Sunday, April 29, 2007

Web ReDesigning & Creative Tagline in 4 days task!

Yesterday, Webflexx made a client really proud when we finished developing a corporate international website in four days. He owns an international business and deals with international trading. When he ‘interviewed’ me on Thursday, he just wanted to see how Webflexx can help him. But when we saw him and we got excited half way through the meeting, immediately he just jump on it and said, “let’s get things started”.

Immediately we went to work. Contacted the photographer for a shooting session, packed all the necessary items to shoot, designers on standby and etc. Client was glad we were this enthusiastic.

Honestly, although it was exciting, I was a bit scared if we weren’t able to live up to his expectations. I hope we can. But we all know that a rush job is never a good job. Rarely a good job I mean.

But all the designers at Webflexx really live up to it. They delivered well last night. The reason why it was so rush was because client needed it for a presentation last night at a formal event. We can feel his urgency and that is why we also put everything aside and assist him with this. A lot of work has went to it to make sure it looked really good. Working around the clock for a few nights. We finished it on Sunday afternoon. At least, there are sufficient hours for him to check the website before client present it to his clients. After all, his clients are of international caliber.

Not only did we finish the entire web design creatively, we also came up with a tagline for him, which we did not charge him for. That’s why here at Webflexx, we are far from being calculative.

Anyway, to finish a one-month job in four days was a real feat. You can check out http://www.engsheng.com to see how it looks like. See the tagline? Redefining global agrifood culture. We came up with that within 10 minutes as client needed it urgently.

We are proud to have served this client in four days. Client loved the website and hopefully, we will be able to serve him in other areas too.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Good web design packages by freelancers? You must be kiddin'...

I called up Webflexx’s potential client yesterday, given to me by one of my existing client. When I called Mr. Lee, the potential client, he said he has been searching high and low for a web designer but do not know where to find them. I told him that there are plenty around, but he said, “yeah but good ones are hard to come by”, so I told him that we are around to assist him and hopefully he will find us good.

He was pretty amusing when he commented that his friend would not recommend us if they find us otherwise. I laughed and said, one man’s experience is another man’s knowledge. For him right now it’s knowledge till he experienced it.

So I will be seeing him tomorrow. He mentioned on the phone that he has been using some freelancers.

And every now and then, I get remarks that asked if Webflexx is made up of freelancers. I told them no. Cuz we are not freelancers. We just happen to be a group of people who see ourselves as owners of our careers. Every project and every assignment, we do not see ourselves as employees, but we see ourselves as owners of each project.

If not, then it will look as though we are just another set of people from a company that produces mediocre job. Yes? No?

And I also told my clients that we do not produce chapalang job. Simply because they are way too many people out there who does them.

Develop a website in 7 days.

We’ll give you your website in 3 days!

Build a website in 24 hours!

Yeah, and after that, get your no-result website. You get what you paid for. Every website needs careful planning, careful content, and careful strategic maintenance program. Yes, you can setup a website in 24 hours, even a junior high student can do that these days! But does the website bring back “Return on Investment” for you?

A website is one that comes with a lot of care and concern. Neglect it and it will not work for you. Why setup a website and expect streams of visitors overnight? It does not work that way. Setup a website and promote it like crazy! The spiders love it, the search engines love it, Google loves it, and most of all, your visitors love it!

Content is king! Update is queen too. Upset the queen and your king will rule with no direction and no focus.

So my friends, get a proper website done. Study it carefully. Forget those instant-website thing. It gets you nowhere.

After all, you get what you paid for! :)

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

The differences in layman's experiences

Yesterday, I was talking to some clients about website development for their respective websites.

The first client was very concerned of how we can overtake his friendly competitor. His concerned was the fact that the one who is occupying the number one position for his choice of keywords, is one of his closest friend in the industry. Yet at the same time, he does not want to give him the chance to become number one again. I am actually very keen to take on the challenge. This could prove to be a stepping stone in SEO for us at Webflexx actually. To do it in a friendly way that is. So after much negotiation, we agreed to take him on to help him with his endeavour. I was personally felt very satisfied at our conversation.

Then, immediately after that, another website owner called. He has called a few times prior and he has been asking us to check out his website and see what we can do for him. After taking a good look at it, I already know what to expect or what not to expect of a website like this. His concerned seems to be dwindled at the functionality of the website, rather than how it could help him with his website-investment. I suggested SEO to him, and suggested a few tools that he could do so that it can improve his website visibility.

But he kept saying "no, I am not interested to be listed in the search engines". So I suggested a few fun tools for him to use and he seems to be highly interested in those.

What I am trying to say is, there are two groups of people - one who want to make full use of their website for maximum return on their investment, and another who just want to have a website because it is the "in" trend right now. It is a necessity to have a website and hence, he just wanna have a good looking website with no apparent focus.

We are more than happy to help the SEO-hungry client. Not to say that SEO is the ultimate goal on the Internet, but without SEO, your emarketing efforts can prove to be an uphill task.

I shan't say more. Even just by relating the stories, it is good enough to differentiate who you wanna be like? Right?

Signing off,
Meng
SEO Consultant with Webflexx

Search Engine Optimisation Workshop

Webflexx organised a Search Engine Optimization Workshop recently. The participants came from a variety of background, although there were only 10 of them. From the Financial Services Industry, there were some from automation, travel, hearing aid, web development (not our competitor though), hotels and resorts, furniture, event management, and many more.

The questions that they raised up during the workshop actually reflects the actual SEO awareness in our country, Malaysia. I personally wished there are more SEO consultants so that we could learn from each other. It is a pity that there were only a few.

One of our clients mentioned to us that she bought a book written by one of our country's SEO consultant, and she has found no substance in that book. Question is, are there enough quality SEO experts to go around servicing different clients to compete with the worldwide counterparts? Why isn't Malaysians website owners shining like the recent badminton champions in the international standards?

Webflexx made mistakes for this reason. We are now here to correct our mistakes. Along the way we have learned many valuable lessons. And we are growing. Who have never make any mistakes in their lives? And that includes the lifetime of a business entity?

Anyway, that could be a different topic altogether, and will be dealt with later.

Question: do we have enough SEO consultants around the country? Webflexx has been training up to 70 SEO consultants by now. But sad to say, not all of them are active. It will be nice if they are isn't it?

Some of the questions raised during the workshop were highly valid and of a sound-mind. Good thing was, the participants really think through every points that were brought up and some of them are experienced webmasters themselves. While some of them are more business-minded than html-minded, they were able to relate.

OK, back to the point, here are some questions which we believe many amateur SEO consultants would be able to answer.

1. how do you know what article to read on the Internet? There are plenty of articles to read. How do you know its genuine and can be read?

2. how do you know when the spider will come crawling to your website? How do you get ready to 'greet' the spider?

3. if this factor works for google.com, does it work for Yahoo!'s search engine as well? What about MSN?

4. does web hosting affect my listing? What happen if my website is down at that time?

etc.

There are plenty, but we couldn't remember the questions. If we do, we will note it.

Webflexx Website Development Services in Malaysia

Hi

Webflexx deals with web development in Malaysia. We cover the very basics of the Internet right through Search Engine Optimization.

We are no expert in emarketing, aka e-marketing, or web marketing, in Malaysia, but we are experienced people. Yes, our experiences cover good experiences and bad experiences as well. So trust me, you are hearing from one who has made all the mistakes there is to make.

Yes, although we are based in Malaysia, we have clients from Fiji, Singapore, China and New York as well. If you are interested to touch base with us, just simply send us an email to wfxmarketing at gmail dot com for now.

This is our first post. More to come.