Hi: In the book "The End of Advertising As We Know It" by Sergio Zyman, Zyman lists 8 things that he says are critical to consider. I liked this one so much I'd love to put it on my website. [excerpt] Quick turnaround, good quality, inexpensive; Two out of three is all you get. Granted, the Internet has helped make research faster, better, and cheaper, but overall this rule is still true today. If you think you can do all three, you're wrong. And, if someone tries to tell you that he or she can do all three for you, keep your hand on your wallet. [end excerpt] My own area of business is a prime example. You hire Front Page Sally. She builds you a website that you "think" is good, fast and cheap. What you don't know is that it only works in some browsers and some of your visitors can't use your order forms. And it doesn't work on a Mac. And it looks laughable on a 19" monitor. But you don't know any of that, because it works in "your" browser. If you'd visited Sally's site in another browser or platform, you'd never have hired her. Lucky for her. Not so lucky for you. What's even worse is when Front Page Sally *thinks* she's doing great work, and is blissfully unaware of her own lack of knowledge. To add to the confusion, Front Page Sally boldly proclaims that designers who charge $1500+ are ripoff artists because "she" can do a professional site for $249. And then there's Front Page Frank, who sees the higher rates, and charges $1500 for his lousy work because he doesn't know it's lousy. And then you get Html Heidi, who actually learned proper coding - but she sees all those cheap web designers out there and is afraid to charge a decent price, so she's underpriced horribly. Eventually, price is no indication of quality anymore. Personally, I think the "good/fast/cheap" issue is a huge problem online. A lot of people *think* they can get all three.... and a lot of people *think* they offer all three... but thinking never made anything so. Thinking I'm a monkey doesn't make me one. Thoughts? Other examples? : ) Linda

LOL! Now Linda, I think that's the best story I've read from you yet. And that's exactly why I don't tell anyone that I can "build" a site for them. (with "basic html"). And "exactly" why I refer others to you! Because You know what your talking about. Your friend, Angela

Sad but true. How about those hyped up ebooks that are being promoted for hundreds of dollars? Are they really worth that much more than the ones for $29.95? But some high-powered "guru" wrote them! Of course all his "guru" friends give the glowing testimonials...the good old boys network again. DonnaZ

The same rules apply in the retail trade. Everyday I get customers who want the fastest laptop with the most features and they get mad (yes physically mad) when told that for $1000 CDN dollars thats not going to be an option. You pay for crap you get crap.

Hi Linda, I used to have posted over the counter in my shop, "The sweet taste of low prices is soon covered over by the sour taste of poor quality." As you probably know, I build all my own websites, not so much because I'm being cheap, but because I'm a control freak (lol) and like to have complete control over all my sites. It has been a long process of learning, mistakes, learning, and more mistakes - if there's a mistake that can be made in web design, I've probably made it at one time or another, including designing pages that look great in one browser and look like a dog's breakfast in another. The point is, I can now do pretty much whatever I want with html, javascript and php, but it still takes a considerable amount of time to get the results I want. It's not because I'm slow, but because it takes time to build even a simple website, and anyone who says they can do it for a couple of hundred bucks either has no idea what their time is worth, or no idea what they're doing! The latest website I'm finally developing (and still have a way to go) is http://tipsntools.com - if you visit you'll notice I still have to decide what I'm going to do with the front page. Just thinking about it can take quite a long time! Thanks for another great thread, Linda - I find your forums really help me think. God bless, Dave