So, 2 months or so ago, I got approached by someone who wanted me to redesign their website. I asked for whatz out there at the time. He said the site was down. I asked y. He said he was having "issues (webmaster never returned calls, client stopped paying, webmaster deleted site, etc) with the webmaster. I said okay, then we need to get another name. Hence, www.ibompeoplescongress.org was born. The client has been pretty happy with me so far. In fact, even though no one but me and the client know about the .org, people have some how found it and are requesting to become members.

All was fine and dandy until this weekend when I was doing some googling. I noticed a www.ibompeoplescongress.com. What pissed me off about it was that it appeared above my site. So I clicked on it and behold it was the original site of the client. From the looks of it, not to say my site is any better, I am happy the site was redesigned. Information is easier to find, mine is more appealling to the eye and all in all, it provides for a better user experience.

I have since asked the client to instruct the webmaster, who all of a sudden decided to show up (I wonder why ), to take down the .com site.

Lessons:
1) For clients, always know who you are dealing with. Get references directly from other clients of the webmaster. Don't just go off of a portfolio page.

2) For webmasters, always be there for your client. You never know who he/she will refer you to.

3) The cheapest solution doesn't always necessarily pay. When the client told me how much they paid for the .com, in my mind, I immediately said to myself, "no wonder".

Just thought I should share.

my2cents:

Lessons:
1) For clients, always know who you are dealing with. Get references directly from other clients of the webmaster. Don't just go off of a portfolio page.

2) For webmasters, always be there for your client. You never know who he/she will refer you to.

3) The cheapest solution doesn't always necessarily pay. When the client told me how much they paid for the .com, in my mind, I immediately said to myself, "no wonder".

Just thought I should share.

Very true. but the problems with 2 are what really piss me off. i'm serving, juggling my freelance carreer, and STILL trying to scout for other clients. ADD bad internet service, no light, and what ever life can find its hands on to throw at you. But, like u said once "thats what you're paid for" _*Sighs*

nice piece though

_{***heads back to work***}

You should have simply asked for control of the .com domain. That's in the customer's best interest.

Webmonk, I realize for every rule, there is an exception. What works for you may not work for me. I guess I was coming froma best-case scenario. I really respect my peers back at home who have to deal with a lack of infrastructure yet, are able to put up websites.

Seun, maybe its that simple, maybe it isn't.

I may have forgotten to say (and if I did, I apologize) that the user didn't have access to that information at all. Look at it this way, if the client couldn't even recall the URL, that should tell you how technical he is.

Here is another scenario that I may be involved with:

The owner of fresh air (I guess those of you in Nigeria know of this company. I just heard about it last week) wants a redesign. Guess what though: The old site http://www.freshairline.com/ expired last week - it is back up now though). The owner had retrenched his IT staff due to lack of work. They had all the information (username, password, etc) I would have needed to "take over the site". As of last week, the client was looking for the contact info for his former staff. What would I have done in that instance? Thankfully, the site is back up though. Now, business can proceed as usual

@poster

I do totally agree with you that your website looks more appealing and far better. I do agree with one of the poster that you should ask to control the .com as well.

At the time of writting this Google actually did a recent search for your site than the .com version, applying organic technic, i guess with time your version of the site would appear on top, good luck with that.

Share with the forum what the outcome is.

With reference to the picture gallery of your site, can I just ask that the fact of the user clicking on the image taking them to a new page and then clicking back is a bit stressful(not a big deal), can I suggest you apply the lightbox JS library effect to it.

Check the link out here to gain an understanding of what I mean

http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

They had all the information (username, password, etc) I would have needed to "take over the site".

All you need is the domain name, which you should then redirect to the new site. It's that simple. People tend to assume that every domain name is .com, so your .org domain will lose some traffic. Your client has every right to ask the former webmaster to surrender to domain name to you. So why not?

