Part 2: Ongoing client expectations, and freelance webmastering as a career move

What kind of support should a client expect or ask from a developer after the site is "finished"?
A client should never expect anything that isn't written in the contract. Odds are they won't get it unless it is written down. Support agreements should be worked out as part of the initial contract, as this can affect site development.

If you need several databases on your site, how will the databases be updated? If you have the money and time for programming, the web developer can add the functionality to your site in the form of web-based interfaces.

What if one of the databases changes very infrequently, say twice a year? You don't really need a web-based interface for these updates, it might be cheaper over the course of the year to have the database updated on a case by case basis by the developer.

Of course, for the site to be developed smoothly, you would need to know all of this information ahead of time. So all the support issues should be worked out in the initial development contract or an appended support contract.

Really, when you think about it, except for the networking and basic server functionality, support for a website is really just long term development. This is one of those bug-a-boos that no one likes to talk about.

Producing a website will cost you X amount of dollars for the three months or so of initial development time. It can cost you 2X to support the site for the remaining nine months and another 3X the following year.

Why did you leave developing work to manage a single website full-time? Do you miss the clients?
Yes, I do miss all the different clients. When I was working with a development firm, I would read about two or three business plans a week from prospective clients which was really exciting. It was great fun meeting all the new people, coming up with new site ideas, etc.

The problem that I found is that unless you work in the company you are developing for, you are always just short of the mark with their website. You can't get to know their business and industry well enough in the two or three months you spend on their initial website to produce one that is totally respective of what that company is trying to accomplish on the Web. It just cannot be done.

Even if you specialize in developing websites for one specific industry which a lot of web development firms now do, you won't be tuned into the nuances of the particular company the way an insider is. Those nuances are what make websites succeed.

Plus, when you develop your own company's website, it becomes a lot more personal. If sales are down on my company's website, I feel that...it's tangible. I don't think you get that reality from the client when you're working in a web development firm.

Finally, is freelance web design a career or part-time job choice you'd recommend to webmasters who've picked up significant skills building their own site?
No way. First off, define "significant." Second, there's too many requirements for one person to fulfill. In this day and age, website design/development requires skills from a variety of different disciplines.

You have the separate design and development requirements that I've already mentioned. You can also have multimedia requirements (flash, shockwave, real media) which can sometimes straddle the line between designer and developer.

You can also have marketing/advertising requirements which get your site out to the public in search engines as well as get copy written for the website. You can also have production requirements. Production people will take templates from the designers and developers and mass produce them to fill the website out. You can also have your networking requirements which keep the servers running and routers routing. You also have your project manager, who coordinates actions between all of these people.

From my experience as a freelance website designer/developer, I can tell you it's a tough gig balancing all of those responsibilities. Today's website client demands much more of their website than they did only two years ago.

Clients today don't just want static advertising sites, they want full-fledged e-commerce, m-commerce, xyz-commerce enabled websites that integrate with their existing legacy computer systems all while holding the visitor's gaze awash in the glowing excitement of a full blown MTV video-styled multimedia experience. This requires a team of experts working together.

My advice to those that want to continue a career in website design/development is to get into a website development firm or even a local ISP. There, you can specialize in one discipline but still have the opportunity to learn more skill-sets as time goes by.