Ok so here I am helping a friend to build her website (blogging, using wordpress) for FREE, 0$. I volunteered to help her for FREE. Now she is pissing me off because I suggested design and she says no she wants some crappy-ass messed up design.

I am close to calling it quit on her about me helping her for FREE. Anytime we talk about it she PISSES me off.

Help me so I dont punch someone

lol that happens with a lot of clients in different areas of business. finding the balance between satisfying the customer and maintaining your own integrity and taste can be very hard.
i'm not into web design and all that but my hairdresser will say the same to me "i'm not going to do that hairstyle. it looks crappy. how will it reflect on me etc blah blah"  i pay her though so i guess it's different and i usually let her get her way because she has a better judgment, i feel.
and i'm watching this show about fashion designers on how they have to satisfy their customers but at the same time put their own signature on the design of the clothes rather than let the customer dictate everything to them.
i'm guessing the POV is similar to your experience in that sense. lol

but if you're doing it for free she shouldn't be complaining much. is she 100% adamant abt wanting that design? or you could pick something different that's sort of a middle ground between what you want and what she wants?
it could be free but who knows, it it turns out fabulous she will recommend you to her friends. and next time you will charge for service so at least u know your getting something for your work with a difficult customer 

goodluck! i don't know too much about web-mastering. srry

exactly, she is 100% adamant about what she wants and it looks horrible to the eye/ And she was like I can put your name as the designer, and I immediately said no i dont want.

You know you can do better but someone wants you to do a so so job when you can do 3 times better than what the person wants. especially if the person is not familiar with the field. it is annoying. I pushed her to get a domain name. I forced her to changed names several times because the ones she picked were crappy.

Really annoying, especially knowing I am not asking her to pay anything and she keeps saying no no i dont want that, I want this. Am like visually that sucks it is not a good interface design bla bla bla. oh well bad day for me today. It was worse. We went to lunch to talk about her design etc last week or so. Then I made my case, she got pissed, carried her stuff and walked out on me. Am like men this is insane. I have tolerated so much from her. Sometimes I wish I dont do charity work.

am going to tell her it will take 3 weeks to finish. she has no choice. she thinks she can win. ALUTA CONTINUA

she wants it over night. Oh my gush horrible. i have a life woman. here we go. This is what happened. She gave me 3 websites that she likes. So i took images of part of each of the sites and mashed them up  and apparently, she likes it now. Totally different from the one she is 100% adamant about.


She says:
that is bloody cool
I like it.
I like it.
Cactus says:
ok so this is what we may work towards
Cactus says:
i cant guarantee it will be 100% the same as this mock up, but will try, not sure if I may make the menu the same colors but we shall see
She says:
yes. please do it.
Cactus says:
this is not something that can be done quickly
am thinking one or two weeks
roughly
definitely more than one week
if i decide to do this maybe 4 hours a day each day, two weeks ok
She says:
wa. why do you need so many days?
Cactus says:
you have to do and test
cant just do and say it is finished
have to test, check for so many things
fixing different browser issues
and some other usability, accessibility stuff
She says:
wa.
i heard some people do it in one night.
but no problem
Should I give you the photo?
Cactus says:
that is possible but i dont want to do things so so
She says:
I understand it.
Cactus says:
for me, i cant do it over night wont want that way
She says:
no problem. I trust you.


I would probably call her css "whisperingeye.css"

Is this the same girl whom you said, earlier this year, wanted to learn web dev on her own and whom you said at the time was, "good" at it?

seems like one helluva customer. but good thing you're making progress from ur starting point, at least she likes the mash up. she seems really excited about the site too. hopefully she's satisfied at the end (cross fingers) and recommends u to a lot of ppl. or just people will see ur good work on the site and contact u.
I would have raised the point about u doing the work for free! lol she doesn't seem to be appreciative of that.

but it's always better not to compromise ur ethic too much to satisfy a customer that's for sure. and it's a good thing you're not doing that.

is whisperingeye really the name of her site or that's a sly comment? lololl

Oh No different girls. Whao. amazing you remembered. eh eh eh eh. Impressive really
The one earlier this year. She was great amazing. She was cool no problems with her.
This one is different. She interviewed me for a newspaper article. She is nice but when it comes to tech stuff pisses me off.

