specialize in a certain aspect of it. The following are examples of types of
specialized web developers:
■ Back-end web developers are responsible for the overall technical
construction of the website. They create the basic framework of the
site and ensure that it works as expected. Back-end web developers
also establish procedures for allowing others to add new pages to
the website and meet with management to discuss major changes
to the site.
■ Front-end web developers are responsible for how a website looks.
They create the site›s layout and integrate graphics, applications
(such as a retail checkout tool), and other content. They also write
webdesign programs in a variety of computer languages, such as
HTML or JavaScript.
■ Webmasters maintain websites and keep them updated. They ensure
that websites operate correctly, and they test for errors such as
broken links. Many webmasters respond to user comments as well.

TYPES OF WEB DEVELOPERS

There are some different types of web developers, each of which focuses
on a different aspect of the creation of a website. Front-end developers are
responsible for the parts of a website that people see and interact with,
back-end developers are responsible for the behind the scenes code that
controls how a website loads and runs, and full-stack developers do a bit
of everything.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 85

Front-End Developer
The front end of a website is the part that users interact with. Everything
that you see when you’re navigating around the Internet, from fonts and
colors to dropdown menus and sliders, is a combo of HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript being controlled by your computer’s browser.

Skills and Tools

Front-end developers are responsible for a website’s user-facing code and
the architecture of its immersive user experiences. In order to execute those
objectives, front-end devs must be adept at three main languages: HTML, CSS,
and Javascript programming. In addition to fluency in these languages, front-
end devs need to be familiar with frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation,
Backbone, AngularJS, and EmberJS, which ensure great-looking content
no matter the device, and libraries like jQuery and LESS, which package
code into a more useful, time-saving form. A lot of front-end developer
job listings also call for experience with Ajax, a widely used technique for
using Javascript that lets pages dynamically load by downloading server
data in the background.
Using these tools, front-end developers work closely with designers or user
experience analysts to bring mockups, or wireframes, from development to
delivery. Strong front-end developers can also accurately identify specific
issues in user experience and provide recommendations and codified
solutions to influence the design. It’s also important to be able to fluidly
86 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER
partner with other teams across the business to understand specific goals,
needs, and opportunities, and then execute on those directives.

It’s a lot of responsibility, but it can be very rewarding. “I’m a technical

person, but still a visual person, and being able to manipulate what we
see and interact with on digital platforms through markup and code came
naturally,” said Mikey Ilagan, a front-end developer with eight years of
experience. “To that point, I love being able to make an impact on the user
interface, the aspects of an app or website that the user interacts with and
sees.”
In all, a front-end dev is responsible for the interior design of a house that’s
been built by a back-end dev. The taste and style of the decor is dictated
by the homeowner. As Greg Matranga, Director of Product Marketing at
Apptix, said of the team of both front-end and back-end developers he
oversees, “The developers that work on the front end are sometimes more
excited about what they do because they’re really able to leverage their
creativity.”

Beware!
Everything you’re seeing on this website right now was made possible by a front-end
developer. A designer crafted the logo and graphics, a photographer took the pictures,
and a copywriter wrote the text. But a front-end dev assembled all of those pieces,
translated them into web-speak, and built the experience you have with each page. To
take one specific example, scroll up and down on the Udacity homepage. Notice how
the “U” disappears and reappears? That’s the handiwork of a front-end developer.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 87

Back-End Developer
So what makes the front end of a website possible? Where is all that data
stored? This is where the back end comes in. The back end of a website
consists of a server, an application, and a database. A back-end developer
builds and maintains the technology that powers those components which,
together, enable the user-facing side of the website to even exist in the
first place.

Skills and Tools

In order to make the server, application, and database communicate with
each other, back-end devs use server-side languages like PHP, Ruby, Python,
Java, and .Net to build an application, and tools like MySQL, Oracle, and SQL
Server to find, save, or change data and serve it back to the user in front-end
code. Job openings for back-end developers often also call for experience
with PHP frameworks like Zend, Symfony, and CakePHP; experience with
version control software like SVN, CVS, or Git; and experience with Linux
as a development and deployment system.

88 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Back-end devs use these tools to create or contribute to web applications
with clean, portable, well-documented code. But before writing that code,
they need to collaborate with business stakeholders to understand their
particular needs, then translate those into technical requirements and
come up with the most effective and efficient solution for architecting the
technology.

Full Stack Developer

If you are looking for a quick, simple answer to the question “What is a
web developer?”, then a full-stack developer is probably the closest thing
that you’re going to get.

Full-stack developers understand both front and back-end strategies and

processes, which means that they are perfectly positioned to oversee the
entire process.
In the case of small websites that don’t have a huge development budget, a
full-stack developer will often be employed to build the entire website. In
this case, it is extremely important for them to have a complete, in-depth
understanding of both front and back-end development and how they work.
Learning full-stack development techniques has a huge range of benefits,
including:
■ You will end up with the knowledge to be able to create an entire
website on your own. This makes you a lot more employable,
increasing your job security in the future.
■ As a full-stack developer, you will understand the connections
between the front and back-ends of a website, allowing you do
build efficient and effective programs for all parts of the website.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 89

 ■ Full-stack developers are often employed
to oversee large projects for big web
development companies. Positions like this
are likely to be paid more than standard web
development positions, making them more
attractive to developers. Full-stack defines
what is a web developer.

Smart Tip
Although most developers start with either front or
A full stack developer
would be responsible back-end specializations, there are a lot of reasons
for the entire flow of why you should consider branching out and learning
your experience with both.
this blog post, from its
load time and layout
It will make you a lot more employable, will give
to its interactiveness you a greater understanding of the whole concept
and structural of what is web development, and will make it easier
underpinnings. for you to create entire websites on your own.

90 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

POPULAR LANGUAGES FOR WEB DEVEL-
OPMENT
Now, it is very important to realize that there is a range of different languages
that are used for web development. Front and back-end developers will
need to learn different languages, while full-stack developers will need a
working knowledge of all the major web development languages.
With this in mind, we have put together a list of some of the most common
languages for web developers to learn, along with an explanation of what
they are used for and how you can learn them.

HTML
HTML is an essential language if you want to understand what is a web
developer and how to become a front-end one. To explain it fully, I need
you to do something for me:

Right-click on your browser window, and select ‘view page source’.

You should be taken to a new tab containing all of the information which
goes into the creation of this webpage.
What you are seeing is mainly HTML code. It tells the website what content
to display and to some extent, how to display it. At the top of the page,
on the first line, you will see the command. This tells your web browser
to expect HTML code.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 91

 First draft (revision 00)
of HTML 2.0 published If you explore further, you will start to recognize
by IETF itself (called things on the page. You will see some commands
as “HTML 2.0” from
revision 02), that finally
that you understand, such as ‘link’, ‘image’, or
led to publication of ‘video’. These are all content commands which tell
RFC 1866 in November your browser what to show, where to get the content
1995. from, and how to show it.
HTML is a very easy language to learn, and it is
usually the first one learned by new programmers.

CSS
CSS is the second of the essential front-end
languages and is also one that every front-end
developer must be fluent in. The CSS code is used
in conjunction with HTML.
While HTML tells the webpage what content to
display, CSS tells the webpage how to display the
content - it’s a ‘styling’ language.
Once you have learned CSS, you will be able to do
a wide range of things, including:
■ Changing colors. CSS allows you to change
the color of pretty much everything from
your paragraph text to your background to
your table borders.
■ Changing fonts. CSS also lets you choose
the fonts that you are going to use on your
website and where you are going to use them.
■ Positioning elements. One of the key
elements of what is a web developer capable
to do is arranging everything you see in the
website. HTML lets you add images and
videos to your webpage, but CSS lets you
tell the browser how big to make them and

92 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 where to display them.
■ Changing text size. Are you building a
website designed for people with poor
eyesight? If so, you will need to use your
knowledge of CSS coding to make your text
larger.

Programming
language is a formal
language comprising
a set of instructions
JavaScript that produce various
kinds of output.
What do web developers do? Well, most web Programming
developers take a programming language like Java languages are
or HTML and use it to create a component of a used in computer
website. JavaScript developers are no different, except programming to
implement algorithms.
they create very specific content. So, for JavaScript,
what is a web developer exactly?

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 93

Most JavaScript developers work on the front-end of a website. They
build small snippets of JavaScript code that make your website responsive,
interactive, and attractive to your visitors. These JavaScript snippets are
often embedded in the HTML source code for a website.
Although it has traditionally been a front-end language, and one which is
vital for any front-end developer to learn, JavaScript is becoming increasingly
popular for back-end development as well.
A lot of front-end developers are beginning to find work as full-stack
developers due to their knowledge of JavaScript, which means that its
usage and popularity is skyrocketing.

PHP
Historically, PHP has dominated definitions of what is a web developer.
Known as the language of the internet, it is currently used in some form
on around 80% of websites in existence. Although it is slowly decreasing in
popularity, PHP is still a great language for any back-end web developer
to learn.
PHP is very easy to learn and is quite easy to use, which makes it very
popular for beginner back-end developers. It is very popular on small
websites built on platforms like WordPress or Wix, and there are plenty
of freelance work opportunities for PHP developers.

Java
The last of the languages on our list, Java, has been a major part of what

94 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

is a web developer for years. It is an old language and is popular for a
variety of different programming uses.
From a web development sense, Java is used to create responsive, scalable
web apps that are used for responsive, fast website design.

Java is an essential language for many back-end developers. It is quite easy

to learn, which makes it beginner-friendly, and it is very easy to use. It is
super scalable, which makes it popular among larger websites like eBay
and Amazon, and it is very easy to maintain.

Developers are people too! While you should want consistency, sometimes things come
up – scheduled or unscheduled. Developers can take vacations, come down with the
flu, or have a family emergency. We recommend working with a team that can, in a
pinch, re-assign tasks and help keep your project moving along.

WEB DEVELOPER REQUIREMENTS

Web developers often have a combination of education, training and
certifications that help them excel in their roles. They also possess a mix
of hard and soft skills to be successful.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 95

 Education
Many employers prefer a candidate has a bachelor’s
degree in computer science or a related field, though
it is possible to gain employment with an associate
degree. Those who have earned an associate degree
can transfer their credits to a 4-year college or
university and complete their bachelor’s degree in
two additional years. Some universities offer online
bachelor’s degrees in web development and design.
Other colleges offer a bachelor’s degree in interactive
media design, which offers courses that can prepare
students for a web development career.

Training
User experience (UX)
design is the process Much of a web developer’s training takes place
design teams use to
while obtaining their education through interactive
create products that
provide meaningful classes and assignments or during internships. During
and relevant internships, students gain hands-on experience in web
experiences to users. development while making valuable connections with
professionals who could help them find positions
after graduation.
Aspiring web developers can also complete coding
boot camps. Coding boot camps are intensive training
programs that typically last anywhere from one to
nine months. During a boot camp, an individual
learns a variety of programming languages and how

96 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

to use them to build websites and applications. Depending on the boot
camp, a web developer could also receive instruction on data analytics,
UX design, and marketing.

When a web developer starts a new job, their employer trains them in the
specific systems and company requirements. They learn about how to apply
their programming knowledge to develop the needed websites for clients.
Managers may also train them on company policies and procedures, such
as completing proper documentation and logging the hours they worked
on each project.
As programming languages and frameworks continually change and release
new updates, web developers need to continually train themselves to
maintain current knowledge. They can read online blogs or articles, attend
conferences or complete training courses to ensure they understand the
latest languages and updates.

Certifications
Though not required, web developers can acquire several certifications
that demonstrate their expertise in different coding languages, skills and
tools, such as:
■ Programming language certifications: Successful web developer
job candidates show proficiency by certifying in languages such
as JavaScript, jQuery, Python, PHP and Ruby. Offered by various
sources, these certifications have different examination requirements
and standards.
■ Adobe Certified Expert (ACE): This certification demonstrates
expertise in a range of products, depending on whether the web
developer chooses to certify with a specific Adobe Creative Cloud

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 97

 product (such as Dreamweaver) or with
a group of products (such as the Adobe
Experience Manager).
■ Microsoft certifications: Microsoft
Smart Tip Technology Associate (MTA) HTML5 App
Development Fundamentals is an entry-level
MCSD candidates must
then pass development
certificate for the web markup language.
and programming Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate
exams that enhance a demonstrates expertise with Microsoft
developer’s abilities in solutions such as Azure, SQL 2016 and
application development. Universal Windows Platform, and is a
prerequisite for Microsoft Certified Solutions
Developer (MCSD).
■ Google Analytics Individual Qualification:
This offers certification in basic and advanced
Google Analytics concepts, including
implementation and data collection,
configuration and administration, and reports
and dimensions.
■ Professional Scrum Developer: This is a
certification offered by [Link] that shows
you understand how to work within the Scrum
framework, a popular project management
method in software and web development. A
Professional Scrum Developer certification is
active throughout your career, meaning you
never need to apply for renewal.

Skills
SQL Server is a
relational database Web developers need several technical and soft skills
management system to function in the workplace, including:
(RDBMS) developed
and marketed by ■ Technical skills: Web developers must be
Microsoft. able to show competency in coding languages
such as HTML5, PHP and JavaScript.
Familiarization with Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS), [Link] and AngularJS will also
help make an aspiring web developer more
desirable as a job candidate, as will familiarity
with tools such as Oracle and SQL Server.
■ Communication: Web developers should be

98 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 able to interact with and understand client and team needs. As
clients often don’t have a technical background, developers often
need to explain complex subjects in a simple, easy-to-understand
manner.
■ Detail-orientation: These professionals often write and review
thousands of lines of code to create a website. They should have
excellent attention to detail to identify and fix small errors that
could cause improper functions in the end product.
■ Time management: Particularly if they work on a freelance or
multiple contract basis, web developers often simultaneously create
several websites. They must prioritize tasks, make and adhere to
deadlines and create timelines for work completion.
■ Self-motivated learning: Because they are in a field that evolves
continuously, web developers should teach themselves new tools
and techniques as companies release updates. They should also
apply any new techniques to current websites to improve the UX.

HOW TO BECOME A WEB DEVELOPER

Web development is a field that is expanding with the introduction of
new technologies, such as apps on smartphones and tablets. The demand
for people who are familiar with creating new apps and programs is very
high. Becoming a web developer is a good strategy for people who are tech
savvy, but it will take some work and learning. If you are looking to build
a career as a web developer, you will need to learn a set of skills involving
programming languages, graphic editing, and marketing.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 99

Understanding What is Required to Become a Web Developer
1. Know what employers are looking for. Most companies wishing to hire
a web developer will advertise for a person who has several qualifications.
■ Many employers will want a web developer to hold a Bachelors
degree in computer science.
■ Computer science degrees prepare an individual by teaching them
the skills needed for web development: programming, web design,
database management, networking, and mathematics.
■ In lieu of getting a degree, many web developers hold professional
certifications. You can obtain these from community colleges,
continuing education services, and several technology companies.
■ For example, Microsoft offers a web development training course
that requires you to pass an exam and hold 2-3 years of work
experience.
■ While having a degree or certification is most desirable, there are
many freelance web developers in the market who are building
successful business.

2. Understand what computer skills you need to become a web

developer. Being able to design a basic website is the bare minimum you
will need to be able to do.
■ You need to know how the web works and how to program.
■ There are many different programming languages that a good web
developer should have knowledge of. You will need to know how

100 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 to code in different programming languages and when to use them.
■ New programming languages and interfaces are appearing everyday.
You need to keep up with the trends in technology to move forward
in this field.
■ You will need to know some basic aspects of design: color theory,
grid blocking, fonts etc.
■ While your job isn’t primarily to design graphics, you should know
how to make a website or app look attractive and be user friendly
at the same time.

3. Understand that web development is a very demanding career. You

will need to have the interpersonal skills to relate to clients as well as to
handle stress and a busy work environment.
■ Interpersonal skills are a very important aspect of the field of web
development. You will be interfacing with clients, co-workers and
companies on a daily basis.
■ Knowing how to handle a person who is impatient or who doesn’t
understand technology is essential.
■ You may be dealing with difficult clients or people who need some
extra help in learning how to use the technology you are developing.
■ You will also need stress management and time management skills.
Being a web developer is very demanding.
■ You may be working on several projects at a time and have hard
deadlines.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 101

Learning about Programming Languages
1. Understand the purpose and function of programming languages and
platforms. Without these, the web and other programs wouldn›t function
properly.
■ Programming languages and platforms are what developers use
to create applications, scripts, or other sets of instructions for
computers to follow.
■ There are dozens of different programming languages.
■ Each language uses a different platform or program to write scripts,
programs, and instructions.

102 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

2. Become familiar with HTML. This is one of the
simplest and most commonly used programming
languages for websites.
■ Most people can learn the basics of HTML in
an afternoon using one of the many online
tutorials available.
■ HTML is a language that consists of multiple
short codes are typed into a text document.
It has its own grammar and syntax just like
any language.
■ HTML stands for HyperText Markup
Language.
■ Hypertext is the method by which you move
around the internet. You click on a link,
which is hypertext that directs you from one
page to another. Web page is a
specific collection of
■ When you write in HTML, you will use a information provided
series of tags. These tags tell the text what by a website and
to do: be italicized, link to another page, be displayed to a user in
a bulleted point etc. a web browser.

■ When you write HTML in a text file, it is

then saved as an html file. This file is then
opened by a browser, like Google Chrome
or Firefox.
■ Your browser reads the file and translates
your code into visual form. That’s the website
you see.
■ To utilize HTML, you can use a simple text
editor or a powerful HTML editing tool like
HTML Kit.
■ Other programming languages work
similarly, but use different syntax and tags.
Other languages are available for more
complicated types of webpages.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 103

3. Learn about Java. This is a very commonly used programming language
for web developers.
■ The main goal of Java is to allow web developers to write a script
or set of instructions for an application.
■ This language allows application writers to “write once, run
anywhere”.
■ Some popular websites that use this language are Netflix, Edmunds
and Zappos.
■ Some of the most popular tools for writing and coding in Java are
JSON and CORE.

104 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

4. Develop skills using NET/ C#. This is essential if you work on Microsoft
based systems.
■ This programming language was created for Microsoft platforms.
■ Popular websites that use this as a development tool are ExactTarget,
Comcast, and XBOX.
■ Development tools that will help you write in NET/C# are Flippy,
SQL Helper, Imagehandler, and CodeSmith.
■ Other tools that can check your code and help to run your apps
more smoothly are FxCop, Regulator, NUnit, and NDoc.

