That’s not really true, but considering I’ve only posted three entries last month and NONE this month, my actions are speaking louder than my words.

I blame it on the heat.

Last night the LOW temp was 79 degrees…  it’s throwing me off.  The only time I can reasonably get in a run is around 7am which I would be okay with if I could convince my body that 3am is NOT an appropriate bed time.  I mean, the late hours are great for my “work” life but they pretty much reck havoc on the rest of my life.  I need to work on balance…

Note: Here’s where this post takes a sharp turn.  If you enjoy reading about web development and freelance businesses and the such, please continue!  If you normally skim through my posts on the mentioned subjects, skim away!  If you considered never reading my blog again because of such topics, stop here

_________

I’ve done a lot of thinking about web development and content management in the past few weeks and have come to a few conclusions:

1 — Clients know what they want, but seldom know what they NEED.  Most of my job is listening to the client to figure out what they actually NEED.

2 — Very few clients can successfully manage their own website.  The IDEA of being in control of your own website is appealing, until your domain expires, you forget your password, your site gets hacked (because you set your password to your birthday or pet’s name) or you want to add a new feature that SHOULD be easy to add (and it is for people like me who enjoy reading hours worth of documentation).

3 — Clients want there website to last forever.  You know, “set it and forget it!”  This is how the cycle goes:  you hire a developer or company to build your site.  They successfully sell you on X,Y and Z technolgies which are ligitimently “new” technologies and meet your list of wants.  A few months later your site is up and everything is great — exactly what you wanted.  A year later, your site is starting to look a little dated, that blog you wanted is getting fewer and fewer updates — you’re kinda wanting something “new”.  Year two rolls around and everybody else’s site is looking way better than yours — you decide that the developer/company sold you “old” technology and you’ve been had.  Now it’s time for something “new” again and you (once again) find the “perfect” company to completely re-design your site…

Okay, so part of that was ranting which I do not apologize for — I mean, *I* feel better, and that’s what matters.  More importantly, these frustrations are helping me help my current and future clients.  You see, the cycle I described in #3 really isn’t so much the client’s fault as it is a flaw in the model.  This model makes a website a “product” and every product has a limited shelf life.  Sure, you can upgrade the product, but after awhile your 1988 Pontiac Sunbird isn’t going to cut it — regardless of what you put under the hood.  The alternative?  What if your website wasn’t a product, but a service?  Google (and other companies) have made the idea of Software as a Service (SaaS) popular over the past few years, why not try the same idea with websites?

I’ll admit, this is in no way a new idea, but for some reason it’s not a very popular one for small business websites.  Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Twitter — all services.  What is nice about these services is that nobody is stuck with “old” technology with these services;  everyone benefits from the latest and greatest upgrades.

So how can that translate to the realm of paid web development?  For those of you already bored, you’ve suffered through enough.  For those of you on the edge of your seat — wait for the next post!