Something For Nothing!

I feel the last week has been really stressful and I learned a costly lesson, through what has happened today. Normally I have no issues with clients they usually ask me to build them a site, give me the content and hey presto I go about doing the marketing and SEO.

However and I will not be naming anyone but why do people expect something for nothing?

Why do they expect you to slog your guts out and be beholden to their every whim?

I am saying enough is enough if you hire me to do a job do not question why I do things a certain way, at the end of the day I am doing it for you, not me.

I was recently questioned why I do not use the word “Home” as a Homepage title and when I gave the reasons why rather than take my advice, I was told that other companies in his profession were using the word “Home” and that my title looks silly. So you hire me to do a job and then question my ability even though I know what I am doing.

So my costly mistake and this is the first time I have ever included it in a contract was a cooling off period when this person asked me to build him a website, then started to add more pages over what we had initially agreed on and stated that most businesses have more than 10 pages. That may be true but they pay to have the extra pages they do not give unlimited pages for £49.99 per month. He announced today he would be looking for another designer, more like he will attempt to do it himself as I have not come across designers charging pittance for what he expected me to do.

So I suspect he may try to build a website himself after all every one has more time on their hands so why not give it a go, that is what I think. The SEO audit report will show me if his site has been built by a professional or not, can’t wait.

So the good soul I am, I have not been charging for web hosting, SEO, or marketing because of this pandemic as I reckon a lot of people are strapped for cash right now. However, do not take advantage of me. If I do not charge you for a website until the lockdown is lifted do not start throwing your teddy’s out to the pram if you do not give me the content to the sites and then somehow expect me to do it for you. I should not have to find the content for you as that takes time with research and content writing. I build websites, I should not be building your business also.

It rattles me beyond belief how people are so full of themselves and expects something for nothing. What about me I have to live too.

I am the kind of person who will go above and beyond my call of duty to help someone but if they start taking advantage as I have seen a few of my clients doing lately, I will say enough is enough.

Again I have a client who cannot work due to government guidelines and has to overcome the close proximity of his clients so not only did I not charge him for the hosting of the site and blog, but I also gave him free advertising on a local business directory only to have him go on his high horse, why his dot com domain name was not associated with his site.

Talking SEO goes right over his head and when I was still contemplating if I should use his dot com rather that a dot co dot UK domain name for his blog he goes on a rant and now has gone quiet on me when I told him he is only allocated two hours a month and that he is in a queue. The reason why I am hesitant to use a dot com is that even though you can set your GEO fencing for the domain names, search engines still send you traffic from the location your domain comes from which in the case of a dot com is the USA. So if you happen then to do pay-per-click advertising your budget will get swallowed up by US traffic not good especially if you are in the UK.

So I thought I had ample time to update him but obviously not as he was throwing his teddy about and expecting me to drop everything. So what did I do I dropped everything for him and now he has gone quiet, how rude……..

As for the other client I built a 40-page website for and he used the get-out clause in order for me not to charge him, I also designed a logo and has he offered to pay for it of course he hasn’t even though I told him at the beginning how much it would cost and he made me do numerous changes and nothing not even a tiddly wink for my troubles. I hope the client that decided to cool off ahead of payment feels really bad about what he has done. My question to this person is “why bother praising me, bigging me up, saying that I am really clever and know what I am doing and even have an email saying he loves the site only to pull out at the last minute?” I think it is to do with money. Yet what he charges an hour would have covered the costs for the next year’s renewal of the website.

I really cannot understand people sometimes, I really can’t and I have now lost respect for this person.

I am going to stop being nice and doing people favors as they take advantage of me and that is from being many years in business, people want to negotiate your prices even though you try to be as low in price as possible yet they always want more and still want you to lower your price, especially for them. I have had enough I am not doing it anymore, you either pay me the asking price or you find someone that will do it cheaper but I do not have time to haggle with you over my pricing. You would not go to a solicitor who charges £300 an hour to lower their price for you so why should I lower my prices considering I am building the engine that will bring in the clients?

Is it even worth me invoicing him the £75 for the logo and for him not to pay and then me taking it to a small claims court, I do not think so, it is not worth the time or stress or trouble and all I can say is “what goes around comes around”.

To think that I know how much my client’s charge by the hour, my fee is a fraction of one job that they would bring in a month yet they still seem to want more. Sheer greed and being condescending will eventually catch up with you, so you treat people with kindness and respect.

If you think you know more than me then, by all means, put me in my place but if you are just a cheapskate and want to cut corners then I am not the person you should be talking to.

Remember treat people like you would want to be treated. If you want to be a miser, people will also do less for you if you want something you want for nothing.

If you look at the national average for a website do not expect to pay basic web design prices and expect more for your money.

https://www.expertmarket.co.uk/web-design/how-much-does-website-cost

Signing off.

#understandingpeople #takingadvantage #somethingfornothing #psychology