5. Think about learning PHP. This is another language that is especially

suited for web development.
■ It is the most commonly used scripting language.
■ This language allows web developers to write quickly. This language
is more flexible in its code than others.
■ Facebook, Tumblr, and Wikipedia utilize PHP as their programming
language.
■ Some of the top tools for using PHP are [Link], Secureimage,
and Webgrind.
■ Other tools for PHP include, but aren’t limited to, Scavenger, PHP
DOX, and PHP_Debug. Multiple testers, debuggers, and documenters
are available for use with PHP.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 105

6. Consider developing skills in writing C++ code. This language is mostly
used for systems programming.
■ This programming language is easy to use and has flexibility in
its code.
■ Popular websites that use C++ are JPMorgan Chase, DIRECTTV,
and Sony.
■ There are multiple tools that can help you code in C++, such as
Doxygen, Graphviz, and Mscgen.
■ Eclipse is another popular tool for using C++.

7. Learn how to code in Python. This is a very popular coding language

used by many popular websites.
■ Python is a programming language known for its ease of use that
allows developers to quickly create code and integrate systems.

106 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 ■ This language has programming syntax that
is easy to read and follow. This reduces the
cost of program maintenance.
■ Some of the websites that you probably use
everyday are Python based, such as Google
and Youtube.
■ Some of the tools you can try for working
with Python are Komodo Edit IDE, PyCharm
IDE, and Eclipse with PyDev.

Learning about Graphic Design

1. Understand the basics of graphics on a
webpage. Most web developers don›t do their own
graphic design, but its important to know the basics.
■ You should know how to crop a graphic,
resize it, change color scheme, and add text.
■ There are many different graphic and photo Graphics are visual
editing apps and programs for you to use. images or designs on
some surface, such as
■ Each has their own interface and methods. a wall, canvas, screen,
■ While most web developers at larger paper, or stone to
companies don’t do the graphic design for inform, illustrate, or
entertain.
apps and pages, its important to have a good
general sense of basic graphic editing.
■ Many web developers will end up doing
some basic graphic editing, especially at
smaller firms or if they are self-employed.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 107

2. Download free graphic editing software. This will allow you to practice
and get oriented with simple graphic editing.
■ Free editing software suites such as GIMP and Inkscape are available
for download.
■ There are number of online tutorial for GIMP and Inkscape.
■ These free editing software packages allow you to do the basics of
graphic and photo editing.
■ With GIMP and Inkscape you can crop and resize a photo or
graphic, add shapes and text, remove red-eye and change the colors
of your graphic.

108 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

3. Practice adding images to a website. Create a simple website based on
a topic you are interested in.
■ Use your HTML coding skills to place simple images and graphics
onto the website.
■ Use GIMP or Inkscape to edit the images.
■ Check the website to see how changes in your images affect the
way the site looks.
■ You will have to practice and play with options to find out the
ways you prefer to edit images.
■ Once you have a client, you should be able to edit images and
graphics according to their needs.

Advertising Your Skills

1. Plan several websites. This is something that you can show potential
clients to demonstrate your skills.
■ You should make several different types of websites: one for
displaying images such as artwork or photos and videos, one for
a business and another for a blog, hobby, or interest.
■ These types of websites are what you will commonly encounter
as a web developer.
■ Create a mock business page including the type of business it is,
what products and services are sold, images of potential work, a
products and services page, and contact page.
■ Make your own personal website, including what types of
programming you are familiar with, your rates, and links to any

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 109

 websites you have worked on or created.
■ This will allow clients to see your work.
■ Build a blog site where users can use an interface to add content.
■ Work with various languages so your potential clients can see what
you can work with.

2. Make business cards. Hand them out at events.

■ Make sure you have a link to a personal or business website for
your freelance web development.
■ Provide contact information on your card.
■ Provide links to websites you have worked on so potential clients
can see your work.

110 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

3. Beef up your social media presence. Create a
page about your business and what kinds of web
development you specialize in.
■ Just like a business website, this is a very
important step in getting business for
yourself.
■ Try making a Facebook page for your business,
and include what types of programming you
can do, your rates for services, and your
contact information.
■ Create a Twitter account and give updates
and links to sites you are working on.
■ Make sure you have a Google + page or blog
about what you are working on and doing
with web development.
■ Use LinkedIn to communicate with other
industry professionals.

Social group is a
collection of people
who interact with
each other and share
similar characteristics
4. Advertise online and in newspapers. Once you and a sense of unity.
A social category is a
are comfortable with doing a wide range of web
collection of people
development services, you should advertise widely. who do not interact
■ Make an ad on Craigslist under the Services but who share similar
page for your area. characteristics.

■ Make sure to include links to sites you have

worked on and some contact information.
■ Try taking an ad out in local newspapers
and magazines.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 111

 ■ This might get your business some local development from local
social groups, charities, and business owners looking to build or
improve their websites.

Getting A Job as A Web Developer

1. Prepare and update your curriculum vitae or resume. Include any
experience, even voluntary, that you have designing and programming for
websites or apps.
■ It is important that you are honest when developing your CV. Don’t
include false experience or exaggerate.
■ Steer clear of industry jargon and buzzwords. Present clearly what
your experience is with out using words such as “synergy” or
“creative”.
■ Include testimonials of your work and links to code or websites
you have developed.
■ Have a friend or colleague review your CV before you apply to jobs.
■ Put your CV online after it has been completed or updated. Try
using sites like LinkedIn or Career 2.0.
■ Ask any industry connections you have to look at your CV to see
if they know of any opportunities.

112 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

2. Put
some of the code you have written online. An online presence for
a webdeveloper is vital to a successful career.
■ Put out a side project onto collaborative sites like GitHub.
■ Contribute to open sourced projects on GitHub and similar websites.
■ A prospective employer who sees that a candidate works with
others on a web project in their spare time will be an attractive
potential employee.
■ Put your highest quality code on your online profiles.
■ Once you have written some code or contributed to a project, you
can put this on your CV.
■ You could also start a blog about projects you are working on or
trends in web development. Put a link to this on you CV. Potential
employers will often look to see if a candidate is keeping up to
date on trends and projects in the field.

3. Research tech companies. Especially if you are contacted by a recruiter

or have applied to a specific job, it is important to know the ins and outs
of a company.
■ Know how long a company has been in operation.
■ Make sure you understand the goals and mission of the company.
■ Become familiar with the companies products or services.
■ A potential employer won’t want to interview someone who clearly
does not know what his company does or how they operate.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 113

4. Spend time on technical tests. Many companies will want you to take
a technical competency test before or after an interview.
■ Take this seriously, even if the task seems trivial.
■ Companies will want to see if you can code in a particular language
or develop a specific type of website.
■ Put as much effort into the exam as you can. You will want to
make sure you don’t have any errors in your code and that it
compiles correctly.
■ Use an online test to deploy your code for the test. This will show
a potential employer that you know how to deploy code you have
written.

5. Go to any interviews prepared. Do some of your own research about

the company climate.
■ You should try to deduce what the company dress code is, the
hours required, and if you will need to travel.

114 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

■ Arrive 15 minutes early for an interview. This will show you are
punctual and have time management skills.
■ Prepare several questions of your own to ask an interviewer. You
should ask questions about the work environment, company culture,
what types of projects you will be expected to work on etc.
■ Going to an interview with questions about the job is a good
indicator to an employer that you have thought carefully about
the interview and the job.
■ Avoid common interview pitfalls. Don’t ask about salary or badmouth
past employers and colleagues. Don’t exaggerate your experience
when asked about projects you have worked on.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 115

Case Study

Web services in action

One of the key benefits promised by Web services is the future-proofing
of development work. The London Business School intends to capitalise
on this with its own Web services strategy.
By consolidating multiple education portals into a single customisable
system, the London Business School (LBS) is building a platform in which
Web services could be used to deliver premium course material at a later
date.
The hub of the system is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
directory, which contains information about people taking courses at LBS.
Built on Sun’s iPlanet server, the directory provides access to a single portal
for all the information LBS has access to including course material, digital
books and archived business news feeds.
The project replaces multiple portals with a single portal and is due to
be completed by the end of the year. Once this base architecture has been
completed LBS is looking at incorporating XML data within the portal, along
with other Web services technologies. This will enable course material to
be created on the fly. For instance, relevant information within digitised
business literature contained in an XML database from publisher Bloomsbury
could be incorporated automatically into course material.
“This technique could be used in e-commerce where users pay for such
information on a consumption basis rather than an annual fee,” says Russell
Altendorff, director of the information systems division at LBS. The overall
vision is to make LBS a broker for digital books, business news feeds and
other paid-for information services.
The business driver is that custom portals containing such information feeds
could be sold on to businesses. For this to succeed, Altendorff believes LBS
needs to act as a syndication partner for information providers. He believes
that using Web services technologies like Soap and UDDI will allow LBS to
pass on XML-based micro-transactions between the desktop computers of
business executives and the back-end systems at the information providers.
The project began in 2000 when LBS was looking for a way to simplify
portal development. “For the last 18 months we have had a massive IT
restructuring, looking to integrate all our portals into one system,” says

116 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Altendorff. His approach was to take common portal components like
premium information feeds and repackage them in a way suitable for
people on university courses. Previously his team was tied up building
custom portals - an inefficient process. “We needed to be serial developers
of extranets,” he says.
The system is based on an Oracle database and runs on two Sun E5500
servers running Solaris 2.6. Altendorff says of the five companies that
tendered for the contract, Sun was the only Unix solution: the others were
based on Microsoft .net technologies. Since the information providers used
by LBS were running Unix themselves, Altendorff felt the technical teams
at the various organisations would be more comfortable exchanging LDAP
data than using Microsoft’s alternative Active Directory technology.
He also expressed concern over the level of Microsoft’s commitment to
maintaining open standards. While many components of .net have been
submitted to standards bodies “Microsoft has enhanced open standards in
the past as this is how it makes money,” Altendorff says. He does not want
to be in a position where standardising on a particular technology - like
Active Directory - would have an impact in the future on the database he
could choose.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 117

WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISCONCEP-
TIONS ABOUT WEB DEVELOPMENT?
Now that you have an idea of what a web developer does, it’s important
to know what a web developer does not do. We want to clear up any
misconceptions about this career before you decide whether it’s right for you.

1. Web Development is not Necessarily Web Design

One of the biggest misnomers out there is that web development is
synonymous with web design, which is untrue according to Oleg
Korneitchouk, director of web development at New Jersey-based SmartSites.
He says that development is taking the designer’s work and turning it into
a functional website.
Designers are the creative individuals who are focused on the overall
look and feel of a website; while developers are the analytical individuals
who concentrate on the general performance aspects of the site. Some of
this confusion may stem from the close relationship between front-end
development and web design. Many web designers also learn the skills of
front-end developers in order to become more well-rounded.

2. You are Never ‘Finished’ With A Website

A website is like a plant that needs constant nurturing. Just when you
think it’s perfect, you’ll find a glitch that needs to be fixed or an element
that the client wants added. Technology is constantly evolving so there will
always be improvements to be made. Think of it this way: Even if someone
created the “perfect” website in 2005, that site will still look very dated
and could have several security or structural deficiencies in the back end
when compared to the latest and greatest sites of today.

3. Web Developers Do More Than Just Write Code

The truth is that web developers don’t just sit and stare at a computer
screen all day. While writing code is a big part of the job, interacting with
designers, illustrators, copywriters and other personnel involved in the
planning process is an essential piece of the puzzle.
Web developers also analyze website performance and work with website
stakeholders to prioritize strategic updates and improvements. On top of
that, it’s crucial for them to spend time researching new techniques and
technologies.

118 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

5 Essential Skills Every Web Developer Should Have
Web development continues to be one of the hottest industries around, and
it’s not about to change anytime soon.

With that in mind, we thought we’d put together a list of essential skills
that every web developer should have. Knowing what to improve is the
starting point to achieving greatness, so we hope you find some useful
information in this post.

1. Constantly Learning and Improving

In a fast moving industry like ours, staying on top of your game means
you never stop learning. Technologies change just as fast as trends, and
what’s common practice now might already be outdated in a few years. If
you want to become a great web developer, you have to stay ahead of the
curve. That means learning new technologies and programming languages
and also keeping an eye on what customers want (and need) in order to
stay satisfied.
In a recent survey of over 2,000 Java developers, 53% admitted to being
“technology sheep” that only adapt new things once they have been accepted
by the industry as the standard. 44% described themselves as “early adopters”
that already upgrade OSX versions before they are stable. It’s pretty clear
which fraction is more likely to stay ahead of their competitors. And it’s
not the 3% of so-called “immutables” that consider all change bad and
“don’t have time for change” because they are “too busy doing real work”.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 119

 2. Keeping up to date with the industry
To stay up to date with the industry, a great
idea is to follow blogs like Smashing Magazine,
Sitepoint, Hacker News and of course our very own
blog (although it looks like you’re doing alright there
Java Developer is
responsible for the
already). Visiting expos and conferences is also a
design, development, great idea since you can network and walk away
and management with many new ideas and insights. A good personal
of Java-based goal would be to visit at least one tech conference
applications. each year to keep things fresh and step out of your
daily routine.

3. Being able to manage time and prioritize

Working in web development can be extremely
stressful and chaotic at times. Projects keep stacking
up and deadlines are always just around the corner.
To stay efficient (and sane), it’s vital to manage your
time as best as possible. This is something that many
developers struggle with, simply because they never
took a step back to improve their time management
skills. Here are some quick actionable tips on how
you can become more organized and avoid deadlines
creeping up on you:
■ Make a to-do list and prioritize to put the
most urgent and important tasks on top.
Sometimes, the other stuff will just have to
wait.
■ Check your list first thing every morning and
make a quick plan for the day. Even though
things won’t always go according to that
plan, you will become much more efficient
by having it in the first place.
■ Set reminders for important tasks and
project steps that you want to get finished at
certain times during the day or week. Ignore
everything else if needed to make sure you
meet your own mini deadlines.
■ Use the 80/20 rule and try to find daily
activities that eat away too much of your

120 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 time without producing enough results. You
might be surprised at how much time you’re
spending every day doing things that take
way too long for what you get out in return.
■ Communicate with your boss or clients as
soon as possible if you feel like you won’t
make a deadline. It’s not ideal, but it’s not
the end of the world either. The sooner you
let them know about it, the sooner they can
prepare.

4. Understanding UX
One attribute of any truly great developer is that
they not only have an excellent grasp of the technical
side of their business but also of the design and
client-oriented aspect. To develop great apps and
software, you have to understand how your clients
and customers will use the end product. Swiss
computer scientist and programmer Niklaus Wirth
put it this way: “Clearly, programming courses should
teach methods of design and construction, and the
selected examples should be such that a gradual
development can be nicely demonstrated.”
Before you start working on a new project, take the
time and really think about the design and how it will
be used by consumers. Through this step, you will
often develop ideas that can significantly improve
the product design itself. Communication skills
may take a lifetime
to master—if indeed
5. Communicating well with others anyone can ever claim
to have mastered
Communication is important in every job, and them. There are,
perhaps even more so in web development. The however, many things
that you can do fairly
needs of designers, developers, clients, and customers easily to improve
have to be perfectly aligned in order to create an your communication
outstanding product. This means that communication skills and ensure
is a big part of every web developer’s job and should that you are able to
always be treated with a high sense of priority. transmit and receive
information effectively.
Amplifying the need for good communication skills
is the fact that coding is something that is very hard

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 121

to grasp for non-developers. You have to be able to make other people
understand technical problems, which is something that can be pretty tough.

Beware!
1. Beware of the “yes sir” developers

Many freelancers say yes to all your questions and requirements. Most entrepreneur or
professional businessman trust them blindly. So, before jumping into the process of hiring
the first web developer you find, stop! Think, research, and take the time to find a highly
skilled developer who you can communicate well and who will ensure your website is a
powerful marketing machine.

2. Lack of in-depth experience

Many freelance web developers don’t have extensive knowledge about complex
development work. You need to beware there are freelance developers who pretend to
know it all. Don’t let these types of developers lead you down the rabbit hole! One good
way to know if they are good or not is to try them out for a day or two on small tasks
before hiring.

3. Lack of technical skills

Reviewing a developer’s portfolio is a quick way to determine if he or she has the expertise
to execute your requirement. Furthermore, reviewing their portfolio will give you a look
into their technical capability. When looking through their work, try to see whether they
have completed a project similar to yours.

4. Beware of No Testimonial developer

Ask the web developer for customer contact details so you can verify their on-page
testimonials. Anyone can make up customer testimonials, but only good developers will
be willing to share past customer contact details.

5. Lack of expertise in both front-end and back-end development

Most Freelance Web Developers are not experts in both backend and frontend. They
will usually be good at one of those skills. Great web development requires teamwork;
therefore, beware when hiring a freelancer web developer on complex projects.

6. No response developer

Freelance web developers are known to not reply when things get tough. You see freelance
developers are not supported by senior developers (as they are in an agency), so when
problem gets complex, they often run away and will not execute on final product. This is
not true for all, but bewares!

As a way of improving your communication skills, a great idea is to have

regular talks with people you know outside of the office and try to make
them understand what you’re working on. Yes, chances are they will be

122 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

bored, but that’s also the challenge here: if you can tell your friends about
your new project without putting them to sleep, you can do the same with
your next potential client. And you will greatly increase communication
with your boss and your design team as well.
It really doesn’t matter how long you’ve been working as a web developer,
there is always room for improvement. Sometimes all you need is some
motivation to look at what you’re doing and make up your mind to improve
something, and you can reap big benefits down the line. We hope you were
able to get some inspiration from this post and that it helps you become
a better developer.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 123

 ROLE MODEL

Brendan Eich

Brendan Eich is an American technologist and creator of

the JavaScript programming language. He co-founded the
Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla
Corporation, and served as the Mozilla Corporation’s
chief technical officer and briefly its chief executive officer.

Early life
Brendan Eich received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer
science at Santa Clara University. He received his master’s degree in 1985
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Eich started his career at Silicon Graphics, working for seven years on
operating system and network code. He then worked for three years at
MicroUnity Systems Engineering writing microkernel and DSP code, and
doing the very first MIPS R4000 port of GCC.

Netscape and JavaScript

He started work at Netscape Communications Corporation in April 1995.
Having originally joined intending to put Scheme “in the browser”, Eich
was instead commissioned to create a new language that resembled Java,
JavaScript for the Netscape Navigator Web browser. The first version was
completed in ten days in order to accommodate the Navigator 2.0 Beta
release schedule, and was called Mocha, which was later renamed LiveScript
in September 1995 and later JavaScript in the same month. Eich continued
to oversee the development of SpiderMonkey, the specific implementation
of JavaScript in Navigator, until 2011.

Mozilla
In early 1998, Eich co-founded the Mozilla project, with a website at mozilla.
org, that was meant to manage open-source contributions to the Netscape
source code. He served as Mozilla’s chief architect. AOL bought Netscape
in 1999. After AOL shut down the Netscape browser unit in July 2003, Eich
helped spin out the Mozilla Foundation.

124 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

In August 2005, after serving as Lead Technologist and as a member of
the Board of Directors of the Mozilla Foundation, Eich became CTO of the
newly founded Mozilla Corporation, meant to be the Mozilla Foundation’s
for-profit arm.

