5 ms·

When I worked for a small web agency, I loved the fact that when you did a website for someone, you'd be introduced to their entire business model and everythin

by nolroz 5y ago

When I worked for a small web agency, I loved the fact that when you did a website for someone, you'd be introduced to their entire business model and everything within. It was a great opportunity to help them optimize all the things if they were willing. It lead to doing a lot of add on work like spreadsheet-> program work, physical network setup, ads, logos, kiosk applications, Christmas tree databases, etc... I loved helping those small businesses but a lot of them don't have a lot of money to burn so going with a monthly rate they can plan on is powerful, as is managing expectations. A lot wanted Facebook for $500. There are patterns that emerge and one could build an in house stack to handle most everything I'm sure, just increase your monthly as they add services.

anonymouse008 5y ago
> A lot wanted Facebook for $500. Mind explaining what this means? Did they want content generation for posts? Or did they actually just want someone to post what they had on file? Or did they just want advertising help? My family has small businesses and I've thought about helping others, but the asks seem too all over the place.
- aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
  They wanted to have a well-cared for FB page for either 500$ upfront or monthly, I'd presume.
  - bluehatbrit 5y ago
    I took it to mean "[...] managing expectations is important. A lot of places wanted something the size of facebook but to only pay $500."
- AlbertoGP 5y ago
  >> A lot wanted Facebook for $500. > Mind explaining what this means? As a freelancer, what I’ve seen is requests for building a Facebook-scale social network with all the scalable infrastructure and other bells and whistles, mobile app integration, etc., sometimes for a specific community (lawyers, doctors, or some such), that offer $500 as total budget.
  - zozbot234 5y ago
    Mastodon is perfect for this use case, though.
    - anonymouse008 5y ago
      See that’s the way I like to think — sure $500, and I’ll spin up an instance for you. Then $50/mo for server uptime.
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    A lot of people have no idea how much work is involved in software development. It's just like magic to them. I've lost count of the number of customers who said "this should be easy, I'm sure you can knock it up in an afternoon" whilst I'm thinking there is probably two years work in what you are asking for.
- brimble 5y ago
  Sometimes a customer suggests one little feature for the site and you have to gently point them to the entire business employing 25 people that just does that one feature as an entire program/service on its own, so no, they won't be getting it as some little easy and cheap thing in one sprint, and probably won't be getting it at all, on their budget. Other times, yeah, they want some crazy machine learning driven whatever with bells and whistles and social and apps on every major platform and blah blah blah and don't get why that will take at a bare minimum dozens of very talented and expensive people, and probably multiple years, to achieve. Which is the "Facebook for $500" thing.

by nolroz 5y ago

anonymouse008 5y ago

> A lot wanted Facebook for $500. Mind explaining what this means? Did they want content generation for posts? Or did they actually just want someone to post what they had on file? Or did they just want advertising help? My family has small businesses and I've thought about helping others, but the asks seem too all over the place.

aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
They wanted to have a well-cared for FB page for either 500$ upfront or monthly, I'd presume.
- bluehatbrit 5y ago
  I took it to mean "[...] managing expectations is important. A lot of places wanted something the size of facebook but to only pay $500."
AlbertoGP 5y ago
>> A lot wanted Facebook for $500. > Mind explaining what this means? As a freelancer, what I’ve seen is requests for building a Facebook-scale social network with all the scalable infrastructure and other bells and whistles, mobile app integration, etc., sometimes for a specific community (lawyers, doctors, or some such), that offer $500 as total budget.
- zozbot234 5y ago
  Mastodon is perfect for this use case, though.
  - anonymouse008 5y ago
    See that’s the way I like to think — sure $500, and I’ll spin up an instance for you. Then $50/mo for server uptime.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  A lot of people have no idea how much work is involved in software development. It's just like magic to them. I've lost count of the number of customers who said "this should be easy, I'm sure you can knock it up in an afternoon" whilst I'm thinking there is probably two years work in what you are asking for.
brimble 5y ago
Sometimes a customer suggests one little feature for the site and you have to gently point them to the entire business employing 25 people that just does that one feature as an entire program/service on its own, so no, they won't be getting it as some little easy and cheap thing in one sprint, and probably won't be getting it at all, on their budget. Other times, yeah, they want some crazy machine learning driven whatever with bells and whistles and social and apps on every major platform and blah blah blah and don't get why that will take at a bare minimum dozens of very talented and expensive people, and probably multiple years, to achieve. Which is the "Facebook for $500" thing.