Both Yawa and Omnipotens are right. On one hand charging peanuts for our work is undervaluing our industry - but the key issue here is that of value. If your standard of work is not up to scratch then it's difficult to charge higher prices. That's why it's good to always seek out knowledge and ways of improving one's skill set so that one can charge higher prices that reflect the value of the work on offer.

@OmniPotens, that is a truly unfortunate tale indeed. I as a customer would be wary of paying the full amount for a service like web design/development before seeing what I'm paying for. That's why I charge a 50% deposit before work commences with balance payable on completion - and with full client consultation at various stages of the project. In fact, they have to sign off at each stage that they are happy with what's been done so far before the next stage can commence. This makes both the client and I happy and a happy client should be the number one aim of any designer/developer.

As per the charging thing, I divide every project into phases. Whenever each phase is done, you agree and project continues. You (the customer) has a choice of stopping the project at any point when you think you are running short of cash. The web will be up but because of the ideology in making the work into phases, someone will not notice if the project is complete or incomplete. I believe webmasters should try this kind of charging and see what results they will get.

::: One good thing - since you have the project in phases, they will ever find it difficult subletting to another webmaster since you hold the master key to the web project in question. :::

First and foremost, I want to commend the poster on this topic - 1) It has gone 2 pages without insults and attacks and 2) It has made the front page of NL. Kudos!

Now, to what Yolu and Omni have said. I will combine my responses:

It is very good to hear that you guys are doing what many don't do: Develop in phases. This ensures that if changes need to be made, they are done piecemeal as opposed to in large chunks. At the end of the day, both parties fare better. Also, glad to see that you guys are doing one thing I love best: over-communication. I send so many emails to clients about my progress to the point that sometimes, I am asked to stop Little things like the above help cement in the client's minds that you are a professional not someone hustling to survive.

Per the issue of a site looking like peanuts, I think clients in Nigeria need some level of exposure themselves. I think if they had an idea of what a good website looked like, as opposed to just having a website, they wouldn't choose half the people out there. Here is an example:

I am in the states and my inlaw had a friend from Nigeria over for a visit. The friend wanted a website and they referred her to me. First things out of her mouth? "I need a website but I don't have that much money so please charge me for a mediocre site"

That turned me off instantly. So rather than first ask me how much I charge and then see if it is negotiable, you tell me to do something mediocre? I told her it would take me more time to come up with something mediocre and so I would rather not do the site at all. And that is where it ended. My reputation is at stake on whatever site I do. I want people to say, "wow what a site? who did that?" and not "who did that site? it sucks!".

I chatted with my2cents earlier today. He says he is looking at some time next year for an official WOA meeting. Let's pray that it happens. we need some kind of professional organization in Nigeria, not for the politics/money but so we can all learn best practices.

yawa-ti-de:

First and foremost, I want to commend the poster on this topic - 1) It has gone 2 pages without insults and attacks and 2) It has made the front page of NL. Kudos!

Thanks for the compliment. I'm happy that even until this second page, all have conducted himself/herself very well. Thanks to all that contributed.

As per the WOA, I think firstly, we should go and load that site with resources before the actual meeting. I've been communicating with him based on this as well and for sure, it will be a success having members meet face-to-face and exchanging ideas.

@Yewa-Tide
I will be grateful if you could send the ebook to my mail address. ahmed_ola007@yahoo.com. i must say that am impressed with your post and it gives me hope that if a woman could be this knowledgeable. am just learning html and i think that ebook of urs could be of help. looking forward to hearing from you. pls. get back to me as soon as you read this post thru my email.

Thx

Ahmed

medman,

pls send me an email. my email is on my profile page.

Thanks and sorry for any inconveniences.

Per your "if a woman can do it" comment, I don't know if to take it as a compliment or a subtle insult

Even if u r a woman, Wetin woman hv to do with this? Wetin concern bird with toothbrush.

Anyways, send me d email. i will be glad to help.

Helo folks, i love this thread, i dont know if St.remys ox is gona allow me to put up my contribution to this thread. but i will.

The aspect of a webmaster having himself as a small god to the client because he holds the key to the website, i think this isnt right. If i am right, what you mean is holding the client to ransom.

I think this isnt right.

next, abt the WOA. I approve of the meeting, we really need a regulatory body in this country. It will be nice for us to have this meeting.

Next question is , WHERE IS THE LOCATION GOING TO BE?

bug

I dont think it wd b a regulatory body. I hate unions

I see it as a place where we meet to share ideas and to learn. we could have a presentation on how to set prices for example but it is up to us to charge that price and not a "wether u like it or not" kind of thing.

Per location, I say, even though it wont favor me, wherever we have the most members and stand to gain from the exposure. Based on that, I am thinking Lagos.

I used to have issues with browser compatibilty in the past, the solution is that test my site on 3 browsers, namely opera,firefox and Ie6, and i try to get a consistent as a look as possible across all 3 browsers, this seems to really work for me, once i c there is any inconsistency am of to work on the css, and html code, a lil twaeking here and there and 'presto' u hav got a consistent look.

yeah hahaha (why do I think I am suddenly laughing at myself? )

the key is unit coding. I like to test blocks of code at a time. This is better and more efficient than developing a whole page then hacking the fixes together because you don't know where the source of the problem is.

