By the time even a skilled and creative designer has come up with something that he is proud of and the client is happy with, weeks may have passed and this is adds considerable weight to the cost of the overall project.

Your average creative type will be more productive when inspiration strikes and rarely because a deadline looms. Once it hits, a flurry of creative activity would generally result in several design ideas sitting in the client’s inbox where they remain until the client has time to review them.

Sometimes, this review includes several staff members and may even have to wait until next month’s board meeting but at some point, the client will communicate his thoughts and makes suggestions.

Any good designer worth his salt will take on board the client’s musings and successfully translate them into further digital visualisations.

Then, following the client’s appraisal, and hopefully approval, the preferred design is prepared for the coding stage where function marries form.

This technical development stage may take anything from a couple of days to several weeks, depending on the required complexity. By this time, the use of a web site template instead, would have, in all likelihood, resulted in a completed site already going live.

For the record, a template can be described as a pre-built web site without specific content. It is generally an off-the-shelf solution into which you insert your own product or service information, logo, images and contact details.

There are compelling arguments against the use of templates and you may read some of these here, but ultimately, if a limited budget and a rapid turnaround are your major concerns, using one could be considered an acceptable solution.

Here, at Bendigo Web Design, we prefer the bespoke design approach where we tailor the client’s site to his precise and unique requirements. However, we also understand that there are instances when opting for an off-the-shelf solution may be the right solution for the client and all said and done, the client’s requirements are paramount.

Honestly, it shocks me how frequently this question still crops up and it’s 2010.

More often than not, the question comes from a small business owner who, whilst reasonably successful, is probably not a particularly good marketer.

It’s often evident that while I extol the virtues of an online presence, he who posed the question is thinking “this guy is only trying to sell me something I simply don’t need, never have and never will!”

It is really difficult these days to see why any business wouldn’t need some kind of online presence. Every business can benefit from an online presence.

By having a website you will increase your web presence and attract potential clients who would otherwise never hear of you. Generally, businesses, specifically restaurants and bricks-and-mortar shops, neglect the need for a web presence. They simply do not realise the importance of offering information for those who may be unfamiliar with their products or services. This allows the public an effortless way of evaluating their worth to them. A website is a simple and cost effective way of creating customer relationships and a buzz about your product or service.

A professional web page also creates the appearance of a well developed and prosperous business or venture, just as a poorly presented or non-existent website tarnishes a business’s image. Internet presence is not just for web based businesses. For example, for restaurants it provides consumers with a way of assessing your menu, hours, location, directions, how to contact you, as well as décor and facilities. This is also true with any business providing a product or service. A website allows you to have a virtual ‘trumpet’ with which to blow, proclaiming the quality and value of your product or service, all the while branding your product and creating a personal relationship with the customer.

Here are some other reasons to have a website:

Easier to Remember!

Some people can remember telephone numbers really well but most people remember a name or phrase better. A catchy web address is all a potential customer needs to remember to find out more about your business.

Easy to Update!

Your website can give the potential customer as much information as you want. It is current, up to the minute, and you can include pictures, maps, coupons and personal messages. It’s cheaper to update a website than to update a brochure.

Customer Convenience!

A website is for your customer’s convenience. They can explore your website in their own time. They no longer have to drive to your place of business to see what you are talking about. Your store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Increase Market Area!

You can increase your effective market area. People anywhere in the world, can find your business with a search engine on the Internet, visit your website and become a customer. You are no longer limited to customers within travelling distance.

Stability!

You may move your place of business, change your phone number, or even change your hours, but your web address is always there, your website is always open.

Save Yourself Time!

Do you get a dozen calls asking for stuff you don’t carry? How many times per day do you or a member of your staff answer the phone and give the exact same information, over and over? Do you spend time describing a product on the phone when you could be doing a dozen other things? Direct those calls to the picture and product description on your website. Let your website screen some of those phone calls for you.

Build Loyal Customers!

A satisfied customer can easily check a website to see what’s new and look for sales. Include information on new products and tips on their use. Your customers will come back again and again because you add that personal touch to supporting them.

Millions of Web Surfers!

