[thelist] Footer credits

At 00:03 19/06/00 +00-05, you wrote:

>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...

as should we all, but I'm not sure source comments or meta tags is good for 
pulling in customers. it would only tell your competitors that you did the 
site.

why would potential customers want to view source?  most of them tend to 
balk at HTML.  that's what they pay us for.


if you're dealing through an agency, then sure there are different 
standards about appropriate branding.  but i see no problem with 
full-service companies branding their sites, so long as the customer was 
aware beforehand and that the brand is not too blatant.


for example, my link is only ever on the front page, right at the 
bottom.  it is only ever four short words (two of which is my business name 
the others are "site by").  the text is very small.  the link is only 
underlined on hover.  the text colour depends on the background, designed 
to be low-contrast.

my philosophy: you don't need to harm the appearance of the site, or make 
something eye-catching. if a visitor wants to employ your services, they 
will seek out the link.


and about branding of ads.  most newspaper ads have, in *extremely* small 
font in one corner (often outside the border), a string of characters 
indicating ad agency and ad id code.  mostly it's used by the newspaper to 
keep track of advertisers, but it is also useful for finding a good ad 
agency if a particular ad took your fancy.

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