Though I run a professional registered web design and Internet marketing firm, my greatest area of expertise is content development and online marketing & publicity strategy. The web development industry is still growing and many Nigerians are still ignorant of the basics like hosting,domain,SEO. so web developers may need to do a little more than develop. They may assist in content development and even consult on the marketing aspect.                                      Challenge: some clients come to you for a web project expecting you to set up an excellent interactive site with great graphics. They also keep coming for updates and changes but want to pay nothing for maintenance.  Solution: include the cost of maintenance in the original contract. We normally add it as an annual cost which will be a percentage of the original cost of developing the web. Don't forget to differentiate it from the recurrent annual cost of hosting,etc                                            Challenge: Some clients come to you with web dev proj and pay very little down payment. When you spend your time & resources doing a great job,you might discover the client is not so quick to pay you even when he thinks job is great.      Solution: always ask for a great percentage of your fees upfront,say at least 70%.                                                                  Challenge: some web developers don't notify clients about expiry of domains and need to renew hosting. Some clients have come to me complaining of how their website disappeared after a while and the developer is nowhere to be found. They think they have been defrauded.      Solution: Inform,educate and engage your clients in the process from the beginning. If they can,let them register their own domain and host. If they can't, do it using their own email. If they don't use e-mail much,let them know they need to start now if their web is gonna be of any functional use. Some web developers make the mistake of thinking that if their client knows more,they will soon become redundant. That's mediocrity. From my experience,intelligent clients are always better. Educate, inform and involve.  E-volve!

lovely, educative,