We have all met the seemingly knowledgeable and charismatic sales person that could sell ice to an Eskimo. When it comes to your web site, make sure the person trying to sell you, actually understands the technology and their product actually produces results. Ask for examples and references. Test the example sites they provide for performance.
Over the years I can't even count the number of times I have heard a customer telling me that they wished they hadn't listened to the salesperson that lured them away from our company as the return their business to us.
As the technical person in our company you will rarely hear me say with confidence that for sure we can make X happen just because that's what your want to hear. This is not because I lack confidence, its because the Internet is very dynamic and business' using it are constantly changing their models. If you ask me if your domain name is set up correctly for web hosting or email and we are the web and email host, I will tell you with confidence.
I could give you a lot of examples of how we bailed a customer out of a problem with a web development company that lacked knowledge about an important aspect of the Internet but here is a recent story.
We were brought in to help company A with their Microsoft 365 and Azure accounts, not their web site. Company B that had been servicing them where doing a horrible job. Yes, the owner of company B was charismatic and confident. I had asked company A to bring their web site to us as well. The owner was afraid to do that because he didn't want all his eggs in one basket since he had so much trouble in the past. He had company C doing his web site, also represented by a person who was charismatic and confident. One morning we get a call from company A claiming they lost all of their old emails, contacts and calendar entries and they where having problems sending email to some people. It turns out they where having problems receiving emails from the forms on their web site so their web developer set them up with IMAP email accounts on GoDaddy and partially changed their domain name settings. This broke their Microsoft 365 system. This is one of the times I could say with confidence what was wrong with their email and web site. After about an hour, we where hosting their web site and all of their messages, contacts and calendar were restored. They could now receive messages from the forms on their web site. It turns out there previous web developer knew only enough to be dangerous.
I have been a programmer since 1980. Yes, I am that old. I have worked for the granddaddy of computer companies (Control Data, Sperry and Unisys). I am named as inventor on patents held by Unisys for building mainframe computers. I worked for two Internet startups before setting up a company to develop and host web software is 1998. I am normally quite humble but in this case I will say, I know what I'm doing. I have an open door policy so all staff at iEditWeb can come to me if there is a question or problem with the way your Internet Services are configured.
Frederick Hathaway
Co-Owner iEditWeb, Inc.
