Troubles with clients not giving me content

I would love to know your procedures on this.
I have had this in many cases. We get a call to design a website, we then setup a contract, the client signs the contract and we start designing. We design the template for the website but it seems to take the client forever to get us the content and pictures.
To me I feel the client should be the one to write their own content. They know their business better than we do. But at the same time, they sure are taking their time. It causes major delays and messes up future projects.
How do you guys go about doing this?





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I have also had this problem before. What I do is I have placeholder images in place until they provide the images that they wish to use - that usually hurries them up
As for text, we usually write that up - it's a lot easier in my opinion than finding suitable images.





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The lack of content is THEIR PROBLEM so long as you have taken partial payment up front. Clients do this for a variety of reasons. Mostly they are very busy working their primary business.





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I've made sites from no more than a business card.
I find that if you write content for the client, they are more likely to be able edit what you wrote than to write their own from scratch, and get it done much faster. For most clients, starting is the hard part....editing the content provided by the guy who know his business as well as he does is easier.





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Quote:



Originally Posted by bear


I've made sites from no more than a business card.
I find that if you write content for the client, they are more likely to be able edit what you wrote than to write their own from scratch, and get it done much faster. For most clients, starting is the hard part....editing the content provided by the guy who know his business as well as he does is easier.


That's probably a good way to get the customer moving. I usually try to hint/prod/cajole the person that this is THEIR time to show enthusiam for their business. You would think instead of trying to get material out of them that you'd rather try to cut out too much. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work and actually seems to take longer because some clam up even further. I like to push a project through to completion quickly but it's the customers that are the holdup. Maybe I'll start taking Bear's approach. I'll be "Joe the Plumber" writing copy for my new bankruptcy attorney's site.





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Last edited by Ceetoe : 10-28-2008 at 08:33 PM.
Reason: typos

We generally take 50% payment upfront and the rest upon completion of the website. It seems without their text, theirwebsite isn't completed.
I have since put in the quote or contract I have them sign a statement that the website is to be completed within 2 weeks and full payment to be received no later than 1 month of start date.
I just made it bold.
I do like your approach Bear. I might just start trying to write their content. I would spend less time writing content than having to keep asking them for theirs.





__________________Atech St. Louis Web HostingGraphics, Affordable Web Design, EcommercePowerful Linux Web Hosting * Cpanel * Fantastico * No Overselling!

That's why I make it so they have a simple, db driven admin section, with each page of text taken from the db. I put in the initial content, and they are free to edit it themselves.





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We always deliver the website with 2 or 3 example pages that contain every element one needs when editing contents, so the client can do all the content editing himself, in our beloved WordPress





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This is why I always take the payment up front. I still have clients who paid back in march but have been too busy to get me pictures of their shop, etc. Web Design is often an impulse by (if your doing aggressive marketing), so keep that in mind, and let the client work at their own pace (as long as they understand they will not be given first priority if they take over a month etc.)





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I know your problem, its completely the same at our company. Some clients need a very long time to create the required content. Because of that we take half of the payment before starting to work, this helps to finance long-lasting designing-processes. And we also don´t create the texts or pics for a website, generally this is the client´s business. If (in some cases) the clients doesn´t know how to or don´t have the time to do this, we offer this services as an upgrade. Then we hire professional text writers or photographers to create high quality content for the client´s website.





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This is a typical CCM (my own abbreviation for 'Custom Conflict Management') area, which the web developer usually tend to get very frustrated over.
I take a very easy procedure that both makes the client aware of, and appreciative of, your need for the images/content.
Step 1) First e-mail or phone the client — I prefer to e-mail — stating that you are in need of the images/content as soon as possible.
Step 2 - for the e-mail) I wait up to 24hours, if I have not gotten a reply, I will send a second e-mail stating that again you need the images/content. If you do not hear a reply within 24 hours, you will assume them to be busy, and that you will put in 'filler' text/images that can be updated at a later time.
Step 2 - for the call) If they have not give you the source, call again! Let them know that you again are needing the images/content and that you will use 'filler' text/images if they are not able to send them right away.
Step 3) You either received the images/text, or you didn't. If you did, there you go! If you didn't, however, use 'filler' text/images. Problem resolved.





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