For me this part takes the cake

-----------
She says:
wa.
i heard some people do it in one night.
----------

There are quite a large number of none techies that assume hm things can be done over night. E.g. they could say, I saw an ad online that says get your website in six hours. So why do you need 2 weeks or more to do it?

Am human not a machine, I am giving you my time FREE. So, do not complain on how much effort I want to put into your work.
We were arguing about domain names when she was picking a name. Then I was like no that sounds too cheesy. I made a spelling mistake and she got a pissed. I think i wrote something like this. "I way away from my computer" of course way = was. But she could have asked  me dude what do you mean and I would explain. Then i was like forget about the process, it is the end result that matters. You get what you will get and you will get it great.


Ok by the way her english = not so great but ok. Chinese.


whisperingeye is not the name of her site. my own little game on her. I need to have an ace to play with.

oyinda.:

seems like one helluva customer. but good thing you're making progress from your starting point, at least she likes the mash up. she seems really excited about the site too. hopefully she's satisfied at the end (cross fingers) and recommends u to a lot of ppl. or just people will see your good work on the site and contact u.
I would have raised the point about u doing the work for free! lol she doesn't seem to be appreciative of that.

but it's always better not to compromise your ethic too much to satisfy a customer that's for sure. and it's a good thing you're not doing that.

she is excited about her own site. after we bought the domain. she posted it on twitter. keep in mind the domain still had the web hosting content on it. phew. i was like remove it cos it may discourage people once they see nothing there from coming back.

Yes, I can always use the fact I am doing it for free against her but that will be a cheap shot at her. Won't do that. It will be too inconsiderate of me to say well, you have no choice am doing it for free. Not ethically acceptable in my opinion.

Hopefully at the end of the day, she is happy with what she gets.

he he cactus:

My friends say I am deadly cos I can recall things from 10 years ago, down to the time and day

Yet another career option for you, for wen you finally relocate to nigeria - writing novels. Hey, how about you revamp the pacesetters dynasty?

yawa-ti-de:

he he cactus:

My friends say I am deadly cos I can recall things from 10 years ago, down to the time and day

Yet another career option for you, for wen you finally relocate to nigeria - writing novels. Hey, how about you revamp the pacesetters dynasty?

In English or Chinese?
My Chinese typing is not too bad,
Reading is very very poor lets say I cant read
Speaking/understanding good, no problem

If you are interested in seeing some of my writings. That would be cool. I dont write much just lazy about it. I have not written anything since maybe May. Cant remember I dont even look at my site. omeiza.net if you want to read. I was going to use it to write about my living experience in China. Got lazy writing. So many stories really incredible, I can write a book about it. omeiza.net . I prefer poetry. ah ah Yes I like poetry. I can send a couple to your email if you wanna read them.

@cactus
Men this reminds me of three experiences I have had with female clients(paid jobs). Men I use to think its just me not knowhing hwo to work with women but I guess its a general issue.
just be patient with them and do what they want. and be ready for changes because they will come back.
In my case I warn that if you come later to do what I want, you will pay extra and for this first release, I DIDNT DO IT lol

I don't like people that come to you first and you talk with them. They go find someone else. and end up coming back to you. Horrible. I just tell them I am busy no more time for you thank you see ya.

here here, Cactus. Yeye people. Sha, I have had experiences where the guilty consciences of such ppl won't let them come back to you, even after you know and they know you know, that they are having problems.

I may need the money, but I do have my principles.

I have long decided to watch cartoon or action movie than develop a website for anyone for free because no matter what you do the person will not be satisfied until you develop another yahoo for the person and when you don't agree to further demands you two may end up quarreling and you will end up regretting ever wasting your time on the project.

So, my style is to bill for everything and treat it as business. At my own discretion I can charge lower for something but to do so for free, lai lai.

Unless of course, you are the one offering to offer a free service like an NGO or donor website. It is cheaper and easier to avoid problems than to solve problems.

Na wao for all this female friends

Once a while, I like to do things free. I offered to do it for free

Though I need the money, but stuff happens I guess. Oh well we are good now things going ok.

Got another request this morning but this one is paid. From another girl through her company. She showed me the site they want, I was like that is what you want? and she said yes that is what her boss wants. So we keep talking and negotiating.  I can charge more to cover part of the cost for the free one.

No wahala. As long as you are the one offering to do a project for free there is no problem.