CEO appointment and resignation

On March 24, 2014, Eich was promoted to CEO of Mozilla Corporation.
His appointment sparked controversy over a $1,000 political donation Eich
had made in 2008 to the successful campaign for California Proposition
8, which sought to establish that, “Only marriage between a man and a
woman is valid or recognized in California. “This was criticized by gay
rights activists on Twitter. In the ensuing public debate, OKCupid and two
gay application developers called for a boycott of the company. Others at the
Mozilla Corporation spoke out on their blogs in his favor. Board members
wanted him to stay in the company with a different role.
On April 3, 2014, Eich stepped down as CEO and resigned from working
at Mozilla. In his personal blog, Eich posted that “under the present
circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader.”

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 125

 4 RUN YOUR BUSINESS

HANDLE CLIENT COMPLAINTS

You’ll face moments of truth every day of your life. You’ll make decisions
and take the consequences. The consequences can be good, or they can be
bad. There are consequences for every action you take. Moments of truth
can have a profound effect on your business.
The usual response was that the business would deal with complaints as
they came in. Some simply replied, “We don’t get many complaints.” You
don’t? It’s no wonder! Look at these statistics:
■ 4% of dissatisfied clients complain.
■ 91% of dissatisfied clients will not do business with you again.
■ 80% of dissatisfied clients tell ten people.
■ 20% of dissatisfied clients tell twenty people.
Think about that. If your business receives four complaints per year, you’ve
probably had 100 dissatisfied clients. If you have had 100 dissatisfied clients,
they have told 1,200 people that your product or service is poor! The actions
you take when your client complains can have a significant impact on your
business. The right response can result in increased client loyalty, a better
chance that you’ll make a repeat sale, and boosted referral business

Why You Must Love Complaining Clients

Complaining clients can be a great asset to you as you build your business.
Complaining clients will do more for you than just about any other clients.
Up until now, you may have looked upon complaining clients as a royal
pain in the neck. They’re never happy, never satisfied! They should learn
to appreciate you more. If that sounds like you, then lose the attitude!
You must love complaining clients. Complaining clients tell you where
you are going wrong. They’re the ones at the front line, testing out your
service. They’re the ones who, handled the right way, will become your
most loyal clients

To build a successful and profitable business, you must love

complaining clients.
Seeking out and identifying client complaints is one of the most profitable

126 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

activities that a business can engage in. When clients complain they are
actually giving you an opportunity to keep their business—business you
would otherwise have lost. Each complaining client gives you a chance to
win a “new” client. 95% of dissatisfied clients will do business with you
again if you resolve the complaint in their favor on the spot (and we’ve
already seen how expensive it is to gain a new client).
That’s the beauty of complaints: if you deal with them properly, and actively
seek and welcome complaints, then word soon gets around. Clients will
soon feel more comfortable about making complaints, which gives you the
opportunity to:
■ Reduce the number of dissatisfied clients.
■ Keep their business.
■ Strengthen the relationship.
■ Exceed their expectations.

Fix It—Quick!
Providing a swift resolution to complaints can have the wonderful effect of
increasing client loyalty beyond the level that would have been achieved
had the problem never occurred. Why? Because the client remembers that
extra touch that you provided to resolve the situation quickly, and exceed
their expectations.
As we’ve discussed, making a purchase carries a perceived risk. Your clients
might be asking themselves:
■ “Will I get good value?”
■ “Will he run off with my deposit?”
■ “Will she give me what I want?”
But eventually, the prospects take the risk and buy from you. Excellent!
Now, imagine that something goes wrong. This is not so excellent. The
clients complain to you, feeling a little anxious that they haven’t received
what they paid for, and you fix it. Excellent! Now, you may be thinking
that you’ve simply resolved a compliant. But what you’ve really done is
reduce those clients’ perceived risk in buying from you. They now know
that if they buy from you, they will receive what they paid for. Importantly,
they know that if there is the slightest problem, you will fix it. As such,
they’ll be more likely to buy from you again.
The last complaint we received remains fairly clear in your mind. We
registered a domain name for a client and sent him the invoice along with

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 127

the technical details of the site (usernames, passwords, registrar, and other
information). A Reply Paid envelope (to encourage a quick response—
no stamp required!), and a letter thanking the client for the business
accompanied these documents. We had registered the domain name on
the same day that the client made the request to us, and we sent off the
information about the registration the next day. This is what we’ve always
done, and I thought it was pretty smooth…

The Cost of A Good Complaint

A complaint means you have the chance to generate more business from these
clients that you wouldn’t have otherwise received. The more complaints you
hear about and deal with, the fewer dissatisfied clients you’ll have talking
to friends and colleagues about their bad experience with your business.

Smart Tip
■ Complaining clients tell you what’s wrong with your service—you can fix it
only if you know about it.
■ Quickly fixed complaints increase client loyalty.
■ Fixing complaints reduces that client’s perceived risk of doing business with
you.
■ What will it cost to fix a complaint? Think of what it will cost if you don’t!

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE COMPLAINT

COMES IN
Now, your natural reaction might be to blow off complaints. You might
feel defensive, maybe even hurt. You will probably feel that the complaint
is an unjustified slight on you personally.
Get over it! Any complaint from a client is a 100% bona fide, major issue
for them. Their perception is your reality. They have a problem; you have
to fix it. Don’t belittle it or treat is as inconsequential. Treat the complaint
and the complainant as they deserve.
The fact that your feelings are hurt doesn’t matter. These are aggrieved

128 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

clients—whether or not you agree with them is irrelevant. What you need
to do to ensure your business survival, is deal with the complaint quickly
and in the very best of humor!

The Complaints Checklist

So your client has a complaint? Fantastic! Here’s how to deal with complaining
clients:

Reward clients for complaining

Listen to the complaints: “Please tell me exactly how we are failing you.”
Find out how the clients want it fixed: “Now, how can we make things
right?”

Thank them
“Thanks for bringing this problem to our attention. We appreciate this very
much, because we’re committed to providing the best widgets possible.”

Apologize
“I’m sorry that the quality of the widgets has not been to our usual standard.”

Offer a Solution
“How would you feel if we delivered free replacement widgets immediately?
We will, of course, refund the full purchase price of the widgets. Is that
acceptable to you?”

Get their Agreement

“Good, We’ll have them delivered to your business within the hour.”

Fix the Problem

Deliver the widgets, and refund, within the hour

Follow up
“I’m calling to make sure that the widgets arrived and that they are the
correct size. Are you happy with the way we have handled this problem,
sir?”

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 129

 Smart Tip
■ Don’t take complaints personally.
■ Reward and thank the complainant, apologize, offer a solution, get agreement
to the solution, and fix the problem.
■ Follow up and make sure the complainant is happy with the resolution.

DON’T WAIT FOR COMPLAINTS

If you sit and wait for complaints to come in, you’re like almost every
other business. As we know, most businesses fail. Don’t do what they
do; do something different. The impact that dissatisfied clients can have
on your business can be devastating. You need to seek out and deal with
every dissatisfied client. Your potential for success will increase with every
complaint you can find!
We know that just 4% of dissatisfied customers actually complain. Now,
that figure obviously varies according to the research you read, but the
point is that not many dissatisfied clients complain. They just go elsewhere
without telling you.
Better than responding to complaints only after some gutsy clients get up
the nerve to voice their issues, is this: ask for complaints! When you finish
a project for your clients, have a meeting with them. Tell them you’ve been
thrilled to have their business, and that you’re working very hard to build
a business with the highest level of client service possible.
Then ask:

■ “How did we do?”

■ “How could we have done better?”
■ “If you were me, what else would you have done?”
Ask specifically for a complaint. Don’t just ask, “Are you happy with
everything?” Imagine you’re a client and your Web developer asks you if
you have any complaints. That’s impressive!

130 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Ten out of ten!
In the meeting, the brother-in-law recounted the “Out of ten” story, and
was very impressed. We went on to win the job with him—all because of
that one simple question.
About nine months after that, he wanted us to redevelop a Website for
another part of his business. And both sites needed small redevelopments
within six months, as well as ongoing maintenance. Lastly, this client
has referred to us another business, the Board of which is interested in
developing a major Website

Smart Tip
■ Only 4% of dissatisfied clients will complain.
■ Ask specifically for complaints: “If you were me, what else would you have
done?”
■ Clients have friends and relatives—and they talk.
■ Ten out of ten is the only score you want!

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 131

 Role Model

Jeffrey Zeldman
Jeffrey Zeldman is an American
entrepreneur, web designer, author,
podcaster and speaker on web design.
He is the co-founder of A List Apart
Magazine and the Web Standards Project.
He also founded the design studios
Happy Cog and [Link], and co-founded the A Book Apart imprint
and the design conference An Event Apart.

Early Life
Jeffrey Zeldman was born on January 12, 1955, in Queens, New York,
to the robotics engineer Maurice Zeldman and his wife Phyllis Sylvia
Zeldman. When he was four years of age, his family moved to Long Island.
When he was eight, they moved to Connecticut, and at age thirteen, they
moved to Pittsburgh. He earned an undergraduate degree from University
of Indiana, and an MFA in fiction writing from University of Virginia.

Career
Jeffrey Zeldman briefly worked as a reporter for The Washington Post and
ten years as an advertising copywriter before turning to web design in
1995. He rose to prominence as an authority on web design in the second
half of the nineties by advocating a middle ground between the aesthetically
oriented position of David Siegel and the functionally oriented position
of Jakob Nielsen, viewing function and aesthetics as complementary rather
than polar opposites. In 1998, he co-founded the Web Standards Project with
George Olsen and Glenn Davis, serving as project leader from 1999 to
2002. His persistent activism for the adoption of web standards has since
earned him accolades such as “standards champion,” “godfather of web
standards,” and “a foremost advocate for the potential of the web.”

Web Publications
Zeldman has maintained his personal website, [Link], since 1995,
initially featuring a blend of web design tips, opinion, and entertainment.
In the early years, the site included a humorous treatise on Lawrence
Welk, free icons and backgrounds for visitors to use, and a web design
132 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER
tutorial titled “Ask Dr. Web”.The site’s Daily Report subsequently became
“a fountain of information regarding standards-compliant design.”
In 1998, Zeldman co-launched A List Apart, a web magazine which explores
the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a focus on
the techniques and benefits of designing with web standards. Among
his many contributions to A List Apart, his article “To Hell with Bad
Browsers,” published in February 2001, has been cited as a turning point
in the adoption of Cascading Style Sheets for their intended purpose of
articulating layouts.
Zeldman also co-hosts The Big Web Show, a podcast about the web and
online publishing.

Design Agency
In 1999, Zeldman founded Happy Cog, a web and interaction design studio
specializing in user-and content-focused, standards-compliant design. In
2016, Zeldman’s business association with Happy Cog ended, and he
launched an independent design consultancy called Studio Zeldman.

Print Publications
Zeldman has authored two books, Taking your Talent to the Web, which
was published in 2001, and Designing with Web Standards, which first came
out in 2003, and appeared in two revised editions, one in 2007, and one
in 2009. Designing with Web Standards reiterates many of the arguments
made by the Web Standards Project to highlight the benefits of standards-
compliant web design. Having been translated into thirteen languages, the
book brought standards awareness to a new international audience.
In 2010, Zeldman expanded his publishing work beyond web magazines
with the creation of the A Book Apart imprint. Its books are designed to
be quick reads and treat advanced topics in web design with a strong
point of view.

Web Design Conference

In 2005, Zeldman and Eric A. Meyer founded An Event Apart, “the design
conference for people who make websites.” An Event Apart is an “intensely
educational two-day learning session for passionate practitioners of
standards-based web design” followed by an optional day-long workshop on
such topics as mobile web design, advanced accessible web design, HTML5,
and CSS3. The conference currently takes place in seven cities annually.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 133

Cities and speakers vary. Speakers, in addition to offering informative
content, must have made major contributions to web design or development
in order to qualify to speak at the event.

Innovations
Zeldman and Happy Cog were early advocates of standards-based web
design and many of their current and former employees have greatly
contributed to various initiatives on the web, including:
The development of “real type on the web” via CSS and services
including Typekit.
Popularizing such ideas as CSS layout, responsive design, and style switching.
The last of these was an early 2000 innovation which paved the way for
later third-party innovations including CSS Zen Garden and a web site
known as Readability.
The second revised edition of Designing With Web Standards, issued in
2007, which famously showed Zeldman with a blue knit hat on its book
cover, inspired Douglas Vos to invent the Blue Beanie Day, an annual
international celebration of web standards which began in 2007.

134 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 5 MARKET YOUR BUSINESS
Marketing your business isn’t hard. There are literally hundreds of ways
you might do it. Not all of them work, but you’ll soon have more clients
if you follow a few basic steps. You need a steady flow of prospects to
develop your business. An approach that uses many different strategies, all
linked together, will have those prospects beating down your door before
too long.
Contrary to popular opinion, your advertising and promotion effort need
not be expensive. In fact, it should be very cheap and highly profitable.
You don’t want to implement marketing strategies that run at a loss; you
want to do what works. You need highly targeted, results-driven marketing.
When you generate that lead, qualify the lead, find out how you can help,
and then offer a solution, Bingo! Another sale on the way.

MARKET WEB DEVELOPMENT

Marketing your web development service is essential if you want to grow
your business and attract great clients. Your own website is a showcase for
your web development services, so incorporate the features and capabilities
that demonstrate your specific skills. By using web marketing techniques
to contact and build relationships with clients and prospects, you can also
demonstrate your skills in marketing.
■ Develop a marketing plan. Set a monthly income target and compare
that with forecast revenue from existing clients. Measure the gap
between current revenue and your target income to set the target
for new business. Assess your skills compared with competitors. If

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 135

 you have specialist knowledge of e-commerce
sites or mobile web design, focus on prospects
who need that type of service.

■ Contact your existing clients regularly.

Let them know about new developments
in web technology that might help their
business. Suggest upgrades to their sites to
take advantage of new technologies. Update
them on new services that you offer. Publish
an electronic newsletter and include any
client success stories. Identify new business
prospects. Review existing websites and
contact the site owner to explain how you
could improve the current site. A customized
Web design approach is more effective than a general
encompasses many introductory communication stating that you
different skills and offer web design services.
disciplines in the
production and
■ Build relationships with advertising agencies,
maintenance of marketing consultancies and graphic
websites. designers who offer their clients web services,
but have limited development capability.
Work in partnership with them to provide
the resources they need. Where possible,
offer them a reciprocal arrangement where
you recommend their specialist services to
your clients.
■ Attract companies who are new to web
design by offering a selection of low-cost or
free templates or simple content management

136 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 systems. Offer a design service to back-up the budget service.
Increase the range of services you can offer clients. Offer to manage
and maintain a website that you have designed. Ongoing site
management can provide you with regular monthly income. Offer
the client marketing services to promote his site. Develop e-commerce
capability and offer clients an add-on service to their existing sites.
■ Promote your service on the Internet. If you aim to work with
local clients, incorporate keywords about your location in the site
description. “Website Design Services in Denver, Colorado,” is
an example. Promote specific services in a similar way: “Website
Design Services for Nonprofits in New Jersey,” for example, or
“E-commerce Websites for Food Retailers in Los Angeles.”

Why Your Marketing Should Be Very, Very Cheap

The point of marketing is to generate interest. What’s the best measure of
“interest”? Leads and sales! The return you generate from your marketing
efforts should far outweigh the cost of those efforts. Marketing your business
shouldn’t just be inexpensive—it should be profitable. It should be profitable
because it works. It should work because it is highly targeted and effective.
Simple!

Defining Your Market—and How to Reach It

We want to find out what the characteristics of your target audience are,
so that we can get an idea of which marketing tools will be the most

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 137

 effective. First up: identifying your market. There are
two things about your market that we can assume
to be true:
■ Your prospects with the greatest potential to
become your clients will generally live within
a fifty kilometer radius of your business.
■ Your prospects with the greatest potential to
become your clients will operate a business.
That business will probably be a small
Michael Porter business—most businesses are.
developed the five What we’re trying to do here is find a common
forces framework as
a reaction to SWOT, thread among your potential clients. Now that we’ve
which he found lacking got this information, the next step is to find out
in rigor and ad hoc. how these potential prospects might hear about Web
Other names include development businesses that offer the services they
WOTS-UP (Gray and need.
Smeltzer, 1989) and
TOWS (reversing the
emphasis, with external
first). Narrowing the Field
These simple steps provide an excellent basis from
which to attack your marketing. But focus a little
more deeply and you’ll find even more valuable
information.
For instance, by looking at who has Websites (and who
doesn’t) you’ll find that, in certain industries, there
are more business Websites than in other industries.
Let’s assume here that high-tech industries have a
higher percentage of businesses with Websites than
do any other industry segments.
You’ve now narrowed your target market to include:
■ small business operators
■ who manage high-tech businesses
■ within a fifty kilometer radius of your
business
Now you can grab your market’s attention with laser-
like precision. Moreover, because your marketing is
so well-targeted, it should be very successful. The
moral of this example? It makes no sense to take
$5,000 worth of newspaper advertisements and hope
138 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER
for the best if, with just two hours’ work, you can find out exactly how
your particular market hears of people in your line of business, and target
your promotions, far more cheaply, to them.

WEBSITE MARKETING
Website marketing is the process of promoting your website on the Internet.
It is one of the online marketing channels you can use as part of your
overall digital marketing strategy. The main goal of a website marketing
campaign is to get more visits to your website.

Why you Need To Have a Website Marketing Strategy?

As a Digital marketing manager, one of my tasks is to explain to my clients
why they need to have a complete website marketing strategy and how to
make it work for the benefit of their business.

1 – It’s not about SEO and Social Media anymore

A few years back when someone was talking about web marketing, marketers
thought about SEO.
Later that perception changed and social media came into the picture and
it is very common today to associate digital marketing with social media
and SEO.
Digital marketing has a lot more pillars including content marketing, mobile
marketing, email marketing and more. Social media and SEO are only part
of the equation.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 139

 A well-planned digital marketing strategy will help
you utilize all available channels for promoting your
business online.

Marketing strategy
refers to a business’s
overall game plan for
reaching prospective
consumers and
turning them into
customers of the
products or services
the business provides.

2 – You need a Strategy and a Plan

If you don’t write down your web marketing strategy
that includes what you want to achieve online and
how to actually do it, then it’s like driving with your
eyes closed.
By preparing a strategy together with a plan, you
will know exactly which tools to use, how to use
them, and what to expect as realistic results from
each tool.
In addition, a plan makes it easier to communicate
your goals within your business so that all departments
are aligned with your strategy.

3 – Do it Before the Competition

Sooner or later every business will get into the digital
marketing game and things will become even tougher.
To get ahead of the game, you should take your
online promotion more seriously and the best place
to start is by creating a web marketing strategy.

