“A Bit Off the Edge” is an occasional review of some of the best online marketing information we’ve found of late.
Let’s get your Monday morning blahs out of the way right off the bat: Things could be worse. You could be Superman in 2010.
And now, the news…
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In response to our article on the benefits of open source software, Twitter user Plato Hieronimus wrote to us:
“What’s your take on customized open source vs. pure custom builds. When should an organization go with one or the other?”
It’s a great question. After all, if you build it yourself, won’t it be exactly what you want?
I want a new car. An automatic.
I want leather seats, a moonroof, and a built-in GPS.
I want it to drive comfortably and last a long time.
So… what’ll that cost me?
What?
You want to know my budget?
Why?
They say that choosing an agency partner is a lot like getting married after the first date. It can be awfully difficult to “date” an agency without getting serious right away.
So how do you make sure you’re not going to wake up one morning and realize you don’t recognize the person on the other side of the bed?
In 2007, DISCOVER Magazine, the leading popular science magazine in the US, hired us to design and develop a new website that would be more compelling to its community and subscribers. This high-traffic site (more than 5 million page views per month) was developed on a sophisticated open source content management system (Plone), and contains every article of every issue since 1992, categorized, tagged, interrelated and searchable. The platform allows DISCOVER to take advantage of blogging, podcasting, photo galleries and video technologies, and greatly facilitates the publication of the online magazine.
In August 2010, Kalmbach Publishing announced that it was acquiring DISCOVER Media. In its article on the sale, Folio Magazine wrote, “[Henry Donahue, DISCOVER’s CEO], attributes the apparent success of the deal to the digital operations the brand has developed [emphasis added]. ‘It put us in a good position to have an actual sale process in contrast to most of the transactions you’ve seen out there in the market,’ he says.”
A good deal of the value DISCOVER built in its digital operations can be attributed to the benefits DISCOVER was able to gain from using open source software.
After a long search, you’ve finally found the perfect web designer. Her examples are beautiful, she has fantastic references, and her process looks great. But she bills by the hour, and that has you nervous. What if she takes way longer to design your site than she estimates? What happens if she gives you initial comps and you hate all of them – why should you have to pay her more money when she didn’t make you happy in the first place?
Should you insist on a fixed project price?
