| LED Digest 2018: Religion in the Workplace |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. September 1, 2005 Issue #2018 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Religion and Business ==-- ~ Amy D. Moore "It's about professional ethics." ~ Mark Frank "The best way to approach this is to be direct." --== Firing Clients ==-- ~ Eva Rosenberg "...you can refer them to your most hated company..." ~ Bonnie Jo Davis "I just fired a client like the one you described." ~ Joseph Horrigan "Sounds like you are in a position that requires massive damage control." --== Meta Tags Count! ==-- ~ Beth Earle "...knowing the right keywords to focus on is very valuable..." ~ Emma Mackintosh "This is kind of similar but unrelated..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Open Source & Microsoft ==-- ~ Ben Cunningham ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Amy D. Moore Subject: Religious biz > Have any of you dealt with clients who've insisted > on promoting their religious beliefs on their company > web site? How did you handle it? - Beth Earle, LED 2017 Beth asks a very good question regarding the promotion of religion within a web site. I think it is important that, as business owners, we recognize that everyone is in business for different reasons. I remember responding to John Audette once back in I-Sales when he was bemoaning porn was making "so much money" on-line while I-Sales was struggling. Well, frankly, if being in business was only about making money, many people would find different lines of work. We all have different balance sheets for our businesses. Keeping that in mind, religious and spiritual beliefs permeate everything we do - from work, to play, to sex, to choosing friends, to housing. So, it goes without saying, for some people their dogma inspires them to profess their faith in every endeavor - and that would include their web site. I am a deeply spiritual person but I do not subscribe to Christianity. I do my best to be respectful and tolerant of other peoples' religions and faith. I have a client whose Christianity is deeply rooted (http://drcuepromotions.com). He honestly believes there is no difference between him and his faith, so anything he does is a gift from and a tribute to his God. I contemplated this religion question many years ago when I encouraged him to have me lead him on the web. What I had to do was consider the most basic question: Is this a business, in all its aspects, which in good conscience I can promote and develop to the best of my abilities for the client? I ask myself that question with every new client I take on. Some clients are just not good fits. As web developers and marketers, we take on our clients, learn and internalize their businesses enough to do our jobs, but we never (or we shouldn't) run our clients' businesses. We don't have to say "I subscribe to this idea" or "I would buy this product." We just have to say "I can sell this idea" or "I can market this product." In the end, for this client, I decided I understood his mission. I embraced him and his business. His message is not my message, but I can help him promote it. When it comes down to it, he is one of the most motivational speakers and people I have ever met. My client is aware I do not subscribe to his faith using the same script he uses, but we are mutually compatible in promoting him on the Web. He prays for me, praises me, and pays me well - so I'm happy. This question crosses over to the "firing a client" question. I also had, and now have again, a client I fired. While her religious beliefs were not spouted on her web site, I was constantly barraged by religious e-mail from her and she was obnoxious in other ways as well when trying to deal with her professionally. It took her less than a year to go through six other web professionals after I fired her before she came begging for me to take her back. So I laid out the ground rules as to how she would treat me as a professional and things have been good the few years she's been back with me. Your religion question just needs to be rephrased and it could answer both questions. The same consideration needs to be made for politically motivated clients. It's about professional ethics. I'll state it again, because I believe it is the tenet of a web developer's work: "Is this a business, person, idea, or concept, in all its aspects, which in good conscience I can promote and develop to the best of my abilities for the client?" Amy D. Moore http://internetsupportservice.com Building Internet & Database Solutions since 1996 -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Mark Frank Subject: Religious biz Beth, Your job as a website designer is to give your clients the best online marketing tool that you can. It is very difficult to deal with clients who have no concept of marketing and who want to fill their sites with things that impact the design or detract from the sales message (cheap clip art, animated graphics, poorly written text, personal beliefs). The best way to approach this is to be direct. Point out that they hired you because of your expertise in website design and Internet marketing. Explain to them that the stuff they want to put in will alienate a large segment of the market and tell them why (slow loading time, poor ranking, hard to understand, different beliefs). Point out the impact on sales as well. And do it in writing. Then, when they ignore your advice (and they will) - do it their way. They are paying the bills and it's their website. Give them what they want, even if it's not what they need. Just make sure that they understand the tradeoff (personal expression vs. sales). Some will come back to you in a few months complaining that their site is ineffective. Tell them why (again), and then offer to improve the design at your hourly rate. Most won't bother you though. Many people just want websites that they can show their friends. If you give them a site that incorporates what they want, they will be content. Just don't include it in your online portfolio. Mark Frank, Author Start Your Own Home-Based Website Design Business http://www.websitedesignbiz.com -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Eva Rosenberg Subject: Firing clients > What's the best way to fire a client who's become > a massive drain on resources but who's also > somewhat influential in a market we'd like to > continue to pursue? - Beth Earle, LED 2017 That's got to be a pretty touchy situation. Obviously, you