140 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

How to do Website Marketing?
To successfully promote your website on the Internet, you need a solid
strategy that will take advantage for all digital marketing channels.
Here are the 10 steps to follow for a successful website marketing strategy.

Step 1: Perform a Website Design Review

The first step is to create a website that accurately represents your business.
This is not directly related to the visual aspect of it (i.e. how it looks) but
on the quality of the information provided.
Your website is the same as your shop window. It should look good on
the outside and when customers enter your shop, everything should be
organized and in place.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 141

Before starting any campaigns, take some time and review your website
and make sure that:
It has a simple hierarchical site structure – A good site structure helps both
users and search engines navigate a website to easily find the information
they need. As a rule of thumb, any page on your site should be accessible
from the homepage in 3 clicks or less.
It’s user-friendly and functional – Evaluate your website’s friendliness
using the principles of SEO friendly web design and try to remove design
elements that add complexity or are not needed.
It has accurate information about your company and products – Make
sure that it provides users with everything they need to know about your
company and products. Make use of visual elements to get the attention
of your users.
It’s fast and mobile-friendly – The majority of your users will come from
mobile devices so test your website on mobile and optimize the experience
of the user in the best way possible.

Step 2: Optimize your website for SEO

The next step is to start thinking about your SEO strategy. A well-defined
SEO plan will eventually increase your rankings and traffic from search
engines.

SEO is the process of increasing your website’s visibility in search engines

and it consists of a number of steps:
Technical SEO – Making sure that your website is free of crawl errors and
other issues that might keep search engines from indexing your website
properly.

142 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

On-Page SEO – Making your webpages SEO friendly and your content easy
to read by search engine crawlers.
SEO Content – Writing content that satisfies the user intent.
Off-Page SEO – Promoting your website for the purpose of getting high-
quality links from other websites.
Local SEO – Optimizing your website for location-aware searches and for
getting more clients to your brick and mortar store.
Besides the above standard SEO practices, you should also optimize your
website for modern SEO like adding schema markup and optimizing your
content for rich snippets.

Step 3: Optimize your Website for Social Media

The next step is to optimize your website for social media. This is not the
same as social media marketing (we’ll talk about this on step 5), but it
has to do with:
■ Having visual elements (images, video) on your website that can
be shared on social media networks.
■ Adding social media sharing buttons on the pages you want to be
shared on social networks.
■ Making sure that when a user clicks the share button (or shares
your URL directly), the generated snippet is well-formatted. Adding
the necessary open graph meta tags and using image sizes and
formats supported by all major networks is recommended.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 143

Many webmasters skip this step and it’s a mistake that can negatively affect
your social media promotion efforts.
While it looks like it’s more technical and not marketing related, it does
play an important role. If your website does not allow users to share your
content properly, don’t expect any social media exposure.

Step 4: Create a Content Marketing Plan

The next step in your website marketing plan is to design a content marketing
strategy.

When you promote a website online, you essentially promote the content
of your website and that’s why it is referred to as content marketing.

The main purpose of content marketing is to help you create the right
type of content that will attract new users to your website and keep them
engaged.
To create a good strategy, you first need to:
■ Do your keyword research and find out which SEO keywords to
target with your content.
■ Perform competitor analysis and find out what is working for your
competitors.
■ Analyze Google search results to find out what type of content
Google wants for your target keywords (length of content, images/
video, etc.).

144 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Once you have a list of topics/keywords you should
then create a content marketing calendar to specify
when each piece of content will be published, who
will write it and how it will be promoted after
publication.
Companies who manage to have an on-going
content marketing campaign, have more chances
of succeeding online than companies that publish
content occasionally without a plan.

Step 5: Promote your Website on Social Media

Networks
Now that you have a constant flow of content being
generated, the next step is to start promoting your
website on different social networks.
Marketing campaigns
promote products
through different
types of media, such as
television, radio, print,
and online platforms.

Follow the steps below:

Create Business Accounts on Social Networks

Your first action is to create business pages in the
social networks that are relevant to your business.
These are the networks that your potential customers
might be using. The most common suspects are
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Complete your Social Profiles

Next, make sure that your business pages are properly
configured and all information is properly filled in.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 145

Link your website and Social Media Pages
Then, add links to your social pages on your website (in the footer) and
also add the relevant schema (this will help search engines associate your
website and the business pages together).

Grow your Social Media Following

Having a business page with no followers does not provide any benefits
to your business.
You need to spend some time to find and connect with people that might
be interested in your business and also influencers in your niche.

Create a Social Media Calendar

Social media success is based on the quality of your postings. You need to
fetch your social media networks high-quality content on a regular basis.
That’s the best way to get the attention of users and create an audience
for your brand.
A good way to start is to create a social media calendar (the same way
you did with step 4 above) and specify what type of content to publish
and when.

Step 6: Use Paid Ads to Reach More Customers

As soon as you get started with SEO and social media marketing, you’ll
realize one thing. It takes time for SEO to work and to get to a decent
number of followers on social media organically.
146 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER
This means that if you want results faster, you need to add one more
ingredient to your website marketing and that is paid advertising.
With paid advertising, you can get targeted traffic fast and start making
sales or conversions.

There are various advertising platforms you can use but the most common
are:
Google Ads – Target people based on the search terms they use on Google
or show your ads on other Google properties (YouTube, Gmail) and websites
that participate in Google AdSense.

Facebook Paid Ads – Promote your Facebook page, social media postings
or ads to people using Facebook, Instagram or Facebook messenger.

Beware!
Both methods are very effective but you should be careful not to waste a lot of money
on advertising without a return. Better start with a low budget and measure the
effectiveness of your campaigns and add more money as long as there is a positive ROI.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 147

Step 7: Utilize Email Marketing To Engage With Your Audience
One of the most effective sales channels is email. In fact, one of the goals
of your website marketing campaign should be to grow your email list.
Having an active email list is a great way to get people back to your website,
let them know of new content or directly sell them a product. Make no
mistake, email is not yet dead.

To make the most of your campaigns, follow these email marketing tips:
■ Make it easy for users to subscribe to your list – add the newsletter
sign up box in places that is visible while users are browsing the
website
■ Give them incentives (like a free book, free resources) – Freebies
can make a big difference into how many people will sign up for
your newsletter
■ Keep your promises – if you promise weekly updates, make sure
that you send an email with new tips on a weekly basis.
■ Don’t abuse their trust – users’ trust you with their email address,
don’t abuse their trust with too many emails. Everyone’s inbox is
already full of promotional emails so think when it’s best to send
them another one.

Step 8: Use Remarketing To Get Users Back To Your Website

It’s a rather old marketing rule which states that a potential client should
see or hear an ad (or message) at least 7 times before they’ll take an action

148 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

to buy a product or service.
This is applicable to internet marketing as well. In
website marketing terms, this means you need to
get users to re-visit your website a number of times
before they proceed to the next step of your digital
marketing funnel.
Publishing new content on a frequent basis and
using social media marketing and email marketing
are all great ways to achieve this but there is one
more method that is highly effective and this
is remarketing.

Internet marketing
is the process of
promoting a brand
or business and its
products or services
With remarketing you use advertising platforms to customers through
(either Google Ads, Facebook, or even Twitter) to digital channels such
re-connect with people that visited your website at as search engines,
least once. email, websites, and
social media.
This has a number of advantages including more
targeted traffic, lower advertising costs and higher
conversion rates.

Step 9: Keep your Website and Content Up-To-

Date and Move Forward
When you do website marketing, you should not
forget two important things:

First: To keep your website up-to-date

This means upgrading your website software to the
latest version, ensuring that your website is secure

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 149

and that is using the latest technologies.
For example, as part of your strategy, you may consider accelerated mobile
pages (AMP), which is the new HTML format supported by Google and
other networks.

Second: To keep your content fresh and relevant

Besides publishing new content targeting specific keywords and increasing
your organic reach, you also need to go back and audit your existing content.
As your website gets bigger and older, some of your content will become
outdated and this is not good for users or search engines.
The first step of the process is to find thin content pages. These are pages
that have no rankings, backlinks or traffic.
Maybe the content on those pages is good but since they don’t rank for
anything, they don’t offer any real value to your website. As part of the
audit, you should decide to either:
■ Update and republish them
■ Remove them and redirect the URL to other related pages on your
website
■ Merge them with other pages
The second step is to review your Google analytics and Google search
console reports and find out which are the most popular pages of your
website.
A page that has high rankings now does not mean that it will maintain
those rankings forever. The competition is big and chances are that new
pages are published on a daily basis targeting exactly the same topics.
To make sure that you will not lose your rankings, you need to review
your top pages once every few months and ensure that the content is still
relevant and up-to-date.

Step 10: Measure, Analyze, Rinse and repeat

No marketing strategy is complete without proper monitoring. In the
digital marketing world, everything can be measurable and analyzed so
it’s important to have the right tools and metrics in place.
In the majority of cases, you can get the data you want from Google Analytics
so you need to make sure that you have Google Analytics installed on your
website and properly configured.
150 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER
The most common goals of a website marketing campaign are to:
■ Get traffic to your site
■ Increase conversion (makes sales, get new email subscribers, etc.)
These goals should be tracked in Google analytics and analyzed so that
you can make the right decisions.

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN STRATEGY FOR

WEB DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES
Creating and implementing an effective digital marketing strategy for a
software company can be a real challenge, especially for developers who
lack extended experience in marketing and business planning. To help your
company stand out from the competitive technology market, we suggest a
few proven marketing strategies, designed for tech companies.

1. Set Your Goals

No matter if your business model is B2B or B2C, the first thing you need
to ask yourself before you start drawing a Digital Marketing strategy is
“What do I want to accomplish”?
You might want to attract more customers, increase your brand’s awareness
or promote a new software product you just developed. Whatever your
purpose is, defining your goals and putting them into writing will lead to
a significant possibility of success.
An action without a goal leaves you with no idea where to go. Having a
better Digital Marketing Plan is a great way to know what to focus on.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 151

2. Define Your Target Market
Your target market is the group of people to whom your product or service
is most relevant and who are more likely to benefit from it.
Based on your target market you will choose the right tactics to drive more
traffic to your sales funnel. When promoting a product, your new software
platform or interface you should know not only who will use it, but also
who will be the buyer.
For the Software development companies and particularly for those who are
focused on B2B, defining the target market can be more complicated because
most often the user is not the actual decision-maker.

152 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Your marketing activities must be directed towards users, influencers,
buyers and the C-suite. For that purpose, you will need to create buyer
personas, write targeted content and design landing pages according to
their expectations and demands.
According to the audience you aim to target, you will choose how to
approach it and how to communicate to it. The effectiveness of your
marketing activities strongly depends on defining as accurately as you can
your ideal customers by conducting deep research. You should focus on
the following segmentation criteria:
■ Demographics (Age, Location, Gender, Income level, Education
level)
■ Psychographics (Personality, Attitudes, Values, Interests/hobbies,
Lifestyles)
■ Behavior – purchasing patterns such as price sensitivity, brand
loyalty
■ Business segmentation – business size, nature of business, structure,
etc.

3. Spend to Earn
75% of respondents say that paid search ads make it easier to find the
information they are searching for on a website or search engine. What
does this data tell you?
Do not be afraid to spend. Spend and you will earn. Digital Marketing is
the new trend for attracting mass consumers.
Allocating some of your budget on display ads, paid search ads, or social
ads can help you reach the target market and achieve high conversion rates.
Awareness of the brand is established. Thus, potential customers will come
to your website for further information on their specific needs.

4. Focus on Multiple Channels and Take Advantage of What Each

Offers
There are different social media channels and each one has pros and cons.
Most of the businesses nowadays strive to be active on as many channels
as they can manage, but the truth is that you need to find which social
media platforms your users get information from. When it comes to software
development and particularly B2B companies, you have to pay attention to
which platforms your target audience seek business advice from.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 153

LinkedIn is the most relevant B2B social media channel as it is business-
oriented and connects professionals from various industries and networks
who both offer or seek solutions for their business.
Research by HubSpot shows that LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-
to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%. Which is almost 3 times higher (277%)
than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).
Facebook and Twitter are great platforms for engaging with your potential
clients and followers and promoting your content.
YouTube has become the second search engine after Google so it is a great
platform to post your video tutorials and webinars on.

5. Contribute to External Online Communities and Blogs

This is a great chance to increase your company’s exposure and to demonstrate
professional knowledge and skills in your industry. Especially in the software
development and deep programming field, there are always people who
are willing to learn online and other practitioners who are seeking advice
on online communities and forums.
This approach also involves guest blogging and link outreach. Your company
can offer content to be cited on another blog and in return, you will publish
a guest post on your blog. Or you can offer your content to be linked to an
external website which is dedicated to the Software development industry.

154 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

You can also contribute to different groups on Social
Media such as LinkedIn or Facebook groups related
to the industry you work in. In this way, you will
get involved in conversations with professionals who
can later become your partners or clients.

6. Educate Your Clients through Tutorial and

Guides
Creating and distributing problem-solving content
such as “How to” tutorials and Best practices guides
is definitely a must for your digital marketing strategy.
Every business aims to stand out from the crowd and
beat the competition which is why companies would
invest in a new software product.

Software Products are

nothing but software
systems delivered to
the customer with the
documentation that
that describe how to
install and use the
system.

Understand what problems your prospects face

and how your products can solve them, and create
educational content which can be distributed through
Social Media, website landing pages or email. In
return, you will be able to collect valuable information
about your followers and contact details which is a
great starting point for your email marketing strategy.
Email marketing is the perfect chance for you to get to
know your customers better. Acquiring a customer’s
email addresses is an open door for you to send out

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 155

promotion of your brand. It helps to start a conversation or to keep them
up-to-date with your latest products.

7. Create a Solid Website

A website is a good tool to showcase your business, unique selling options,
videos and client testimonials. Visitors go to your website for information
regarding your company and offerings so give them what they are looking
for.
Improve the speed of your website, give it a mobile-friendly layout and
post relevant content. Including pricing pages will help you to filter people
who visit your website only to find out the price and clients for whom
price is the main purchasing factor.
Software development companies often have the technical know-how of
building a website. But there’s a lot more to a website than the code itself.
It’s about the corporate brand, web design, user experience, and numerous
marketing techniques tailored for conversion rate optimization and increasing
the traffic from organic search and social media.

The price and product have always been important factors for marketing.
But nowadays the customers’ experience can play an even more significant
role.
The data shows that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for great
customer experience. Focus on creating experiences for your customers
and make them happy.

8. Invest Efforts and Time in SEO

Effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies aim to increase
organic visitors to your website or blog which would later be converted
into leads, provided if you have followed the steps so far.
Allocating enough time on strategic business development and SEO at the
same time is hardly ever accomplished by anybody. You would probably
not have the time to develop the additional expertise yourself. Your SEO
goals can be achieved if you assign to employees/ agency and monitor the
following steps:
■ Make sure your website can be found by the search engines

156 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 ■ Make sure your website loads fast. Page speed is important both
for Google ranking and user experience
■ Make your website mobile-friendly
■ Make sure your website has reliable and updated Sitemap and
Site structure
■ Pick the right keywords for your content
SEO may be tricky to master as a beginner, but it pays off in the long
run. The most straightforward thing you can start with is identify which
keywords will bring prospects to your site. You can use keyword research
tools to understand what words and phrases your target market uses when
searching for information or products that your business provides.

9. Get Featured in Industry Websites and Lists

There are various industry platforms where your company can be
mentioned and classified among other companies. Platforms such
as Clutch, UpCity, GoodFirms, Top Developers, etc. perform analysis based
on customer’s feedback to create useful industry lists.
There are different ways of categorization – location, industry, field or
proven skills. Having your company listed there builds trust and justify
you are professional in your industry.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 157

 10. Use Simple Language and Avoid Industry
Jargons
In software development, as in any other industry,
there are specific terms which you, as a professional,
know and use. However, the visitors on your website
are likely to be unaware of their meaning. If you
use too many of those, your audience may be
unable to understand and relate to what you are
communicating.

If that person did not understand what you are

relating to her/him, it probably means the language
you use is not clear. Another thing you can do is
create a short questionnaire based on the description
of a product or service on your website and then
see how many of the questions have been answered
correctly.

11. Be Unique
Smart Tip Merely providing valuable and attractive content
In order to check if to your customers, your competitors, industry
your message can be influencers, and practitioners is not enough anymore.
understood by a broad You need to find a creative way to present it, as well.
number of visitors on
your website, show the In the software development industry, this can be
text to someone, that you implemented by posting daily videos, explaining how
know has no experience your product will make your clients’ lives easier, or
in software development,
and evaluate their
how it will improve their working process, how your
response. company differentiates itself from the competitors,
tips and tricks on how your products can be used
and more.
The main reason why videos are getting better
preferred is the fact they are visually appealing and
make the information easily digestible.

12. Invest Time and Efforts Into the Research

Process
To support each of your decisions or furthermore to

158 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

understand what stands behind your target audience behavior and what
drives the attention of the decision-makers in your industry, you need to
do a deep research.
Researching your customers, your target audience, your competitors and
your industry trends will give you a better understanding of the current
market situation and define your strategy.

TIPS TO GET MORE QUALIFIED CLIENTS

FOR YOUR WEB DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS
Clients are the backbone of every successful services company because
without clients there is no one to serve and when there is no one to serve,
there is no business.
Most resources aimed at helping web designers and web developers find
clients focus on things like creating your own website, building a stellar
portfolio, setting up profiles on Behance and Dribble, and even signing up
to be listed on sites like Upwork.
But there are three major flaws with this line of thinking:
■ It assumes people already know who you are and come to your
website
■ It assumes people know that sites like Upwork exist and that they
actually want to work with a stranger they find through that site.

Know your Ideal Client

There is one trick to being booked solid with a full pipeline of new web
design clients waiting in the wings, and it isn’t undercharging or working
too cheap.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 159

It’s knowing exactly who your ideal client is. By having a deep understanding
of your perfect client — who you want to work with the most — you can
create a detailed client persona or client avatar. This client persona is then
used to guide all of your content creation, marketing messages, and sales
conversations so that all materials representing your business speak directly
to the wants, needs, and desires of your ideal client.
When you clearly communicate who you serve the best, who you want as
a client, and how you can help them, it becomes much easier for others to:
■ Recognize themselves as a good fit for your services
■ Refer other people they know who would be a good fit
Remember, selecting a niche and narrowing your focus doesn’t mean that
you will only ever work with your ideal client and turn others away. Your
ideal client persona is simply the perfect subset of who you serve in your
web design business.

Identify your Prospect Red Flags

Just as important as identifying your ideal web design client is identifying
your bad clients — the clients you don’t work well with and the projects
you don’t enjoy doing. Identify the client traits and project characteristics
that would make a prospect or project not a good fit and create a “red
flags list” that you use to help vet prospects.
A “red flags list” is a positive tool that allows you to identify ill-fit prospects
and projects early on and turn them down and/or refer them elsewhere.
This keeps your schedule open for ideal clients and projects you enjoy
and gives the prospect the opportunity to be the ideal client for another
web designer.

