How to choose a good webmaster
Choosing
a webmaster can be quite a challenge, but choosing an unfit
solution can mean a lot of wasted time and money!
How do businesses and individuals
choose an unfit web designer?
Many people confuse the role of a web designer, web developer,
and webmaster. This is understandable since many web designers
claim to provide developer-like services (e.g. configuring
web-based applications, creating databases, writing scripts,
etc.) and novice designers sometimes do not consider what
happens following site completion. While a web developer may
be fit to program your online shopping cart system, he or
she may be too expensive to use for day to day maintenance.
On the other hand, your website may be entirely created in
Macromedia Flash™, but your current webmaster may not
have the software or source files to manipulate it. Another
common mistake is to assume that in-house personnel have the
time or training to complete site maintenance.
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Understanding the difference
Although your Internet Techonology (IT) Department may be
great at internet security and networking, only a small (albeit
important) part of web design and maintenance fall under these
skill sets. Therefore they may be under qualified to perform
web design or webmaster duties.
There are several fields within Computer Science, and computer
knowledge within one area does not constitute knowledge in
another.
Webmastering duties may include (but are
not limited to):
- Creating HTML or text newsletters on a recurring basis
for online distribution
- Removing inappropriate content posted by members of an
online photo album or forum
- Adding, removing, or modifying event information on a
calendar or event page
- Processing shopping cart orders by sending out confirmation
emails upon shipment
- Removing database entries that are not removed automatically
by the system
- Performing website back-ups and retrievals, including
all documents and databases
- Creating banner advertisements, conducting search engine
submissions, and monitoring performance of marketing efforts
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