Contact Info
- Author: lisa@webdivawisdom.com, (510) 604-5717
Product Info
Title: Web Diva® Wisdom – How to Find, Hire, and Partner with the Right Web Designer for You- Author: Lisa Stambaugh
- Publisher: CreateSpace
- Date of Publication: May 30, 2014
- Retail Price: $12.00 US (Paperback), $3.99 US (Kindle)
- ISBN-13: 978-1493756452
- Pages: 266
- Format: Available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle
- Excerpt: Available in PDF
- Press Release: Web Diva® Insider Tips: Save Time, Money, And Aggravation When Working With A Web Designer (PRNewswire, PDF)
Sales Copy
Longform copy for newsletters, email campaigns, blog posts, etc.
Web Diva® Wisdom: How to Find, Hire, and Partner with the Right Web Designer for You shares tips and guidelines enabling individuals and organizations to select the right web designer for their needs, allowing that designer to work more efficiently on their behalf, and helping them collaborate to develop the best website showcasing their services and products. Readers learn how to control project cost, reduce errors, avoid rework, minimize frustration, shorten the launch timeline, and create the optimal website meeting their goals of budget, schedule, and functionality.
This compilation of exercises, checklists, and real-life stories will prove helpful to anyone working with a professional web designer. This comprehensive handbook is the only one of its kind: few freelance web designers have the broad and deep experience necessary to write it – and many are reluctant to share information that will reduce client spending.
The material is organized in standalone sections. You can read the entire book now and get value from it, but it can also be relevant as a step-by-step resource, to be read in sections, based on where you are in the process. Reading this book will give you the tools to get the most out of a working relationship with your web designer so you can create the best website possible for your needs.
Shortform copy for blurbs
Web Diva® Wisdom: How to Find, Hire, and Partner with the Right Web Designer for You shares the tips and tricks that will enable you to choose the right web designer for you, allow your web designer to work more efficiently on your behalf, and help you collaborate to develop the best website for your services and products.
Bio
Author Lisa Stambaugh has been a freelance Web Diva® for over 19 years, and has designed and implemented over 650 websites. After observing pervasive time- and money-wasting client behavior and rescuing projects left incomplete by unqualified designers, she set out to educate the public about effectively managing the process to their advantage.
Previously she held individual contributor and management positions in engineering, quality, and information technology. She holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and an MS in computer science from Stanford University. Based in Fremont, CA, she’s the local go-to gal for all things web-o-matic. If she’s not creating online, her hands are probably busy tying knots in yarn with a couple o’ sticks. Collective Discovery is her online studio and sandbox.
Photos of Me
You are welcome to use these photos of me. If you click on the image, it will open a 300dpi version which you can download.
Logo
Should you need the book logo, you can find it here (PNG).
Promotional Info
- Whenever promoting the book, please link to https://webdivawisdom.com/
- When you post a review or promotion, please let me know so that I can add / link to your promotion from https://webdivawisdom.com/reviews.
Interview Resources
Bio Talking Points
- Lisa Stambaugh has been a freelance Web Diva® since 1998.
- She has designed and implemented over 670 websites for individuals, small-to-medium-sized businesses, and nonprofit organizations.
- Through this experience, she has developed processes, checklists, and templates to get the job done. No stone has been left unturned in uncovering every little detail of the website design process: the best ways to approach the many tasks and challenges, the common mistakes that clients make, and the things they do that can drive a web designer crazy!
- Previously she held individual contributor and management positions in engineering, quality, and information technology, spanning almost twenty years, at technology leaders as well as start-up endeavors.
- She holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and an MS in computer science from Stanford University.
- She lives in Fremont, California, with her husband and a room full of computers. They have two adult children, one grandchild, and a menagerie of grandpets.
Interview & Presentation Topics
Every website project starts with homework
Covering the details of the client’s pre-work before starting the process of finding and hiring a web designer.
Your website is not just about who you are today but who you will be in the future. Before making a commitment, candidate web designers need key information to determine if your project is right for their skills and services. It all starts with who you are and what you do, followed by your purpose, objectives, values, competitive analysis, desired outcomes, proposed measures, and commitment to making the website a successful one.
You don’t need to hire the first web designer you find
Covering the details of finding and interviewing candidate web designers.
My grandmother always said, “Don’t pick the first head of cabbage.” I’m pretty sure she meant not to always grab the first opportunity that comes along, and don’t marry the first guy you fall in love with. In other words, you don’t have to go with the first web designer you meet or the first one you interview. You don’t need to find the single best web designer in the world, the country, or even the state. There are plenty of qualified web designers available and capable of delivering what you need. You just want to find the right one for you, and you have choices.
The hiring choice is not yours alone
Covering the decision from the perspective of the web designer, which will help you select the most appropriate candidates and determine the right choice for you.
Web designers have their own considerations and criteria in determining whether you are the right client for them. Experienced web designers have factors they consider when evaluating potential clients. Sometimes a single factor can be enough for a web designer to reject you as a client. You won’t know the factors ahead of time, as each web designer has his or her own criteria. Most web designers won’t specify these constraints on their websites, so you need to think ahead. A web designer that is desperate for work will take any clients that come along. However, if this designer is capable, qualified, and in demand, he or she can afford to be choosy. And if the designer has the option of choosing which clients to take, he or she will use it.
Web Designer = Business Partner
Covering tips for strengthening the partnership with your web designer, making both of you more productive.
Make your web designer a partner in your success. Your web designer is there to help you with strategic planning and ideas, as well as creative execution. Build a stronger relationship by treating your web designer as a partner in your success—not just as a contracted worker—and share your successes with him or her. You’ll need to trust your web designer on many fronts, and you want this person to tell you the truth, propose the most cost-effective methods and processes to get the work done, and be honest and up front about issues or changes.
Sample Interview Questions
- Why did you decide to write this book?
- Who would benefit from reading this book?
- How do you think this book will be helpful for small businesses?
- How do you think this book will be helpful for non-profit organizations?
- How does the advice in the book lead to cost savings?
- How does the advice in the book enable shorter project schedules?
- What is the benefit of reading the book before interviewing candidate web designers?
- How will the book be helpful for someone who already has an established website?
Reviews
You can read reviews here.