160 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Understand Your Ideal Client’s Buying Journey
To create content, blog posts, lead magnets, case studies, and other materials
that will attract your ideal clients, you first need to understand their buyer
journey. The typical client buyer journey for a web designer is:
■ Awareness of a problem or challenge
■ Consideration of possible options and solutions
■ Evaluation of the best choices
■ Decision and hiring of a web designer
Once you know the buyer journey, you must create content that delivers the
information prospects need at each stage of the journey and pair the content
with powerful calls to action. The idea is to deliver the right message and
the right call to action to the right person at the right time so they take
the next logical step toward making a buying decision.

Focus on the Single Next Step

The most effective landing pages, sales pages, and calls to action focus on
one thing: the next logical step. You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you
on the first date, but instead, ask them on a second date. So be careful not
to make too big of an ask with your call to action too early on in your
relationship with leads and prospects. Instead, focus on the best next step.
For example:
■ In the awareness stage, the next step may be to visit your website,
read another blog post, and another, and download tips sheet.
■ In the consideration stage, the next step may be to read a blog
post, opt-in for a webinar, or download an ebook to learn more
about possible solutions.
■ In the evaluation stage, the next step may be to review case studies
and testimonials, review your portfolio, check out frequently asked
questions, and learn more about your services.
■ In the decision stage, the next step may be to contact you or
complete your new project inquiry form.

Solve your Ideal Client’s Problems

A deep understanding of your ideal client means that you know their pain
points, problems, and challenges — what they worry about and what keeps
them up at night. You also know what they dream of, desire, and want the

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 161

most. The gap between the problem they currently have and the results
they desire most is what they need.
Your web design packages must deliver what your ideal clients need, but
be packaged in messaging about their current problem and the big results
they desire. In other words, sell what they want and deliver what they need.
Charles Revlon famously said, “I don’t sell makeup, I sell hope.” Revlon
understood that while his ideal customers were purchasing makeup, they
were investing in feeling beautiful and being seen as beautiful. Freelancers
often get so caught up in what they want to sell and think they are selling,
that they forget to align their offers with what their clients want most —
and when that happens, sales become a struggle.
Build a Brand Around the One Thing
If you want to attract web design clients like crazy, you need to become
an expert at one thing because savvy clients seek out experts.
■ You can specialize in a type of project like membership sites,
e-commerce stores, learning management systems, lead generation
websites, mobile apps, product websites, or sales pages.
■ Or, you can specialize in a type of client or industry like professional
services, brick and mortar retail stores, restaurants, freelancers,
real estate, law firms, medical companies, dentists, or associations.
Now having a specialty doesn’t mean you can’t be good at a lot of things
or offer a variety of services. It means that you lead with your specialty
and focus on your specialty in your marketing efforts, then follow up with
your other services as add-ons or upsells.

Go Where Your Ideal Clients are

Just because you start a business, create a website, and print a business card, it
doesn’t mean that loads of web design clients will suddenly come flocking to
your door. No one can hire you, buy from you, or pay you in any way if they
don’t know that you exist. Once you decide to start freelancing, it is your job
make sure your target market knows that you exist, and the easiest way to do
that is to go where they are.

Get out from behind your computer and start networking. Look for
networking groups, industry events, trade organizations, and conferences,
that your ideal clients attend—events focused on their industry and their
businesses. If you want to be a subcontractor for public relations firms, go
to public relations networking events and join the local and national public

162 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

relations associations. We guarantee you’ll be one of,
if not the only web designer in the room.

Sales page is a
standalone page
created with one
specific purpose in
mind, to secure sales
for your product.
Overdeliver for Your Best Clients
Consider this: For the average web designer, 80% of
business comes from 20% of clients.
Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to over-
deliver for every single client all the time. Now, if
you have the team, go for it and you’ll be greatly
rewarded. But if you’re a freelancer, serve every
client well no matter what, but focus on delivering
the highest, most extraordinary customer service and
client experience to the 20% that gives you the most
business. By over-delivering for your best clients,
you’ll retain their business, gain more business, and
earn more referrals.

Follow up on Everything Right Away

Failing to follow up with leads sabotages your
success. Every year, millions of dollars are lost by
web designers around the world simply because they
are too busy to follow up with leads. If you want
to make more money, fix your follow up and see an
immediate increase in your bottom line.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 163

 ■ When attending networking events, conferences, camps, seminars,
meeting with prospects and clients, or even speaking with someone
on the phone, it is imperative that you follow up right away.
■ The faster you follow up, the easier and more natural it will be
and your swift action will impress those you are follow up with
and show them that you’re serious, you follow through on your
promises, and you can be trusted.
■ Waiting weeks or even months to follow up makes people think
that you don’t care and that they aren’t important.
If finding time to follow up after an event is an issue, consider preparing
your follow up in advance:
■ Prewrite an email you can customize for each person you need to
follow up with
■ Buy notecards, envelopes, and stamps in advance
■ Prewrite a thank you note or nice to meet you note that can be
customized
■ Traveling to an event? Consider writing your follow up in the hotel
each night or on the plane ride home

Create a System for Follow Up

Following up doesn’t have to be hard, tedious, or unenjoyable. Identify the
different types of follow up you need to do and create systems to manage
the follow up for you.
■ Prewrite follow up messages and can schedule your follow up
■ Leverage email automation to follow up with subscribers, leads,
customers, and clients
■ Use scheduling tools to make appointments
■ Set up behavioral triggers in your CRM system to assign tasks to
specific team members based on client or prospect actions
There is software available today to automate follow up by phone, text,
email, fax, and even social media, so there is no excuse for follow up failure.

Share your Ideal Client Profile

The most successful web designers we know, including myself, earn at
least half of their business from referrals. If you want to receive qualified
referrals, your referral sources need to know exactly who you want them
to refer to you. Once you know who your ideal client is and have a client

164 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

persona created, share it with your clients and referral partners and make
it easy for them to recognize someone who would be a great fit.

Ask for Referrals

You can’t assume that your friends, clients, colleagues, and social networks
know that you want or need referrals — you need to let them know! You
need to ask for referrals.
We know it may be uncomfortable, but the truth is that your happy clients
not only want to help you and give you referrals they want to help their
friends and contacts get a stunning website too!
The best time to ask for a referral is right after a client has complimented
your work. When a client tells you they love their website, they’re happy
they hired you, or provide any other praise, take a moment to first thank
them, then casually mention that you do have openings for new clients
and ask if they know anyone who may be a great fit. This approach works
great by email as well.

Cater to Your Referral Sources

My most lucrative clients — and frankly my favorite clients — have resulted
from someone else’s referral. To build an active referral network with
engaged partners who are excited about sending you new business:
■ Keep in regular contact with your referral sources. Communicate
with them about your launches, sales, services, and availability.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 165

 ■ Make sure they are the first to know about changes in your business
and new special referral opportunities.
■ Provide pre-written emails, marketing blurbs, social media posts, and
blog posts, as well as various sizes of graphics and advertisements
they can use on their websites and in their email newsletters.
■ Make them feel appreciated and valued. Thank referral partners
with a special gift at the holidays or look up their birthdays on
Facebook and send them a birthday gift.
■ When they refer a new client, send them a thank you card, and if
the referral signs a big contract, send a thank you gift. If you’re just
starting out and you don’t have the budget to send gifts, that’s okay!
A simple, heartfelt, handwritten thank you note goes a long way!

Make Referrals a Priority

Referrals put reputations at risk. When someone refers a friend, peer, or
client to you, they put their reputation and the trust that has been built
with their contact on the line for you.
Never send a direct referral to your cold inquiry form. Instead, make every
direct referral a priority. Take time to speak with them on the phone, be
as helpful as possible, and if they aren’t a good fit, provide a referral or
do your best to point them in the right direction.
Always strive to make your referral partners look good and feel like
recommending you want a smart decision.

Implement one Marketing Tactic at a Time

The fastest way to overwhelm, struggle, frustration, and exhaustion is
to bite off more than you can chew and implement too many marketing
tactics at one time.
When you take too big of a bite, your mouth can’t close all the way, you’re
trying to cover your mouth, pieces of food are falling out, and everyone
is looking at you. It’s embarrassing and the whole time you just wish you
took a smaller bite.
Marketing works the same way. Evaluate all of the marketing tactics that
you think would work for your web design business, prioritize them by the
impact on your business (time, money, effort, difficulty), and then implement
one at a time. Don’t add a second tactic until you have systems in place
to manage the first one. This way you don’t have to be embarrassed about
doing too much and doing it poorly.

166 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Show up Consistently in a Valuable way
With blogs, podcasts, videos, social media, email, meetings, advertising,
and every other distraction imaginable competing for attention, everyone
is bombarded with marketing messages, slogans, jingles, tag lines, and
calls to action every day. This abundance of information makes it difficult
to stay top of mind with your audience, prospects, and clients.
If you want to be remembered, respected, and referred, you need to show
up clearly, constantly, and consistently, and you need to deliver value,
provide help, and connect with others in a meaningful way.
■ Publish new content regularly on your blog
■ Write guest posts and articles for other blogs and websites
■ Leverage video
■ Post valuable information to social media
■ Engage with your audience across all relevant channels
■ Participate in online groups
■ Join in-person networking groups

Improve Your Skills

When you let go of the things you’re only okay at, and focus on getting
even better at the things you are brilliant at, you’ll build an undeniable
reputation that will attract clients like crazy. Plus, clients will respect the
fact that you’re not resting on your laurels, but instead constantly working
to improve. Knowing that you’re continuing to learn, staying on top of
industry best practices, and moving forward with technology will build
trust with your clients and help retain them over time.

Engage with your Target Market on Social Media

Lurkers don’t get clients through social media. If you want to position
yourself as an expert and be respected, remembered, and referred, other
people have to know who you are and what you’re great at. That doesn’t
happen overnight and it doesn’t happen with just a few posts to Facebook
or Twitter every once in a while. In fact, inconsistent, sporadic posting can
dilute your credibility and trustworthiness.
Social media marketing and audience engagement is a long-term marketing
tactic. Pick the social networks that are the best fit for your business and
your ideal clients and get active. Post regularly, answer questions, share
helpful information, comment on others’ posts, and been seen. If you’re

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 167

 jumping into a conversation or responding to a post,
ask yourself, will this add value? If the answer is
yes, go for it!

Create a Compelling Lead Magnet

A lead magnet, also called an opt-in offer or an
irresistible free offer, is a resource you are giving
away to ethically bribe an ideal prospect to provide
Marketing message you their email address and join your email marketing
is any media or list. This way you can continue to market to them
communication that is over time.
designed to influence
customers. A successful lead magnet:
■ Delivers so much value that you second-
guess giving it away for free
■ Addresses a specific problem or challenge
your ideal prospect is facing
■ Helps the prospect partially solve the
problem
■ Moves the prospect closer to a buying
decision
A lead magnet that meets your prospects right where
they are in the buying journey ensures build your
list with the right people, sets the stage or the next
offer and logical step, and positions you as the best
person to hire when they are ready.

Nail your Elevator Pitch

There is nothing worse than being at a networking
event, asking someone what they do, and getting
stuck in a recap of their entire life history. It’s also a
bit awkward when someone explains what they do
and when they’re done you still have no idea what
they actually get paid to do.
One of the most useful tools in your marketing
toolbox is a short, crystal clear, compelling elevator
pitch. When you own your elevator pitch and can
deliver it naturally with confidence, you show up

168 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

as a leader, appear polished and professional, and make others want to
connect with you.

Speak at Events
From your local networking group luncheon to a national multi-day
conference, speaking is a great way to expand your brand visibility, share
your knowledge, and position yourself as an expert and industry leader.
While not every speaking opportunity will result in attendees rushing up
afterward to ask about working with you, each time you speak, you become
better and better talking about what you do and sharing what you know,
which will in-turn help you speak more confidently with prospects and
clients. Speaking is also a fantastic way to build your email list, as inviting
attendees to download a free gift that builds upon your presentation is a
much more natural next step than immediately suggesting they hire you.

Be a Guest on Podcasts and Webinars

Podcasts and webinars are the virtual equivalents of speaking at a live
event. Being a guest on a podcast or delivering a webinar for a strategic
partner puts you in front of a completely different audience — and when
the audience aligns with your ideal client persona, it can be the perfect
opportunity for a win-win-win:
■ The podcaster or strategic partner wins because you show up
prepared, you provide valuable information relevant to their
audience, and you make them look good.
■ You win because you gain exposure to a whole new tribe of people
who match your ideal client persona and didn’t know who you
were before.
■ The audience wins because they learned something new, gained
helpful information, and now have another resource to learn from.

ADVERTISING
Advertising provides a direct line of communication to your existing and
prospective customers about your product or service. The purpose of
advertising is to:
■ Make customers aware of your product or service;

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 169

 ■ Convince customers that your company’s
product or service is right for their needs;
■ Create a desire for your product or service;
■ Enhance the image of your company;
■ Announce new products or services;
Smart Tip ■ Reinforce salespeople’s messages;
Remember, it’s not ■ Make customers take the next step (ask for
always about who is in more information, request a sample, place
the room during your
talk, but who those in the an order, and so on); and
room may know. Even ■ Draw customers to your business.
the smallest speaking
opportunities can yield
amazing opportunities,
incredible clients, and
new leads.

Your advertising goals should be established in

your business plan. For example, you may want
to obtain a certain percentage of growth in sales,
generate more inquiries for sales, or build in-store
traffic. The desired result can simply be increasing
name recognition or modifying the image you’re
projecting. Objectives vary depending on the industry
and market you’re in.
All products and businesses go through three stages,
with different advertising goals for each one.

170 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 1. The start-up business. You›re new in the market and need to
establish your identity. Your company needs high levels of promotion
and publicity to grab consumers› attention.
2. The growing business. Once your identity is established, you need
to differentiate yourself from your competition and convince buyers
that yours is the service or product to try.
3. The established business. The purpose at this point is to remind
consumers why they should continue buying from you.

When developing an advertising campaign, complete the following four-

step procedure:
1. Define your market. Determine who your target market is (those
customers most likely to buy your product or service). One magazine
that’s fun to read, interesting and helpful in this regard is American
Demographics.
2. Establish your budget. Know what you can afford to spend to
reach your target audience.
3. Plan which media you’ll use. Figure out what are the best ways
to reach your prospective customers with your message
4. Create an advertising strategy. Choose the most effective message
and visuals for your advertising campaign.

LIST OF BUSINESS ADVERTISING IDEAS

We cover small business advertising ideas, including:
■ Traditional Advertising Ideas
■ Online Advertising Ideas
■ Social Media Advertising Ideas

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 171

 ■ Local Advertising Ideas
■ Outdoor Advertising Ideas

Traditional Advertising Ideas

Sponsor a Radio Contest or Giveaway

One way to get your message across to radio listeners
is by sponsoring a contest. Offer up one of your
products as a prize or sponsor a special prize such
as a cruise in exchange for the station crediting your
business.
Target market is a
group of customers Find the Right Format for a Newspaper Ad
within a business’s
serviceable available Newspapers are great for reaching local customers.
market at which a Service providers might focus on classified ads, which
business aims its
are particularly cost effective. Some newspapers offer
marketing efforts and
resources. advertorial options that allow businesses to sponsor
written content to educate about a solution.

Create a Magazine Ad
Magazine ads offer a great format for businesses that
put a heavy emphasis on visuals. Trade magazines are
valuable for businesses that cater to niche followings
or specific industries.

Get Radio Stations to Broadcast Live from Your

Business
Radio personalities like to set up shop at local
businesses that are hosting events or other special
promotions from time to time. If you can get them
to come to your business, you can have them talk
about all the fun your customers are having.

Create Cable or Local TV Ads

TV commercials offer another traditional ad format.
Forget national networks. For small businesses, target
the local news stations or cable TV to fit within your
budget.
172 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER
Advertise at Local Movie Theaters
Get your message across to hyper local customers when they’re likely to be
paying attention: just when a movie is about to start! Theaters offer advertising
options to local businesses, to air before movie previews.

Sponsor a Trade Show or Industry Event

What if your business is focused on a specific industry or niche rather
than a geographic area? Exhibiting at trade shows or sponsoring industry
events is tailor made for you.

Online Advertising Ideas

Set Up a Google My Business Page

Google pulls information about local businesses right from the “ Google
My Business ” listings. A listing is free. Add your company name, website
and hours to make it easier to be found online. Trick your listing out with
enticing images to invite clicks and engagement.

Purchase Search Advertising

Google AdWords or Bing Ads bring shoppers who are actively searching
for particular items. These ads help your business feature prominently
when people search for relevant phrases you bid on.

Use Retargeted Ads

Increase your deal close rate (conversion rate) through retargeting. Retargeted
ads show up after people leave your website, and remind them to, say, go
back to your ecommerce site and purchase that item they were browsing.

Sponsor Article Content

Share thought leadership content by working with blogs or online publications
to publish sponsored content opportunities related to your industry.

Place Banner Ads on a Local or Industry Website

Create visually focused online ads, like banner or sidebar display ads, and
then place them on sites relevant to your business. These are usually sold
at a flat fee or per-impression rate, such as $10 per thousand impressions.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 173

 Don’t Forget Business Listings
Having your business listed on relevant online
directories can be a major benefit. Some directories
are free, but may also offer paid options to increase
visibility.

Small businesses Sponsor Products on Ecommerce Platforms

are privately owned
corporations, If you sell products on large ecommerce platforms
partnerships, or sole like Amazon, eBay or Etsy, you can pay to boost the
proprietorships that visibility of offerings so they’ll be more likely to
have fewer employees show up in customers’ searches.
and/or less annual
revenue than a
regular-sized business Engage Through Native Online Ads
or corporation.
Native online ads are ads that fit with the style and
functionality of the other content of the website
where they’re featured. For example, if you want
to advertise on a site that offers video content, you
could create a short video ad that fits seamlessly
into the design of the site.

Sponsor an Online Contest or Giveaway

Some online publications or influencers offer
giveaways or similar contests to their followers. Offer
up product or contribute toward a special prize
such as the latest hot smartphone, to get attention
for your business. The cost can be as little as a few
Thomas J. Barratt hundred dollars.
of London has been
called “the father of
Trade Website Space with Other Small Businesses
modern advertising”.
Working for the If you’re low on cash for online ads, perhaps you
Pears Soap company,
Barratt created an
could trade some space on your own website or in
effective advertising your email newsletter with another business that has
campaign for the an overlapping target market.
company products,
which involved
the use of targeted
Start an Email Newsletter
slogans, images and Send promotions to customers via email. Get your
phrases.
customers to sign up for updates by offering exclusive
discounts, early access or other incentives.

