Starting a website design company and managing it efficiently are two different things. Anyone, who has enough money to invest, can start a design agency, but only a handful of agencies actually make profit in this highly competitive market.

During the early days of a business, the company owner always tries to please the clients and accepts most of the illogical demands. However, if you keep accepting sudden design changes and project cost reduction requests frequently; your business may never be able to make profits.

Every web design company should have a solid written contract to stay away from disputes and payment problems. Make sure that your contract covers every detail and has the terms and conditions to save you from legal trouble. If the contract is not very strict, some clients may take the design and never pay you for your hard work.

Contracts can be modified for small and large projects, but some key elements must not be omitted. Here is a list of the 5 things that must be mentioned clearly in a project contract.

• Scope of Work- Mention the services you are going to offer and the services that you also offer, but not included in the contract. For instance, you may offer web design, logo design and SEO services. If the customer asked you for first two services and don’t want the third one, mention it clearly. Doing this can prevent clients from accusing you for not delivering something.

However, an assignment can evolve gradually and the client may ask you for additional services that are not included in the original contract. In that case, mention the rates for additional services clearly and modify the total project cost after discussion.

• Payment Details- How do you want to charge the client? Point out the payment details clearly and ask the client to read all the terms and conditions. If it’s a small project, hourly rate is more profitable and flat rate is good for large projects. Tell the client to pay 50% amount of total project fee in advance and rest of the 50% gradually in installments.

The payment details should also include the terms and conditions for late payment. You should charge additional 5-10% fine for late payment so that the client will think twice before delaying the installments. Write down clearly that final HTML and CSS files will be delivered after the complete payment is done.

• Deadlines- Before writing the deadline, take an estimation from your team members. If they say that the project can be completed in 12 days, fix a 14 days deadline to be safe. If some problems suddenly appear during the project, these extra days will help you deliver the site on time.

• Duties of the Client- Make a list of the things client has promised to provide you. For instance, if he is going to provide content and images, mention the dates for delivering those items. You should also highlight that if the patron does not deliver the required items on time, project will be delayed and you are not responsible for that.

• Intellectual Property- Clients and design agencies often fight over the intellectual property. If you want to retain the copyright for design or content, discuss the issue with the client in advance and insert the clause in the bond.

Landing page, also known as “lander” is generally used by online marketers. It is essentially a single web page where a visitor is led to after he clicks on an advertisement. Needless to say, it is used for converting visitors into customers. With numerous landing pages being created everyday, it is becoming more and more difficult for users to determine which to trust and which to not. As a result, designers are also facing a challenge as to how to come up with a more effective and appealing landing page that would build trust.

 In this post, I would discuss some strategies of quality web design to create really trustworthy landing pages.

Professional Design: This is the most important aspect of your website. The landing page needs to have a professional look. Make sure you create an expensive look because it can induce a feeling of exclusivity which is very helpful in making sales.

Be Consistent: Your landing page must have consistency in everything, be it color scheme, typography, design etc. every element has to be in sync with each other. Then only can your readers trust you.

Offer Something For Free: Make sure your users get something free in exchange for their personal information. If they do not get anything in return for what they give you, they are not going to sign up for your email lists or anything. Offering something beneficial will help you convert more people.

Honesty: Do not weave stories that describe something entirely different from what your business actually is. If you want to earn the trust of your potential customers, be honest to them.

Make Sure Your Users Believe You are Authentic: Nobody wants to be a victim of hacking attempts or spamming. People first assess a web page’s authenticity before taking any action.  If you are selling something, you need to look and sound even more authentic. Put up whatever is necessary on the landing page to let everyone know how genuine you are. Things like delivery process, payment methods etc. must be there to gain trust.

Finally, I would suggest you to get 3^rd party certifications from established organizations. This would help people have faith in your website design company.

Best of luck!

Most people associated with the logo design industry and content writing services, or any other online industry, would agree with the fact that social networking plays a critical role in our lives currently. In fact, many people start the day by checking tweets and replying to Facebook messages.

