Archive for the ‘Spam’ Category
Business is Personal
Thursday, April 15th, 2010I was around at a (potential) clients’ office today – sorting out design issues etc. He liked me, I liked him. We’ll obviously work together on his website.
I finally asked for server information – passwords, usernames etc. Always a trust issue, but I need this stuff to be able to build and upload the new website over the old one. The client fumbled around in a filing cabinet and pulled out a file with the relevant info etc.. He told me that he was a little worried. “Why so?” I asked as I sharpened my Staetdler Mars-780 German pencil with in-built sharpening tool.
Aside: I’m one of those people who work with pencil and paper until I absolutely MUST get on a bloody computer. It’s a love / hate thing. I love computers, but hate putting on weight and losing my eyesight.
As I was writing the server info down on a piece of paper, the new client told me what he was being charged for email services, spam protection, domain and website hosting. He showed me a bunch of invoices that made me rethink my whole approach to charging clients.
This person was paying around $A2K for these very basic services. I couldn’t believe it. I pay around A$65 per year for a superior, more holistic service and have never charged more than $500 to clients who have moving images and large files uploaded to their site.
Important Aside: All my clients tell me I undercharge, but I strongly disagree. In one case, an old client insisted I put my price up because I was too cheap. I simply wasn’t in the ballpark for consideration on a job, so I had to increase my quote. I reluctantly put my price up on the proviso that I do extra work on the site . . . Look. I’m no Saint. But I would feel extraordinarily bad about overcharging someone like this. I want my clients to call me again. I want them to be happy. My hourly rate is A$90 but really, at the base of it, I enjoy my job so much that it ends up being much less when I actually get involved in building a website. Weird and unforeseen things always crop up. And I lose myself having fun.
I told him what I pay for the same services personally. A$65 per annum for email, domain name and 50Mb of hosting. Sure I get it wholesale. I double the price for general clients because I do a lot of stuff behind the scenes.
I charge $125 for a basic website (50Mb) with email and .com domain (.com.au domains are more). Clients who want to put PDF files or movies on their server pay more, but I don’t have a single client who pays more than $500pa for email, website, file-space and other server requirements. It’s $140 bi-annually for Aussie domains and I don’t make a cent off those (mainly because I think it’s a rort and can’t justify charging extra on top of that).
This is what I do behind the scenes:
- I bounce email off client servers because it accumulates so quickly and you can run out of space for the actual website.
- I usually bounce email to Gmail, Hotmail or iinet accounts because these have great in-built spam detection software.
- If a company has many different email addresses (eg. info@company.com, johnno@company.com) I set up each email address and bounce mail into the individual’s private account.
- I check the server about twice a year to see if it has enough space and inform the client if an upgrade is needed (People often forget that BLOGS and PDF files take up space).
- I check all client software (Joomla, WordPress, other CMS) email etc. is up to date and if not – I update it.
- I go in and set limits on email accounts and clear out (or forward) clogged up email boxes
- Plus I answer all phone calls (for FREE)
I actually work for my money and it pains me to see others doing less and charging like wounded bulls. To see someone paying A$1K per year merely for email spam and virus protection – when it’s 100% free on Gmail (7Gb file limit and about $5pa. if you want a 25Gb limit) – is beyond me.
Seeing these invoices really made me want to do the right thing by this new client. I understand that companies have employees, overheads and rent to pay, but bad business and money management shouldn’t be taken out on your clients!
I guess my set-up is very different. I work from home and / or with like-minded 3D graphic artist and Designers, so I have fewer overheads and therefore my rates are a lot cheaper. But I’d never charge money for doing nothing.
Business is business?
No! Business is always personal because there are people involved.
‘Nuff said.
Fill in this form if you want a website. I’m happy to meet with you for free – even if you don’t choose me to build your site. I’m a strong believer in what goes around comes around.
I lost 16 bucks on Facebook
Friday, June 20th, 2008I’m so angry. I just lost $16 by accidentally clicking an ad in Facebook. How did this happen? . . .
The reason why I don’t have a mobile phone, home phone, email or address on this site is due to a recent spate of privacy and SMS theft. Recently, I clicked a widget in Facebook and was sent a slew of SMSs from a dating service. I didn’t think anything of this (just kept deleting them) until I got my phone bill. Each SMS had been charged at $2+.
I then had to find my deleted SMSs and figure out how disconnect from the service. A difficult tract of text at the bottom of one SMS explained how to disengage the service. To disengage (from “Australia Data” – don’t bother Googling they’re not on the web) I had to phone a 1300 number. I was told to wait (1300 numbers are charged by the second) – was disconnected a few times and (after half an hour) finally got through, whereupon I was prompted to enter a series of numbers followed by my mobile phone number.
The phone, literally, went blank after I’d put in my number. No “goodbye”, no “you have been disconnected from our service”. But . . . the SMSs stopped coming. As did the slew of fees charged to my phone account.
Lesson: Never give your mobile number to Facebook. They ask for this info when you sign up. What they don’t tell you is that it’s shared with all their “clients”, so if you click an ad – or join a fan group, that information is then passed to third parties and marketing firms. So be careful with your personal info. It’s (literally) worth money.
Now on Facebook, I’m a 43 year old woman who lives in Austria. Needless to say – this new “identity” has a different mobile phone number.
Hopefully . . . it’s not yours! ;)
Email and Form Spam
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008You won’t find an email address on this website because unscrupulous companies who are out to sell cigarettes, drugs, sexual stimulants and pornography are interested in adding your email address to their database. Instead, you will find a neat little contact form. Replacing your email address with a graphic is another way of disguising your details, but these days, a lot of information is collated by teams of underpaid human beings (not just programs or spy-ware) in poor countries. So use a contact form on your website instead of putting your email address up there for all to see (or robots to collect).
Forms alone don’t stop evil spam-bots. A spam-bot is a little program that scours the web looking for a way into your database. It’s called injection spamming. Unscrupulous programmers (probably the same people I mentioned before) write programs with the sole aim of finding holes into your database where, hopefully, credit card numbers or private information can be stolen. To protect your form – make sure it has some kind of question and answer doorway that only a human can understand.
Unfortunately, the web doesn’t have to adhere to any particular country’s law system. The virtual world will be wild and woolly for some time yet.
From the Blog
- Can You Make My Logo Bigger?
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 - Resizing Images for the Web
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 - 7 Website Tweaks for Non-coders
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011