174 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Social Media Advertising Ideas

Advertise on Facebook
Facebook is the most popular social media platform with over 1.4 billion
daily users. Advertising options for small businesses range from boosting
the reach of a post to placing ads that promote your product — starting
at under $10.00. While you’ll have to spend more than 10 bucks for big
results, the point is that Facebook ad campaigns can fit a small budget.

Use Messenger Ads

If you’re looking to start conversations with customers, Facebook’s Messenger
platform offers an advertising option to make it easy for customers to reach
out to you.

Create YouTube Video Ads

YouTube offers options for short video advertisements that play before
videos on the site and app. Even less expensive, create great video content
and optimize it well, or boost it to get more visibility. This is a good option
for service businesses with informational content, as “how to” videos are
the second most watched category on YouTube.

Use LinkedIn Ads

For businesses that target professionals or other businesses, check out
LinkedIn ads. While more expensive than other social platforms, LinkedIn
ads may be more targeted. For B2B businesses, they may be worth it.

Promote Social Posts to Encourage Organic Sharing

Social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest all
offer advertising options to boost the visibility of posts. These options can
jumpstart engagement, leading to more sharing of your content naturally.

Create a Sponsored Snapchat Lens or Filter

If your business is especially popular with young people and creatives, you
could take advantage of some of Snapchat’s advertising options, including
the ability to sponsor lenses or filters that promote your business.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 175

Work with Influencers on a Campaign
Work with influencers relevant to your target market to spread the word
about a particular campaign. Find influencers with an authentic following
and encourage them to share their experience with your product. Be sure
to disclose per FTC Rules, as required.

Sponsor a Podcast
Another audio format that’s gained popularity in recent years is audio
podcasts. Many podcasters would be thrilled to have a sponsor. They’ll
read a short message about your business in exchange for a fee. See this
list of top business podcasts.

Create an Affiliate Program

Create an affiliate program. In this kind of program, you compensate online
publishers or influencers for the sales they drive to your website, based
on tracking links you set up.

Local Advertising Ideas

Make the Most of Business Cards

Business cards can serve as low budget advertising. Include a discount
code on the back of your card, and place a stack on your reception desk or
checkout counter. People will snap them up if there’s an incentive. Or give
every satisfied customer a few of your cards (with or without a discount
code) so they can hand them out to neighbors and friends. It’s a good way
to encourage referrals.

Sponsor a Local Event

Contribute financially toward local charitable or community events — or
make an in-kind product donation. You’ll likely receive signage or otherwise
get your business in front of participants. And you’ll get the satisfaction
of supporting a community cause.

Create a Parade Float

Don’t forget about participating in the St. Patrick’s Day or July 4th Parade!
By serving as the sponsor of a parade and creating a float or group routine
that’s part of the show, you gain valuable visibility in your local community.

176 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Advertise with Your Local Chamber of Commerce
Some local chambers of commerce offer advertising partnerships. These
help you get your message out in a variety of ways, from local chamber
events to the website. These are especially good for B2B businesses (i.e.,
those selling products or services to other businesses).

List Your Business in the Yellow Pages

Printed Yellow Pages may be going away, but they are not gone. They are
transitioning to the online world. To gain visibility, get a free listing and
then consider testing out a larger listing space.

Offer Local Deals or Coupons

Use a limited-time promotion through “deal” services like Groupon. Offer
a discount to get more customers to discover your business and visit it. A
variation is to include coupons or special offers in local coupon books like
Clipper Magazine or mailers such as ValPak .

Post on Community Billboards

Take a look around your local community to find businesses or landmarks
that have bulletin boards allowing open posting. Then create tear-off flyers
or signs. Other than some legwork and a little ink and paper for your office
color printer, it’s free.

Send Out Direct Mail Flyers

For local businesses, direct mail continues to be a viable advertising strategy.
Create a small flyer or include your sales pitch in a letter format and
mail it to past customers or everyone in a certain neighborhood. The U.S.
Postal Service’s Every Door Direct program is cost effective and partially
automated, saving time.

Create and Distribute Brochures

Distribute stacks of physical brochures or postcards to visitors’ centers or
local businesses such as coffee shops that allow it. Find the popular spots.
This is one time when it’s good to be among competition. The more flyers
or cards, the more likely consumers are conditioned to look for them there.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 177

 Attract Customers with Magnets
Print up small items like magnets and pens with
your business name, logo and contact information
to hand out to customers at local events or when
you visit their homes to provide service. They are
a reminder the next time someone has a need for
your product or service.

Put an Ad in the Church Bulletin or Community

Newsletter
Hyper local businesses may get good ROI by placing
small ads in church bulletins. Or look no further than
your homeowners’ association newsletter. And there
are neighborhood community sites like Nextdoor ,
which also offer sponsored posts for neighborhood
businesses.
Business-to-business
(B2B), also called Sponsor a Local Sports Team
B-to-B, is a form of
transaction between Make a donation in exchange for shirts with your
businesses, such business name and logo. Find a little league, middle
as one involving a school or other youth sports team. Some teams will
manufacturer and
wholesaler, or a
allow signs for your business at the local field.
wholesaler and a
retailer. Send Thank You Cards
This isn’t exactly an advertisement, but it’s a valuable
technique. After you do business with a client, send
a handwritten thank you note. It seems so simple,
yet shockingly few actually do it. You’ll stand out.

Create Refer-a-Friend Promotions

If you send regular bills to customers, include a small
flyer or card offering a bonus to those who refer
new customers. You can also include promotions in
mailers and newsletters or on your website.

178 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Set Up Shop at a Local Festival
If your community has any local fairs or festivals where businesses can
purchase booths, you can set up shop there and meet with local consumers
or even offer product samples.

Outdoor Advertising Ideas

Add Signage to Your Location

The area right outside your store or business is super valuable. Make sure
to follow any local zoning rules and then add a well-lit and visible sign
that advertises your business favorably.

Use Human Billboards

To call attention to your business from the street corner, hire a human
billboard or a sign spinner service such as Arrow Sign Spinners. Sign
spinners are people who stands on the corner with a sign, usually paid
hourly. Check local ordinances to see what is permissible.

Purchase Billboard Space

To get your message in front of local customers, you can purchase space
on a local billboard. This is especially relevant for drive-by businesses, like
restaurants or convenience stores.

Advertise with Digital Outdoor Signage

Some cities or popular landmarks have signs with rotating digital advertising
messages. Add targeted punch by advertising in the vicinity of conventions
or events that attract your target audience.

Wrap Your Vehicle

If your business has vehicles that take you to service appointments, like
plumbing or HVAC trucks, you can buy vehicle wraps that turn your
mode of transportation into a mobile advertisement. Better yet, park your
wrapped vehicle prominently in front of your place of business when it’s
not in use.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 179

Advertise in Unconventional Places
Finally, no collection of small business advertising ideas would be complete
without something you might not typically think of. So consider physical ads
in unusual spots. This could include ads inside elevators or near escalators.
You can even buy ads on shopping carts at your community grocery store.

HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR WEB DESIGN

BUSINESS
The Web design industry is an increasingly popular career choice, and
competition could be fierce in your area due to a high volume of freelancers
in the industry. Whether you are the owner of a firm with multiple employees
or a lone freelancer, learning how to advertise your web design business
is critical to your success. Since many freelance web designers and firms
market locally and nationally, if not globally, advertising web design must
be approached seriously and creatively to reach your segment of the market.

Advertising your Website Online

1. Advertise online. You can use paid advertising, free advertising, social
media, online directories and a variety of other techniques to spread the
word about your business.
2. Work on your own website. Websites are important for any business
to have as the Internet continues to pull in consumers in nearly every
industry, but since websites are your business, your company definitely
needs one. How you structure your website is up to you, but you should
have a clear focus on what your skill is while providing the information
potential customers need. Your website doesn’t have to include your rates,
but it should include your services, examples of previous work, contact
information, and supporting educational information such as if you attended
a web design degree program of any kind.

180 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

3. Pay for online advertising. You could ad listings on high-traffic websites, or
do a pay-per-click campaign with the large search engines. Pay for listings in
business directories for web designers.

4. Become active in social media and in other online communities. These are
places you may find your customers. Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and other
social networking websites give you another avenue to connect to both current
and prospective clients while also giving them a way to connect with and learn
about you before, during, and after the sale. Become active in places where you
know your target market is and in industry-related communities to establish
yourself as an expert.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 181

5. Focus on search engine optimization (SEO). Let the search engines do some
of the work for you naturally at all hours of the day. If you are not familiar with
SEO, you can either research and try your hand at it or hire someone to help
you. Clients want to know their website is going to be seen, so if you can offer
SEO services to your customers, then you have more value.

Advertising your Website Offline

1. Use a variety of available media. You can do this via newspaper ads,
business cards and fliers, radio and/or TV spots, and through general face-
to-face interaction.

182 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

2. Attend industry-related conferences. This may not bring in more
customers unless some of the attendees are looking for services, but you
may find other people to network with. Networking may help you offer
more to customers or may help you handle e a higher customer volume.
Industry conferences will also have valuable information to keep you on
top of the latest trends and technology in the field, enabling you to provide
more value to customers.

3. Read industry-related magazines. One of the magazines is Website

Magazine, which has a free and paid edition, and offers valuable information
to designers and others who run online businesses. The magazine also offers
ad spots, and since it targets Internet marketers and other online professionals,
advertising web design services there could prove profitable.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 183

4. Reach out to small businesses in your area. Suggest that you help each
other. Offer to help them grow their business if they use your services.
Offer them a free consultation to show them where they can improve and
how you can help.

5. Print fliers and business cards. Pass these out at local events you attend,
as long as you are allowed to do so. Hang fliers up at local businesses with
permission. Leave business cards with other local businesses. Always have
these on hand so if you strike up a conversation with someone while you
are away from your office, your contact information is readily available
to hand out.

184 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

6. Run a client referral incentive program both online and off. Advertising and
marketing go hand-in-hand. By marketing a web design business to existing
customers and offering an incentive to them for bringing in more customers,
you have an advertising team working for you.

HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS ON A

BUDGET
Advertising can be very costly and many small independent business just
can’t afford much of it. At the same time, without advertising, no one will
know about your business and it will most likely fail. The good news is,
especially in this age of blogs and social media, there are many avenues
for advertising your business that won’t break your budget. Some of these
options are even free.

Making the Most of Free Options

1. Use social media creatively. If you don›t have much in your advertising
budget, one of the most important things you can do is make sure you’re
making the most of free options. Given how many people use it, an obvious
place to start is with social media.
■ At a minimum, you should create a Facebook page for your business
so people can find you on this popular site. Keep it up to date
with a good description, hours of operation, and some eye-catching
pictures.
■ The next step up from this bare-bones approach is to start offering

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 185

 interesting, free content on your Facebook page. Create infographics,
articles, or videos that reflect your expertise and will be interesting
to people. This will keep people coming back to your page.
■ You can also consider starting a Facebook group about a topic
related to your business but not about your business.
2. Join the blogosphere. Another way to get your business›s name out
for free (or very inexpensively) is by starting a blog. Again, offer your
information and expertise, not just promotional messages, and people will
read and return to it.
■ Don’t just post on your own blog, though. Subscribe to other blogs
related to your business, and post comments on them, too. These
comments shouldn’t promote your business directly, but if people
see “Sarah’s Wine Shoppe” commenting regularly on their favorite
wine blog, there’s a good chance many of them will eventually
want to see what your business is all about.
■ You should also research who the prominent bloggers are that write
about your type of business. Reach out to them. You may find they
are willing to write about your business or review your products.
3. Claim your local listing online. Google, Yahoo, and other search engines
typically have listings for local businesses on services like Google Places and
Yahoo Local. Your claim the listing for your business, free of charge. Just
search for your business using these services. There should be an option
to click «I own this business» or something along those lines.
■ Once done, it’s easy to customize the listing to make it more
appealing.

4. Start an email newsletter. Your business probably has an email address

already. Ask customers to sign up for an email newsletter. Collect their

186 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

addresses and send out a monthly email.
■ Email may seem old-fashioned in the age of
social media, but almost everybody has an
email address.
■ This is can be a great way to remind people
about your business, as well as to alert them
to sales or promotions you might be having.
■ Services like Mail Chimp and Constant
Contact can help you manage your email
lists.
■ Many businesses will offer a one-time
discount, giveaway, or other promotion when
people sign up for their newsletter.

Advertising budget
is an estimate
of a company’s
promotional
expenditures over a
certain time period.

5. Get published. If you run a business, chances

are you have some specialized expertise on some
topic. Write articles about it and submit them for
publication! People who are interested in this type
of business will see you are an expert.
■ You can submit articles to trade publications
and niche magazines for no cost. There’s no
guarantee you’ll be published, but if you
have decent writing skills, your unique
perspective certainly helps your odds.
■ There are also websites such as Ezinearticles.
com, [Link], and TheFreeLibrary.
com that will publish high-quality articles
online, and will allow you to embed a couple
of links to your website in exchange for the
content.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 187

6. Submit press releases. Don›t forget to make the most of traditional
media! You can often get free-of-charge news coverage by submitting press
releases about special events or promotions your business is having. Send
press releases to your local newspaper, as well as the news departments
of local TV and radio stations.
■ Journalists today are often pressed for time and resources, so they
are often looking for fast, easy content they can easily plug into
the news.
■ A good press release is one that mirrors the style of a news article,
and contains concise and compelling quotes that journalists can use.
Write a catchy headline and put the most important information first.
■ Pick up a book or do some research online about how to write
effective press releases.

7. Offer a free class. Another great way to use your expertise to promote
your business is to offer a free class on a topic related to the service you
provide. This gets your name out, and establishes you as an authority in
your area.

188 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 ■ If you have a brick-and-mortar store for your business, this can
also get people coming in the door. Many will stay and shop.
8. Encourage word of mouth. Even in this digital age, it›s hard to beat good
old word of mouth advertising. Encourage your employees and friends to
tell others about your business.
■ People are often more trusting of an endorsement that comes from
a friend or family member than from an advertisement or other
media sources.

Using Online Advertising

1. Consider Google Adwords. In addition to these free options, there
are many options for online advertising that works well for those with a
small advertising budget. One great option is Google Adwords, or similar
search-engine advertising, that presents your ads to people searching for
terms related to your business.
■ These services allow for geographical targeting as well. So, if
someone in your city searches for “wine bargains” on Google, your
wine shop ad could be the first thing they see.
■ Search engine ads are often “pay per click,” which means you don’t
pay anything unless someone clicks on the ad. You can often drive
a lot of traffic toward your business’s web page for as little as 10
to 20 dollars a day.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 189

2. Try social media advertising. Advertising on Facebook or LinkedIn has
similar advantages to search engine advertising in that it is targeted and
relatively cheap. A few dollars a day can drive people toward your website
or social media profile.
■ Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to target ads based on the interests
that people list or the groups they belong to, so you can be fairly
certain the people seeing your ad will be interested in the type of
service you provide.
■ To make these ads effective, target them carefully, thinking about
interests, gender, location, and so on. Give the ads a catchy headline
and an interesting image. Monitor the performance of the ads and
switch them up often.
■ On Facebook, you can select “Advertising on Facebook” from the
dropdown menu near your privacy settings. This will take you to
a page to get you started on the details. LinkedIn has a similar
advertising information page.

190 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

3. Make use of Reddit. Another inexpensive option
for online ads is Reddit. This is another popular
website for accessing online content that lets you
tailor how much you want to invest each day for
advertising.
■ With Reddit ads, advertisers “bid” a certain
amount each day and their ad is seen by
a number Reddit users proportional to the
amount each advertiser chipped in. So, if
you bid 10 dollars tomorrow, and there are
a total of 1000 dollars worth of bids, your
ad will be seen by one percent of Reddit
users that day.
■ A compelling image can drive traffic to your
business’s website for as little as three cents
a click, in some cases.
■ Reddit’s website includes a page on how
to get started with creating an ad and
participating in bidding.
Search-engine
advertising (SEA)
is a branch of
online marketing.
Advertisements in
the form of a text or
images are posted on
search engines such as
Google or Bing.

Creating a Low-Cost Offline Ad Campaign

1. Use your business space. If you have physical
space for your business, there›s a lot you can do
with your space to make it a promotional resource.
Host events, and go over-the-top with decorating
whenever you can.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 191

 ■ Host classes, parties, contests and product demonstrations to bring
people into the store.
■ Put up eye-catching decorations, especially around the holidays, to
make sure anyone passing by will notice your business.

2. Volunteer or donate to a cause. Donating to a good cause can be a

great way to not only get your business›s name out there, but also to show
potential customers you care about the same things they do. Pick a charity
or charities to get involved with.
■ Donate products, either for a charity’s promotional events or their
day-to-day operations. Donate a case of wine from your wine shop
to the next charity auction, for example.
■ If you don’t have a product that works well for this, you can also
donate your time. Show up and volunteer with a team of your
employees, wearing company t-shirts. This is a great way to get
some visibility for your name and logo in a context that many will
view positively.

192 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

3. Take part in a contest. If you have a product that works well, another
good option is to donate to contests, like local radio station giveaways. The
fifth caller could receive tickets to see a concert at your club or a free
guided wine tasting session.
■ There are also websites, such as [Link] that will
allow you to host your own sweepstakes contest.
5. Print flyers and/or business cards. Don›t underestimate the value of
old-fashioned paper promotional materials. For pennies apiece, you can
print some slick-looking business cards or flyers to bring your business to
the attention of potential customers.
■ Put flyers on people’s door knobs or under windshield wipers. In an
afternoon, you can reach hundreds of potential customers. Include
a coupon or discount code to make your flyer more valuable.
■ Business cards with promotional discount codes can be handed
out on the street or at events, and you can track the codes to see
where the most effective place to hand them out is.
■ It’s true that most of these will be thrown away, but given how
inexpensive they are to print, you only need a handful of positive
responses to recoup your investment.
6. Turn your car into an advertisement. You can look into getting your
car «wrapped» with advertising decals, or for a relatively low cost, get a
magnetic sign made that can be attached to any car.
■ With a magnetic sign, any car can become the “company car,”
advertising your business wherever you go!
7. Do a publicity stunt. Do something unusual to attract the attention
of potential customers and the media. Set out to break a record in the
Guinness Book of World Records, for example. These kinds of stunts can
be inexpensive and result in national media attention.
■ For best effect, do your publicity stunt wearing a company t-shirt,
or even in your store if possible.
8. Build relationships with your customers. Do things to generate loyalty
among those who choose your business. There are many ways to do this,
including:
■ Sending thank you notes to customers.
■ Attaching a coupon or discount code to receipts or invoices.
■ Starting a referral program, in which existing customers get incentives
for referring friends.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 193

 ■ Going where your customers spend time to meet people and develop
a personal connection. If you have a wine store, for example, spend
time at the local wine bar and introduce yourself to people. Don’t
try to sell them anything, but do mention your store.