Recently Cisco-an American based MNC surveyed fresh and recently employed graduates. The survey revealed that approximately 2/3^rd of respondents believe in inquiring about social media policies of a company during the interview. Surprisingly, 56%  respondents stated that they will not work at a company where using social networking sites is banned.

This survey highlighted the importance that most employees assign to social networking at the workplace. Unfortunately, spending excessive time on social networking sites can hamper your productivity at work. Here are few tips you can consider for maintaining productivity and indulging in social networking at the same time.

Assign a Fixed Time for Social Networking Activities

Many of us prefer to prepare ourselves mentally before actually starting the work. Exploring social networking sites can a good way of preparing ourselves mentally.

However, to avoid hampering your daily routine, assign a fixed time (10 minutes or half an hour) for indulging in social networking. This will help you to switch from networking to working on your daily tasks.

Get Rid of the Integration and Notification Tools

Some people opt for desktop notifications so that they can be aware of a new message or comment posted on their social media profiles. Unfortunately, this can hamper your concentration and decrease productivity drastically.

We think that the best way to deal this situation is by uninstalling these notification tools. This will allow you to concentrate on your work and thus, enhance your productivity.

Practicing Regularly is Important

It is important to understand the fact that you cannot master the art of avoiding distractions in the first day itself. Therefore, be patient and do not lose heart. For the first few days, you may feel it difficult to concentrate on work, while turning off social media notification.

However, if you stick to the schedule at any cost for the first few days, you would become comfortable with it over time. Therefore, put in extra effort for the first few days and you would soon realize the benefits.

Opting For an Extreme Approach

If you desperately want to avoid any factor that may cause slightest distraction, opting for the extreme approach can be a good idea. More specifically, this would mean switching off your mobile and logging out of you mail account. You can implement this approach for few days to understand whether it is benefiting you or not.

In the 21^st century, social media networking plays an important role in our lives. However, spending excessive time on these sites can hamper your productivity at work. Opt for the above-mentioned strategies to maintain a healthy balance between productivity and social networking activities.

A lot of people believe they can become a good professional website designer by purchasing a designing software and following its menus! Have you ever wondered if that is possible? If website design was so simple, why are there institutes teaching it?

Everyone who has been in the web designing industry has come across at some point of time, a software that claims – ‘no need for technical knowledge or skills’. The reality is, these claims are, to an extent, false promises of wish fulfillment. It’s not that the softwares don’t work. They do, and they are quite useful, but they don’t really satisfy the demands of a creative mind.

Creators of such softwares, market their products as ‘can be used by anyone and everyone. No technical knowledge needed.’ However, truth is, one cannot become a skilled web designer overnight by purchasing a software. Some level of technical knowledge is needed to understand the instructions and create designs accordingly.

The makers of design softwares claim to ‘efficiently substitute’ the need for creative thinking. They market their products ‘creating’ professionals and not merely helping them. This promise of instant accomplishment is what drives people to buy the software, because, in the face of an easy solution, no one would want to learn website designing in some media institute for years when they can create beautiful designs at home, with the help of tutorials.

One must not overlook the fact that such softwares are quite impressive, and to the novice, they promise to create amazing designs too by just a few clicks of the mouse. All you have to do is re-enact the steps shown in the video tutorial and voila, the design is ready!

Well, not really. The truth is that no software can create a web design all by itself. No matter how powerful and ‘efficient’ it is, it needs a human to do the work. It only provides the platform and the tools with which to work.

Remember, tutorials can be recorded through the action panel. They can be played back also. But that doesn’t mean the web designing software creates the designs by itself. The ‘designing with software’ trend was started by designers who preferred to take the help of templates instead of coming up with creative designs themselves. There is nothing wrong in it. Softwares save a lot of time and when designers have to work under strict deadlines, softwares are definitely a good option. But creativity cannot be artificially generated and talent can’t be mechanized. This is the most basic fact of the matter. Every website designer should know and trust this fact.