Your client comes to you with nothing. Nada.
No photos, no text, nothing.
But he wants a Website built to showcase his new business. He signs your contract, pays some “good faith” money to get you started, and…Waits.
Meanwhile, you’re scrambling to put together a Home page so he’ll have something to look at the next time you get together.
Without words, your Web page won’t be found by the search engines; nor will it look or be interesting. Grab some dummy type to help convince your client he needs to formulate a marketing message. If writing marketing text is beyond your expertise, your client will have to write it himself or hire a copywriter.
Without photos, your Web page won’t hold anyone’s attention. It won’t be attractive, either, and everybody knows a good picture is worth a thousand words. Get together with your client; brainstorm for picture ideas. If you or your client can’t take the proper photos, he’ll need to hire a photographer.
Whatever you do, DON’T merely steal photos from Google Images or other Internet sites! Somebody has gone to some trouble to take those pictures, and you’ll need their permission to use them (even cropping and modifying them doesn’t negate their copyright!)
Check out Stock Exchange or Creating Online or Dreamstime for relatively low-cost photos.
And be very careful to read the guidelines for photo usage before you assume ownership of anything. Some images are restricted to only personal or noncommercial use; others include commercial use.
Remember, just because you can right-click, copy, and paste, doesn’t mean you should! You don’t want to get embroiled in a situation where somebody comes to you with a lawyer by his side and demands you remove a “pilfered” image.
Next time: Getting paid
