[thelist] Footer credits

> -----Original Message-----
> From: isaac forman
> Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2000 12:21 PM
> To: thelist
> Subject: [thelist] Footer credits
> 
> Alot of sites, in the footer information, contain a simple link to the
> developers of the site. It's almost an expected thing.

i tend to not agree that it's expected.... i expect of smaller shops, or freelancers...

> But what if a client, in a face-to-face, post-site development 
> meeting flat-out says "Would you remind removing your ad in the site footer?"
> 
> Sure, we prefer to call it a "credit", but it does advertise a developer's
> talents. Do you comply, think of an excuse, or always hope that they 
> don't raise the question?

never comes up cuz we don't put our logo on their site... if we did, and they asked us to 
remove it, we would with no questions asked...

[snip]
> Of course, you can get away with a credit commented into the source, but that
> isn't always going to win you new work.

that's what we do... we put in a meta tag with our name as the developers... that's all we ask... 
those who care to look at the source see it, and we hope the people who look at source do 
see it, since we're very proud of our hand-written code...

> I'm currently thinking of bumping up prices a bit, and offering discounts (to
> the previous price levels) for inclusion of the footer credit. However, even
> that (offering discounts in a written quote) feels kind of cheap, don't you
> think?

seems like an ok idea... gotta get your name out there somehow...

> How does the developer win in this situation? Just hope for word-of-mouth
> referrals, and forget about the credit?

actually, that's what we do... word-of-mouth keeps us busy, since we work with most of the 
agencies in town, we're pretty set, but always looking for more to grow...

in our agreements, we put in a note about the client allowing us to list them as a client on our 
site and in our portfolio for 18 months, and to list them as a reference... a couple have asked 
us to remove it, which is fine... even then, even after we have their permission writing, we still 
ask if it's ok before we do it... there's one agency who won't let us tell anyone we worked 
with them, and while some of my guys get annoyed, we agreed to it, and got the job partially 
because we adopt a transparent role... 

as a rule of thumb, however, i do consider developer logos on a site to be unprofessional... 
agencies don't put their names all over their clients' brochures or billboards -- at least not the 
good ones...