194 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Case Study

Elements of a Web Design

The Overview
Think of your Overview section as the executive summary of your case
study. It’s the Cole’s Notes version of the document, and allows your
prospects to quickly understand the highlights of your past work without
reading the entire thing. This section should include the core takeaways
from all other sections including the main problem, an overview of the
solution, and key results.
While the Overview will be your least detailed part of the case study, it is
probably your most important. Only the most meticulous clients will take
the time to read through your entire case study; the majority of them will
just quickly skim through in order get the gist. Because of this, drafting a
complete and well-articulated overview should be your top priority.

The Context and Challenge

The second section of your case study — commonly referred to as the
Context and the Challenge — is designed to provide your prospective client
with a detailed description of the context that led to the creation of the
project. If it’s well-written, the reader will leave with a solid understanding
of the environmental factors and problems that you were hired to solve
as a designer.
This section can be distilled into three main elements:
1. Project background and description — The contextual information
for the project including timelines, budgetary constraints, and the
overarching purpose of the job.
2. The problem — The “why?” and the focal point for the project.
Your case study needs to clearly explain the problem that led to
the onset of the project. For example, if you were working on an
ecommerce project then your problem could be something similar
to:
“Interest for company X’s core product was growing internationally at
an unprecedented scale. This led to severe logistical and distribution
problems that could not be fixed by physical retail solutions alone.”

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 195

 3. Project goals and objectives — Every website you work on should
have tangible goals and objectives associated with the project’s
problem. Are you trying to drive more traffic to the site overall?
Optimize product pages for lower bounce rate or higher conversions?
Reduce cart abandon rates? No matter what your objectives are,
try your best to include any quantifiable metrics that were known
at the onset of the project.

The Process and Insight

The purpose of this section is to elaborate on your design process, creative
concept, and insight that led to your design decisions. It’s also an opportunity
for you to walk your prospective client through the research, workflow,
and iterations of your design work.
When writing content for this section, you want to illustrate how you got
from The Challenge to The Solution. Make sure the flow of information
is logical and that it culminates with a core insight about your client’s
audience, business, or industry. These insights can stem from your client’s
unique selling properties and key differentiators, or from their audience’s
behavioural and consumption habits.
To ensure your reader conclusively arrives at these insights as well, you’re
going to need to thoroughly document your research. Include any details
about A/B tests, user research interviews, and key brainstorming takeaways
that led you to uncover those crucial pieces of information.

The Solution
The Solution is where you get to show off your skill and style as a designer.
It’s your chance to feature any and all samples of your work — from
videos, landing pages, custom integrations, and anything else you created
for the project.
To really get the most from this section, be sure to include written descriptions
about your design work. Take the time to explain in detail your site’s defining
features like its UX, navigation structure, content strategy, or unique mobile
attributes. If you put the effort into crafting descriptions that complement
your visual assets, your readers will feel much more confident in your
decisions as a designer.

196 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

The Results
For most business owners, it’s all about the numbers. That’s why this
section is crucial for an effectively written case study. The Results section
will cover the qualitative and quantitative success metrics from your project
(and if you’ve tested your product, such as with a contextual inquiry, you
should have great metrics to share!). While the type of metrics you report
on can vary from one project to another, they should directly address the
objectives you established in The Context and Challenge section. Having
these results in hand will allow you to show your prospects that your
work had a direct influence on your client meeting their goals. If you can
do this, you’ll help them feel more comfortable putting their business (and
their money) into your hands.
In addition to, or in lieu of, quantifiable metrics, consider including one
to three testimonials in this section. These testimonials are another great
tactic for boosting the confidence of your prospects. Since the source of
these reviews come from outside your business, prospects are more likely
to trust them as a reputable reference. When including your testimonials,
however, keep them short and sweet. They can be as simple as one or two
sentences, so long as they illustrate your previous client’s satisfaction with
your work.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 197

 6 EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS
Expanding your business is an admirable goal and a terrific achievement.
We’ll talk about taking that next step in your business career, and starting to
grow your business beyond that of a sole operator. Limiting your business’s
size can be an advantage when you start out. Being a lean, mean machine
allows you to quickly shift your focus, react to market forces quickly and
easily, and take advantage of competitors’ mistakes much faster.
Now, the fact that you’re good at Web design doesn’t mean you’re good
at business. Running a business requires a whole different skillset. What
will you need in order to expand? Let’s take a look.

YOU NEED A PLAN

To move from the realm of a sole operator into something bigger, you
need to define exactly what it is you want to become. If you identify
your objective and plan accordingly, you’ll have a much better chance of
reaching your goal. Set a concrete, achievable objective. Check it every day.
Figure out how you’re going to achieve that objective. What do you have
to do to get there? Now, start doing it! You won’t be able to do it all. It’s
important that you recognize that at the beginning. To grow into a bigger
business, you need to wear a lot of different hats. But you won’t be able to
keep them all on at the same time. To grow your business beyond the one
person setup you have now, you’ll need to develop new skills. Financial
analysis, personnel management, marketing talents, legal skills, business
management—they are all essential if you’re going to grow. Don’t be alarmed
if you lack certain skills. If managed properly, your own recognition that
you lack certain skills can be a tremendous business asset. The damage
I’ve seen done by sole operators who have tried to juggle all aspects of a
business has been huge.

YOU NEED A LEADER

Because it’s your business, it’s almost inevitable that you will be the leader.
The skills you require to lead a growing business might be different from
the skills you use now. You need to have a vision, not only to see how
things fit together, but for the future of the business.

198 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

You’ll need a vision of where your business will be one, five and ten years
down the track. Be the entrepreneur! Have the vision, personality, and
energy to drive your business. Someone has to be the leader and make the
tough decisions. That someone is you! The leader’s role is to identify where
the business needs to be positioned in the future. On the other hand, the
manager’s role is to point the business in the right direction, and get the
business there. Having said that, the buck stops with the leader.

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

There are two foundations for growing your business, and only two. If you
get these two aspects right, you’ll have a great business for life. It will be
profitable, it will continually grow, and you will hardly have to lift a finger.
The two big secrets are these:
Systems and people.

That’s it! Get those right, and you’re done. You’re a success. You’re a winner!

System 1: The Needs Analysis

The questions we ask during our needs analysis are designed to extract as
much relevant information as possible about the job, so that we can better
establish a solution.
■ Why the clients want a Website.
■ What they want to site to achieve.
■ How the site will be used by the business.
■ What the clients’ competitors are doing.
■ What content and functionality the clients want their site to offer.
■ The platforms and systems on which the site will function.
■ How the site will be marketed and maintained.
■ What the project budget is.
This analysis tends to achieve a couple of objectives. When we ask questions
such as, “What are the objectives of the site?” and “How will you market
the site?” it gently guides prospects to realize that the site goals need to
be very clear, and that ongoing work will probably be required to market
the site properly.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 199

 System 2: The Follow-Up
From that systematic analysis, we move on to
the follow-through. Now, different people write
letters differently, and it can be time consuming to
write letters to prospects. To assure the quality of
communications as much as possible, our team uses
a system of template letters. Aside from changing
the name and date on the letter, there isn’t anything
else to do! A few minutes is all it takes: we produce
high-quality follow-up letters, personalized for the
Entrepreneur is a client.
person who organizes a
venture to benefit from
an opportunity, rather
System 3: Compiling the Proposal
than working as an
The proposal for the client can often take hours to
employee.
complete. Over the years, we’ve repeatedly refined
our proposal structure and process. It makes no
sense, in terms of either quality control or ease of
operation, to start each proposal we do from scratch.
We use a system of templates to compile each
proposal, which ensures that all prospects receive a
great quality document that addresses their specific
needs. The proposal goes through a simple system
that addresses the key criteria of the vast majority
of our prospects. We also include areas in which
the proposal can be personalized with whatever
information needs to be expanded upon.
The proposal includes:
■ an introduction about us
■ an overview of the needs of the prospect
■ the problems the prospect has
■ Web development methodology—what’s
important and why
■ proposed site flow chart
■ extra features list
■ how the proposed site fixes the client’s
problems
■ testimonials and case study

200 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 ■ key recommendations
■ costs (hosting, domain, software, etc.)
■ frequently asked questions
■ suggested next step
■ price
For a sample proposal, take a look at the file named Web Development
Proposal on this kit’s CD-ROM. Depending on the client, we use varying
amounts of graphics throughout the proposal. For some, we might present
the proposal as a PowerPoint display. Other prospects’ presentations might
be put onto CD (and in case you’re wondering, the most effective proposals
for us are the ones printed on paper).
We know how to present the proposal because we ask prospects how
they want it presented. Easy! And this tells them right from the start that
we’re here to provide a simple and pain-free experience that meets their
requirements.
Is our proposal system perfect? Of course not.
Is our proposal system effective? As effective as any system we’ve tried
so far.
Is the proposal system finished? No. We’re constantly refining and editing it.
How do we know it meets the prospects’ needs? We ask them! One
businessman even told us it was the best proposal he’d ever seen!

System 4: Presenting the Proposal

The system for presenting the proposal to our prospects is also very simple.
First, we never mail the proposal out and simply wait for an answer. The
preferred way (because you’ll make the most sales this way) is to be with
the prospects when you present. Take them through the proposal step by
step, answer any questions as you go, take care of the objections, educate
them on the value of what you’re proposing, and then give them the quote.

System 5: Client Maintenance

Finally, we have a system for maintaining the details of all prospects and
clients, whereby we enter them into the database, and start a process of
regular follow up. Because it represents a logical step-by-step progression,
anyone can follow our system from the moment the prospects contact us. It
requires no extraordinary skill or knowledge, just a basic understanding of
Websites and usability. Take a look at the Client Management Process file
that’s included in this kit’s documentation. With a system like this, instead

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 201

of having just one person who’s able to make a sale, literally everyone in
the company can win new business!

IDEAS FOR EXPANDING YOUR WEB DESIGN

BUSINESS
So your web design company is ready to roll. You’ve got happy customers
and more people coming to the door every day. But where do you go from
there?

Partner With Other Businesses

Who else do your customers interact with? Identify those companies and
organizations, and approach them for ways you can work together to better
serve clients together.
Here are some types of organizations your clients may already be interacting
with:
■ IT solutions
■ Accounting services (surprisingly a lot of referrals come from here)
■ Marketing agency
■ Graphic design
■ Web hosting
■ Local chamber of commerce
■ Industry groups (not necessarily your industry)

Implement a Referral System

Set up your own referral program to give people and other organizations
incentive to refer business to you. Give them a discounted rate or commission
in exchange for sending you more business.
At its most basic form, all you need is to set up a web page about your
referral program and then track it manually by asking potential clients
how they found you. If your website has an e-commerce component —
for example, along with development services, you might also be selling
premium WordPress themes — look into integrating a referral system
into it. To make this easier, check out systems such as Google Affiliate
Network or Commission Junction.

202 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Here are some simple rules to keep in mind as you
craft your referral system:
■ Keep it simple. No one wants to deal with
tiers and weird conditionals for commission.
Don’t make it complicated.
■ Make payouts easy. This applies to both
paying out commission on referrals and, if
you have a reseller program, making it easy Client management
for others to pay you. No one wants to have takes responsibility
to pick up the phone or send in a fax to cash for all aspects of the
working relationship
out or pay you. between clients and
■ Give potential referrers information about the company to
what makes your service great. That can ensure the highest
quality in terms of
mean providing them with web copy they
deliverables and client
can use on their site, print materials, stickers, satisfaction.
t-shirts, vector versions of your company
logo, etc.
■ Stay in touch. Relationships take time to
develop. Even if you don’t see a lot of activity
from them, it always pays to cultivate your
relationship. Oftentimes, there are other
opportunities to work together that you
wouldn’t have uncovered if you didn’t check
in with your referrers occasionally. Consider
sending out an email newsletter once in a
while. Keep them updated with what’s new
with your company.

Resell or Refer Products and Services

Every time you purchase a product or service on
behalf of your client (such as web hosting) or refer
them to another service (such as content-writing
services) you have a potential to generate commission.
You can make more money per client by becoming
a reseller or affiliate and getting a percentage of the
transaction as commission.
Remember that you’re adding value with every
component you sell to your customer. Your other
value is that you know what’s good because you
use the product or service yourself; or at least, you

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 203

should be, because if it’s not good enough for you, it’s not going to be
good enough for your clients either.
Some examples of products and services you can be reselling:
■ WordPress or Drupal themes
■ Web hosting
■ Shopping cart software
■ SSL certificates

Affiliate vs. Reselling

Affiliate programs are attractive to those getting into the habit of making
money off referrals because it’s typically hands-off and really simple to
implement.
Reseller programs, on the other hand, have more potential for generating
revenue through negotiations with the seller, contracts, and flexibility.
The difference often comes down to the margins or commission you will
get. Resellers typically make higher margins and are based on volume.
Affiliate programs tend to be fixed and will produce lower margins.
Some things to watch out for in reselling programs:
■ Minimums: You don’t want to get burned if suddenly no one
wants their product. Sometimes this comes with better margins,
but if the volume they are looking for is a stretch, it may come
back to bite you.
■ Bad marketing support: they should be helping you sell to your
customers with content and ideas.
■ Poor customer support: Even if it has nothing to do with you, it
will still reflect poorly on you, since you vouched for the company.

Organize and Host an Event

Events, meet-ups, conferences, seminars, and activities that bring industry
professionals together are a great way to reach more potential customers.
They can be expensive to run, but you can share costs with other companies
(by partnering up with other companies or by getting event sponsors). By
combining forces with other companies, you can get more people to come
and have other people raise awareness for your company.

204 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Make it newsworthy and invite the right people to speak. Don’t try to do
it alone; the point here is to increase your reach by working with other
companies that will expose you to their customer base.
Webinars work too, just make sure it’s useful and not a long advertisement
about how awesome your company is.

For instance, check out what Carsonified is doing with FOWD to see how
to host an event effectively.

Some Parting Thoughts

It’s important to know what you want before you start expanding your business,
otherwise you won’t have a unified and consistent approach. Treat business
development just like any other parts of your business — invest time, effort,
and human resources as needed.

When it comes to partnering up with other companies and services, treat it

like any other relationship. People have been burned before. A partnership
is a two-way proposition, and the moment both parties are not benefiting,
things will get tense.
Be good and be honest, and you’ll see just how eager other companies are
to team up with you. Business karma, so to speak.

HOW TO EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS

Maybe your business is doing well and you are starting to think about
strategies for expanding it. Or, perhaps you feel your business has been
steady but might be in need of an expansion to attract more customers and
increase your profits. There are several ways you can encourage business
growth and the right strategy for your business will depend on the type
of business you own and how much time and money you have to invest
into your business’ growth.

Increasing Your Business Locations and Your Staff

1. Consider opening another location in a different area. Think about
physically expanding your business by opening another location in a different
area to gain more customers. Always do careful research, planning, and
budgeting before you do a physical expansion. Your business should be

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 205

 able to maintain a consistent bottom-line profit and
have steady growth over the past three to four years.
■ You should also consult business trends to
confirm your company has enough staying
power to justify another physical location.
Draw up a business plan for the new location
so you can be sure you have enough financing
and staff to keep the new location afloat.
■ Choose a location that will help to foster
your business, preferably in proximity to
your customer base. Consider if the second
location will help to reinforce the image
and branding of your business. Think about
whether or not the new location will attract
new customers as well.
■ You should also organize a management
team to help get the new location going.
Put your strongest team members at the
new location to ensure it gets off the ground
smoothly.
2. Franchise your business. Franchising is when you
offer up your business as an investment opportunity,
where other business owners or investors can open
up other locations of your business and buy into
Business Growth is
a stage where the
your business’ product and branding. Going for
business reaches the franchising will also expand your business nationally
point for expansion and potentially, internationally.
and seeks additional
■ To get the franchising process going, you
options to generate
more profit. should consult with a franchising lawyer and
with a business mentor who has gone through
the franchising process before. You may also
want to join the International Franchise
Association so you can make contacts within
the business community and get advice and
guidance on the franchising process.

206 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

3. Merge locations with an existing business. Another option for expansion
is merging your business with an existing business, thereby taking over
their physical location and site of operations. Merging with another business
if often done if a business is going bankrupt or struggling financially. The
buy out will then allow the other business to stay afloat and potentially
flourish under the guidance and support of the more profitable business.
■ You might decide to merge with a direct competitor that offers
the same service as you or you might consider diversifying your
products and services by joining with a different type of business
entirely. In some cases, you might just buy the name and location
without adopting the practices of the business.
■ You can also merge the business locations so the businesses appear
related or in tandem with each other. You may update the technology
of the business you merged with so it matches your business’
system. You should also share branding and marketing strategies
so the businesses feel in sync with one another.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 207

 4. Hire more staff to better serve your existing
customers. If you feel your business is going well
and you want to maintain the high quality customer
service your business has become known for, you
may consider hiring more staff. Look for staff that
can work in a variety of areas or departments in
your business and individuals who bring energy
and excitement to the business. Maintaining high
customer service standards will only help your
business expand further and flourish.
Smart Tip ■ Another option is to promote top employees
If you decide to merge
to manager positions or to positions at a
with another business, second business location. Internal promotions
you should focus on staff can help to boost employee morale and show
retention, where you your employees that expanding the business
keep or rehire the failing will directly affect them and benefit them.
business’ best employees,
and customer retention,
where you work hard to
keep the failing business’
existing customer base.

Diversifying Your Business

1. Sell complementary products or services. If you
already have customers who are engaged in your
business and buying your products, you may want
to offer other products or services that complement
your existing products. If you have a clothing line,
for example, you may diversify by selling accessories
like shoes and bags to complement your clothing
line. This will allow you to have multiple revenue
streams and increase the inventory of your business.

208 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 ■ You may also focus on providing additional
services at your business. If you own a car
garage, for example, you may offer car
detailing and custom cleaning services for
cars to complement your main revenue
source.

2. Offer tours and classes at your business

location. Expand your business, and your profits,
by offering tours of your business location or classes
that relate to your business production. Focus on
giving customers access to your business in new and
interactive ways, as this will improve your customer
base and expand your business model.

Inventory or stock
is the goods and
materials that a
business holds for
the ultimate goal of
resale.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 209

3. Look into exporting your products overseas. Exporting means selling
your products overseas to vendors. This is a popular option for businesses
who make products with a wide appeal or that can be manufactured cheaply
and quickly. Exporting can greatly increase your customer base and act as
a steady form of expansion.
The United States and the UK have guidelines around exporting products
overseas, as well as tactics to doing exports right for your business. Contact
your local small business bureau to find out more about exporting your
products overseas.

4. Target other potential markets, including the online market. If your

current market is working well for your business, consider other markets
that you can tap into. Start by identifying the demographic that buys most
of your products and then think about other ways that you can engage
with this demographic through other markets.
■ If you make a product that appeals to teenagers and college students,
for example, consider where these age groups spend the most time.
You may then market your products to school clubs and school
associations, as well as other local spots in your area where young
people tend to hand out.
■ You should also focus on appealing to the online market, if your
business does not already do this. Make sure your business has
a strong online presence and that your products are accessible
for online users. If you have an online site, for example, consider
creating an online store where you can sell and ship your products
directly to customers in a matter of seconds.