Exactly as seun has said you just need to update the name servers of the .com site, furthermore you should tell your client its in their best interest as the original site has horrible HTML mark up (tables and capital letters YUCK) is SEO unfriendly and will give them a tainted-ish name, i.e. make him see that he'll be wasting his money and time by not using what you built. Welldone however

As we dont know what contract is in place between the client and the webmaster for the .com version, I dont think we can speculate.

We had the same problem for a freelance project we did for a client, the client had to pay more than the £5 he would have paid if he had owned the domain name, all I can say it does get sticky than we might think

All, thanks for your input. Much appreciated. This is the kind of civilized discourse I look forward to

Seun et al, as I said earlier, the client is having problems getting info from the old webmaster. Nonetheless, I will drop him an email and tell him to demand a handover of the information. Until that happens, I guess we are going to have to live with 2 sites.

juintade, the photo gallery actually is using lightbox2. Perhaps I didn't word it well or we are talking about 2 different things? I only added those instructions cos when I looked at lightbox2, it wasn't obvious to me that I had to hover over the left and right sides of the image to see the "next" and "prev". Either way, visit the site again and click on the thumbnails. I just verified this in IE6 and 7, Safari and FF and it works. Let me know what you find.

Once again, thanks all.

hello sirs

I am in the process of developing a site, that is definitely a crowd puller,
i am just in need of ideas to generate cash thru all of the traffic

what's the real deal with google adsense,
any used bidvertiser b4
and how can you make the most of all that traffic?

Da, ama aka mbono Akwa Ibom ke North Carolina? Ebo ke Attah mmo ake ba do@my2cents.

@topic

Its normal for servers to sometimes have downtimes even if they claim a 100% uptime, not excluding nairahost.

But it all boils down to how misunderstandings are worked out at the end of the day.

I can personally say that nairahost host support system is efficient. Atleast all tickets i have raised have been duly and promptly responded to.

@poster
It would be advisable to contact your host first before posting on a public forum. Posting on a forum should always be a last resort.

my2cents:

Webmonk, I realize for every rule, there is an exception. What works for you may not work for me. I guess I was coming froma best-case scenario. I really respect my peers back at home who have to deal with a lack of infrastructure yet, are able to put up websites.

Seun, maybe its that simple, maybe it isn't.

I may have forgotten to say (and if I did, I apologize) that the user didn't have access to that information at all. Look at it this way, if the client couldn't even recall the URL, that should tell you how technical he is.

Here is another scenario that I may be involved with:

The owner of fresh air (I guess those of you in Nigeria know of this company. I just heard about it last week) wants a redesign. Guess what though: The old site http://www.freshairline.com/ expired last week - it is back up now though). The owner had retrenched his IT staff due to lack of work. They had all the information (username, password, etc) I would have needed to "take over the site". As of last week, the client was looking for the contact info for his former staff. What would I have done in that instance? Thankfully, the site is back up though. Now, business can proceed as usual
0

the navigation on the site is poor, you have to click back on the browser to get to the home page.

mdsocks:
which site?

ndipe:
I no been go convention o! My daughter was born about a month before and so we felt she would be too young to undergo the stress of travelling Attah was there but from what I am made to understand, he was boo'd big time. He claimed there was 24/7 electricity in Uyo, but we know that's a lie. In fact, I heard the chairman of the occassion was so angry at Attah that he walked out in the middle of Attah's speech.

dearstan:
if the "@poster" comment is directed towards me, please expound as I am left more confused that I was when I read it. Thanks. If I do understand what you meant, the purpose of this thread wasn't to point out the inefficiencies of hosts but to point out the differences b/w what a site was and what a site presently is

all:
Anything I do for the client at this point, granted it is part of the "be there for your client" deal, is done totally as a public service - I was paid for this site 2 months ago. I was bored at the time I decided to do some googling. If I wanted to be the bad guy, I wouldn't have even notified the client/this forum

hhmmmmmm!this one don pass me ooo!

cant even make out the jargons.

