Looking back on our 18-month journey from the Eureka Moment (it shouldn’t be this hard to find a decent ecard), to launching VerveCards.com, home of “wry and snappy – never sappy” ecards for savvy senders, the web building muses were definitely with us. Of course there were curve balls, but they were of the non-catastrophic, lesson-learning variety. (You know – what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!) Here’s the quick and dirty version of what we discovered along the way:
Dashed, but Not Defeated
Because VerveCards.com is a membership site with auto-renew annual billing, our first stop was MemberGate.com. As a web design firm that specializes in information-based membership sites, they have it down to a well priced science. They came highly recommended by a fantastic career changers’ website ChangingCourse.com, which is where we learned of our business model in the first place.
However, moments out of the starting gate we learned that our virtual product was not an information product, and the ecard-sending functionality that we needed was a deal breaker. Dang! (Good Move #1 – Starting with a niche web builder. They can offer substantial savings by not having to reinvent the wheel — IF you fit into their niche. Unfortunately, we didn’t, but it was worth a shot.)
Dodged That Bullet
On to winging it without benefit of a trusted recommendation! Googling “web designers” led us to a high-ranking company with very attractive pricing. (Must mean they have great search engine optimization capabilities if they ranked so high, right?) We’ll call them No-goodnik Web Design (not their real name).
The long and short of it – they wooed us, we fell for it, but … suddenly they were pushing a little too hard … enticing us with if-you-sign-right-now-we’ll-slash-the-price bonbons that smelled a little fishy. Danger Will Robinson! Literally moments before signing on the dotted line we hit Pause to do some due diligence — better late than never! We Googled the company name, and a tsunami of hard core customer complaints came up — Yikes!
How could this be? Until closing in for the kill, they’d been so helpful and forthcoming. (In fact, with minor tweaks, their very detailed quote served as our Request for Services for subsequent bids. Our lengthy Q&A calls even taught us the lingo, which ultimately served us quite well.) And what about that impressive “Inc. 500” banner plastered on their Home page? (Turns out, all that means is that they grew really fast – “how” doesn’t factor into the equation!)
Through the Google hits, we located the sites of real live people who had used them — and heard their horror stories when we called. The upshot — signing on with No-goodnik would have wiped us out and stalled our project indefinitely. (Good Move #2 – Being our own Columbo. Testimonials on a site, or references provided by a vendor, are always going to be positive. Dig deeper to find customers on your own, and call them.)
The Goldilocks Phenomenon
Leigh Copin of VerveCards.com
Next we zig zagged through myriad proposals from domestic web builders that ran the gamut of wildly out of our price range to roughly three times our budget. Then we explored a firm in India that came highly recommended – closer, but still way beyond our means.
Finally we stumbled upon the Goldilocks trifecta, and everything fell into place. One web builder was too small (couldn’t handle our ecard sending functionality and the Flash slideshow on our Home page); his buddy’s firm was too big (had an outsized minimum budget requirement); but his pal’s firm was just right! (Of course, this time we did our due diligence tout de suite!) (Good Move #3 – Just keep asking “Do you know anybody else who could help us?” until you hit pay dirt!)
SiteStrux.com to the Rescue
Nancy Rielle of VerveCards.com
Kismet kicks in at zero hour – if something’s meant to be! Had we not discovered SiteStrux in this serendipitous fashion, we would not have been able to build our site – period! They work with a proprietary modular system that really keeps site building costs down. When needed, they build custom functionality from scratch, but first they customize their existing modules wherever possible.
As far as we know, there’s nothing else like them out there. They built us a well designed, custom looking/functioning site for 2/3 less than our next highest bidder, the firm from India! We’re very grateful to the scrupulously honest and diligent fellows from SiteStrux, Brandon Griggs and Eric Katherman!
VerveCards.com includes E-commerce, Shopping Cart, Catalogue, and Membership modules from the proprietary Content Management System (CMS). The rest of our site is custom built. The CMS modules are customizable to a point, but options are more limited. The system can be updated by the owner without learning html code. This is perfect for us, as we’re constantly loading new ecards and updating our Home page, as well as other areas of the site.
How to Optimize Your Site Building Experience Using a Proprietary System
1. Prepare an Airtight Home Page Mock-up and Request for Services. Take nothing for granted when hashing out your final pricing and contract, or it could come back to haunt you. Make sure all functionality shown on your mock Home page is described in your written RFS, and everything noted in your RFS appears on your mock Home page. Clarify any discrepancies up front, and specifically ask your web builder if anything looks awry from their point of view.
2. BYOGD — Bring in Your Own Graphic Designer. It defies the laws of nature to expect that someone tech savvy enough to devise their own system will also be an ace designer. And a graphic designer who has no preconceived notions about what can or can’t be done technically will likely come up with a much more creative site design. Take the best of both worlds, and marry them – let the graphic designer come up with the look, and let the web builder make it functional.
3. Create a Consistency Guide for Commonly Used Terms and Spelling, So Everything’s Uniform Throughout the Site. Those same laws of nature extend to tech savviness and spelling/grammar. More often than not, these strengths are mutually exclusive! Before you create your custom pages, comb through the Core pages to determine standard word usage and spelling. With your Consistency Guide as a reference, make sure they carry over to the custom pages.
4. Get Clear on Which Site Pages Will Be Core and Which Will Be Custom, and Make Sure This Is Stated in Your Contract. Before you begin, ask to see mock-ups of all Core pages and a list of any design limitations. Build these pages first, then add your custom pages, so they’re consistent.
5. Use Shared Googledocs With Your Web Building Team. These freebies are life savers! Assign tasks to be done, then colorize them when complete. Everyone can see the project status, and the document lives on as a record of the project from start to finish.
VerveCards.com was founded by mompreneur and graphic designer, Leigh Copin, and her cousin and co-founder, Nancy Rielle, a copywriter, marketing consultant, and former fine artist/painter. When an ill-fated search for a decent ecard uncovered slim pickings, they created “wry and snappy – never sappy” ecards for savvy senders like themselves to fill the void. With their vibrant designs and ingenious wit, paper-free VerveCards provide an eco-friendly, time-saving and cost-effective solution to sending quality online greetings with style! VerveCards.com is wholly owned and operated by VerveCards, LLC, a Florida company based in West Palm Beach, FL with an office in Brooklyn, NY. For more information, please visit VerveCards.com or Twitter.com/VerveCards.
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