8 Contract Writing Tips for Web Designers

As far as web designing is concerned, it’s a good career option for all. It’s all right that a good creative hand is a plus but people with ordinary skills can also become experts. Many companies are out there to recruit web designers; yet some don’t prefer corporate life. They rather want to stand on their own feet – love to become freelancers.

 They think from their own perspective and it’s not bad to be a freelancer either. Expert freelancers more or less know how to handle their clients; but what about beginners? Most beginners don’t understand the importance of a contract. But remember, if you want continuous safe business, do write contracts. Here are few tips how to write good contracts.

          
 1.       Know what your client exactly wants.

• Basically there are two types of websites – Static and Dynamic.
• Static sites use only some HTML tags. No use of complex codes of PHP, ColdFusion is there. Database is not used in those simple sites.
• On the other hand, dynamic sites use everything like JavaScript, Flash, and more advanced languages like PHP, ASP.net etc. and database. Clearly mention what your client actually wants.

2.      Specify your work.

• Mention everything you are supposed to do like – no. of pages, no. of contents, no. of graphics and no. of programs and scripts to be developed.
• This helps you to become more specific and not to waste your efforts and time.

 3.      Mention the dates clearly.

• All the dates – date of agreement, project starting and finishing date, launching date, client reporting date etc. should be written clearly on the contract paper.
• This is an alarm to make you serious all through the project duration. 

 4.      Do mention “SEO” on the paper.

• Grab special attention of your clients while mentioning SEO as a part of your website development.
• You always believe in building search engine friendly pages.
• If the client wants dedicated SEO works for the site to be displayed on the search page, then mention this on the paper. If it’s not needed by the client, then mention “NO” there.
   

5.      Write the price structure clearly.

• If you know the exact price to be charged to the client, then discuss the price. Otherwise ask some experts to help you fix the price.
• It’s always important for every freelancer to know the exact cost of the project.

6.      Don’t work for free.

• Don’t ever work for free.
• Most beginners think that it would be good for their marketing; but remember working free of cost may decrease your credibility and your clients may treat you as only a novice web designer.
• And they may doubt your capability too.
• So even if you work for a friend or for charity do charge them a minimum cost. And that price must be included in the contract. 

7.      Include the copyright owner and credits for your effort.

• The best thing is to mention the copyright owner’s name in the contract.
• Give credits to the concerned person for all your page contents like – images, graphics, visuals, programs, scripts and textual contents.
• Discuss with your client about the credits you should get on their site. Write this agreement on the contract paper where and how your effort will be credited.

8.      Include their initials on the agreement paper.

• Make sure that your contract paper is duly signed by you and your client.
• This signifies that you both have agreed to whatever is written on the paper and after this go for building the website.

Dear web designers, these are only a few things to consider while writing the contract. Along with this it’s better consult a trustworthy lawyer to know about the violations of contract and the actions to be taken against this. And make sure to get some amount of the price during planning. This will make both you and your client serious.