Getting a website done is quite an ordeal and is probably one of the most under-appreciated facet of any business. While it can be a good marketing tool for some, for most (myself included) I think it’s just one more chore to do. I was working my angles trying to save a buck and man – you do really get what you pay for…. mostly. I went back and reread what I posted and man was I on a tirade. But it felt good to write and hey – it’s content for the SEO gods.
1st Attempt – Overseas Designer – Initially I was really pinching the pennies, but with everyone sending work overseas, why couldn’t I? I went on Upwork, a freelancer site for all kinds of projects and put in my specs. Going through the profiles swiping left and right, I eventually found my guy, paid a deposit and sent him what I wanted. Turns out that his idea of a design was a template over a word press site. I “custom design” and template mean the exact same thing, right? NEXT.
2nd Attempt – Colleague Referral – Had a consultation with the guy, seemed legit. Wanted to go ahead and get me launched on the platform he uses – react.js. Sure whatever, so I sent over all of the documents, logos, copy and some design feedback and waited. Reached out, nothing. Reached out again nothing. Then out just a random text: “Working On it.” So now it’s 3 days until my entire completion deadline deadline and I get a text saying his sister is having a baby and he needed to go visit her. Fine – I get it. He indicated that he would follow up with an invite to go over the composition. Crickets. Waited more and finally got a text with a meeting time – PROGRESS! Day before that I get a text “Gotta work late.” No follow up. So I wait again and this time it’s even longer and so I finally text my colleague who referred him and and there was mention of some personal things. I never thought I would be so understanding. So I wait some more until one day I’m really irritated and I send him an email stating that if he doesn’t want to do the site to just tell me and I will have no hard feelings. GAVE HIM AN OUT. He responds apologizing and added that he will have a composition in 2 days. Well golly gee guess what. NOTHING. Couple more days go by and STILL nothing. I’m drafting texts and deleting them and in the back of my mind I am mad at myself for allowing this to still go on.
I finally reached out to my colleague about his whereabouts. He said he did the same runaround with him on his website (but gave him a discount) – maybe I’d get a deal! So I wait some more and then I get a text from my colleague “I haven’t heard from him in awhile.” Oh boy. So for the next days we’re just wondering if he’s alright and if there really was a cause for concern. Crickets. And then I get a text from my friend:
Covid.
That was a Monday morning – said he was in the hospital on a vent but he had been released. Crazy. So obviously I am just playing it by ear and would expect him to follow up with me when he could. It’s been 9 days and nothing and still at the time of writing this, still nothing. I don’t even know what to even say – I didn’t lose any money so I really don’t feel scammed, but I am totally at a loss for how someone could do this on a professional level, with a referral no less!
3rd Attempt – Myself – Nowadays most websites are created with tools that allow the updating to be done easily with no coding knowledge for people just like me. I was urged by a colleague to at least try it so I thought what the hell, lots of other things I could be doing but let’s pretend I have a flair for design. It took a day, and I was able to select a template, get most of the copy in and have a nice framework for a website. Granted there are things that I wanted to be dressed up and with flair, but for now – I think it’s a viable website. That almost makes up for what happened.
OK I’m done – I am not even going to reread this because I know that some of it won’t make sense!