Did you know that the Internet is attracting more and more consumers every day. In fact, according to Internet World Stats, there are almost  1.1 billion users of which, more than 21 million are down under. If you could move your store front to a location that had a billion or more in walk-by traffic every day, what are the chances you would get more customers?

Cut Costs!

In addition to the money saving previously mentioned in Save Yourself Time, owning your own website ensures you cut costs in other areas too. Publishing your catalogue or brochure online can potentially save you a great deal of time and expense normally associated with the cost of postage, not to mention the printing costs. Consider the cost of conventional advertising such as Yellow Pages listings, an advert in the local press or trade directory and then compare that to having your own site on display 24/7/365 directly into the homes of millions.

Level the playing field!

On the Internet small and large businesses can compete on a more level playing field. A professional website can present a small business with all the flair and impact of larger businesses. Likewise, well established businesses fall ?at on the Internet if the website does not match their status.

And finally, NOBODY USES YELLOW PAGES ANY MORE!

Maybe you have heard that quality websites are expensive and nobody will find them anyway? This is certainly not the case with Bendigo Web Design. We ensure you get your website at an affordable price and that it works effectively for you, reaching your target market. The Internet is one of the most versatile marketing arenas and can, if approached correctly, prove to be a very powerful, yet very cost effective marketing tool.

Talk to us and explore how the Internet could change the way you do business, giving you the clear advantage over your competitors.

$20,000 in prizes is the substantial incentive for the inventive and although Bendigo is not necessarily world renowned as a hotbed of innovation and invention, it should be pointed out that some great Aussie innovations were born here, such as Gillies Pies, Fernwood Ladies Health Clubs and the iconic Chiko Roll. Let us not forget the removable shirt cuff, the self-firing rifle and of course, the more recent breast feeding sling!

Bendigo Inventor Awards 2010

Unfortunately you can no longer read that particular post, hence Part Deux. This from the City’s official site:

Bendigo Inventor of the Year Award

Vision: Bendigo – inspiring invention and innovation.

Mission: To identify, support and promote original ideas that will create employment and recognise Central Victoria as a centre for invention and innovation.

Greater Bendigo has a strong history of successful Invention and Innovation coming from the region since the gold rush era of the 1850′s.
From the Chiko Roll and the Four and Twenty Pie to the Booby Booster and the concept of Community Banks, it’s entirely appropriate that Bendigo stages an Inventor of the year award.

The intent of the “Bendigo Inventor of the year award” is to encourage imagination via a competitive process that will identify, support and promote practical, original ideas that will create employment and recognise Greater Bendigo as a centre of innovation and invention – “A thinking City”.

The City of Greater Bendigo is the lead organisation for the awards.

Read the rest of the page here, where you will also find a link to the online application form.

Alternatively, you can obtain a hard copy from the City of Greater Bendigo 189 Lyttleton Terrace or the Workspace Australia 12 Hall St Eaglehawk(Eaglehawk Train Station).

Applications close 4pm Friday 30 July 2010.

For a confidential conversation regarding the awards, please call Peter Jeffery on 5434 6241.

1. Revisit Old Leads

Rummage through your desk drawers, cupboards and filing cabinets for old business cards, flyers, pamphlets and brochures. Don’t forget to check that old business suit gathering dust in the wardrobe. In fact, dig out any business literature you may have and start calling your contacts now. It’s likely that you may not come up trumps on your first, second or even third attempt but remain positive and persevere. After all, what do you have to lose?

2. Make Existing Clients Feel Extra Special

Your existing clients are your bread and butter, particularly during lean times and taking the time to make them feel extra special will validate and enforce their decision to remain your client and not defect to the competition.

Send all of your clients a brief email, thanking them for their business and let them know how much you appreciate their loyalty during difficult times. Consider offering them a reward of special discounts or gifts as a measure of your appreciation and don’t forget to include any news of new services or products, future special events or promotions.

3. Be Flexible To Accommodate New Clients

If you rigidly market towards a particular clientele, consider the potential revenue that comes with flexibility. If you previously excluded smaller clients that generate less income, now is the time to reconsider that policy because multiple smaller clients could make the difference between sinking and swimming during a recession.

Where logistically and financially feasible, look outside your familiar geographical target area and market to a wider audience.

