As our business continues to expand and we add new clients to our current portfolio we’re seeing some incredible things. Some of our clients are taking control of their web presence like champs. Others are struggling a bit. And a few realize that there’s more to having a website than they ever expected. Recently I had a conversation with one of our clients that I thought would be worth talking about.
Too busy to be bothered
Over the weekend a client got in touch after making a few updates to their website. They were having issues loading new images to the site, and they thought something was wrong. And they were right, something was very wrong. They were attempting to upload full sized images right out of their digital camera. 20+Megabytes per image. Fortunately their website is setup to refuse anything over 2 Megabytes. That’s even too big.
We actually include information on web sized images in our training with clients, and we include more information in our video tutorials that we make custom for each client. She had forgotten to resize her images, and that was the issue.
During our conversation I reminded her that images for the Internet shouldn’t full sized. A giant image file is great for high quality prints, and useless for web presentation. Big files sizes mean slower downloads for visitors. That’s something that you’ve got to remember.
In the end, what it came down to with this client was simple. Their job duties have expanded, and they no longer feel like they’ve got the time to do everything.
My time has value elsewhere
If spending even a half hour each morning on your website updates and maintenance is too much, we do offer maintenance packages to all of our customers. While we train folks on how their sites work, and on how to update them, we do understand that there might be moments when they don’t have the time, or are unwilling to learn anything more. In the case of this client, editing photos for web usage was the bridge too far.
In her own words, “I need to focus on my business issues, not on resizing images. My time has value…….”
And my response? “So does ours. Are you understanding that there’s more to your Internet presence than you thought?”
The answer was a simple “Yes.”
Why we pay professionals
Many people use home cleaning services. We all know how to clean our homes, and I think everyone is capable of cleaning up after themselves. But at some point your time might be better spent on your own profession. If you can get someone to clean for you that has a lower hourly rate than your own in your industry, it makes economic sense to hire someone to do it. The same can be said with auto repair, working on legal documents, etc. If your time has a higher value on other projects, get someone else to do it.
That’s why professional web developers get paid. They charge for a service you’d rather not do. They have a knowledge pool you don’t.
So, if your time has value elsewhere, get in touch with RLC Design today. Not only can we help you create a beautiful and friendly web presence, we can help maintain it going forward as well. Or we can train you just in case you’ve got some free time to do your own updates!