210 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

5. Use social media to engage your customers. Social media is huge for
businesses, especially businesses that appeal to a younger demographic.
Generate traffic to your business’ website and social media pages by posting
updates on products and events regularly. Crowdsource for funding for your
business, if needed, by using a crowdsourcing website. Keep in constant
touch with your customer base through social media, as these customers
can be a powerful force and help your business expand online.

Working with Other Businesses and Organizations

1. Form an alliance with an existing business. If you feel your business
and another business have a similar approach to customers or have products
that would complement each other well, consider forming an alliance. The
alliance is different from a merger as you will not be taking over the other
business or combining your assets. Instead, you may feature the other
business’ products and vice versa so you can both appeal to a different
market. For example, if you have a restaurant, you might advertise that you

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 211

get your vegetables from a locally owned farm. You may also collaborate
on a new product with the other business that you roll out together
and promote, doubling your customer base. There are five main types of
business alliances:
■ A sales alliance: This is where you make an agreement with another
business to sell products or services that complement each other.
■ A solution specific alliance: This is where you and another business
make a formal agreement to develop and sell a particular product
or service together.
■ A geographic specific alliance: This is where you and another
business agree to market certain products and services in a specific
geographical area.
■ An investment alliance: This is where you make an agreement with
another business to combine funds to create a shared investment.
■ A joint venture: This is where you make an agreement with another
business to share control, profit, and loss in a specific economic
undertaking.

2. Bid on a government contract. The U.S. Federal government is the largest

buyer of goods and services in the world. You can tap into this huge market
by bidding on a government contract. If you win the bid, your business
would be supplying the government, which would require an expansion
of your existing business. Though securing a government contract can be
a lot of work, it could also be worth it. Often, business flourish long term
when they have a government contract.

212 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

 ■ Look into the Business Matchmaking
Program, which is designed by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce and the Small
Business Administration (SBA) to help match
businesses with government contracts. You
can also work with your local SBA and
your local Economic Development Agency
to determine if your business could qualify
for a government contract.

Business alliance, also

known as a strategic
alliance, is a formal
business relationship
between two or
more organizations
that share similar
short and long-term
objectives.

3. Look into getting your business product(s)

licensed. Licensing your business products can be
a useful, low-cost option, especially if you have a
service product or a branded product. It is also a low
risk option, as it does not cost as much to license
your product as it would be to product and sell your
product on your own.
■ You will need a licensing partner to agree to
license your product. Products have a higher
chance of being licensed if they can be linked
to existing entities that are popular, such as
a TV show, a brand, or a sports team. This
often means that the product already has
a built in audience or is appealing to an
certain demographic and may be worth the
investment. Look for companies that provide
products or services similar to your products
and reach out to them about licensing your
product.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 213

GROW YOUR WEB DESIGN BUSINESS
As applications have become an integral part of people’s lives, every single
business wishes to evolve digitally. Additionally, people are relying on
different websites/applications to fulfill their various needs. This gives
immense rise to the competition between web design and a development
company. But, there is no clear winner yet, because, both designing and
developing, go hand in hand. Now, if any entrepreneur wants to build the
web development business from scratch, s/he needs to follow some tactics
to cope up with the competition and market their business. So in this blog,
we have listed down many techniques, procedures, and methods to come
up with better tips to help to grow your web design business. Kindly refer
to the following tips to take your web designing business to the next level.

Find the Ideal Clientele

This is a very basic need for any business to know whom they want to
serve and what are their needs and ethics. This has been the primary reason
behind many of the successful businesses, they knew their audience well.
The same principle applies to the web designing business also. You cannot
expect a prospective visitor to convert into a lead and then to a customer
by just looking at your website and the social media posts. You need to
go beyond that with your offerings. It requires hard-core research to find
the ideal clientele and know them better with their business nature.
You need to do surveys, market research, learn their behavior with the help
of Google Analytics in order to create client personas and then keep an
eye on your niche. Always keep in mind that for better business growth,
you need real clients, not any client.

214 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

Define Your Niche
No one’s gonna sail the boat for you. You need to keep yourself updated
and be prepared for the upcoming designing trends to cater to clients
with advanced solutions. This will help you a lot to grow your designing
business and to retain the end-clients. There are analytics tools and predictive
models available to assist you in order to keep up with the on-going trends.
The Web Designing business arena is full of competitions, modern tools
and designers’ skills making it difficult to stand for others. To beat your
competitors in the battle of web designing business, you had better be a
step ahead of them.

Be where your clients are:

In the current scenario, many businesses consider social media as the most
effective way to approach and scale clientele. However, we can say it’s true
but not completely. It is possible that some of your clients would not be
active on social media. Now, for the sake of your web design company’s
success, you should go beyond these social media platforms.
One of the effective ways is listing your business on an online B2B platform
like Good firms, Clutch, etc. Simultaneously, you can post your hourly rate
so that clients can approach you with their specific project requirements.
Another way is email marketing or sending proposals to clients via email
which is called go-to approaches for businesses. If you have quality leads
and the ability to approach clients in-person, it’s a boon for you because
you can directly interact with your ideal clients.

Beware!
The design service you are offering should be a solution to any of your clients’
problems. Strive to identify the pain points of clients to make your services more
effective.

Nevertheless, there are some precautions that will keep you safe from
getting in spam. The other one is to attend development events such as
conferences, seminars, workshops, client-focused meetups, etc. Creating
a network by attending such events not only lets you meet potential
clients but also increases your knowledge of the outer business industries.
Besides, external networking you can also use your internal networking
to build a robust clientele. It’s good to follow a referral strategy to find
STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 215
 web design clients, as most people are more likely
to trust and tend more towards like-minded people.
So, leveraging existing connections to grow your
business is a legitimate and reliable way.

Understand Your Clients and Solve their Problems

The clients hire web developers & designers on the
basis of the quality of the services. They may have
found a way to fulfill their business requirements
in your service listings.
Designers are always complaining about modifications
they have to do after completing a design after
receiving feedback from the clients. Well, that is
frustrating! But the reason why you have to do the
rework is because you did not understand the client
at the first point. Clients always want to be ahead
of their competitors, and they focus more on what
their rivals do.
They may ask you about the features that would not
be effective, but rather consider their users, strengths
and keep chasing their competitors. To deal with this
frustrating issue, you need to follow some simple
steps, here you go:
■ Meet your clients, understand their mind
Email marketing is ■ Figure out what is their need and problem
the act of sending a
commercial message, ■ Make an agenda to solve it
typically to a group of ■ Apply the solution you offer
people, using email.
■ Review, Analysis & Iteration (If necessary)
No offense, it isn’t as easy as it seems but see, how we
break down the process in simple steps. Any problem
can be solved in this way, pay a little more attention
to your clients, be friendly with them, identify their
pain points, and strive to resolve their issues.

Justify your Website Design

Whether you are running a design business or
planning to start a web designing business, you

216 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

must know the importance of web design. The design of the website helps
businesses to set their first impression in front of the audience. As users
interact with the website, they judge your business within seconds. The
design of websites helps to establish your business credibility in the market.
The poorly designed site makes the audience feel skeptical, less trustworthy
and they no longer love to be on the site. You better know the importance
of the design by now, right? Capture your clients in a second with the very
first sight with your aesthetically appealing website design.
Create a simple yet elegant design that captivates the client’s sight and
inspires them to discuss their project with you straight away. Optimize the
website, so that it can be easily found on the search engine results. Plan
out some Pay-Per-Click campaigns on Google Ads, target your audience,
influence your position in search engine optimization with some SEO
techniques.

Scale Services Gradually

You don’t need to cover each and every industry or services to grow your
web development company. Be an expert in one thing, present the Web
Development services skillfully, and value your clients over profits. Potential
clients always seek out experts for their requirements. Pick an area of your
interest or skill and strive to be the best in the same.
Choose to serve projects like e-commerce sites, learning management systems,
product websites, sales pages, etc. Or, you can also particularize types of
clients or industries such as restaurants, law firms, medical or pharma
companies, dentists, or other professional associations. There are many
areas to target, but you need to scale up your services for those areas
gradually and smartly.

Showcase your Work as Straight As an Arrow

As they say, “It is the first impression that lasts forever, so make it count’.
The portfolio will reflect your work to the client, but remember, you get a
few seconds to convince the viewer to stay on your portfolio. Build your
portfolio visually appealing enough to capture the attention of clients that
they keep reviewing your work.
It barely takes five to fifteen seconds to form a first impression for someone.
It means maximum you have fifteen seconds to convince the visitor into a
potential client with manifesting your art of design.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 217

Photo slides, video presentations, thumbnails, galleries, specific product
based designs, etc., are ways to present your designs. Choose the right way
as per the design of nature to showcase your art. You can also share the
links of your portfolio on sites where your audience can see and contact
you to build a real client list.

Always ask for Referrals

Cater to your clients with your soul and heart, make them happy and
satisfied with your service. A satisfied client can be helpful to get you
more clients.
This is a human instinct that we easily trust on the service referred to us
by someone who has experienced it earlier. This Word of mouth technique
is beneficial to the designing business owners as well. So how will you ask
your past clients to spread the word about your business?
Well, the perfect time to ask your client to leave a referral note as feedback
or reviews right after completion of the project. You can ask them if they
are happy with the services or do they need any changes? Referral is one
of the best ways to get more and more web design clients, Build an active
referral network, keep in touch with referral sources, feel them valued,
discuss your business progress, launches, services, etc. Bound them a healthy
relationship and maintain the same with each possible client.

Share tips or Tutorials Content

Your job is not over after implementing all the tactics and techniques. But, it
goes beyond that. You need to show up consistently and be easily available
to the audience. Sharing blogs, some design tutorials, some designing tips,
engaging audiences with meaningful articles posting on your website, or
social media will help you gain reputation among your audience. To keep
a long term presence is hard as many designers out there are doing a very
good job. Nevertheless, keep enlightening your audience by doing simple
and small things every day can result in a big success. So, always put your
100% in every activity you do for the sake of your designing business.

218 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

REFERENCES
1. Almeida, V.A.F., & Menasce, D.A. (2002). Capacity planning for Web
services: An essential tool for managing Web services. IT Professional,
(July-August), 33-38.
2. Becker S., & Berkemeyer, A. (2002). Rapid application design and testing
for usability. IEEE Multimedia, (Oct-Dec), 38-46.
3. Becker, S., & Mottay, F. (2001). A global perspective of Web usability for
online business applications. IEEE Software, 18(1), 54-61.
4. Cloyd, M.H. (2001). Designing user-centered Web applications in Web
time. IEEE Software, 18(1), 62-69.
5. Collins, R.W. (2002). Software localization for Internet software: Issues
and methods. IEEE Software, (March/April), 74-80.
6. Dart, S. (2001). Configuration management: A missing link in Web
engineering. Norwood, MA: Arttech House.
7. Deshpande, Y., Ginige, A., Murugesan, S., & Hansen, S., (2002).
Consolidating Web engineering as a discipline. SEA Software, (April), 32-34.
8. Deshpande, Y., & Hansen, S. (2001). Web engineering: creating a discipline
among disciplines. IEEE Multimedia, (April - June), 82-87.
9. Deshpande Y., Olsina, L., & Murugesan, S. (2002). Web [Link]
on the Third ICSE Workshop on Web Engineering, ICSE2002, Orlando,
FL, USA.
10. Ginige, A., & Murugesan, S. (2001a). Web engineering: An introduction.
IEEE Multimedia, 8(1), 14-18.
11. Ginige, A. & Murugesan, S. (2001b). The essence of Web engineering:
Managing the diversity and complexity of Web application development.
IEEE Multimedia, 8(2), 22-25.
12. Ginige, A., & Murugesan, S. (2001c). Web engineering: A methodology
for developing scalable, maintainable Web applications. Cutter IT Journal,
14(7), 24-35.
13. Glass, R. (2001). Who’s right in the Web development debate? Cutter IT
Journal, 14(7), 6-10.
14. Hansen, S. (2002). Web information systems: The changing landscape
of management models and Web applications. Proceedings of the
14th international conference on software engineering and knowledge
engineering (pp. 747-753). ACM.
15. Hieatt, E., & Mee, R. (2002). Going faster: Testing the Web application.
IEEE Software, (March - April), 60-65.
16. Ivory, M.Y, & Hearst, M.A. (2002). Improving Web site design. IEEE
Internet Computing, (March - April), 56-63.

STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER 219

 17. Lam, W. (2001). Testing e-commerce systems: A practical guide. IT
Professional, 3(2), 19-27.
18. Menasce, D.A, & Almeida, V.A.F. (2002). Capacity planning for Web
services: Metrics, models, and methods. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
19. Merialdo, P. et al. (2003). Design and development of data-intensive Web
sites: The Araneus Atzeni. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology,
3(1), 49-92.
20. Murugesan, S. (1998). Web engineering. Presentation at the First Workshop
on Web Engineering, World Wide Web Conference (WWW7), Brisbane,
Australia.
21. Murugesan, S., & Deshpande, Y. (Eds) (2001). Web engineering: Managing
diversity and complexity of Web application development. Lecture Notes
in Computer Science – Hot Topics, 2016. Berlin: Springer Verlag.
22. Offutt, J. (2002). Quality attributes of Web software applications. IEEE
Software, Special Issue on Software Engineering of Internet Software,
19(2), 25-32.
23. Oppenheimer, D., & Patterson, D.A. (2002). Architecture and dependability
of large-scale Internet services. IEEE Internet Computing, September-
October, 41-49.
24. Pressman, R.S. (2004). Applying Web Engineering, Part 3. Software
Engineering: A Practitioner’s Perspective (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
25. Siegel, D.A. (2003). The business case for user-centered design: Increasing
your power of persuasion. Interactions, 10(3).
26. Williams, J. (2000). Correctly assessing the “ilities” requires more than
marketing hype. IT Professional, 2(6), 65-67.
27. Williams, J. (2001). Avoiding CNN moment. IT Professional, 3(2), 68-70.

220 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

INDEX

A Digital marketing manager 139

digital marketing strategy 139, 140,
accelerated mobile pages (AMP) 150
151, 155
Advanced Research Projects Agen-
cy (ARPA) 31 E
API integration 56
e-commerce 10, 13, 63, 116, 136, 137,
artificial intelligence 56, 60
163, 204, 218, 220
B email marketing strategy 156
entrepreneur 52, 71, 122, 132, 200,
back-end developer 88
215
Business Insurance 77
business plan 64, 65, 66, 67, 171, 207 F
C Facebook 51, 55, 105, 111, 146, 148,
149, 154, 155, 167, 169, 176, 182,
Categorization 11, 30
186, 187, 191, 192
client-server network programming
Facebook messenger 148
7
Firefox 103
cognitive science 19
Front-end developers 85, 86
Common gateway interface [CGI] 34
Full-stack developers 89
communication mechanism 7
communication skills 121 G
computer networks 27
Google analytics 150, 151
computer’s browser 85
Google Chrome 103
Content management 51
Graphical user interface (GUI) 11
credit card payments 69
Graphic design 2, 3
D graphic editing 99, 107, 108
digital advertising 180
digital marketing channels 141
 H N
Human-Web interaction (HWI) 37 Newspapers 173
HyperText Markup Language 32, 103
O
hypertext theory 19
Online Advertising 173, 174, 190
I
online marketing channels 139
information management policy 46 Outdoor Advertising 173, 180
information systems 25, 34, 36, 116,
P
220
Instagram 146, 148, 176 Personal digital assistants (PDAs) 29
insurance policies 77 Photoshop 3
interactive media design 96 Pinterest 176
interface design 2, 3, 49, 50 potential clients 53, 68, 69, 70, 109,
Internet 4, 6, 7, 9, 16, 19, 25, 27, 29, 110, 138, 154, 204, 216
30, 31, 32, 33, 47, 52, 54, 61, 62, potential customers 65, 66, 70, 146,
67, 73, 85, 137, 139, 141, 149, 181, 154, 181, 193, 194, 195, 205
184, 220, 221 programming languages 55, 59, 84,
Internet of things (IoT) 54 96, 97, 99, 100, 102, 103, 119
Internet protocol 27 project management 45, 46, 72, 73, 98
Interpersonal skills 101
R
J
radio stations 189
JavaScript 4, 7, 8, 18, 19, 59, 85, 93, 94, relational database management sys-
97, 98, 124 tem (RDBMS) 98
Java servlets 4 REST (Representational State Trans-
fer) 59
L
S
limited liability company (LLC) 75
Local Advertising 173, 177 scripting languages 4, 38, 82, 83
search-engine advertising 191
M
Search engine optimization 2, 3
machine learning 56 small management 67
Magazine 173, 178 social media 1, 66, 67, 69, 79, 111,
Microsoft Certified Solutions Devel- 139, 143, 144, 147, 148, 149, 154,
oper (MCSD) 98 157, 165, 166, 167, 168, 176, 181,
Microsoft platforms 104 182, 186, 188, 191, 212, 215, 216,
Microsoft Technology Associate 219
(MTA) 97 Social Media Advertising 173, 176
multimedia technology 14 social networking 33, 66, 182
social networks 143, 145, 146, 166,
169

222 STARTUP GUIDE: WEBSITE DEVELOPER

social platforms 176 99, 100, 101, 109, 112, 118, 119,
stress management 101 121, 122, 123
Web development 1, 3, 4, 6, 15, 18,
T
25, 27, 34, 36, 38, 39, 40, 43, 45,
target market 73, 82, 138, 152, 154, 46, 47, 49, 51, 70, 72, 73, 99, 119,
157, 163, 172, 175, 177, 182 138, 201, 220
time management skills 101, 114, 120 Web Engineering 27, 220, 221
Traditional Advertising Ideas 173 Weblogs 13
Twitter 69, 111, 125, 146, 149, 154, web marketing strategy 140
169, 176, 182 Web medium 5, 6, 7, 15, 19
web pages 3, 22
U
Web project management 51
User experience (UX) design 96 Web pyramid 5, 6, 7
user interface 2, 11, 26, 37, 70, 87 Web server 7, 41, 51
Website marketing 139
W
website marketing strategy 139, 141
Web applications 11, 25, 26, 27, 28, Websites 1, 82, 137, 138, 158, 181, 202
29, 30, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, Web systems 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 44, 46,
44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 220 49
Web architecture 26 Web technologies 4, 27, 29, 38
Web-based systems 25, 27, 28, 30, 34, Web testing 50
35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 45 World Wide Web 6, 10, 25, 33, 41, 61,
Web browser 7, 32, 82, 124 62, 63, 221
Web design 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14,
Y
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 136, 181,
199 YouTube 69, 147, 155, 176
web developer 64, 65, 66, 70, 81, 82,
89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98,

INDEX 223