can't just dump them unceremoniously. You have to stay friends. And you can't refer them to someone you like and respect... or can you? Often the old dating stand-by will work. Use that tried and true line, "I'm just not good enough for you." But with a twist. Flatter the client's success. You're doing so well, you're business has advanced so far, that you need skills I don't have. Before you send them off, check around among the people you know to see if you can find an appropriate personality match. Often, a new designer, with a firm, no-nonsense style, will be able to set new ground rules - and make them stick. See if any of the folks you know and trust are interested in the client. Outline all the quirks to watch out for. Then, they'll start with your client on a different footing. And since they're your friends, they won't make you look bad once they've taken over. Another perk to this kind of a deal is, you can tell your client that, if they work with your referred company, you're close enough to them that you'll still be able to watch over them and guide the designers. On the other hand, you can refer them to your most hated company, or most feared competitor - or the one that hates you the most. Your referral will mystify them. It's hard to hate someone who's just sent you business. Good luck. Eva Rosenberg TaxMama.com - A daily cure for your tax blues http://www.taxmama.com/taxquips P.S. I happen to be the queen of firing clients. More often than not, fired clients return within 3 months to 2 years. Very humble and willing to work on your terms at your prices - and they behave SO well. -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Bonnie Jo Davis Subject: Firing clients Beth, I just fired a client like the one you described. This is what I said to the client: 1. I am reinventing myself for 2006. This means adding new services, getting rid of old services, etc. 2. Based on these changes I would no longer, unfortunately, be able to work with you but I would be thrilled to recommend someone and/or train you to do some of the tasks yourself. 3. I will still be working in the same industry and look forward to receiving your recommendation when I take on a new client. I'm so glad we had a chance to work together. I gave the client generous notice and set up some training so they can do simple things themselves. The client was thrilled to learn to do some things herself and looked upon the change as something that is long overdue and very positive for me. Each situation is different but, hopefully, you can spin this in a positive way for your client. Good luck! Bonnie Jo Davis Davis Virtual Assistance -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Joseph Horrigan Subject: Firing clients A client should never be able to become a 'massive drain' on resources if you are selling your services, and charging properly for the services you deliver. If a client is using time, they should be paying for it. This changes them from a resource drain to a cash cow. Sounds like you are in a position that requires massive damage control. You need to have a conversation with the key buyer of your services and start to explain that the services that you have been providing for free, has become a significant cost drain on your organization, and you need to reset their expectation as to the services you will provide, and at what cost. Most business people will understand that you are a business too. You want them to continue to succeed with your help, but need to be paid for the services you provide. If you are being asked to provide services that are not really part of your portfolio of services, then you need to suggest where they can get the help they need, or suggest they get some in-house capability. Good luck Joe Horrigan -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Beth Ann Earle Subject: Meta tags > ... the concern about stealing keywords - or having > them stolen - is based upon a value that doesn't really > exist (even though it may have some years past). - Tom Anson, LED 2017 Regardless of whether meta tags affect search engine ranking, knowing the right keywords to focus on is very valuable -- it's one of the keys of driving qualified traffic to any web site. I really don't want my competitors to know what search terms I'm focusing my SEO on. My company spends a good deal of time researching and identifying terms that are the best possible ones for funneling qualified leads to our site. These are usually terms that searchers use a relatively large number of times and that generate a relatively low number of results but results that are relevant to our business, nonetheless. It took a lot of time and effort to develop this list, and we don't want it poached, because that means we'll just have to work that much harder to keep our SE positioning. Our competitors' ignorance = my company's bliss. Regards, Beth Earle Polysort LLC -------- new post - related topic --------- From: Emma Mackintosh Subject: Meta tags and image stealing This is kind of similar but unrelated! I checked our site stats a few days ago and noticed that some images are being used (ie referenced direct so they are using our image on our hosting - not copied to their own server) by other sites - one by an auction on ebay, others by people selling the same products as us. Is there an easy way to stop this? I don't really want to have to write our name over all images, it doesn't look good on the site. But I don't see why anyone else should profit from our bandwidth. Emma Mackintosh ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Ben Cunningham Subject: Open source I finally decided to give FireFox a look a few months ago. I can't say if FireFox is more secure than IE due to it being open source. However, I can say that FireFox being open source has contributed to some amazing FireFox extensions being created. If you compare just FireFox to Internet Explorer then there are only a few differences such as tabbed browsing, which doesn't really matter to me, and a much nicer javascript console that makes debugging javascript scripts much easier. The real strength of FireFox comes once you start installing FireFox extensions, especially the extensions that help with web development. As a web developer myself, I recommend that any web developers using IE to take a look at FireFox and its extensions. Ben Cunningham http://www.affiliatemoneymakers.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand." - Seneca |
