Free Building Web Sites All-in-One For Dummies® by Claudia Snell

site, design your site so that it can be edited with Adobe Contribute — and include the price of the application as part of your Web design fee. Also, make sure to include training sessions in your contract. Cover additional training and consultation in a separate contract or separate clause of your Web design contract.
    Keeping It Fresh: An Ongoing Process
    If you’ve done your best to create a compelling site for your client and you’ve optimized the site 27 ways to Sunday, people will visit the site. Like anything else, though, the bloom is off the rose rather quickly. People might watch a good movie many times, but people rarely visit a Web site with the same content over and over again. To keep visitors returning, you or your client need to give visitors a reason to return. If interested visitors know that the content is updated on a regular basis, they will return.
    Assigning content development tasks
    If your client decides that he wants the site updated frequently, either you or your client’s staff is responsible for updating the pages and uploading them to the server. If your client contracts you to do the updates, you and your staff can schedule updates at a convenient time. If your client does the updates, he can coordinate the task with his staff. If your client’s staff is doing the updates, make sure you design the site with templates, locking the areas with which you don’t want the client to tamper. Make sure your client’s staff has the knowledge and software to update the site without destroying your hard work. For personnel with little or no Web experience, Adobe Contribute is an ideal application to update a site.
    Keeping the graphics fresh
    When people visit your Web site for the first time, it’s a shiny new face. But like the man in the mirror, the shiny, new face grows old after a while. In this regard, the graphics on the Web site should be updated on a regular basis. Anything with the client’s logo, such as the site banner, should not be updated. After all, you do want some continuity in the site. The graphics you do want to update are any Flash movies and graphics used for news, information, and the like. If your client will update the site, get her to supply you with several images that will be rotated in certain parts of the site — for example, the home page and the What’s New page, if the client has one. Size the graphics to fit the spots on the page where they will be displayed, optimize them for Web viewing, and then return the optimized images to your client. If your client uses Flash movies on the Web site, create a few alternatives that are the same size and show your client’s staff how to swap out the movies when needed.

Chapter 4: Creating Relevant Site Content
    In This Chapter
    Putting the company in a favorable light
    Offering information
    Developing content
    A Web site is a very important thing. At least, it better be. When you’re hired to create a Web site, you’re creating a worldwide presence for your client. As a Web designer, you do your best to create a site that portrays your client’s business or service at its best. It’s a two-way street, though. You can be the best designer in the world, but if your client doesn’t know what he wants or needs for his Web site, your best design efforts are in vain. A Web site is all about marketing a company, product, or service. It’s an extension of the client’s bricks-and-mortar business (if he has one). If not, the Web site serves as the identity for your client’s business. Your job as a designer is to work with the client in order to portray his company in the best possible light. This chapter gives you some information that you can use to guide your client in the right direction.
    Portraying Your Client’s Company
    When you develop a Web site for a client, you’re presenting your customer’s professional image for the world to see. Your