Zen 4 Dummies talks about Website Designs and Designers

Aa a website designer and installer, I try to keep people informed about proper "design/designer etiquette".

All too often recently, I've seen designers who put a website template together for their client, yet claim ownership over such thinigs as logos and other images placed on a website.

Worse yet are the designer/installers who insist that the website content is coyrighted to them - look at the legal/site information usually found in the footer at the bottom of the website! If you have purchased and paid for the website and the domain name is registered to you, you should have the copyright!

Don't be lead astray by these designers, especially the ones that INSIST on hosting all images on their server and strong-arm you into hosting your website on their over-priced servers, and who lack 24 hour 7 day phone support for you!

Once the designers job is complete and your website is live, you should have TOTAL ownership of the website and ALL the contents therein.

Meaning, for example, your logo! Why would you not own it and be able to use it for other company uses, such as letterheads, envelopes, business cards, etc.... without having to pay the designer additional fees for the use. What EXACTLY are you paying for anyway?

In addition, with images hosted by your designer, you need to carefully monitor the status of those images. Has the designer deleted your image (inadvertantly or on purpose)? Can you reach your designer by phone to get your images up and running again or are you trapped in the endless "send email, no response, send email, no response" loop?

Further, any images that your designer uses in creating your website need to be original artwork or proper licensing/usage of images needs to be documented. Who wants to face the problems and expenses with "stolen" images and artwork?

Does your designer work with you to give you the end-product that you want or are they offering stock-templates that you will then need to pay additional monies to have modified to fit your wants/desires? Will your designer make changes and revisions as needed until you are 100% satisfied or do they stop at X amount of revisions, and insist on additional payment for any additional revisions?

Please feel free to add your comments below! I'd love to hear what you think about this article and receive requests for additional topics you would like to read about.