I HAVE GOT AN EXCELLENT FREE INTERNET BROWSER THAT ENABLES YOU TO BROWSE THE NET FREE(NO PAYMENTS)USING YOUR GPRS PHONE.TO GET THE SOFTWARE ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PAY THE SUM OF =N=3000(THREE THOUSAND NAIRA)ONLY INTO MY BANK ACCOUNT AND YOU WILL GET YOUR SOFTWARE.

ACCOUNT NAME : OLUDU PAUL MAKUOCHUKWU

ACCOUNT NUMBER : 1533010089025

FIRST BANK,EMENE BRANCH.

AFTER YOU MUST HAVE PAID SEND YOUR NAME.EMAIL ADDRESS,PHONE NUMBER AND THE TELLER NUMBER OF THE TELLER YOU USED TO MAKE THE PAYMENT TO MY PHONE NUMBERS 0806 566 0635 OR 0805 326 3805

marvnneji:

I HAVE GOT AN EXCELLENT FREE INTERNET BROWSER THAT ENABLES YOU TO BROWSE THE NET FREE(NO PAYMENTS)USING YOUR GPRS PHONE.TO GET THE SOFTWARE ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PAY THE SUM OF =N=3000(THREE THOUSAND NAIRA)ONLY INTO MY BANK ACCOUNT AND YOU WILL GET YOUR SOFTWARE.

ACCOUNT NAME : OLUDU PAUL MAKUOCHUKWU

ACCOUNT NUMBER : 1533010089025

FIRST BANK,EMENE BRANCH.

AFTER YOU MUST HAVE PAID SEND YOUR NAME.EMAIL ADDRESS,PHONE NUMBER AND THE TELLER NUMBER OF THE TELLER YOU USED TO MAKE THE PAYMENT TO MY PHONE NUMBERS 0806 566 0635 OR 0805 326 3805

Why not start a new thread and make your advert there.

better yet, considering marv has 4 posts, y not just ban him altogether?

Don't make Seun's attention to get to him ooo

Firefox, I would never use, I believe in Bill gate.

Nigeria1
With respect to web development? State your case. Let's debate.

Oh! This is a common problem called CSS HELL, look forward to the day pple will stop using IE,

By the way have u guys tried Google Chrome Browser? it is the Bomb men!

Elgaxton:

Oh! This is a common problem called CSS HELL, look forward to the day people will stop using IE,

By the way have u guys tried Google Chrome Browser? it is the Bomb men!

Have you tried opening a site loaded with much flash on it? What do you think of those annoying "kill flash" pop-up alerts?

Oh flash eh? yeah I feel u, annoying

Elgaxton:

Oh flash eh? yeah I feel u, annoying

Do you still think it's what you think?

No, I dint get the question before, just that the title of the thread,

Please you all should make your codes Opera compatible. Although, If your codes follow standards then Opera will display them well.

@ yawa-ti-de, I'm sending you a PM concerning your Free eBook. I am not a webmaster but will like to add your eBook to my 1000+ eBook collection and maybe it will spark some interest in me.

I think the moderator of this thread/site should remove posts like @ marvnneji's, a gullible person may fall for this and this should not be encouraged here at all.

zoraro,

As at the time of this post, I haven't seen your PM, and by PM, I assume you mean, "Private eMail"

let me hear it date and venue, it is my submission that instead of going on and on talking about the need. Please those interested in forging a headway using the WOA platform, start suggesting dates and possible venues.

its a faster way to run things that everyone keep saying its laudable without the necessary NEXT action.

Netskill:

let me hear it date and venue, it is my submission that instead of going on and on talking about the need. Please those interested in forging a headway using the WOA platform, start suggesting dates and possible venues.

its a faster way to run things that everyone keep saying its laudable without the necessary NEXT action.

Planning first before anything else when disorganized, it will look very childish and someone like you will never want that name heard since nothing good came out of it. Just little patience Netskill, ok?

hmmm, maybe for starters, since food is best served hot, we can all do a YIM group chat so we can get to feel each other. How about that? That way, by the time we actually meet in person, it will be as if we have known each other for years.

thoughts?

What I wrote was about the display of different results using CSS on FF or IE.

Of Course, CSS is the solution. Anyway, you've written more than I asked for yawa

@ yawa-ti-de,

Sorry for the mix up, resending the PM now.

What if I designed with layers and didn't convert to tables, will there be any issues?

omni,

I want to blv that layers are soooooo 20th century. I used to use those back when netscape was en voge

It had it's issues, mainly of which was that you had to do a lot of positioning. Also, layers only seemed to work in Netscape and not IE (for which you would have to use DIVs).

Just stick to DIVs. You can't go wrong with those

I tested on IE8, firefox 3, Google chrome, opera 9 and there was no issues. What if I now convert those layers to tables, what do you think will be the outcome on other browsers? I'm trying to solve this problem once and for all from all angles. Don't ever want it to exit again.

1) I don't recall you stating any problems. Please do so
2) Dump LAYERs. They are not part of the web standards
3) Avoid tables if you can
4) Use DIVs