A Big Thumbs Up from Clients

4. Increase Your Service Level

During a financial downturn, competitors may decide to undercut each other. By all means, reduce your prices to a manageable level but avoid getting into a price war. Instead, increase your level of service above that of your competitors. Nothing speaks louder than satisfied customers.

Your clients will feel content in the knowledge that they are receiving more than they expect and bending over backwards for them, to the extent of a strained muscle, will pay dividends.

5. Offer Your Clients Something More

Where possible, the provision of additional services to your clients should not cost the Earth but will go a long way to pleasing new and existing customers. Offering additional warranty on products and services, same day or on-site support, a home delivery service, free gift wrapping or just a hand carrying the shopping to the clients car are but a few worth consideration.

We all feel the negative effects of a recession but these few tips should help, even if they serve to inspire you to develop your own alternative means of economic survival.

Here at Bendigo Web Design, we go the extra mile as a matter of course for all of our clients and in addition to offering free hosting and domain names with all web design projects, every new client receives a free meat pie in Winter and deliciously refreshing sorbet during the hot Summer!

Be inventive and think out of the box.

As you might expect, there are pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to opt for a generic template instead of a custom designed site, unique to your business and your requirements but as the title suggests, here we will concentrate on the cons.

So, why should you not use templates for your website? Well for starters, they are so bloody generic and any designer who uses them for a client’s site, either does not possess a creative bone in his body or is downright bone idle but at very least demonstrates little understanding and even concern for the client and his unique needs.

One of the obvious problems with using templates is that anybody else may use the same. You should know that the better the design is, the more popular it will be and sooner or later you will bump into your clone in cyberspace. Just imagine if that clone is in fact a particularly degrading adult site. How embarrassing could that potentially be for you?

Most free templates are aweful

Your template (along with potentially hundreds of others identical to it) will require a certain amount of customising. There is the generic logo or logo placeholder, for example. Replacing it will no doubt mean resizing your current logo at very least, or at worst, could require a complete redesign in order to fit. These prosaic designs insist that you remain within the constraints of its design or else accept the consequences and that is not how the design process goes. Web design follows logo design, not the reverse.

The logo is not the only element you will need to alter. There is the text and images to be replaced with your own and so by the time you have actually tweaked it to suit your needs, you may as well have hired a professional to build it from scratch. A word of warning regarding images supplied with templates. Stock imagery rarely comes with copyright permission and by using them in your template, you will often be contravening copyright laws.

Another important issue, although not just restricted to templates, is accessibility or lack thereof. Templates are seldom cross-browser compatible and invariably do not validate according to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Any bone fide designer worth his salt should be constructing sites in accordance with W3C. It may not be common knowledge but this is the law! You can easily check any website, web page or template quite simply yourself with the tools found at http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/. Use both the Markup Validator and the CSS Validator. If the result is a list of errors, do yourself a favour and walk.

Be aware too, that many unscrupulous so-called designers actually have the audacity to claim that the supplied template is in fact the product of their own creative mind. They are quite willing to claim somebody else’s work as their own. Not only this but they would not think twice about making you pay for the non-existent design work; theft in both cases.

If you ever come across an alleged designer whose very own site is nothing more than a template, I strongly suggest that you keep moving.

Finally, should you decide to take the DIY approach, using a template is a shortcut and like any shortcut, provided you don’t stray too far from the path and you consider the points mentioned above, you should be OK. However, if you are serious about your business and wish to project a professional image, choose a reputable designer; choose Bendigo Web Design.

I am aware that this modest article is not a complete or even a comprehensive contribution to the debate on whether one should or should not use templates and it is by no means a balanced examination of the pros and cons but it may include a few points readers may not have previously encountered and therefore be of some use.

In an effort to balance the debate, we will have to write an article praising the virtues of the contentious template.

Given the time it was going to take to repair, we decided to delete the whole thing, reinstall WordPress and simply upload the latest blog backup. All great in theory until we wipe the system clean and can’t locate the backup files. Ooops!

No matter. Here’s a nice fresh blog. We backup after every single new post but importantly, we now store 2 copies remotely. Lesson learned I would say.