Ask a Website Design Company ^BETA

31 March 2009
Hi Evan,

I totally agree with your comments, this should be an area where web developers attempt to answer specific questions with a detailed and hopefully helpful response and not simply to attempt to plug their own organisation and drum up business.

Having said that I am afraid that you will always get the type of responses you are finding and as annoying as they might be to you there is no real way of preventing this from happening.

Regards,

Tony Green
Webography

1 April 2009
Hi Evan,

I too agree, while the Terms of Use clearly state that there should be no advertising of company information, there are some who either have not read them or don't care.

As a member of this site, I hope you continue to use it as a resource.

Cheers!
Mark

8 April 2009
Evan

I certainly understand your point but surely you will appreciate that we have added our company here for a purpose. Both to allow our existing customers a place to give their 'honest' impression of our services, but also to try and get new projects and clients and so on.

We live in competitive world and one where businesses are failing more frequently.

I will give an informative and hopefully helpful answer, but will certainly not miss an opportunity to attract more clients/enquiries if I can. We are a small group of designers and both Conrad and I have a responsibility to keep them employed.

Regards

Ashley Smith

Acknowledged Web Solutions

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15 April 2009
Ewan,

Yes we agree also, but I think the really good advice far outweighs the spamming.

This section like all good things on the internet will be abused to some degree.

Best wishes,

Peter
doodleIT

8 May 2009
Actually there is no need of such questions to be asked here.

Its well clear that all the companies are looking for business.
Its our part of job to ensure that our customers get the best solution ever.

by
SAJEER MOHAMED
Blueberry Communication
Cochin
www.blueberryindia.in

1 June 2009
Hi,

Fully agree, I have also noticed this on many forums I use and post on. Its ok if some says I want to know what people offer etc and prices but when it comes to general questions and people needing help companies / designers / developers should not start advertising within answering these questions.

Just my views.

Best regards

Jonathon Lucas
AeonCube Networks
http://www.aeoncubenetworks.com/

17 June 2009
That's an extremely good point, and believe it or not, us designers get hit hard by people who are "trying to help us" as well. I'm constantly getting phone messages and emails with people selling me services I offer myself, it's ridiculous.

The big difference between good designers and the ones that answer like so:

"Hey, that's a good question. Check out our website and we'll see if we can help you out:

Super Great Designs
http://www.supergreatdesigns.com/"

is SUBSTANCE. You're right, if they're basically selling themselves more than answering your question then chances are your business relationship is going to only be money motivated and they won't really care about the success of their customers. They'll probably squeeze every dime out of you for every little thing they help you with.

The bottom line is that the truly good designers don't have to rely on selling themselves at every street corner. You should have a good reputation and get word of mouth work.

The biggest problem is that designers see this as another place to ADVERTISE, when really it's a place to NETWORK and there is a difference.

If you wanted to contact me (and honestly I don't know why you would), there's a big blue "C" over here » » »

that links to my profile, crazy.

Thanks, Bryan

2 July 2009
Hi Evan,

I must admit I completely agree with you! If your asking for help the last thing you need is the 'hard sell'.

Unfortunately many people are still of the mind set that they need to push a sale, when today its all about building relationships and sharing your knowledge to build your reputation.

We often run free workshops covering a variety of topics, although the more traditional sales person would see this as an opportunity to do a hard sell, I much more prefer to share my knowledge and help people who will in turn help build our reputation as a company with great expertise.

Thats my thoughts however!

Danielle

29 July 2009
Ask a Designer is a new feature on WWDC, so I would imagine there are some kinks that still need to be ironed out.

I know the Answers section on LinkedIn has the option to report or flag any answer as being in violation of the spirit of the site (and one of those violations is blatant advertising). It might be worth WWDC looking into this as well?

23 February 2010
Hi Evan,

I think that companies should not be allowed to post any business contact information or make solicitations with answers ever...regardless if they are providing an answer to the question or not.

If the person who asked the question wants to talk to you, they can click on your information on the side, plain and simple!