Sorry to say this, i have looked at both sites, can't really find the difference

The websites are both cool.The .com webmaster shouldn't have disappeared later to return when he realized there is another site running .It is left for the client to decide on what they want.

@my2cents
THE FRESH AIR SITE

mdsocks,

what about it? u know the guy in charge (in Nigeria)? He is really slowing things down. If you know him, tell am say make im kuku release funds biko. I get bills to pay

I have to say it but that Freshair site does not look good. I don't get it, what happened to decent designing? I mean even government sites look ridiculously silly. Are we really that design challenged in Nigeria? I am sorry it may seem harsh but I got to be honest, most of the nigerian sites or sites created by persons from nigeria suck

Dollarjunkie

(/qoute)I have to say it but that Freshair site does not look good. I don't get it, what happened to decent designing? I mean even government sites look ridiculously silly. Are we really that design challenged in Nigeria? I am sorry it may seem harsh but I got to be honest, most of the nigerian sites or sites created by persons from nigeria suck(/quote)


that's true , the site is really bad
No navigation links on the fresh air site
i had to press back to get to the homepage.
*******imagine that**********

@all,

that is y you need to pressure the management to release the funds so I can start redesigning the site. Just to clarify, I have had nothing to do with the site to-date. In fact, but for them contacting me to redesign it, I didn't even know the URL . As it stands currently, I am still awaiting "oga's response".

Oya now, who wan start?

mdsocks:
Not to support the layout of the site, but in fairness to the original developers, there is a "home" button as part of the navigation. Also, it was pretty easy to find.

Sorry for derailing the thread.

@My2cents. Heard of the controversy surrounding Attah's presence at the convention. I would have to say that the man has bitten off what he can chew. The projects that he initiated back home, while notable are yet to be completed. A friend who got a job at the airport in okobo, might be coming to the USA for training. I keep hearing conflicting views about Attah. What happened to the Electric transformer that was supposed to generate electricity back home regularly? No matter what, Attah should be commended for his vision in establishing it in the state.

There is a possibility that the client might have tried to short change the former webmaster at some point leading to him/her going AWOL. This happens sometimes and instead of the client to come to the round table the client might prefer to start all over again. Funny as it may sound this happens a lot in the industry. The customer is not always right. Some of them need very close marking.

I am on the first website at the moment.
The simplicity and maturity are the hallmarks of the website.

This is what I call, live and direct to the point.

Two thumbs up.

tomX:
I agree with all you say except for the customer is not always right part. The trick is to make them feel they are always right, even though they aren't

Orikinla:
Thanks. I strive for and push simplicity in everything I do, both with websites and in life. In the end, why take 5 steps to perform one task when you could do it in 2? Hopefully, as I make a move for the Nigerian market, clients appreciate simplicity as well. Not all sites should have continuous flash movies, for instance, that make me (and I am sure others) nauseous.

Ndipe:
I hear (I am not there, so I can't speak for a fact) that pretty much all of Attah's projects have been or are being cancelled or short-changed: AKUTECH, IPP, Airport. Prof Akpan Ekpo even resigned as VC of AKUTECH b4 it was scrapped. For a state that takes in billions monthly, you would think they would actually focus on its citizens in the areas of roads, light and water.

What a sad story. I think it's best to check www.who.is to find out expiry dates and contacts and all that before doing another, sure .org does makes more sense in this case, being an organization but of course, nigerians and .com addiction, . .

Christino,

In my case, the client actually gave me the URL. So I didn't bother doing any checks, except to make sure that what he wanted actually existed.

I now have a "note to self" though - do more investigating in the future. Take the fresh air site for instance. When the client called, he told me that all of a sudden, even though he pays his bills, the site "disappeared". So I did a "who is" and found out that the site had expired on August 29th, hence the site being down. When I brought it up to the client's attention, he said, "oh yeah, I forgot about that". Yeah right!