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JJenson
Advanced Member
USA
2121 Posts |
 Posted - 21 September 2007 : 10:09:30
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Yeah he said he will get to it this next week. Plus I think it would be good knowing this stuff as well so I get to know the answer's also  |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 21 September 2007 : 10:16:43
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quote:
Sadly, none of our clients are web-smart enough to know what we're talking about when we try to explain these things to them before building a site - they'll smile and nod and pretend to weigh the pros & cons up before telling us they definitely need a Flash site & they don't care about rankings only to come back to us 6 months later demanding that their site show up first on Google for all their key phrases!
All I can suggest for that (some people just won't listen to the advice they're paying for, after all) is
1) Get them to sign a plain-language disclaimer - 'we were given a choice between being found easily on search engines and having a flash-based site - and we chose the pretty'
2) Say 'never mind...there is a way to get you in the top n results guaranteed...' and charge them a 25% commission on running an AdWords campaign for them.
Remember, most sales/marketing people (almost certainly who you're dealing with in one or another form) assume 'If I don't know it, it must be easy', and that you're trying to diddle them with this flash/SEO thing (because it's what they would do to a customer, they assume everyone does it to them - they don't realise techies tell it like it is and just don't care about politics). Give up explaining, you're wasting your breath ;-)
Actually that was one of the good things about working at MS - even Sales & Marketing were expected to be technically competent. HR, on the other hand...best not get me started... |
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 21 September 2007 : 12:22:34
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**** this, I think I'm handing in my notice next week.
Just lost a major client because apparently I wasn't managing their AdWords account properly:
- even though whenever AdWords is mentioned, I make it very clear that I don't know bugger all about it beyond creating an account & that it's really marketing's job.
- even though, when this client sent through over 300 key words & phrases for AdWords that were largely irrelevant, I told bossman that they weren't going to get naff all traffic through and that we should sit down with the client for an hour or two and "brainstorm" through their campaign only for bossman to tell me that I should just give the client what they want.
- even though I told the client that €300 p/m (€10 p/d) for the amount of phrases they had wasn't going to get them anywhere. But they couldn't budget for any more than that.
Now client & bossman expect me to tell client exactly where that piddling little amount has been going every month for the past year & a bit despite the fact that client has their own login for that AdWords account so can get in their themselves and make about as much sense of it as they can.
Clients acting all arsey about their sites not being marketed properly, I can handle, to a degree, but when bossman just refuses to listen to me when I try to explain to him what's involved in effectively marketing a website and, as a design company, that it's something none of us have the knowledge or expertise to pull off. Even if I could get everybody involved in web development together for an afternoon so we could talk through it and spread the research and work about, it might help a bit, but I've been trying to do that in vain for the past 3 months because, of course, I'm the "web guy"! 
(Sorry for all the rantage; have just needed somewhere to vent the past couple of days 'cause I learned a long time ago that hurling abuse at your boss when he's being an idiot isn't always smart!  )
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“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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HuwR
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
20595 Posts |
Posted - 21 September 2007 : 13:08:49
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| feel free to vent we all have to at some point, you can only absorb so much stupidity before it has to get out. |
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JJenson
Advanced Member
USA
2121 Posts |
Posted - 21 September 2007 : 13:13:45
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| Rant away I am sure it is better to do it here than there. |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 21 September 2007 : 17:10:45
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| Ahhhh - time to change jobs, eh? Freelance is the way, my friend - you never get caught up in politics and they pay you twice as much - you're a winner twice-over. |
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 24 September 2007 : 05:37:36
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quote:
Originally posted by pdrg
... you're a winner twice-over.
Thrice over as it should free up some time for me to work on my book and look into pursuing another career
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Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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JJenson
Advanced Member
USA
2121 Posts |
Posted - 24 September 2007 : 10:17:54
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| If I may ask what is the other career you are interested in pursueing? |
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HuwR
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
20595 Posts |
Posted - 24 September 2007 : 10:23:24
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probably anything other than IT  |
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 24 September 2007 : 10:35:02
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quote:
Originally posted by JJenson
If I may ask what is the other career you are interested in pursueing?
Don't know, that's why I'd need the time to look into it. Huw's right, though, in that I want to try & get away from computers.
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Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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JJenson
Advanced Member
USA
2121 Posts |
Posted - 24 September 2007 : 10:45:03
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I can undertand that. I just am getting more and more but I think what keeps my sanity is that I am still doing tennis and coaching so it helps half the day at computers the other half running and playing tennis.
I hope you will find what makes you happy even if its the IT field or any other |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 24 September 2007 : 15:22:11
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| I love the world of IT total immersion, but I really did burn right out in it - the plus side is freelance paid for me to try out some other things (learning to fly, being a film producer, etc), I can't recommend it highly enough. Jobserve.com, my friend, forget the other sites, they're all on jobserve. |
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 25 September 2007 : 04:16:07
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Looks like a good site but, unfortunately, it's UK, Australia & US only  Also, maybe I'm going blind but I couldn't see a category related to web development.
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Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 25 September 2007 : 08:44:14
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Jobserve has been running longer than any of the competition - in fact they used to have an email-only interface and only did IT jobs - and it's grown and led since, especially for IT freelance/contract. They do advertise some Ireland jobs.
They don't have narrow categories, use the search facilities
A quick search for
Role: Web
Skills: ASP SQL
Location: Ireland
(last 7 days, contract only)
brought back 15 jobs around the €300-400/day mark |
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 25 September 2007 : 08:56:47
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So I see (took me a few minutes to get the search terms right ). Thanks for the link, will keep them in mind
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Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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